B.C. Election 2013

Discuss the upcoming provincial election. Keep it civil in here, people. It's not the Political Arena.
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Urbane
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by Urbane »

No, from everything that I've read the proposal is just in its early stages and the report suggests that the proposal does have merit and should be considered. Nothing more and nothing less. There is still lots more research to be done and more information to come so I think that you're jumping the gun. Regardless of whether or not this particular project goes ahead I hope that we don't enter another period in the province's history when the answer to every new proposal is "No, we can't do it." If that attitude had prevailed in the past we still wouldn't have a railroad crossing our country. Nor a Trans-Canada Highway either.

“Navigant’s view, based on the information available at the present time, is that building a refinery on the coast of British Columbia has economic merit and should be considered seriously by the Government of the Province,” said the report, dated March 14. “Such a refinery would provide incremental long-term economic benefits to the region … (and) would generate sustainable margins that otherwise would be lost to Asian purchasers of Canada’s oil sands production.”
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by flamingfingers »

So does Black have iron-clad agreements with tarsands agents to actually sell him dilbit?
Does Black have iron-clad agreements with people to actually buy the stuff when the refinery (may) get into production 10 years out?
What guarantees has Black got that his backers will actually cough up the dough, realizing that their payoff is at least a decade away?

This Kitimat/Black proposal does not pass the smell test for me and for many, many others.

In other words, smells to me like an election wedge issue.
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by Urbane »

You have the Liberals supporting the proposal in principle and the NDP giving us all the reasons that the project isn't likely to be completed. Of course just before an election campaign is about to start there will be some politicking. No way around that. My personal take is that the project is definitely worth pursuing because there appears to be a lot more upside than downside.
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by twobits »

flamingfingers wrote:So does Black have iron-clad agreements with tarsands agents to actually sell him dilbit?
Does Black have iron-clad agreements with people to actually buy the stuff when the refinery (may) get into production 10 years out?
What guarantees has Black got that his backers will actually cough up the dough, realizing that their payoff is at least a decade away?

This Kitimat/Black proposal does not pass the smell test for me and for many, many others.

In other words, smells to me like an election wedge issue.


And if Black had made this proposal under an NDP gov't, you would be touting the brilliance of the creation of thousands of jobs, long lasting benefits to northern BC, and adding value to our resources instead of just exporting raw product.

I think the refinery will eventually fly.......if the NDP don't squash it. I believe the financing Black has arranged is from the groups that are going to be purchasing the refined product. It's a brilliant business arrangment. They get a secure supply because of ownership interest as well as a return on their investment which is guaranteed because of their own purchases. Pretty safe investment I'd say.
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by danmartin »

twobits wrote:
And if Black had made this proposal under an NDP gov't, you would be touting the brilliance of the creation of thousands of jobs, long lasting benefits to northern BC, and adding value to our resources instead of just exporting raw product.

I think the refinery will eventually fly.......if the NDP don't squash it. I believe the financing Black has arranged is from the groups that are going to be purchasing the refined product. It's a brilliant business arrangment. They get a secure supply because of ownership interest as well as a return on their investment which is guaranteed because of their own purchases. Pretty safe investment I'd say.


Can someone explain to me how this would change the opposition to the pipline across BC. It would be nice to have more jobs in BC but the enviromental concerns are still there are they not?
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by George+ »

Yes.

The paragraph you quoted is just another ranter ranting, with zero for logic.
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by Urbane »

As we enter the upcoming election campaign Tom Fletcher puts things into perspective when it comes to the ethic outreach programs and he's quite right when he says that neither party can claim the moral high ground:

By Tom Fletcher - BC Local News
Published: March 19, 2013

VICTORIA – There was some public business conducted in the final frantic days of the B.C. legislature session last week, but you likely wouldn’t have heard much about it.

Premier Christy Clark’s skimpy governing agenda was overshadowed by the delivery of an internal investigation report into her government’s ethnic outreach program.

A review by four deputy ministers detailed what reporters already knew from a memo and meeting notes leaked to the NDP. The plan started in the premier’s office, led by Clark’s deputy chief of staff, who resigned as soon as it was made public.

A B.C. Liberal Party employee attended the first meeting, expressly intended to organize events to impress immigrant communities, then harvest the goodwill in the form of contact lists for the coming election campaign.

