Simi Sara, speaking with John Horgan on CKNW, made a plea for politicians to speak clearly, from their own hearts:
“I’ll tell you what I don’t like, having done this for a long time, is when you talk to a lot of politicians, you feel like you are getting something rehearsed. You feel like you are getting the line, or the talking point, or whatever. . . .just get out in front of it and explain it so that people know. Because the more you talk about it, the less of a problem there is. Why can’t politicians understand this?”
Horgan, in response:
…[Harry Bloy] just kept repeating the last words his handler told him to say and he looked foolish, and Harry’s not a foolish fellow. But, he sure looked like it…
Talk from your heart. Say what you mean and people will embrace that. If you make a mistake, admit it and they’ll probably forgive you…
…The repetition of the message box bores me to tears…
Categories: Horgan, John
IN-SIGHTS 
Wish I could access the vault on my computer. Horgan really does open up the important issues.
I am assuming the utilities commission isn't privy to BC Hydro rate increases due to IPP's run-of-river projects (private contracts) running up the costs.
Simi Sara is an excellent interviewer One of my favourites, as well as Michael Smyth and John McComb.
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Politicians fall back on message boxes because they work, plain and simple. If the voting public were a little more savvy – which would require they switch the TV off (or at least change the channel from American Idol) – and learn a little bit about what's going on in their democracy. The 15 second sound bites are a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself.
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I wonder if, because that is the accepted wisdom, the situation stays as it is. The talking point certainly did not work for Harry Bloy and there are countless similar examples. Also, we have almost half the eligible voters staying home and that indicates serious disconnection. Maybe, because they despise the dialog. Many politicians seem witless when they talk about issues.
I listened to Naomi Yamamoto try to justify a minimum wage freeze that should be permanent. She gave no sense that she believed what she was saying, she was just the Campbell government's messenger. Now, representing the Clark government, she must eat her own words.
If MLA think they are merely there to read out press releases prepared in Victoria by party insiders, they will be comfortable with message boxes. If instead, they wish to represent themselves and their constituents to the legislature, they need to speak their own thoughts. Solidarity is a tradition of Cabinet in the BPS, it is not a strict tradition of caucus.
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From http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/2603#list
This is how polling works. The same method is used right here in British Columbia as well as the rest of Canada.
Pay attention, polling is conducted by the mega rich corporation to fool you into 'thinking the way that they want you to think'.
The following quote is from a speech given in 1986 by Richard Kimball, a democrat state legislator in Arizona running for a US Senate seat. How times have changed in Arizona.
The [inserts] are mine.
“Understand what we do to you,” Kimball said to viewers. “We spend all of our time raising money, often from strangers we do not even know. Then we spend it in three specific ways: First we measure you [polling], what it is you want to purchase in the political marketplace–just like Campbell's soup or Kellogg's cereal. Next, we hire some consultants [mega corporations] who know how to tailor our image to fit what we sell. Lastly, we bombard you [media] with the meaningless, issueless, emotional nonsense that is always the result. And whichever one of us does that best will win [corrupt corporate take-over of the political system].”
And what is so absurd is that we continue to believe this crap.
Where do you stand? Are you a consumer of their crap?
Nothing is going to change if we continue down this path.
When will BC have their own little Egypt?
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