In a blog post that'll annoy my BC Conservative/BC Liberal readers... and while I'm no fan of Adrian Dix, I think he got a 'bad rap' because of 1 transit ticket warning...
This past Sunday - the province's Leader of the Opposition and BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix was given a 'warning' for not producing a transit ticket on demand. Read the Vancouver Sun article here. Contrast that to current Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson who dug in his heels, fought his $173 fine for riding 3 zones and paying for two, said it was 'unjust' and then paid the ticket
Meanwhile - Vancouver Sun political columnist Vaughn Palmer called it a 'significant misstep' (Dix not coming out about transit ticket warning) - read his column here
With all due respect to Mr. Palmer - Dix's transit ticket warning is peanuts compared to other mishaps by other political leaders. One example is former BC Premier Gordon Campbell coming out and confessing that he was arrested for drinking and driving (and yes, that was the right thing to do). Everyone makes mistakes in life and when you are a politician - you really do not have a 'private life' however the transit ticket warning has nothing to do with whether or not he has the skills to be Premier
If we are going to be critical of Mr. Dix & his party (and there are many BC NDP Policies to be critical of) - then let's debate those policies and ease off on him because of one transit ticket warning. I think people of this province are very tired/cynical of the usual 'Gotcha' politics in this province (and yes, I'm guilty of same on a local political level)
Let us return to debating policies and leave issues in personal lives out of deciding who and which political party would make a good government for the people of British Columbia
4 comments:
Wel ... as a BC Conservative member & supporter I can tell you your comments did not annoy me in the least.
This is a total NON-story. There are a multitude of other issues the media SHOULD BE covering -- this however IS NOT one of them
Too true. Whatever one may think of Adrian Dix, he is not stupid and hopefully is honest and just lost his ticket. Everyone gets distracted, forgets things, and loses things. A transit ticket is one of those things that's easily misplaced.
All I could think of is: Focus, people! We should focus on the issues that affect us all, not on trivialities such as Adrian Dix losing his transit ticket. Hopefully,our brains can handle thinking about, discussing, and hopefully addresses the issues that count: health, education, the economy, etc.
If I were paranoid, I would think that the media have focussed on this issue to deflect attention away from John Van Dongen's allegations.
Nicely put Steve.
Really people, we should all be far more concerned with the over $8.21 Billion for Skytrain Streetcars and the orphan Canada Line NY Subwaycars.
We are the most honest transit riders in the world and the Drunk Premier who was recalled by Ex-Premier 1986-1991 for not telling the truth about taking $1.6 Billion HST taxpayer dollars and handing it to big business along with another $1.X Billion for defective Smart Meters to monitor the serial number of your computer, tv, phone, fridge, washer, dryer, if you can’t turn lights and appliances off you get charged higher rates.
MYTH: Turnstiles stop fare evasion.
MATH: If fare evasion is only 2.5%, why
spend $171 Million to recover $6.4 Million?
MATH: No Accountant, successful business
owner or Transit Ministers or critics would.
TransLink website: download“2008_09_12”
Buzzer article “Transit fare evasion is lower
than you think”. Fare evasion is only 2.5%,
which means over 97% of us are paying!
MYTH: Turnstiles are the magic solution.
MATH: For the same reason we still use
QWERTY to type on computers. When
typewriters were invented women were too
fast and the typewriter keys jammed. So men
mixed up the letters QWERTY to slow
women down, but women still succeeded.
Turnstiles slow people down, make transit
worse, pose a real danger to children and
people with physical limitations, damage
bikes and strollers, but proprietary turnstile
corporations who make and install get rich!
MYTH: Turnstiles should have been put in
on the original Expo Line?
MATH: At $1.45 Billion the original 21.4 km
Expo Line (Cost: BC $854 Million, Ontario
UTDC $300 Million, Canada $300 Million)
from Waterfront Stn to New Westminster Stn
was $896 Million over the GVRD $558 Million
budget for 70+ km elevated Expo Line to Surrey-
Whalley with new 6 lane car, 2 lane Streetcar
Pattullo Bridge, Evergreen Line to Coquitlam,
Arbutus (Canada) Line to Richmond Centre and
YVR Airport, Subways under Vancouver and
False Creek, 2 Maintenance yards - Edmonds
and Richmond, and fleet of new Streetcars.
Expo, Millennium, Canada Lines = $8.21 Billion.
Canada Line is NOT skytrain, it's a subway / elevated NY style subway car.
If we had followed the 1979 GVRD plan we could have had an elevated Streetcar system that included the Expo Line freom Waterfront Stn thru the Dunsmuir tunnel, then elevated to Surrey over a rebuilt Pattullo Bridge 6 car lanes + 2 rail lines, the Evergreen Line to Coquitlam, Vanvouver to Richmond + YVR Airport under Vanvouver and False Creek subway then elevated above the Arbutus BC Electric Line, Streetcar barns in Richmond and the existing Edmonds, Burnaby yard with a fleet of 187 passenger German streetcars. By 2012 we would have rebuilt all 175 km of BC Electric rail lines in Vancouver, extended the Arbutus line to its end in Steveston, rebuilt the BC Electric out to Chilliwack and Electrified the Westcoast Express from Chilliwack back to Vancouver. The farmland would be used for farming and we wouldn't need to truck our food from California and Florida and China.
But that would be a real democracy for people, and all that the last 10 years has done is put our taxpayer dollars in the hands of corporations and transit with fare gates is like a concentration camp for the over 97% of us that pay our fares.
Thanks,
Greg
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