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Can NDP Tiptoe to Victory?

Jul 19th, 2010 by


Polls show BC’s Liberals are wounded. Carole James had better not assume they are dead.

The latest polls put Gordon (Pinocchio) Campbell in deep doo-doo at 23 points behind the NDP.

First, let’s talk about what this means for the NDP. As Carole James looks at the numbers she will note that while the Liberals are way down, neither she nor her party have much benefited in the new numbers. In fact, the Green Party and the moribund Conservatives get more than one fifth of the action and though neither of them shows any ability to win seats, they can split the vote.

It also shows a remarkable opportunity for a new party of the centre. In spite of the idiotic blatherings of former Tory MP Randy White, the Conservatives are not going to get heaps of support because those angry voters won’t vote NDP thus rocketing some as yet unnamed Conservative into the Premier’s office. Continue Reading »

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Joyce Ross sues BCLC

Jul 15th, 2010 by

A 54 year old lady named Joyce Ross is suing the BC Lottery Corporation for the more than $300,000 she lost at two of their casinos. She is a compulsive gambler who registered is a BC Lottery’s self-help group.

As one might expect, Michael Smyth (he used to be known as Mike) takes the age old Tory view that she “overlooked a little thing called ‘personal responsibility'”. What he obviously doesn’t understand is that sick people, as part of their illness, can’t take what Smyth would see as the appropriate “personal responsibility”.

Since Smyth looked, evidently, our society has discovered mental illness. Slowly, I would agree and unevenly most certainly – but our society tries to properly diagnose mental illness and treat it as they would any physical illness. Continue Reading »

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Looking ahead to the 2013 provincial election

Jul 13th, 2010 by

The polls have Gordon Campbell’s Liberals a massive 23 points behind the NDP. Though this is three years away from the next election one has to conclude that Gordon (Pinocchio) Campbell is electoral toast. It is he who has micromanaged his government from the start and thus it is he who is so unpopular. While it’s cheery to the NDP that they are at 46% the wise of them know that when you have over 1 out of 5 voters supporting the Greens or the Conservatives that nearly ¼ say a plague on both your houses and that something’s amiss. The Greens will be happy but they are born Pollyanna’s – they’ll still not take a seat.

There’s no need to dwell on Campbell – he is a horrible premier and the people are on to him and indeed were in the last election which he won because 50% of the voters stayed home and the NDP ran a pathetic campaign.

What about the leadership or lack of it shown by Carole James?

I’ve been very hard on her because she won’t do battle with the Liberals. I’ll tell you frankly how I could be wrong. Continue Reading »

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Environmental Assessment Office in a conflict of interest

Jul 12th, 2010 by

The government of British Columbia, often with the federal government in tow, holds environmental assessment hearings (EAPs) into whether or not a private river project should go ahead or not. These hearings make trial by the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland look like paragons of judicial propriety. They are so phony that I can only conclude they copied their procedures for Stalin’s old “show trials”. They have just flat out admitted that but that in a moment.

The basic flaw is that at these “public hearings” the public are not permitted to question the need for the project in the first place. A Ms Kathy Eichenberger chairs these meetings and simply won’t let a word be said about whether we need the project – unless, of course, you’re a spokesman for the company. I went to a number of hearings on the Bute Inlet project and was called out of order every time I spoke as did hundreds of outraged citizens. Don McInnes, the president of Plutonic Power, the company, however, could talk as long as he wished about the merits of the proposal, give power point presentations – whatever he wished.

It’s also interesting to note the chummy socializing Ms Eichenberger and the Plutonic Power folks indulge in.

All right – pause and take a deep breath. The government, which is supposed to be neutral in this process, has sent a delegation abroad to promote private power projects and who do you suppose is part of that Committee?

None other than Kathy Eichenberger of the Environmental Assessment Office! Continue Reading »

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From Rafe’s desk: World Cup

Jul 12th, 2010 by

OK, so billions of fans can’t be wrong. The game two Central American went to war over is the most popular team sport in the world, by far. It will be, however, a hard sell to get me to watch another Soccer game after the World Cup Final just past.

I sort of saw it as a duty to watch because our friend Rob Simon, a Netherlander, so badly wanted the country of his birth to win. Whenever Holland is in a big televised game, Rob and his Dad, who lives there, spend the entire time on the phone, watching it together so to speak. Wendy and I also thought we should watch because it is such a big deal even in the United States and Canada.

