BC Liberals hide shameful record of failure

This year’s BC Progress Board report contains the usual prerequisite good news that the Liberals can point to as showing that they have indeed been doing things in the past eight years other than lining their pockets full of taxpayer dollars, but there are some numbers within the report that need to be discussed, particularly because of how badly they reflect on our province and how the future is looking less promising for our youths instead of more promising.
British Columbia currently has a very high ranking among the provinces of Canada for people under LICO after taxes. By comparison to the rest of Canada, British Columbia has the highest percentage of families under the Low Income Cut Off after taxes, with the rate approaching twenty percent in major urban areas. This level of poverty comes as average wages are the third best in the province, demonstrating that the average is almost entirely based on increases in the top earners’ salaries and not on a benefit to those people who need the money the most in society. This level of poverty is unlikely to improve, as British Columbia’s high school graduation rate is continuing to decline, this year reaching a new low of only 70.5% of high school seniors being projected to graduate from high school this year. Combined with statistics showing a mere 49% of aboriginal students graduating within six years at a secondary school, future generations appear to be saddled with an increasing risk of falling into poverty, as the board itself notes in its reasoning for tracking high school graduation rates. What is most disturbing about this statistic is that, as with most other areas of development in British Columbia, it is rural BC that loses out and has the lowest graduation rates, excepting Victoria, which appears to be an anomaly among urban centers in the province. Poor education scores in rural British Columbia are not limited to secondary school graduation rates. This same study has shown that citizens in rural BC are less than half as likely to obtain a post-secondary degree as their urban counterparts.
The rural to urban divide continues in other areas of BC development. Life expectancy continues to be an issue for rural British Columbia, with life expectancies almost two years lower in rural BC as compared to urban areas. Rural British Columbia is also failing to produce as many new businesses as the urban areas, with the per capita rate in rural BC being less than fifty percent the rate for Vancouver and other urban areas in the province.
Of course, there are a few places where the urban and rural parts of the province are being failed equally badly by the BC Liberals. Our children are being failed by the government right from the moment they are born, with a greater percentage of live births being underweight than ever before. This can only come from the fact that there is less primary care available to mothers during their pregnancy period, no doubt a side effect of the Liberals’ cuts to health care funding. Personal and property crimes are also well above the national average and have not been improving either. Vancouver, as a city, was ranked sixteenth among seventeen large urban centers for crime, and the rest of the province does no better, being ranked as the second worst province for personal and property crimes. A very small solace can be taken for urban British Columbians; whatever crime they have is much worse in rural BC, with personal and property crimes being sixty percent more likely to occur in rural BC than in urban British Columbia.
The statistics here were taken from the Government’s BC Progress Council.

The rantings of a former Councilor

For someone who’s no longer an elected official, Mr. Evans has an awful lot of grousing to do about how city council does its job. This may come as a shock to him, but Burnaby runs its elections in a democratic fashion, and in this case, the people (you know, those people YOU were supposed to represent) decided that they wanted a BCA mayor and BCA councilors. It‘s an amazing thought to be sure, allowing citizens to vote for who they want to, even if it doesn’t produce a governing system that Mr. Evans approves of, which would likely require him to be sitting as a member. Perhaps if he and his party spent more time presenting a positive set of ideas to the citizens of Burnaby instead of continually complaining about the election results, there would be members of his party on Council. But, they did not, and the voters decided not to have such people represent them at the municipal level. This should be a lesson to Mr. Evans and those like him, but I suspect that instead, he and others like him will simply continue to criticize a government duly elected by the people, the same people who rejected his style of politics and his lack of solutions to the problems at hand.

Prorogation and the death of a bill

To anyone who wasn't hiding under a rock or living in a cave last year, these words will ring familiar; Prime Minister Stephen Harper has prorogued Parliament. Yes, he's done it again, and once again he prorogues in order to prevent the destruction of his party in the face of his own arrogance and plain stupidity. This time it is due to his party's insistance at lying over the events of Afghanistan, for which the Government SHOULD be held accountable. That's how we were all taught a Parliamentary system worked, that all things became accountable to Parliament. This lesson was apparently missed by Mr. Harper, who seems to think that he can prorogue Parliament whenever the media narrative turns against him.
Let's set aside for the moment the fact that this was a blatant attempt to evade the political fallout of the ongoing torture investigations, which are likely to resume once Parliament resumes anyways, and look at what the Prime Minister has wrought. At this time, there were dozens of government bills and several private member's bills that are now going to have to be re-introduced. Many of these, such as C-311 and C-304, were nearing the end of the legislative process and could soon be accepted as law. This is especially damning for Bill C-311, which has now TWICE been passed at third reading and will be denied royal assent by Harper's proroging of Parliament. This is an absolute waste of our time and money, that we have to debate bills multiple times to satisfy the petty urges of a man who claims to be our leader.
Of course, there is always an ironic side to what Mr. Harper and company do, and this is no exception. Just as recently as six years ago, when Mr. Harper sat on the Opposition benches, he decried the Liberals for doing exactly what he's doing here. Funny how these things are forgotten with a short memory, or perhaps a trip to the other side of the aisle? The hypocrisy would normally be enough to bring caution to a politician, but such things are not for Prime Minister Harper, who seems to believe that such things are beneath him. Speaking of beneath him, apparently living up to his own campaign promises is too much of a challenge for the Prime Minister as well. Many of us will remember that the Prime Minister ran his first two campaigns on the idea of bringing transparancy and accountability to the Federal Government. Hollow words from a man who cares for nothing but power, since he's jettisoned that part of his platform just as readily as he's jettisoned everything else he claimed to believe in.
Perhaps this year, voters will look at what they have brought to themselves; a man with no beliefs he won't eliminate in order to prevent his own short term defeat. This has been the face of Canada for five years now, isn't it about time we return to a Canadian government that reflects Canadian values and a Canadian sense of loyalty to its beliefs?

