Well, this has been a busy week in provincial politics... :)
Firstly, news broke out that former BC NDP MLA and Cabinet Minister during the 1990's and currently the Mayor of Golden, Jim Doyle jumped from the BC New Democrats over to the BC Liberals and there is speculation that he'll run in his former riding of Columbia River-Revelstoke in the 2009 Provincial General Election. As those of you remember Jim Doyle, he was hardcore NDP, as hardcore as current NDP MLA Harry Lali. Not the kind of news that Carole James needed.
Secondly, the Union of BC Municipalities Convention was held this past week. Both Carole James, as Leader of the Opposition, and the Hon. Gordon Campbell - Premier, both spoke at the UBCM Convention, which wrapped up on Friday. Carole James gave her speech to UBCM Delegates on Wednesday and the Premier giving his keynote address on Friday. I was disappointed with her speech again, as it had the same kind of political rhetoric as she gave to NCMA Delegates at the NCMA Convention held in May of this year. She told UBCM Delegates that she and her party were fundamentally opposed to the Gateway project as a whole, even though several of her MLA's including Harry Baines (Surrey-Newton), Mike Farnworth (Port Coquitlam-Burke and the NDP Opposition House Leader) have stated publicly that they support twinning of the Port Mann Bridge, which is part of the Gateway Project. I believe twinning of the Port Mann Bridge is part of a bigger solution which is allows for the free flow of goods and people between Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Watch for Ms. James to take a big hit, politically, for this blunder. Then yesterday, Ms. James was on CKNW's Bill Good Show to "clarify" her comments on the Gateway Project related to the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge. Lots of callers clearly weren't buying it. They essentially slammed her for not supporting the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge. Twinning this bridge is essential if residents from Surrey, Langley want to use buses from their homes into the Metro Vancouver Region.
The BC NDP even engaged in "fed bashing" because the federal government didn't bring any "new" transit money to the table. Obviously, they haven't learned yet that fed bashing, while it may be popular here, isn't going to help when you lobby federal cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister for making investments in transit in the Metro Vancouver Region. Also, the NDP slammed the Premier's speech at the UBCM Convention for not announcing anything new and along with no new initiatives for Pine Beetle affected communities in BC, which I think is a farce, personally, as I believe you'll see both provincial/federal governments providing even more support for rural communities roll out in short order in addition to the money that both levels have announced so far
All in all - not the best political week for Carole James and the BC NDP. Hopefully, Carole James can hang on as BC NDP Leader until after the 2009 Provincial General Election and perhaps convince other NDP MLA's, former or present, to join the BC Liberals who may be becoming disenfranchised with the BC NDP .
Have a great weekend... :)
7 comments:
I also heard both speeches and would agree with your comments. The NDP’s criticism of The Premiers speech was laughable. It was clear that they were once again caught off guard and were badly outmaneuvered. Interesting that environmental groups heard new initiatives from the speech that they were applauding while Shane Simpson was clueless.
The troubles for the NDP continue and in particular it will be interesting to watch Carole James try to explain how you can get busses over the Port Mann without expanding it first. Carole James is the best gift horse that the BC Liberals ever had.
I can not understand the NDP's strategy in opposing the twinning of the Port Mann. It makes no sense. The small groups of anti Gateway protesters were already NDP supporters. How is opposing Gateway and the Port Mann twinning going to expand the NDP's tent of support?
It's not.
I'm afraid that Carole James committed political suicide with her speech at the UBCM.
My thanks to Anonymous aka Jordan Bateman and Walter Schultz for their comments on my blog posting entitled Steve's Political Rant. I agree the position that the NDP took on Gateway is philosophically wrong. I also agree that by doing this, the NDP won't increase their support outside of their traditional support base. It will be most interesting to see what happens with the NDP Caucus during the Fall sitting of the Legislature leading up to the NDP's Convention in November.
That hits the nail on the head. Way to go Steve!
Federal government statistics relate that as Green House Gas emission rise, thousands upon thousands of extra hospital visits can be expected. Federal government statistics relate that somewhere between 15 and 150 deaths per year in the Fraser Valley alone are directly related to respiratory diseases as a result of smog.
That means more asthmatic kids in the Fraser Valley and more elderly people gasping for breath as they lay dying.
Both Federal and Provincial statistics relate the tens of millions of dollars in crop damage directly attributable to smog caused by traffic.
I salute anyone who supports the rise of health care costs due to further destruction of the Fraser Valleys air quality. Who couldn't scream "HELL YEAH!" to killing more people in the Fraser Valley due to respiratory failure, or destroying crops (thus raises prices for foodstuffs). I share the joy that Walter and other Gateway supporters do in manufacturing the deaths of the elderly, the very young, those with impaired immune systems, millions of dollars in crops, rising health care costs and in the creation of ever more asthmatic children.
Like most willfully ignorant Gateway supporters - I am a living scumbag - and I'm like all of you.
In the immortal words of the simple minded Chicken Little; the sky is falling, the sky is falling!
Here we go again: the ideologues in the environmental movement continue to paint a picture that we are living on the edge of disaster and the only way to save our lives is to do exactly what they tell us to do.
No surprises in this approach. Groups and movements have been selling disaster politics through out history. The message is always the same; the world is about to end and the only way you can be saved is to do what we tell you.
However where the ideologues message fails is when we look at the facts:
Transport Canada estimates that total automotive pollution in the GVRD has actually declined by 19% to 37% in just the fourteen years between 1990 and 2004. As newer cleaner cars enter the market, the auto fleet will get cleaner at rates faster than the growth in driving, so total emissions will continue to decline.
Commenting about "manufacturing deaths" is just another shining example of the moral bankrupcy of the environmental movement.
Just another thought on all those deaths that anonymous (Rob’s Ramblings) posted on your blog; His comments do not reflect the truth what so ever, in fact the opposite is true. The Vancouver Metropolitan Area performs better than Regional BC on local air quality, cancer mortality rates, and life expectancy at birth. People are living longer healthier lives in Metro Vancouver.
On average, life expectancy at birth increased by 3½ months per year in the Metro Vancouver between 1996 and 2005. Similarly, it increased on average, by 2 months per year in the Victoria CMA and in Regional BC, by 1½ months per year in the Abbotsford CMA and by 2½ months a year in BC as a whole.
Today according to Stats Canada, of the 25 largest Metro areas in Canada, Vancouver has the highest life expectancy as 81.1 years. This is a far cry from the outrageous comments posted above about, “manufacturing the deaths of the elderly, the very young, those with impaired immune systems, millions of dollars in crops, rising health care costs and in the creation of ever more asthmatic children”.
I find it disgusting that environmentalists would stoop so low to say that people in favour of twinning the Port Mann are killing more people in the Fraser Valley. People aren’t dying they are living longer healthier lives. Give it up Rob!!!
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