Liberal Party.

[Gone_Fishin]

you know this province is in BIG trouble when political parties, in this case the liberals, circumvent the safeguards for honesty, integrity, openness, and transparency government by finding work arounds to avoid scrutiny. it makes one shudder to think how many OTHER times the liberals have been doing this and havent been caught!

There's also the glaring concern that NDP party policy, by way of party resolution, demands that Dix release his party platform at least 6 months prior to May 14, 2013. This is to ensure "honesty and transparency" for NDP members who have long felt that they weren't being apprised of the party's plans. Here were are 2 1/2 months from election day, and not a peep from Dix about a released party platform. He has foresaken his own party members' wishes and is finding "work arounds" to avoid the scrutiny of his own party. What's he hiding?

[Logitack]

is that the best you got, dude?

try to focus on what YOUR party is doing to this province and how they are going about doing it. the fact that they circumventing rules and regulations to advance their political agenda is outrageous and dangerous to the province.

[flamingfingers]

This from a long time Liberal, James Plett who quit as riding president yesterday:

Why I Quit the BC Liberals
March 1, 2013

You may actually have heard elsewhere, but today I have resigned my post as the Vice President of the Surrey-Tynehead BC Liberal Riding Association and have requested my membership be terminated immediately with the BC Liberal Party.
My resignation has nothing to do with the riding per se, nor with Dave Hayer — the best MLA in BC — nor with the riding’s acclaimed candidate, Amrik Virk, but rather with the pattern of arrogance, deceit, and downright unethical behaviour of the BC Liberal Party.

The most recent scandal — “ethnicgate” — is one of the most appalling things I have read about this party doing. Government staffers, who are required to be non-partisan, put together a document explaining how the BC Liberal government could take advantage of horribly racist crimes in order to get a jump in the ethnic vote. The document talked about leveraging an apology for the Chinese Head Tax and the Komagatu Maru incident, to name two. This document was circulated among some of the highest levels of provincial government.

What makes it so repugnant is that the government misused taxpayer dollars to put together a document explaining how the government could misuse taxpayer dollars further and to offer apologies for absolutely horrible things all for a bump in the polls. Not to actually apologize for the events, but with the end goal of winning popularity points.

Ethnicgate is just the latest string in a series of scandals that have plagued the BC Liberal Party. Unofficially, I checked out months ago, but I am horribly embarassed that my name was still associated with that party for all this time. Whether we’re talking about the John van Dongen tossup or the incident with John Doyle, it is pretty clear that this party is being run by crooks.

I’m not the only one who feels this way. Numerous leaders of riding associations have already resigned, and part of the reason involves the parachuting in of acclaimed candidates. Basically, the notion of a parliamentary democracy is that anyone can run and be elected. The reality is that you need to be a member of a big party (typically). What’s more is that you need to be vetted and essentially hired by that party in order to run. It doesn’t matter if you have amazing credentials, if the party has someone else marked for that riding, you will not get it. They will not give it to you. They will put your application in a folder and toss it aside. It doesn’t matter if “the people” want you, it doesn’t matter if they would have elected you. What matters is that some obscure shadow council likes you. It’s an affront to democracy. What’s happening across BC is that candidates are being acclaimed, just like that, with no warning or notification to the various riding associations. Amrik Virk, who is himself a very great man and someone I would have supported anyway, for example, was acclaimed the other day. That’s it. No choice. On March 4th, the “nomination meeting” will happen. There won’t be a yes/no vote, nothing. There will be an acceptance speech. This is happening across BC as the powers-that-be in the BC Liberal Party decides which chess pieces it will deploy across the province. Whether you’re a member of the party or not, it doesn’t matter. You have no say — and what’s more, that’s the point.

The Party expects your allegiance. They don’t want you to speak out. They’ll smear you if you do. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you,” they’ll say. I have given years to the BC Liberal Party and people like me are being shuffled aside across the province. It’s horrible. The Party is only as strong as its weakest link, but chains of people are being discarded. The Party expects absolute allegiance and absolute servitude. If you deny it that, they will cast you aside.

