NDP campaign run by USW, $600,000 in cash from USA

[Urban Cowboy]

BC's NDP had a $750,000 loan guaranteed by CUPE. Do you think that's appropriate?

Certainly not, and even less so if one happens to be an NDP zealot who spends every waking moment nitpicking Liberal ethics, crimes, real or imagined, and uses terms like conflict of interest.

[Urbane]

BC's NDP had a $750,000 loan guaranteed by CUPE. Do you think that's appropriate?

That's definitely NOT appropriate.

[George+]

Sure it is.
Thems the rules right now.

Only the NDP and Greens vow to change them.

Liberals want to keep bribery.

[Urbane]

Sure it is.
Thems the rules right now.

Only the NDP and Greens vow to change them.

Liberals want to keep bribery.

No. The only ones taking the highroad are Andrew Weaver and the Greens. Horgan and the NDP are happy to take in the money.

[Urban Cowboy]

Yeah methinks that hot place below, will freeze over before the NDP ever break the tie to unions.

Even if they did enact a law forbidding certain donations, believe you me they'll find a back door to use, so they can still access those funds. Maybe another bingo charity.

I'm sure that the reason something hasn't been done yet, is that it's a sort of a stalemate. The Liberals are afraid if they cut all ties to corporate funds, that they'll be at a disadvantage due to the NDP ties to labor, and vice versa.

In that scenario, and in my personal opinion, I believe the Liberals would be at a disadvantage, simply because their connection has been to business on a sort of one on one level let's say. So if the business donations are banned, that tap dries up because employers have virtually no sway over whom their employees vote for, nor should they.

On the other hand with unions the rules can ban donations from the unions directly, which would satisfy the proposed legislation, however, in this scenario, unions have significant influence over their membership, thus could for example, maybe not outright, but suggest that if members don't contribute to the NDP, they may not fare as well as if they do. It wouldn't be unheard of, for unions to find ways of getting rid of anyone who does not toe the line so to speak.

In essence, I feel that it would be easier for unions to bend the rules, than for business. After all they do manipulate their membership.

[Rwede]

I was having lunch with a fellow who is in the HEU last week.

He told me about all the spew his union was sending, and how his wife's union, BCGEU IIRC, was doing the same.

He said that despite all that crap from his NDP-pumping union, he was voting Liberal. He's a smart guy, as he said although he make get a percent or two more in pay raises with the NDP over 4 years, he knows that his paycheque will be way smaller with Horgan's plan to tax the bejesus out of anyone earning over $60,000 a year. He was also concerned about Horgan's plan to skyrocket our debt, and the effect that would have on his young family in the years to come.

So, although the union brass makes a lot of noise (union brass would rather get picked as NDP candidates - strut around like a rock star and collect a massive pension after 6 years instead of listening to grievances about coffee breaks), the union members can see the horrid results of an NDP government, and will be voting Liberal for the most part.

[The Green Barbarian]

the union members can see the horrid results of an NDP government, and will be voting Liberal for the most part.

Most people capable of any objectivity can see the horrid results of an NDP government. Which is why they need to either blow up the entire party and start over with some kind of re-brand, like just calling themselves the Canadian or BC Democratic Party (drop the "new" already, as with the NDP it's always the same old same old) and adopt policies that aren't based in 1970's union trash. Stop pandering to the enviro-psychos and give people some semblance of confidence that they won't be like the BC NDP of the 1990's. They just can't figure that out, and instead, always take the easy lazy way by blaming everyone but themselves. I know I was typing these words in 2013, and I know I will probably be typing them again in 2021. BC really deserves better than this.

[Merry]

I think it would be a wonderful idea to call themselves the BC Democratic Party; that way they could more easily distance themselves from some of the more radical elements within the National Party.

And the second thing they should do is distance themselves from the more radical elements within their own Provincial Party; particularly the radical environmentalists.

If the NDP were to return to better representing the interests of ordinary working class citizens, rather than those of the more radical elements within the environmental movement, the NDP would beat the Liberals hands down.

[The Green Barbarian]

If the NDP were to return to better representing the interests of ordinary working class citizens, rather than those of the more radical elements within the environmental movement, the NDP would beat the Liberals hands down.

Good idea in theory, but the NDP still need a leader who isn't an angry meat-head.

[Rwede]

BC's NDP had a $750,000 loan guaranteed by CUPE. Do you think that's appropriate?

Ugh. Disgusting, really.