If I had just arrived from Mars witnessing this game for the first time, here are a couple of questions and observations I would likely make. Continue Reading »

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From Rafe’s desk: The new Governor-General, solar power

Jul 9th, 2010 by

Two thoughts for the day.

We have a new Governor-General and once again BC, which has never had one, is passed over.

The new Governor-general to be earned his position by creating terms of reference for the hearing into Brian Mulroney’s behaviour could not delve into the question of why Karl-Heinz Schreiber gave Mulroney all that money.

This was an important favour from Mr. Johnston to Stephen Harper because the last thing the PM needed was a long inquiry which could well – probably would – have turned over stones he didn’t want to see under.

This brings into question the need for a governor general in the first place. The G-G is the de facto Head of State and thus performs public relations by attending parties for dignitaries and he/she had a legal role to play some times. Continue Reading »

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From Rafe’s desk: Advice to Tiger Woods

Jul 8th, 2010 by

Tiger – re the media – tell them all to get lost and, if necessary, use the international phrase for “go away”.

I don’t have to tell you that you made an idiot of yourself and made Élin look like a sucker to the entire world. But there are ways to pay damages, as you’re finding out, and you have to live with yourself from here to the end.

Having said that – you’re not the only man or woman to have sex outside the marriage including me. I can say that because I was twice sued for divorce based on my own meandering. That doesn’t make what you did less reprehensible especially when most of us straying mates did not do this as major league world personalities.

Tiger – the media is feasting off you and you’re quite right to tell them that you are moving on. Continue Reading »

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From Rafe’s desk: Canwest as Liberal poodle

Jul 7th, 2010 by

Yesterday I did a mail-out (click here to get on my list) of a story by Paul Willcocks of the Victoria Times Colonist which questioned the government’s withholding of information on sea lice. I was astonished at this lese majeste – Canwest was supposed to be the government’s poodle and the Times Colonist is a Canwest paper.

Today Willcocks does an editorial comment on the situation at Fish Lake where Taseko mining plans to open a mine while destroying the lake and 90,000 fish with it. I do not agree with Willcocks’ conclusion but that’s not important. I do not expect anyone to agree with me but I simply ask for fair play, Willcocks provides this as he fairly states the issues.

Quite frankly, until yesterday I didn’t know that Willcocks was editor of the T-C. It doesn’t surprise me that he is writing in a way so unlike the Canwest modus operandi. I have always been an admirer of Paul both as a person and a writer. Continue Reading »

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From Rafe’s desk: Stanley Park, Canada, and Her Majesty

Jul 6th, 2010 by

Isn’t it interesting that two federal cabinet ministers tell us that people don’t want to change the name of Stanley Park to a native name representing the village that existed at Lumberman’s Arch until they were heaved out!. They pontificate that Vancouverites don’t want to make the change proposed. Well, my mail runs quite to the contrary with support for the new name proposed running at about 3-1. Why not hold a referendum at the next municipal election! That’s 18 months away which would give time for debate. I for one would remove all names of the chinless English Governors-general we’ve had and replace them with Indian ones. One of the charms of New Zealand is the frequency of Maori names. We should do the same with Indian names.

Somehow this brings me to the Queen. Lovely lady I’m sure and a model of patience and hard work. But she, too, is a vestige of colonial times and we should pension her off. The fact that things like I just said get the monarchists so upset proves my point – these are, for the most part, English people who have never been able to adjust to Canadian football, hockey or baseball. The same lot that ran St George’s School when I was there where masters or prefects would cane any boys caught tossing a baseball. The sports permitted were Rugby and Cricket – both of which games I loved but not Canadian. Continue Reading »

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Ethical concerns about genome mapping

Jul 5th, 2010 by

I am a great fan of The Economist out of London. It not only reports on issues without the censorship to which we are subject in Canada, it does some fascinating special features.

The Issue of June 19-25 2010 has a long feature on Genomes and the history behind the great scientific discoveries of the past couple of decades.

I must admit up front that I draw a blank when it comes to science. I was very lucky to have as a radio guest the late Nobel laureate Michael Smith from UBC whose specialty was genomes. He was able to explain this complex subject to listeners in terms they could understand. I understood too, but I have the rotten habit of forgetting complicated stuff within an hour (at most) of the explanation. Having said that, the Economist article entitled Biology 2.0 got my riveted attention. Continue Reading »

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