My decision has been months in the making. So long ago, I decided I would only stay along to support Dave Hayer. I wouldn’t go to any events that didn’t involve him. I endured dozens of phone calls from the Liberals asking for money; I declined every time, advising that I would only give money directly to my MLA. I would support him, not the party.

I was relieved when Dave announced he would not run in the next election. This meant that my tenure with The Party could come to an end. I could leave with a clean conscience, knowing that I didn’t support the depravity that The Party had now come to represent. I was proud, after all, of the work I had done: I had helped Dave get elected and helped work on numerous campaigns. I had been a paid employee of The Party and had done a lot of good work for them. I worked on a number of initiatives and helped form a number of pieces of policy. I’m not at all embarrassed by what I’ve done or what I’ve helped do.

That changed with Ethnicgate. I can no longer stand idly by. I can no longer watch from the sidelines as The Party crashes itself into the ground. That seems to be the fate of political parties in BC, but I cannot stand idly by.

To be a true political observer, one must adopt a sort of moral pragmatism. Under Henry James’s pragmatism, everything is a means to an end and the means only matter insofar as the end is valuable. Under this system, morality is discarded and left at the wayside in order to develop good or otherwise valuable policy.

It is under this system that The Party – in fact, all political parties – seem to want us to live. Ethnicgate was OK to the people who orchestrated it because the ends – re-electing The Party and locking the socialist hordes outside the gate for four more years – justified the means. Pragmatism can turn a perfectly reasonable or otherwise “moral” person into the kind of depraved individual who would do this kind of thing.

I cannot abide this system any longer. The people responsible for Ethnicgate – every single person – are categorically morally reprehensible people. It makes me physically ill to consider the type of person who could, in good or bad conscience, do what they did. I cannot and will not stand by or sit on my hands or be idle in any other way. This is and was the final straw for me.

I worked with a number of amazing people over the years (just over six years, actually) and made a number of great friends. I have no regrets about what I’ve done and remain proud of what I’ve accomplished. I am, however, saddened it has come to this. My resignation is certainly not the first, nor will it be the last. At this point, the spectre of the BC NDP – the “socialist horde at the gates” — is no longer frightening. That trope – a BC Liberal staple for years – is stale and meaningless. It barely worked in 2009, and it certainly won’t work in 2013. Now, myself and so many people like me have to ask ourselves: what’s worse, four years of the NDP or four more years of the BC Liberals?
Honestly, I don’t know the answer.

—
James Plett can be reached via e-mail ([email protected]) or twitter (@jplett).

Note: I think by his resignation letter he answered his last question.....

[Gone_Fishin]

James get a plum job offer from Dix? Bookmark it and don't be surprised when it happens.

[sooperphreek]

There's also the glaring concern that NDP party policy, by way of party resolution, demands that Dix release his party platform at least 6 months prior to May 14, 2013. This is to ensure "honesty and transparency" for NDP members who have long felt that they weren't being apprised of the party's plans. Here were are 2 1/2 months from election day, and not a peep from Dix about a released party platform. He has foresaken his own party members' wishes and is finding "work arounds" to avoid the scrutiny of his own party. What's he hiding?

where is the hypocrisy in the decision? i think it is wise that the ndp party as a whole makes the choice they did and not spill any beans. the voters in the province are prepared to weather the tough decisions that the ndp will have to make. especially after how mismanaged things have been the last few years. after 12 years of indiscretion and irresponsible management the ndp wont be any worse. the philosophy will just be diametrically opposed to what the free wheeling business community wants. cest la vie.

[NAB]

Therse days it's getting harder and harder to find anyone who even speaks well of the BC Liberals, let alone wants to be part of them.
Nab

This from a long time Liberal, James Plett who quit as riding president yesterday:

Why I Quit the BC Liberals
March 1, 2013

You may actually have heard elsewhere, but today I have resigned my post as the Vice President of the Surrey-Tynehead BC Liberal Riding Association and have requested my membership be terminated immediately with the BC Liberal Party.
My resignation has nothing to do with the riding per se, nor with Dave Hayer — the best MLA in BC — nor with the riding’s acclaimed candidate, Amrik Virk, but rather with the pattern of arrogance, deceit, and downright unethical behaviour of the BC Liberal Party.

