Democracy doesn’t die of natural causes

Christy Clark’s Liberals have gone all in with identifying “persuadable voters” and knowing all there is to know about each person’s voting impulses. This is not old fashioned door knocking and coffee-party campaigning. It doesn’t rely on volunteers. Instead, the highly paid operators work quietly in the shadows “to find tiny slivers of influence that can tip an election.” This is expensive political manipulation, far beyond capabilities of the NDP, a party largely dependent on financial contributions from individual members. But, this suits win-at-any-cost principles of Liberals. It also explains why the Legislature has barely functioned in the past year. Liberal cabinet ministers and MLAs were too busy fundraising to waste time governing. I’m a political wonk and the Liberal’s anti-democratic initiatives and corrupt practices are enough to turn me away from that party, permanently. In addition to being deceitful, Clark’s government has proven itself incompetent, which is not surprising when management positions in the province’s enterprises and service agencies have been sold to Liberal Party contributors.

To count or not to count…

Recently, economist Erik Andersen circulated a paper discussing government liabilities and the games played by governments to disguise unconscionable growth of debt during non-recessionary times. I’ve expanded Erik’s words and we hope the following discussion will be understandable and helpful.

One of many tragedies

What kind of society do we live in when there are no resources – no affordable resources, that is – for families in need, yet there is sufficient money to pay almost a million dollars for vanity photography and videotaping of Premier Clark. And billions of dollars to subsidize foreign-owned resource companies and billions more to pay contractors and private producers for power we don’t need.

Special friends, special treatment

While BC Liberals and ardent supporters such as the Fraser Institute claim to favour free markets, private power contracts show how false the commitment is. We can’t know the price paid for AltaGas power in BC because contracts are secret but the amount is certainly more than three times the $33 per MWh market price paid in Alberta. This demonstrates why big businesses in this province are putting up big dollars to ensure Liberals continue controlling government. British Columbia is rich in natural resources but Christy Clark and friends are determined that profits should accrue to very wealthy friends and are not to be wasted on ordinary citizens.

NS News: Not worth a dam

Site C, which was approved without a proper review by the B.C. Utilities Commission, is going to cost $8.8 billion we don’t have to produce electricity we can’t use, to power LNG plants that won’t exist, at a cost too expensive to sell to foreign markets…

Secret correspondence

Occasionally, readers and informants send me tips and information, some of it for background, some of it that leads directly to an article. Today, I received the first draft of a message that Pamela Martin is sending to Liberal Party workers. It follows…

National NewsMedia Council complaint

On April 8, Vancouver Sun published an opinion piece by BC Hydro Chair Brad Bennett titled B.C. Hydro, vision, planning and fortitude — getting the job done. The Vancouver Sun does not identify Bennett as a partisan campaigner in BC’s current general election. In the article, Bennett applauds Liberal power policies and repeats an outrageous lie that has been part of BC Hydro’s misinformation strategy for more than 12 years.

Hypocristy, part 3

This woman has no shame. If you asked her on Monday for the day of the week, she would tell you it was Thursday. She’s incapable of giving a straight answer. She’s leaving our children and their children with an immense financial burden and tells lies while doing it.

Empress’ new clothes

Before BC’s last provincial election, the governing party was trailing in the polls, still suffering from the HST fiasco, their failed effort to shift sales tax burdens from businesses to individuals. Premier Clark’s handlers decided to weave her a new set of clothes. When first shown to the public, oblivious cheerleaders in the corporate media rose in unison to applaud. Like the child in Hans Christian Andersen’s story, alternative media revealed the truth.

Charity

There are charities for many purposes with widely different levels of quality in the work they do. Each of us decides the sectors we’ll support for reasons that are very personal. For […]

Hypocrisy part 2

Many readers enjoyed the Christy Clark video in Hypocrite! and found it revealing, particularly as Clark’s Government was spending millions of tax dollars to flood social, print and broadcast media with campaign promises and Liberal promotions. Here is another taste of Ms. Clark.

Hypocrite!

Watch this memorable video of Opposition MLA Christy Clark standing in the Legislature, spewing a disrespectful rant about government spending 6 or 7 hundred thousand dollars on post-budget advertising. Today, her own Government is pouring more than 20x that amount of taxpayers’ dollars into partisan advertising to promote their reelection prospects.

Hit piece journalism

By slanting news or withholding information, media affect what a large segment of the public knows or does not know about public affairs. If groups profit improperly through actions of government, rewards can be immense but, if the looters control media, they can act in the shadows. The checks and balances within a democracy are distorted if media becomes a subsidiary of vested interests. Accurate public discourse is discouraged or impossible.