After 10,000 e-mails were collected and 27 interviews conducted, they revealed a few significant details.

Former multiculturalism minister John Yap knew or should have known that the scheme was being kept secret because it was an inappropriate use of government resources. He won’t be back in cabinet, although Clark said he intends to run for re-election in Richmond-Steveston.

Yap’s executive assistant resigned when the report came out, admitting he helped cover the tracks of political meddling in the hiring of three outreach contractors with sufficient loyalty to the party.

Clark insists she knew nothing of this plan. She tabled the investigation report, and then announced that the B.C. Liberal Party had written a $70,000 cheque to the government to cover the estimated cost of the inappropriate political work done by non-political staff.

Here’s the part taxpayers may not fully appreciate. There are authorized political staffers all over the legislature, in the premier’s office, the opposition leader’s office and two teams of caucus employees who spend much of their time digging up dirt on the other party. All are paid by you and me.

A line is crossed only when a non-political employee such as a ministry communications director acts on behalf of the party. The main offender in that capacity was one Brian Bonney, whose records suggested he spent half of his time on party work. He quit in February, before the plan was leaked, and the party paid back half of his salary for the 18 months he was on the public payroll.

NDP outrage over this was blunted by another leaked document. This one was from a never-released 2010 report by Auditor General John Doyle, which condemned a five-year program of skimming money from NDP constituency office budgets all over the province and using it for political work.

In a nice bit of symmetry, much of the more than $400,000 was spent to put three-time candidate Gabriel Yiu on the NDP caucus payroll. Yiu’s Vancouver-Fraserview candidate page boasts of his ethnic outreach work, which included tirelessly warning B.C.’s Chinese community about the evils of the harmonized sales tax.

In fact, it was the NDP-Yiu operation that inspired a B.C. Liberal copycat plan.

The NDP quietly stopped the budget skimming after Doyle pointed out the blindingly obvious, which is that constituency funds are to serve constituents and are not to be diverted to political organizing.

It was kept under wraps by the secretive Legislative Assembly Management Committee. This is the B.C. Liberal-NDP co-managed trough of undocumented MLA expenses and other questionable payments that Doyle has only recently dragged into the light.

Both of these schemes have the same stink. Both are intentional abuse of taxpayers’ money for the political gain of the dominant parties. There is no moral high ground for either of them.

Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press and BCLocalnews.com
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by flamingfingers »

As I said before - even Tom Fletcher's mother does not read Tom Fletcher.

Tom Fletcher tries to apply the 'same stink' to these two incidents.

His claim is negated by the fact that the NDP went to the controller who devised the plan and administered it. All open and subject to scrutiny. Not done through 'back channels'.

The Liberals only refined the thing and used back channels which, until Denham got involved were not subject to FOI requests.

The Liberals claim of 'open, honest and transparent government' is blasted out of the water on this one.
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by NAB »

""Here’s the part taxpayers may not fully appreciate. There are authorized political staffers all over the legislature, in the premier’s office, the opposition leader’s office and two teams of caucus employees who spend much of their time digging up dirt on the other party. All are paid by you and me.""

....all of a sudden I am beginning to think that this may not be such a bad use of Taxpayer's money... so long as both sides are funded equally.

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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by George+ »

Especially if it results in less spending and less taxation.
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by GordonH »

Hmm............
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by maple leaf »

Grant G puts Tom Fletchers article in perspective. It is one thing to dig up dirt on the opponent on the tax payer dime and another thing to use a ethnic minority for political gain or actually being a benefit to an ethnic minority in need of help.


Monday, March 18, 2013
Christy Clark, Bill Bennett, Sean Leslie, CKNW, Promoters of Fake Stories, A Straight Goods Raw Ex`pose

Time to put an end to the preposterous claims being made by Bill(slime for hire)Bennett, it`s also time for BC Liberal sycophant Sean Leslie and the enabling radio station CKNW to grow a pair of testicles and stop spinning, stop promoting the insane ramblings of Bill Bennett as truth, or valid..

It is also time for Christy Clark`s ex-husband, the loud, limp and prolific twitterer Mark Marissen to put up or shut up...