The most recent scandal — “ethnicgate” — is one of the most appalling things I have read about this party doing. Government staffers, who are required to be non-partisan, put together a document explaining how the BC Liberal government could take advantage of horribly racist crimes in order to get a jump in the ethnic vote. The document talked about leveraging an apology for the Chinese Head Tax and the Komagatu Maru incident, to name two. This document was circulated among some of the highest levels of provincial government.

What makes it so repugnant is that the government misused taxpayer dollars to put together a document explaining how the government could misuse taxpayer dollars further and to offer apologies for absolutely horrible things all for a bump in the polls. Not to actually apologize for the events, but with the end goal of winning popularity points.

Ethnicgate is just the latest string in a series of scandals that have plagued the BC Liberal Party. Unofficially, I checked out months ago, but I am horribly embarassed that my name was still associated with that party for all this time. Whether we’re talking about the John van Dongen tossup or the incident with John Doyle, it is pretty clear that this party is being run by crooks.

I’m not the only one who feels this way. Numerous leaders of riding associations have already resigned, and part of the reason involves the parachuting in of acclaimed candidates. Basically, the notion of a parliamentary democracy is that anyone can run and be elected. The reality is that you need to be a member of a big party (typically). What’s more is that you need to be vetted and essentially hired by that party in order to run. It doesn’t matter if you have amazing credentials, if the party has someone else marked for that riding, you will not get it. They will not give it to you. They will put your application in a folder and toss it aside. It doesn’t matter if “the people” want you, it doesn’t matter if they would have elected you. What matters is that some obscure shadow council likes you. It’s an affront to democracy. What’s happening across BC is that candidates are being acclaimed, just like that, with no warning or notification to the various riding associations. Amrik Virk, who is himself a very great man and someone I would have supported anyway, for example, was acclaimed the other day. That’s it. No choice. On March 4th, the “nomination meeting” will happen. There won’t be a yes/no vote, nothing. There will be an acceptance speech. This is happening across BC as the powers-that-be in the BC Liberal Party decides which chess pieces it will deploy across the province. Whether you’re a member of the party or not, it doesn’t matter. You have no say — and what’s more, that’s the point.

The Party expects your allegiance. They don’t want you to speak out. They’ll smear you if you do. “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you,” they’ll say. I have given years to the BC Liberal Party and people like me are being shuffled aside across the province. It’s horrible. The Party is only as strong as its weakest link, but chains of people are being discarded. The Party expects absolute allegiance and absolute servitude. If you deny it that, they will cast you aside.

My decision has been months in the making. So long ago, I decided I would only stay along to support Dave Hayer. I wouldn’t go to any events that didn’t involve him. I endured dozens of phone calls from the Liberals asking for money; I declined every time, advising that I would only give money directly to my MLA. I would support him, not the party.

I was relieved when Dave announced he would not run in the next election. This meant that my tenure with The Party could come to an end. I could leave with a clean conscience, knowing that I didn’t support the depravity that The Party had now come to represent. I was proud, after all, of the work I had done: I had helped Dave get elected and helped work on numerous campaigns. I had been a paid employee of The Party and had done a lot of good work for them. I worked on a number of initiatives and helped form a number of pieces of policy. I’m not at all embarrassed by what I’ve done or what I’ve helped do.

That changed with Ethnicgate. I can no longer stand idly by. I can no longer watch from the sidelines as The Party crashes itself into the ground. That seems to be the fate of political parties in BC, but I cannot stand idly by.

To be a true political observer, one must adopt a sort of moral pragmatism. Under Henry James’s pragmatism, everything is a means to an end and the means only matter insofar as the end is valuable. Under this system, morality is discarded and left at the wayside in order to develop good or otherwise valuable policy.

It is under this system that The Party – in fact, all political parties – seem to want us to live. Ethnicgate was OK to the people who orchestrated it because the ends – re-electing The Party and locking the socialist hordes outside the gate for four more years – justified the means. Pragmatism can turn a perfectly reasonable or otherwise “moral” person into the kind of depraved individual who would do this kind of thing.

