the provincial elections are less than a week to go. if you haven’t done this yet…visit the elections website. and if you haven’t done so yet…it’s perhaps time you think clearly of who to vote…get out and vote…it’s your right and your duty…
Archive of posts tagged bc liberals
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?
more tax…more tax…
how’s the crisis from your side of the monitor? well…as it seems some things are good (somewhat cheaper gas – yet not nearly as cheap as it should be given that the oil price is incredibly low), and some…quite bad. this morning some stats were provided…and without anyone getting surprised…in british columbia there were 4900 jobs lost …while in canada the number is 83000…all in the month of february. the unemployment rate…well it’s at 7.7 in canada…and bc stands a bit lower, but then again our industry is no-where to be found.
so, given this recent update…what does translink propose? more tax…yes tax on cars, gas, pay parking…and eventually on ticket prices for their already worthless services. now, i’m not a financial analyst, i don’t pretend to know a lot about finances…but it seems that almost every year we hear the same story from translink…they need more money…to get this they want to ‘raise tax for drivers’… and why? sure, reduce emissions…congestion on the road..etc. however, how about they start doing a better job with their finances. take a lesson from icbc or worksafebc – yes both of those invest money…and usually make a killing in profit…i guess translink should take some 1-on-1 lessons from those two companies…or at least try to ‘steal’ their accountants… then again…why bother when they can just ask the government to increase tax..instead of say increase the standard of their services. security on public transit? i don’t think i need to visit last years events at or inside sky-train stations.
according to a translink official…they want to do this to raise necessary funds to be able to provide better for the community…and if they can reduce the number of cars on the road…then the more the better…warning though…if not allowed to raise money…they will be ‘forced’ to reduce their service…my question is “what service?”
as i was driving from school yesterday i have another ‘hands-on’ experience with the quality of the translink bus drivers…i started at a stop sign, bus was coming from the adjacent road and he had a sign of ‘yield’. now, on the buses in vancouver there is a yield sign on them…to essentially warn drivers that it’s the law for us to yield to the bus when they pull onto the lane from a bus stop – in other words…to let them cut into traffic (regardless of whether or not the drivers can actually break and let them in). anyhow…sign on the street was a yield to him…and i had priority. not only did he not stop seeing as i’m coming…he didn’t even attempt to break…and essentially cut in front…thus, i was forced to break to make sure i don’t ‘take’ the bus home. i’m just wondering out loud here…but which yield sign should have been followed? the one on the bus (which essentially is there to yield to the buses then they come out of the bus stop) or the regular road-sense yield sign that is sitting on the pole on the side of the road?
a few months ago, when i was still taking the bus to school…i entered one of the buses in the morning, sat down…and essentially tried to zone out as much as possible given the bus was packed more efficiently than a can of sardines. during roughly a 35 minute bus ride…the bus driver slammed on his breaks about 5 times. one of which…caused 3 people to lose grip and fall…one of which manage to hit me in the process – now it wasn’t his fault, and he did appologize…but you can understand the reason as to why translink received a complaint (the beauty of feedback forms). anyhow, the other thing that occurred was…a simple case of almost ending up with the bus on its side…the driver takes a small curve a bit to fast…and the wheels end up hitting the curb…and the bus tilts to a side…that was pretty much one of the last times i took the bus to school…ever since then…i’m “polluting more”.
another story occurred while i was still working towards my undergraduate degree…taking the bus on my way home…i ended up pretty close to the driver…standing and pushing to make sure i have a grip. the bus driver..decides it’s time for lunch…so she places her bowl of soup (which still looked warm) in between her legs…takes a spoon…and consumes her lunch…while driving the bus…at roughly 60-70km/h (yes i could see the speedometer)…down the hill from sfu (for those who know the school…i think they’ll understand)…i think the bus had probably more than 150 people on board…
there’s plenty more stories about the standard ‘quality service’ translink offers…in terms of drivers…but really…there’s much more to their service…lack of public transport in the outer cities of gvrd…the buses which are usually late…and the bright decision of making a sky-train loop (although it benefits me from a subjective point of view) in burnaby…rather than expand the skytrain to cities like coquitlam, port moody…richmond (which they are currently doing).
so…if their proposed taxes don’t go through….they’ll cut the service? yeah…what service?
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