British Columbia, especially parts of the lower mainland, there are areas of the GVRD where ethnic people far outnumber English speaking born and raised Canadians..And if one happens to be a white MLA or politician trying to communicate with someone who doesn`t speak English is a tad difficult, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindi and many other Asian languages, there are needs for legitimate ethnic outreach, there is a need for translation and transcription..

What Gabriel Yiu was doing was legitimate outreach work, work that paid off in a really big way..

The point I`m making is perhaps constituency offices need extra funding for translation and ethnic outreach, the work needs to be done, how can a MLA help a constituent in their riding if they can`t understand what they are saying or what is written down..

What I find absolutely disgusting and sad is Bill Bennett and the BC Liberals along with CKNW and Sean Leslie are prepared to go deep into the gutter to make up a story out of whole cloth, a whopping boldfaced lie, all designed to try and deflect from the BC Liberals getting caught using entire ministries, using Government staff, using private emails and so much more, against well defined rules of both Government and the public service, all in an attempt to win ridings and or an election that they, the BC Liberals have no moral grounds to even think of winning, these partisan activities are Christy Clark`s "Modus Operendi"..Christy Clark has always been a loud-mouthed partisan gum flapper, a nasty woman with a bright smile, Christy`s campaign style is bluster and hate, us versus them, she`s a hateful divider..

There is legitimate outreach and then there is blatant illegal activities, Gabriel Yiu`s work was the former and the BC Liberal`s the latter, the proof is in the pudding, 1000`s of emails and documents through private emails, John Yap got busted congratulating employees for hiding their illicit activities..


____________
Christy Clark and Mark Marissen, two nasty trolls who were made for each other, Queen Christy and court jester limp chimp..

The date was October 9th/2002..Amanda Zhou was an international student studying in British Columbia, on that date this lovely young woman went missing, two weeks later hikers in Mission B.C. found in a suitcase a dead body, a body of a woman, autopsy and forensics revealed the victim to be that of Amanda Zhou..

Li Ang.....Fellow student and boyfriend of Amada Zhou was soon after identified as the possible assailant but before police could piece the story together and gather up enough evidence Li Ang hopped a jet and fled back to mainland China, Li Ang thought by fleeing to a country that Canada had/has no formal extradition treaty with that he was HOME free..

Li Ang was wrong, the Zhou family pleaded for help, however the wheels of justice turn very slowly, and as for the BC Liberal Government helping out the Zhou family..Well, just like the hundreds of seniors and elderly who got slaughtered through uncleaned germ-filled hospital in Burnaby, those distraught families never even got even AN APOLOGY, ..The ZHOU family received no help from the BC Liberals either..

Gabriel Yiu in 2009 ran in the Fraserview riding against Kash Heed, a campaign where Kash Heed`s election team illegally slimed Gabriel Yiu, vicious flyers(In Mandarin) were mailed out telling Asian voters the NDP were going to legalize drugs, legalize prostitution, force everyone to join a union, there were nasty images on the mailer, Kash Heed and Barinder Sall also overspent, Dinesh Khanna and Barinder Sall were convicted of election fraud after the election, a special prosecutor couldn`t prove Kash Heed had direct knowledge of what his campaign chair and campaign financier were doing, they broke almost every election law and stole the riding from Gabriel Yiu, Kash Heed`s election team was found guilty of election fraud, and just like Christy Clark, Kash Heed claims everyone in his office was doing all the illegal stuff under his nose without his direct knowledge, seems the dummy/Bambi defense is a common theme with B.C Liberals.
http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca ... ronto.html

Gabriel Yiu, a small business man and one of honour took up the cause of justice and closure for the distraught and heart broken Zhou family..

Gabriel Yiu worked feverishly, translating documents from English to Mandarin and vice versa, documents, letters, papers, translating information to the Zhou family, papers and evidence flowed from justice ministry in China to the justice ministry in B.C. this process went on and on for years..

The Honourable Gabriel Yiu, The Honourable Jenny Kwan, The Honouarble Mike Farnsworth championed this issue and vowed to bring justice and closure for the Zhou family...