I cannot abide this system any longer. The people responsible for Ethnicgate – every single person – are categorically morally reprehensible people. It makes me physically ill to consider the type of person who could, in good or bad conscience, do what they did. I cannot and will not stand by or sit on my hands or be idle in any other way. This is and was the final straw for me.

I worked with a number of amazing people over the years (just over six years, actually) and made a number of great friends. I have no regrets about what I’ve done and remain proud of what I’ve accomplished. I am, however, saddened it has come to this. My resignation is certainly not the first, nor will it be the last. At this point, the spectre of the BC NDP – the “socialist horde at the gates” — is no longer frightening. That trope – a BC Liberal staple for years – is stale and meaningless. It barely worked in 2009, and it certainly won’t work in 2013. Now, myself and so many people like me have to ask ourselves: what’s worse, four years of the NDP or four more years of the BC Liberals?
Honestly, I don’t know the answer.

—
James Plett can be reached via e-mail ([email protected]) or twitter (@jplett).

Note: I think by his resignation letter he answered his last question.....[/quote]

[Logitack]

Emergency BC Liberal Caucus Meeting Set for Sunday March 3rd.,2013 4pm: Christy Clark UNDER SIEGE!!!

And the hits just keep on comin’

Our friend, Global’s illustrious Bureau Chief Keith Baldrey entertains us tonight, with news of an emergency BC Liberal caucus meeting scheduled for 4pm tomorrow.

This means the Premier is under siege–for certain. She was originally planning on riding out the weekend, I’m told, and, against strong advice to meet with her caucus sooner, was presenting herself on Monday.That’s not going to happen. Tomorrow at 4pm is the moment of reckoning.

Though, you need to understand something: This is typical delay tactics she learned at the Mark Marrisen School of Political Sophistry and *bleep* (a place she actually graduated from–for once!) These are stalling tactics that she thinks will help her. She’s running and hiding from her own caucus!!! HOW CAN THESE PEOPLE BE STUPID ENOUGH NOT TO SEE THE LIGHT???

Anyway, one of the replacement names for Kim Haakstad is BC Liberal building industry gasbag Phil Hockstein. You know she’s scrambling for a candidate when Hockstein’s name appears.

Regardless…

If she’s ducking them, has it occurred to anyone why??? Because Christy’s guilty as hell in both scandals: Christy met with Brian Fehr in Vancouver offices to discuss the Wood Center, but pretended he was really just a distant supporter. And when she said no public monies were spent on the ‘Ethnogate’ consultants, this is simply a lie–and she knows it!
Then, Christy’s missing in action for the worst week of this government’s ten year tenure (Gord’s resignation–a story which I broke–even though I offered the story to Sean Holman first, was tamer) leaving her colleagues holding the bag. Clark has IGNORED caucus concerns for days, and essentially thumbed her nose at every single member–including the IDIOTS that continue to support her, symbolically by forcing an apology for ‘Ethnogate’ through Rich Coleman. This is leadership? This is the person, who is meant to lead the faithful into battle??? Are these people at all well? She should be FIRED IMMEDIATELY! THEY SHOULD FORCE HER SORRY DERRIERE OUT THE DOOR! I TOLD YOU ALL WE’LL BEFORE SHE RAN THAT SHE WASN’T QUALIFIED TO BE IN PUBLIC LIFE!!! It’s just one big ego trip for her! She’s on YOU DIME! That’s all she cares about!

I heard John Les on Sean Leslie’s show today and am convinced Les needs serious help. That he would even repeat such insanity about his colleagues that are demanding accountability from the Premier, as being “bedwetters” is beyond belief! He should be sanctioned for such idiocy.

Look, it’s simply. This is all going to collapse on them. If they keep Christy, I predict, right here, right now, around a dozen seats.

So those of you in BC Liberals caucus, who are fools enough to allow her any quarter tomorrow, look around the room and knock off and MLA every few seats, and as you go around the table, accept that as you come full circle, you might be the last on the list of losers. Now how do you feel?

