langleywatchdog…. and more!

How pathetically bereft of any ideas that aren’t fantasy! The death knell of a political party!!

The B.C. Liberal Government’s Throne Speech this past week was an unmitigated joke, perpetrated on an unsuspecting public that has had enough of the embarrassment going on in Victoria! Looking under the surface and behind the scenes, who is really running things?

As I am obviously going to embark on a critique of what is happening in Victoria, I want to make it very clear; I am a staunch free enterpriser and have never voted NDP in my life nor will I. I will say that I have friends who are staunch NDP supporters and we get along well, we certainly have many disagreements on principle but we respect each-others views.

Now, to the Throne Speech – By design it is supposed to be a message from the government of the day laying out a framework of priorities for the public. It is traditionally designed to lay out the government’s vision for the immediate year ahead and possibly the remainder of their mandate. In the case of the current Liberal Government it could lay out a vision of their ideas for another term, should they be elected; BUT a pie in the sky proposal that goes out thirty years estimating a market price that is impossible to establish with no contracts and no industry commitments for one LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) Plant let alone the five they are talking about? How stupid do they think we are?

In principle the “Prosperity Fund” is a great idea, but it should not be established as a vehicle built around a single resource (LNG). Many have compared this to the Alberta Heritage Fund which is a fare comparison, but unlike Alberta, B.C. has a greater diversity of natural resources and not a single resource the size of Alberta’s oil industry.

The success or failure of this LNG supported Prosperity Fund as proposed will be determined by the market prices of the day. I spent a good part of my life as a professional buyer in the food industry where we had to buy correctly within the dramatic swings of the commodity marketplace (on a daily basis) or you would become non-competitive very quickly. Being non-competitive at retail in the food industry meant huge losses. Failure wasn’t an option! Pinning the province’s future on a speculative plan of gauging markets 20 – 30 years out? Absurd! Today you are paying 1/6 of the current world price because of no access to world markets, North America is awash in supply of Natural Gas thanks to fracking, and would you take this gamble?

What is behind such bizarre Liberal actions? Why, in the face of such party adversity did the B.C. Liberal Government come up with such an inept and ill prepared Throne Speech? I have another view of what is behind the actions of this Liberal Government, and his name is Rich Coleman. The Township of Langley’s resident Bully, the MLA, Cabinet Minister Rich Coleman, Liberal Provincial Campaign Chair is in my view in charge – move over Christy Clark! Isn’t Rich Coleman the Minister responsible for the provincial LNG initiative and the fact it took over the Throne Speech? It fits his power broker status within the government which has increasingly been unwelcome within the Liberal Caucus. There are an increasing number of Liberal MLAs within caucus who has had it with his actions and decisions. It is interesting though that a few months back when Kevin Falcon and other senior Ministers decided to announce they weren’t running Minister Coleman announced he was staying on – OH right, on the heels of that decision he was awarded with the Deputy Premier’s job, held onto his major portfolio as well as the responsibility for B.C. Lotteries, B.C. Housing and the Liquor Branch. As an aside Coleman has held onto those last three responsibilities for a number of years which is very unusual for a Cabinet Minister. Governments usually move these responsibilities around frequently so as not to get into familiarity problems, no different than your local bank branch (if you know what I mean?). Do you think Christy Clark could have withstood a Rich Coleman departure? It sounds to me like it was “Let’s Make A Deal”- Rich Coleman wrote his own ticket. If anyone has watched Coleman’s body language lately during interviews – he comes across very blustery, bombastic and fearful. That he should be!

I don’t know who Rich Coleman thinks he is speaking to when as recent as a couple of days ago he was raving in the media about how great and qualified Christy Clark is as Premier. The fact is she is completely incompetent (which suits Rich just fine) but forget about Christy Clark, as long as Christy Clark is in the Premier’s Office Rich Coleman will be the most powerful politician in the province, supported by those back room power brokers (I talk about below) you know the ones from the 80s and early 90s!

History is definitely repeating itself! What is happening today is a mirror image of what happened to Social Credit 1990 – 91. I know because I was there. As an Alderman in Delta, President of the Delta North Constituency Association, a Life Member of Social Credit, our party and our government imploded. I was a Social Credit candidate for Delta North in that election. Through the actions of Social Credit this province was turned over to the NDP. The NDP did not win it; we lost it and deserved everything we got! Unfortunately it was the poor unsuspecting public and the provincial economy that paid the price for the best part of ten years. Now I could go over the list of wrong doing (there is not enough time nor room to do so) but suffice to say, as bad as that period was by Social Credit (and it was bad) heading into the election, it was nothing compared to the record of this corrupt and dishonest Liberal Provincial Government that is in Victoria today.

Another interesting comparable is the election and/or selection of the Premier. Back in the Social Credit days, Rita Johnson was selected by Cabinet to take over as Interim Premier after Vander Zalm resigned until a party leadership campaign was held. It IS interesting that many of the same power brokers (hangers-on) were backing Rita Johnson who won the leadership back then as who backed and supported Christy Clark. Why? A simple fact, they can be controlled. Christy Clark is in a million miles over her head. Now that is not a sexist remark, I can think of a number of female leaders who could handle themselves very well equal to any man out there.

The Day of Reckoning is coming! There is no question in my mind that the public have written off a government they no longer want anything to do with. I am sure there are a quite a few sitting in government today in Victoria or former B.C. Liberal provincial politicians elsewhere sweating a few bullets, and they should be. It is my fervent hope that a new government would immediately establish a provincial inquiry into B.C. Rail and more as the need requires. It is imperative that in cases of intentional wrong doing, governments and the people in them must be held accountable. That is the only way the public will ever re-gain a measure of confidence in their elected representatives.

RG

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Later this week I will post the true and enlightening story surrounding the Mufford Crescent Diversion overpass project. It is a detailed account of how citizens successfully helped the Mayor fight City Hall, the Provincial Ministry of Transportation, Translink, the Federal Government and more. WE WON!

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