British Columbians have had enough of Christy Clark, says Rafe Mair (Province of BC/Flickr)
The Christy Clark government and Clark herself must go!
I am not a socialist but neither are the NDP. Of course, we must have a thriving economy that supports our necessities and has room for earned luxuries. What we can no longer do, if we wish to have a British Columbia useful for enjoyment of life, is let entrepreneurial ambitions and corporate influence on government trump all other values.
Even if you do place the economy above all else, you have to examine the Clark Keystone Kops’ self-proclaimed business acumen, which, even in these good economic times, has doubled the provincial debt and ruined our former crown jewel, BC Hydro and, having bankrupted it in all but name, committed it to a further $10 billion Site C for power we don’t need and for which we have no customers.
If you’re thick enough to believe that the Liberals’ declared balanced budgets are remotely honest, leave now – you are beyond salvation and will obviously believe anything.
This is my bottom line: Let’s just say that there were no other issues of consequence than these in this election. Would you reelect any government that had doubled the provincial debt in the past 14 years and had presided over the ruination of the largest and most successful public corporation in the history of the Province?
Remember, the Liberals not only kept this secret – the horrific debacle that has ruined BC Hydro has been exposed entirely by private citizens. The IPP issue, the ruination of rivers, the loss of fish, the outrageous sweetheart deals in favour of private power donor pals of Christy to the huge cost to Hydro ratepayers. The pay-offs to cronies was dealt with in the elections of 2009 and 2013 only by private citizens like Tom Rankin, Damien Gillis, Joe Foy of the Wilderness Committee and others including me, who spoke all over the province and have consistently written about it since and acquired their evidence from public-spirited people like Norman Farrell, Arthur Caldicott, and Erik Andersen, all private citizens. And at the end of the day, nothing from the Liberal party loyalist, Suzanne Anton, the pliant Attorney-General, not a resignation from any of the guilty, just massive incompetence with a load of political pay-offs thrown in.
This wasn’t rocket science – it was obvious, easily understood, oozing with incriminatory evidence from every pore. The Liberal government in a dozen years fucked up (no other term works) BC Hydro financially as well as ruining scores of rivers, without sufficient protest from Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition or a soupçon of help from the Mainstream Media or the Greens. We know that the Green Party leader, Dr. Weaver, who’s about as green as last year’s Christmas tree, supported ruining the environment with so-called “run of river projects” because, without bothering to first look at one like the Ashlu, he proclaimed this outrageous environmental evil “clean, green power!” Here you have a hugely successful Crown Corporation, very popular, with a monopoly, a large customer base, ruined financially by this government, yet if it weren’t for a handful of persistent private citizens, over a decade of never quitting, no one would ever know!
As economist Erik Andersen said very recently:
All this plus, in constant dollars, the government virtually doubled the real provincial debt with Christy Clark, in four years, while pretending to balance budgets.
One has to wonder what else we don’t know!
I’m hard pressed to think of a single accomplishment of this bunch on the fiscal side and on the social services side their incompetence and lack of concern or even elementary decency borders on the cruel.
What about Horgan and the NDP?
I have no doubt that Mr. Horgan is an honest man and that alone makes him my choice as premier. I know many of his backbenchers and have no doubt of their integrity. I tell you straight that I’m very disappointed in some of Horgan’s stated policies, especially in my riding – specifically the proposed Woodfibre LNG at Squamish.
But I have learned some things over the past 8 1/2 decades, one being that you never really know about a new leader until they’ve had a chance. The premier’s office, in Samuel Johnson’s great phrase, “concentrates the mind wonderfully”.
On the other hand, there’s nothing left to know about Christy Clark. There can surely be no doubt that she’s the worst premier with the worst government in living memory. I would rather support someone for whom there is reasonable hope, and who couldn’t possibly be worse, than have the certainty of 4 more years of Christy Clark.
I don’t know about you but I often look at what’s seen as a minor thing in making my judgment on a person’s character. As we learn here from Mike Smyth, Christy Clark has cost taxpayers, not the Liberal Party, folks, for “photography: $923,374 to be precise, for the salaries and massive travel expenses of two full-time photographers to take still photos and videos for the government.
“The pictures and videos provide positive content for the government’s social-media channels on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.”
With typical raw, blatant hypocrisy, here’s what Premier Clark says in her latest Liberal Party election pledge:
This woman is not only vain and incompetent beyond description, she’s incapable of telling the truth as she makes us look like fools to the rest of the country and beyond.
Again, Cromwell’a words in dismissing the Rump Parliament seem so apt: “You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately… Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!”
Amen.
thanks alot for leading us to the best article and amazing discussion..
BC is a beautiful province which became a expensive poorhouse. To many different rules from a same government office just to keep the government bussy and ruin the small businesses.