Skip to content
 

just around the corner

a recent wall-to-wall conversation sparked over facebook with an old school mate about the upcoming elections. now, in all fairness i won’t hold it against him that he’s involved with the liberal party…we all choose our paths…anyhow, long story short, i started to throw various comments at him in regards to the elections and some of the decisions made by the current provincial government.

may 12th is approaching quite fast. it’s election day in bc…for the right to govern this tourism province into the olympics (or better yet…during the olympics). as russell peters put it last night at the juno’s (yes i watched 15 minutes of them…and essentially only saw the introduction…which was enough i’d say…)…the winter olympics were awarded to the only canadian city that doesn’t have a winter…

anyhow…looking on the information webpage about the elections, i’m a bit stunned as to the number of political parties registered in bc. we even have a sex party, a work less party…and by now you all are aware of the marijuana party. i wonder what their mandates are…and probably i’m a bit to lazy to look into it…simply because i’m certain they won’t get that many votes…so might as well waste my time reading the mandates 0f the parties that are expeced to battle it out for the right to ‘lead’ us through the olympics.

so, the way i see things for the last 9 years since the liberals have been in power…and yes this is subjective…first shock i had with them was the ‘unfreezing’ of the tuition fees around 2002…this after it was promised the tuition freeze will last. so over the following 3 years…my tuitition essentially doubled…now, without going into how that got paid…i’ll simply say…thanks campbie!

then, there were healthcare cuts…funding cuts to the education system….school closures…and essentially increase in class sizes in highschool/elementary…so yes…thanks campbie! oh and let’s not forget the carbon tax…yes it’s ‘neutral’…but looking at it it’s hard to see how it doesn’t actually benefit the big corporations more than it benefits the small ‘people’…like the common folks. argue all you’d like…but the tax cuts to the big corporations…are essentially based and can be done because the larger share of the incoming dollars are based on taxation of the common folks. yes, you’re paying for it out of your gas purchase (last i recall it’s about 5.7cents/liter this year…to increase in the following years).

some of the latest…well let’s see the plan to make a prison in the middle of burnaby? in close proximity to not only a high school, but a education institute, numerous businesses, residential areas…and oh yeah…close to public transport. correcting myself, they only looked at 58 sites not 80 as i stated in a previous post, but how come out of 58 sites…one chooses the middle of a city to place a prison? the reasons…it will be easy to transport the prisoners to and from courts by public transport…thus cutting emissions….what about public safety? so yes…thanks campbie for thinking of the public on this one…

another mindblower…is the decision to replace the portmann bridge - the highway 1 bridge connecting surrey to coquitlam…essentially…in order to expand the bridge they want to build a new one…why not just add a few lanes to the already exisiting one…and instead of wasting all that money…put them to better use…like fixing pattulo…which had a few fires as of late.

a tuition increase for university is about to pop up any time now…however…voting on it will probably not occur until after the elections…so…if you’re planning to go to school in this ‘economic crisis’ you’re about to pay more starting next fall….thanks campbie!

on that note…remember the proposal from translink on how to increase their profit margin? well…the voting on that probably won’t happen until after the elections…

now, i’m sure there’s more things that can be mentioned…i just simply won’t waste my time anymore…given the politics over the last decade in the province have been on how to increase profit for the big corporations at the loss of the common folks…anybody know an obama like candidate for these elections?

edit: so at the 6pm news…here’s some more developments…currently british columbia has the second to last minimu wage ($8/hour). it’s been frozen at that since 2001…yup…that’s right 9 years…ever since the liberals came into power…so thanks again campbie! on top of that…the mandate for the new campaign…does not include an increase to minimum wage…better yet…the current premier doesn’t even wanna hear about it. and since we’re on the subject…let’s add another stat that was given on the news…at this point british columbia has the highest teenage poverty (a stagerring 16%)…if i recall correctly, the canadian average stated was around 7%…so thanks again campbie!…thanks for looking after the common folks…

let’s not forget…the current premier…tried to use his stature as a provincial premier while on vacantion in hawaii…after he was caught driving under the influence of alcoohol…he tried to get out of it by telling the officer…’i'm the premier’…abuse of power anyone?

Leave a Reply