Strategic action

Here's what the BC Liberals might do; 
Wait until the May election is in fast and furious mode, then you might hear the beginning of odd dialogue from the candidates, they'll start making strange choices, quote a lot of polls, and pretend to know what is best for the people of BC. Christy Clark might be the first leader of a Provincial Party in BC to be in hiding during an election campaign!
Then we might see Christy Clark suddenly step down as Liberal leader. Christy will say she has family concerns and name her candidate to take over the party.

There will plenty of back room dealing to establish an uncontested new leader, someone who will guarantee to protect the party against corruption charges, but they'll say they did it for the noble good, to keep BC out of the clutches of the NDP. And obviously the voters of BC are not going to vote for her, she might be lower than her mentor, Gordon Campbell right now, so a renewal of the party was important. 

The BC Liberals will then go gung ho into May spouting the NEW Liberals dialogue, even though it is the same old bunch all over again with new faces painted over their paper bags, but still with the 'what's in it for me,' attitude.

Some will fall for it. Many will not.
Will the voters want a bunch of old candidates who were responsible for the current image of Liberals, and the state of British Columbia? And will the people want a clean sweep. Or will Christy be too stubborn to go? Ah, it's all politics isn't it?

So who COULD be your next premier of BC?
Kevin Falcon, King of the sidespeakers?  Mary, we're looking into it, Polak? oh no John Les. OMG Kash Heed? De Jong? Bill Bennett?  maybe even Gary Farrell-Collins will return for a shot so he'll never be called to testify.  Rich Colman, now there's a worst case scenario.  Pat Bell! (joke)

Or Adrian Dix?

Which is better?

The Art of Lying

Well now an election is looming. We're about to be inundated with spin from all the political parties. We hear people expressing their concern over attack ads, and yet others are professing that they work, and all parties will use them.

The first one I have been hearing is about the NDP. The Liberals just can't let go of the Fast Ferries. Telling us about 460 million spent on them. Only 20 million returned with the sale. But someone told me that building those ferries in BC resulted in that 460 million being spent WITHIN BC by the shipyard workers. The BC Liberals sent 430 million to Germany to build three more. ALL of those millions went into German workers' pockets! So which is better?

drill core samples

I heard one the other day disguised as a news story. They were talking about the Chinese mine with the imported Chinese miners, and how the unions have fouled it up for everyone. Because the company, HD Mines International, has taken their initial 30 Chinese miners home again. They talked about the start-up and how they needed to analyse the drill core samples. The Mayor of Tumbler Ridge expressed concern that the unions had caused the stop of construction of homes up there. The construction company owner said the work may not be completed. This was news. They even had a woman holding up a nice shiny piece of black marble that might have been a sample for a kitchen counter. Now I am not sure if you know what a drill core sample looks like, but my memory tells me they are cylinders of granite like rock, not polished flat slabs of marble.

Well was that lying to sneak a stealth message into the newscast?
During that very morning a spokeswoman for the mining company had been on the radio to say the reason the mine stopped work was that they needed to return the drill core samples to China for analysis. This was standard procedure. They would resume production in about one month.
One would assume that the story about the unions screwing up the production was way too good to dump for the truth if you are inclined to favor the Liberals. So the TV station went ahead with it.  Was that the art of lying?

So now we have Probit, a firm owned by Ekos, a public polling company, about to make Robo calls about the election to every person in BC! At an estimated cost of half a million dollars! Suspected to be paid for by the pro-Liberal group calling themselves Concerned Citizens for BC.  (who knows where they are getting the money?) But that's not for sure, they could be calling on behalf of the NDP. They are going to be calling you and asking questions about your vote anyway.

In case you didn't know, you are under NO obligation to reveal any correct answers to ANY polling company. EVER. Indeed, if these kinds of calls bug you at all, this is where the art of lying comes in. It's your teeny finger-poke back at corporate and political manipulation.

Questions may be, 'Who will you vote for?' 'If you're Liberal and will you vote Liberal again?' 'Is the government doing well in your opinion?' 'Who did you vote for last time and who will you vote for this time?' 'Is the present leader popular with you?' 'Is the government on the right track?'
We saw a huge furor in the East during the last general election over Robo calls harassing people.

Robo calls are computer generated automatically dialed phone calls with a message. If you don't answer, they could call you back forever. Forever. But you can fight back. Take the call.    Lie.     All political polls are similar. They seek information ahead of something so the poll indicates a direction for the client to proceed on. The client being the political party who commissions the poll. The results may not be in favor of what the party wants, but polls can tell you how to go ahead and influence the public opinion. Or how to stab your opponent in the back.

So you can lie. And this is apolitical. It spans the process. If you want more calls about polling, go ahead and tell the truth. You will be validating the poll. If you want less then go ahead a fudge the truth. If you are going to vote Liberal, tell them NDP. Greens going to get your X? Tell them Conservatives are your choice. Are you man or woman? Change gender for a day. Your salary? Go ahead, put yourself into that cloudy tax bracket! Ethnic background? Tell them you're Ainu, the Japanese still don't even know who they are! You might hang up the phone with a grin on your face.

voter versus pollster

Do you see? By telling the pollster a lie, you are diminishing the validity of polling! It applies to street polls too. They don't know you, you don't know them, so look them straight in the eye and fib a fabrication. Why are you obligated to be truthful? You could be doing a great thing by eliminating polls altogether because they begin to have no impact. And besides, a lot of people don't trust them already. Some can predict the results of certain poll companies before their conclusion.