Regardless of which party is in government, whether we voted for them or not, we deserve the minimum bar standard of having a premier and government we can somehow accept. Clark is out premier, and she’s failed us. She endorsed a despicable document and is protecting Bond and Bell, both of whom should be fired from Cabinet immediately. Bell in particular should be sitting in front of a Special Prosecutor and/or the RCMP, pointed answering questions. The allegations against him DEMAND he be removed from Cabinet.

And…to show you where the mentality of some Clark stalwarts is, four days after being implicated in a scandal that is one of two threatening to bring her government down, Pamela Martin is tweeting some stupefying mindlessness about the Bollywood awards.

Can this woman be this much of an idiot?? Does she have no shame whatsoever?!?
Astounding. Truly astounding.

Stay tuned!

More on the way.

http://alexgtsakumis.com/2013/03/02/eme ... der-siege/

[bob vernon]

A dozen seats? I'd bet a few dollars that with Christy it will be fewer than 10. Just like the early 90s VanderZalm debacle where Rita Johnson did the party (they were called Social Credit back then, but were basically the same as the Liberals of today) a favour and took the reins as they rode down the slope into oblivion.

[NAB]

If Christy quits, would that make Rich Coleman Premier until the election?

Nab

[Logitack]

christy wont quit, she wants to take the entire party down with her in may

[NAB]

Excerpt from Macleans: http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/03/03/chri ... eadership/

""Clark’s future may well hang on the results of the investigation into the strategy and on the party’s ability to stem the damaging series of leaks. Justice Minister and Attorney General Shirley Bond said the resignation of Haakstad was a first step. The apology and the launching of an investigation into the multicultural strategy were a vital start to putting the issue behind them. “From our perspective there needed to be action, and it needed to be taken quickly,” she said.

Clark, who was sworn in as premier two years ago on March 14, 2011, has been running from behind from the start. She replaced Gordon Campbell, who beat a hasty retreat after sinking the party’s popularity by imposing a 12-per-cent Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) on the province without any public notice or consultation. After the public rejected the tax in a referendum, Clark was forced to oversee a return to the previous provincial and federal goods and services tax. The combined PST and GST returns this April 1, reopening old wounds.

Just one caucus member had backed Clark’s leadership bid. But many of her former rivals and potential leadership candidates have left politics or signalled they aren’t running in the next election. Nor is there much appetite to take on the leadership now, when the polls indicate the party is doomed to opposition status unless there is a miraculous turn around in its fortunes.""

[NAB]

Smyth: Christy Clark hopes coming week will be the start of a miraculous comeback
By Michael Smyth, The Province March 10, 2013 11:33 AM

When the history of the 2013 provincial election is written, Premier Christy Clark hopes this will be recorded as the week she started to turn it all around.

Clark’s deputy, John Dyble, is expected to release findings this week of his investigation into the ethnic-outreach scandal that has rocked Clark’s government.

Clark assigned Dyble to investigate a 17-page secret government memo — revealed by the NDP on Feb. 27 — that outlined a plan to woo ethnic voters by misusing taxpayers’ resources and funnel information to the Liberal party.

The scandal has already claimed two victims — deputy chief-of-staff Kim Haakstad and cabinet minister John Yap both resigned — and more heads will likely roll when Dyble reports out.

With Clark insisting she knew nothing of the plan, Liberal insiders are expecting the report to clear her of wrongdoing.

That will allow Clark to declare she took decisive action, the guilty have been punished and the scandal is officially over.

So will it be upward and onward from now ‘til voting day on May 14? Not quite. Here’s just a partial list of Clark’s other troubles:

GORDIE HOGG: The Liberal caucus chairman is conducting his own investigation of the ethnic-outreach scandal, saying he’s “morally and ethically” bound to reveal the truth to his fellow MLAs.

Hogg said he also has a “fiduciary duty” to determine if the public’s money was spent on Liberal party politicking.

But the necessity of a separate probe also highlights the limited investigative powers of Dyble, who has no legal authority to access Liberal caucus records.

And it also raises the suspicion even some Liberal MLAs are distrustful of Clark’s office, and demanded their own investigation instead.

Hogg could report out this week, too.

ELIZABETH DENHAM: The province’s independent freedom-of-information commissioner has raised concerns about a lack of formal record-keeping in Clark’s office, an apparent bid to keep government dealings secret.