Christmas updates!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and have a productive, happy New Year everyone!
This is likely to be my last blog until the new year arrives, so I apologize for my recent inactivity and my week off. Its been busy the past few days, I've been putting together a group based out of facebook that will be working year round to end poverty by hosting fundraising drives and demonstrations to obtain greater public and government awareness to the problem. Its my hope that we can start making a difference in the lives of the people who have to live in poverty, because in a nation as rich and powerful as our own, no one should have to worry about where their next meal comes from, and no one should worry about survival.
Down in America, the United States Senate has finally passed a bill that would insure an additiona thirty million citizens and would prevent insurance companies from ending coverage if you actually need to use it. This is a monumental bill, one that does what all politics should do, and that is to help the people that we are supposed to represent. It is not a perfect bill, but what it does is help the least fortunate and give them the safety net they need in order to survive and get back on their feet, the same kind of big, sweeping proposal that Canadians need to fulfill to bring our poor, huddled masses back into society and have them live in dignity.
Merry Christmas everyone, enjoy this special time of year and may glad tidings follow you on your journey throughl life.

Copenhagen's end

The Copenhagen summit has finally ended, and the world powers are touting the new agreement they have created, a so-called breakthrough in world diplomacy that will herald a new beginning in environmental protection in both the developed and developing world. Except that it isn't. All that we have received for our years of negotiations and pleading and bargaining is a committment with no penalties to reduce greenhouse gases by an insufficient amount for a time when the politicians who created the goals will long since have retired from public life. This is insufficient and should not be tolerated, and Canada has only itself to blame. We have known since before the Kyoto Accords that something had to be done in regards to how we produce energy and how we treat the planet we live on. That didn't stop Canadian negotiators from doing their very best to cut off debate and to take a hard line position on targets that would do absolutely nothing for the environment, and it didn't do a single thing to stop Prime Minister Harper and Environment Minister Prentice from threatening to give generous exemptions to the Alberta Oil Sands. Canadians can do better, and ordinary citizens have been doing better in spite of their Federal Government, which has failed to represent the will of the majority. Now more than ever is it important to make a statement on the world stage saying that Canada takes its committments seriously, and that we will not be laggards in any way, shape or form in doing what we know is right for our nation and our world. Recently I said that Bill C-311 has been voted out of committee and into Third Reading, we need to do everything in our power as citizens to pass this bill; lobby your elected officials and Senators to pass a bill that says makes sure Canada does what is necessary to do. No more obstruction, no more pnadering to Oil and Gas, its time for all four parties in Parliament to stand together and get it done. Pass the bill and make it law before its too late.

Urban farming evaporating

There's been a lot of use of the word 'sustainability' in the past, but its mostly been in the abstract in terms of policies that could be enacted by a government once in power. There are sustainable things we can be doing right now, but are actually cutting back on. I'm talking about urban farms, which have been slowly disappearing in the lower mainland. This year the Vancouver Parks Board voted to close down the Stanley Park Farm, which was one of two sustainable farms in Vancouver. The other farm, the UBC farm, is undergoing the process of being certified organic and sustainable, and has been reduced in size. These farms and others like them give British Columbians a chance to enjoy locally grown food that isn't filled with chemicals and other additives.

Liberal Accountability going right off the rails

So the B.C. Supreme Court has ordered the BC Liberals to hand over e-mails regarding their sale of BC Rail and the alleged improprieties of the sale.

It seems clear now that the courts, at least, think there is something to be gained from a more thorough investigation into the Campbell government, and its improperly deleted e-mails. We were told during the May election campaign that there was nothing improper done by the BC Liberals in the sale of BC Rail, yet the judge found there was enough probable cause to ask for these records.

So where are they?

Why is it that Premier Campbell and his codefendants are having such troubles giving the court the documents asked for?

What we’re seeing here is a pattern of events showing the Liberals and their allies do not believe they are constrained by the law.

What does it say about a government that only forces its members to resign when they’re apprehended for their wrongdoings, instead of resigning prior to the arrest and avoiding conflicts of interest?

If our government doesn’t have belief in their good faith on a sale bid, how can we trust them to follow through for British Columbia’s interests at any other time? How can we trust them if they continue to act in a manner that flouts the law and the public trust?

The people of British Columbia deserve full disclosure about the BC Rail sale