So telling the truth to an anonymous person or a political Robocop on the phone is a non starter for me. It's none of their business how I am thinking. As long as they have paper votes I will be putting my X on the candidate who looks prettiest and has nice eyes, man or woman. And it's none of the political party's business if I am gay or straight, black or white, alien or human.

In the polling booth I am honest. Outside when asked, I am a political prevaricator. Almost sounds important, doesn't it?

It's the Art of Lying and it works for the politicians, why shouldn't it work for you?

Trust issues

So Christy Clark squeezed herself into the Premier's chair in BC.
Quite remarkable actually. Considering her silence on the BC Rail issue. Yes, it seems that is still an issue except for many of the people of Point Grey, who probably never took a train into BC's interior in their lives. Maybe they are just Palm Springs people. I don't know.
But we have a new Premier who seems to be hoping the people of BC will forget Gordon Campbell, and indeed that she was even part of his government.

We have noticed that most of the radio talk shows, both of our so called newspapers, TV News hours and many other media outlets are pretending the issues with the Liberal government are over. They poopoo any talk of the past with scolding comments of 'moving on'.
Well the news outlets want fresh news, and we don't have a real investigative reporter anywhere within our news media system. Sorry, but I am old, I remember Jack Webster and Simma Holt.
Mz Clark is working hard to convey an image of newness in her new (old) government. She and her shopworn colleagues are putting themselves forward as the new Liberals, even though the faces remain etched on the bathroom walls of deceit.

You see, that IS the issue. Only one Liberal has stepped away in shame. All the others pretend they had nothing to do with the actions under Campbell. These are the same people who voted 84% support of him one week before he stepped down in humiliation.
So Christy Clarke is asking us to trust her. That she will look out for us. Save our families. Guard our future. Yet too many questions remain. Most of them embarrassing. And too many more are emerging. There are way too many doubts about how well we really are.

The HST is great for British Columbians. That line has been heralded for months, yet a new report claims otherwise. That it will hurt us. Us people. Yes we know it will be good for companies. They will save millions in accounting costs. I would like to see a list of the larger corporations operating in BC, just to see ownership and where they send THEIR profits. Whenever a big business tells me something is good for me, I am naturally suspect that it is exactly the opposite!

Our new Premier has effectively shut down all discussion about BC Rail. In spite of her suspected involvement in the scandal. In spite of her government paying the guilty parties six million dollar lawyers' fees! Can we trust a premier with this kind of evasiveness? Do we just let a massive deception like this melt away? Do we let them get away with their scam?

Clark refused to attend any all candidates' meetings during her short run up to the by election. Was she afraid of prickly questions? Or was it just plain arrogance? Learned from following the attitude of her mentor, Gordon Campbell?
We know nothing of her plans for Run-of-River Private Power Projects, even though information is surfacing that they will hurt the BC economy in favour of foreign profits.
And we wonder what she is planning for BC Hydro, the jewel of BC utilities?

We know nothing about her stance on the foreign owned fish farms and the Liberal denial that they could be destroying our natural sockeye salmon fishery. Once one of the wonders of the world! Do we allow a resource to perish in favour of foreign profits?

It was the attitude of the Liberals toward the people of BC that brought them down in my mind. Sending 430 million dollars to German families to build our BC Ferries instead of using our own competent shipbuilders was yet another slap in our faces. Those Germans bought fridges and stoves and cars and holidays for their families, spent their money in German communities while British Columbians were left wondering.

There are so many questions that no one will answer. If a government evades a confrontation with the electorate, the voters have no choice but to assume the worst. That is human nature. Especially if you have a history of deception, arrogance and scandal. Her stealthy handlers successfully kept her away from any uncontrolled contact with an inquiring public. From anyone who might inadvertently ask an embarrassing question.

Christy Clark will probably spend a ton of OUR money on trying to get us to buy into the HST. They she will go into a general election, hoping for redemption for her party.
My only point about the HST over the former PST, is that we in this province control a PST. Provincial Sales Tax. With the HST we simply send all the money to Ottawa. And you know from the last federal election result that most of that money will be funnelled into Quebec. I would chose to have our sovereignty intact and not relinquish a power we desperately need to keep the hard earned tax money of BCers remaining in OUR province.

I am not against Liberals at all. This argument would be the same regardless of what party had been in power. But I do believe we need to throw out these people, simply to force them to start afresh. We need to give someone else a chance, yes, even the NDP, or Conservatives or BC First if it falls to them. Then the Liberals can come back as truly fresh faces and try to win us all over again.

But for now, I have seen nothing in these same old Liberals that warrants my vote. I simply don't believe anything they say. It's a trust issue.
The washroom graffiti needs a good scrubbing.

And some politicians need their mouths washed out with soap.