Mike Farnsworth and Jenny Kwan of course were elected MLA`s in 2009 and had an income whereas Gabriel Yiu did not, this is where the constituency money went, to fund Gabriel Yui`s countless hours and hard work, those facts were conveniently left out by both Bill Bennett and Sean Leslie, not a word, nothing, these BC Liberals and pathetic media enablers like Sean Leslie had willful mischief on their mind, this was done to deflect from from the BC Liberal crimes, crimes organized by Christy Clark`s top staffers, after the BC Liberals were caught they fabricated a story out of whole cloth, the Liberal party started sliming the NDP, it was a farce, a made-up story..A story that the two persons mentioned above knew was made of hot air and bluster, lacking any real substance..

Bill Bennett, Sean Leslie ...The BC Liberal Scandal and the NDP doing ethnic outreach are night and day different, one legitimate and the other a crime.

Christy Clark was indeed aware of what her hand-picked staff were doing, Clark and her ex-husband Mark Marissen have used this same tactic for years, they perfected this routine while promoting the Federal Liberals, they used ethnic voters like a snot rag..Once used tossed away..
______

Beijing court finds boyfriend guilty of student's murder in B.C.

"A court in Beijing has found the former boyfriend of Amanda Zhao guilty of her murder, 10 years after the body of the international student was discovered in B.C.

Li Ang was sentenced to life in prison, according to Zhao's family.

Defence lawyer Zou Jiaming said the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate Court ruled Thursday that Li committed "intentional homicide." He plans to appeal the verdict, according to a report in the Globe and Mail.

A Canadian diplomat was in the court Thursday, but would not comment.

Zhao, 21, had come to Canada to study English and was living in Burnaby, B.C., with Li at the time of her disappearance on Oct. 9, 2002. Hikers found her body stuffed into a suitcase nearly two weeks later near Mission, B.C., 80 kilometres east of Vancouver.

Li, who was 18 at the time, was a suspect but fled to China shortly after the discovery, leading to lengthy diplomatic and legal wrangling between Canadian and Chinese authorities over who would prosecute the case.

Canada tried unsuccessfully to extradite Li, but eventually agreed to help Chinese investigators after Beijing said it would not seek the death penalty. China maintained that it had jurisdiction because the case involved two Chinese nationals.

In 2009, police in China arrested Li based on evidence provided by the RCMP.

Zhao had been in Canada for more than a year when she disappeared. Li told police his girlfriend went to the grocery store and never came back.

An autopsy determined she had been strangled."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012 ... ction.html

___________

Did Bill Bennett on air with Bill Good mention the good work Gabriel Yui did, when Bill Bennett was on with John Macomb did he mention any of this, when Bill Bennett was on with Sean Leslie last Saturday(march 17th) did he mention Gabriel Yiu`s historic accomplishment, not a single damn word.... Sean Leslie went all weekend running with Bill Bennett`s fairytale story, Sean continued to spin Bill Bennett`s version on Sunday(March 18th) and still to this day not one of the media voices on CKNW mentioned any of the real facts..Not one word of praise from any BC Liberal or any media personality directed towards Gabriel Yiu.

The NDP(34 ridings) did take $200 dollars per month from each constituency office and used that money to pay for outreach expenses and Gabriel Yiu`s 1000`s of hours of ethnic outreach work.

But before the NDP took even $1 dollar from any constituency office they cleared it with the legislative comptroller, in fact the comptroller set up the actual account, it was set up in 2006, that`s when the heavy work to get Amanda Zhou`s family justice started in earnest..

It was only when the Auditor General John Doyle went reviewing the finances of the legislature and MLA`s did he discover this arrangement, an arrangement cleared and set-up by the Legislative comptroller general, John Doyle found this arrangement inappropriate, Doyle approached the NDP and voiced his concerns and the NDP immediately halted the program, there were no secret documents, no private emails used to hide these activities, Bill Bennett and the BC Liberals and Sean (legislative reporter) Leslie were well aware of the arrangement, luckily Amanda Zhou`s family received closure in 2012..Just before the auditor general shut down the program..

The Zhou family will never get the physical Amanda back, Amanda now resides in heaven, resides in the hearts and dreams of the Zhou family, and in our hearts too..

I don`t know why Sean Leslie does those things, the shameless pimping, is it because his wife works for the Liberal Government or is it pressure from CKNW, after all cknw is a huge recipient of lucrative Government advertising...Sean Leslie and all CKNW staff will have to look in the mirror, they`ll see a reflection without soul or sunshine, a dark dank reflection...