Now Denham has suggested she may launch an investigation into the government’s use of private email accounts, used to distribute the ethnic-outreach plan to senior staffers.

Private email accounts were also used in the development of a Liberal party website by publicly paid government staffers, as revealed exclusively by The Province in November.

Further exposure of the culture of secrecy in the Clark government could spell more trouble with disillusioned voters this May.

CLARK’S CREDIBILITY CONUNDRUM: One of the biggest problems facing Christy Clark is the erosion of public trust in her and her government.

It’s not all her fault. The government’s double-cross of voters on the Harmonized Sales Tax — under the watch of previous premier Gordon Campbell — dealt the biggest credibility blow to the Liberals.

But it also means that, even if Clark is cleared by Dyble this week, there will continue to be doubts that her hands are truly clean.

“The public will say that’s bunk,” said NDP MLA Carole James.

“The public will say, ‘This happened in your office, with your deputy, with your staff, and you didn’t know anything about it?’

“I think it’s hard to believe that her own direct staff were working on this document and the premier knew nothing about it.”

TROUBLE UP NORTH, B.C. RAIL AND MORE: And then there’s the rest of Christy’s current woes.

Up in Prince George, a couple of powerful businessmen have accused the government of bad-faith dealing on a high-profile downtown land deal, threatening the Liberals’ hold on two key swing ridings.

John van Dongen, the former Liberal solicitor-general, keeps pressing his conflict-of-interest case against Clark over her role in the ever-pungent B.C. Rail privatization deal. Van Dongen has released records indicating Clark attended cabinet meetings where the B.C. Rail deal was discussed, even though she had declared a conflict-of-interest because of the involvement of her then-husband in the deal.

It’s all bad. But could it get even worse for the Liberals? In a word ...

YES. IT COULD GET WORSE: Hovering over all this is a grave fear among Liberals that the NDP have even more dirty laundry to string on the clothes line as the election nears.

The ethnic-outreach document was top-secret stuff, raising Liberal worries the New Democrats have even more bombshells in reserve.

The NDP got a scare last week when a wobbly Christy Clark looked like she might actually resign. Worried about losing their best campaign asset, the NDP may have decided to keep their remaining powder dry.

So, yes, it could get worse. Or it could get better. In Christy Clark’s plan to shock the world and prove the pollsters and pundits wrong, she hopes this coming week will mark the start of her miraculous comeback.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Christy ... story.html

[Captain Awesome]

Miraculous indeed...

[flamingfingers]

Blathering Bill wants to shut up dissidents in the backbenches:

Liberal cabinet minister wants complaining back benchers to shut up
VICTORIA/CKNW (AM980)
Sean Leslie | Email news tips to Sean
3/11/2013

Premier Christy Clark doesn't seem worried but at least one cabinet minister is getting fed up with complaining from the Liberal back bench.

The latest to publicly criticize the Premier is her former leadership rival Kevin Falcon, but several other MLA's have recently let it be known they're not happy with the boss.

Clark herself shrugs it off.

"Well you know what, I don't know what motivates anybody's comments..."

But Community Minister Bill Bennett is getting fed up.

"Well there's an issue with a whole bunch of people who aren't running again and aren't invested the same way that you are when you are running, so you think you can just say whatever you feel like saying and there's no consequences and for them I guess there aren't."

As for Falcon himself, he seems to have gone to ground and was not making any comments today.

http://www.cknw.com/news/vancouver/stor ... ID=1909164

[Veovis]

It's politics, where plays an positioning are key. Certain players need to make plays over the next 6 months to get into position to take the things they desire when whatever happens in the next election is final.

Most feel that will be the NDP, therefore you are going to see more noise from Liberals either distancing themselves from Cristy to protect themselves and retain a seat, or bad mouth her (rightly or wrongly) to put themselves in a position to take over, become a cabinet minister etc. It's a dirty game and isn't what it was intended to be.

Look for exactly this in 4 years from the NDP, if Dix manages to retain position for the full term. (and I wouldn't bet on that)

BC has 2 duds on a ticket and we get to choose one. YAH BC