The Zhou family expressed glowing thanks to Mike Farnsworth, to Jenny Kwan and they gave special praise to The Honourable Gabriel Yiu..

___________________

October 2, 2012
Case of Amanda Zhao - Verdict in the trial of Ang Li (Jiaming Li)
Last week, after ten years, a verdict was finally rendered in the case of the murder of Amanda Zhao. Through it all, the Zhao family steadfastly refused to abandon their search for justice for their daughter. I have the utmost admiration and respect for their persistence and determination in the face of this unimaginable tragedy. While nothing we can do can ever bring Amanda back, it is my sincere hope that this verdict will be able to provide the family with a sense of closure.
Thank you to MLA Mike Farnworth and Mr. Gabriel Yiu, who worked with me side by side along with a countless number of officials to bring this case forward. I would also like to thank members of the media and the public for continuing to support the pursuit of justice.

Jenny Kwan
MLA, Vancouver-Mount Pleasant
______



Baoying Yang, mother of Amanda Zhou provided the following statement in response to this week’s verdict (Chinese version follows):

Our worst nightmare began ten years ago; we were shocked to learn

about the death of our daughter, we were speechless, numbed and paralyzed. At the time, she was murdered, she was studying in Canada. Since that time, the road to justice has been long and difficult. During that time, we felt hopelessness and despair, justice was beyond our reach.

Last year when our daughter’s case was heard in court at last, we were encouraged; it was a milestone of our ten years journey.
It has been ten years, we have been waiting for the arrival of today, and there is an outcome for our call for justice. The Beijing First People’s Middle Court verdict today means that the murderer cannot run from justice, that justice will prevail no matter how crafty you are, at the end, you will still be punished though there is still a difference between what we asked for and the price we had to pay.

It has been ten years; she would be 31 years old if she was with us. We worked hard to raise her and put all our resources together so that she could travel to Canada to get a better education, to have a better future. If she is still here with us, she would have graduated; she might hold a master or postdoctoral degree and play a leadership role in the workplace because this is her striving goal.

It has been ten years. We thought about our daughter every day. We feel the pain of losing her every moment. Our hearts are bleeding!!!

The verdict today will not bring our daughter back to us. We will never hear her voice, nor see how she would be today. We still have not buried her, nor set up a memorial tablet for her, but we will tell our daughter resting in heaven, evil person is being punished, we will choose the right time and location for your resting place, we will make sure you will not be hurt again.

Today’s verdict finally brings us closure for seeking justice for our daughter.
Now we would like to express our sincerest gratitude to the media and public in Canada for their caring about our case. We particularly want to thank MLA Jenny Kwan, Mike Farnworth and Mr. Gabriel Yiu who helped us push for this unprecedented cooperation between China and Canada. We also want to thank Minister Jason Kenney and other MPs like Libby Davies and Bill Siksay who listened and helped us. We trusted that without their effort, the murderer would not have faced a trial and justice would not have prevailed.

Thank you.

http://www.jennykwan.ca/view.php?id=164

__






I hope you readers see that the Zhou family lavished no praise upon and gave no thank yous to the BC Government or any BC Liberal MLA`s.

I personally apologize to the Zhou family for bringing up this painful reminder of their personal tragedy, however the story had to be told to set the record straight.

I know Amanda Zhou has found eternal rainbows, singing bluebirds and peace, not to worry Amanda, soon we all will reunite with loved ones who were taken far too early.



The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open


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Urbane
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

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Christy Clark and Mark Marissen, two nasty trolls who were made for each other, Queen Christy and court jester limp chimp..

You know that you're not reading any kind of objective analysis when the author is saying stuff like that.
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by flamingfingers »

^^ So you are simply brushing aside the efforts spearheaded by the NDP (Yui, Farnworth,Kwan) to bring justice on this issue?

How blind partisan can you get!!
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Re: B.C. Election 2013

Post by maple leaf »

Urbane wrote:You know that you're not reading any kind of objective analysis when the author is saying stuff like that.


It's no secret that a lot of people are thoroughly disgusted with this woman and Grant expressed himself with such a disgust.Not to much different ,than has been posted about Dix on these forums by certain people ,to which I don't ever remember you having a problem with or expressed any concern about, or is it just off bounds when it comes to your princess.
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