A Raise of Olympic Proportions

February 24, 1994: While all of Norway was glued to their TV's watching the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Lillehamer, a band of thieves broke into the National Gallery in Oslo and stole Edvard Munch's masterpiece, The Scream

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August 8, 2008: Another Olympic robbery, and this time the ones left screaming are B.C. taxpayers. While we were tuned to the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics on Friday, Gordon Campbell's B.C. Lieberals dished out huge salary increases to about 100 Deputy Ministers and Assistant Deputy Ministers. This page is left wondering how big a trough will be needed when we're distracted by Vancouver's 2010 Winter Games less than a year and a half away.

For those of you scoring at home, this page, does is fact, work in B.C.'s public sector. For most Public Employees in British Columbia, there is a tacit understanding that we are going to be kept a little short on the payroll compared to similar positions in the private sector because we are paid out of the good graces of taxpayers. In return, we expect a little more from our government employers in terms of benefits and job security. I think it's a fair deal - I go to work to be the best cog in the machine I can be, and in return the employer makes sure I can afford three squares a day, a 600 sq. foot roof over my head, and the medication which keeps me healthy enough to return to work the next day. Also, they don't fire me without cause when the governing party wants to boost the stock options of one their multinational corporate donors by contracting out my job.

Unfortunately, Campbell and the Liberals have never grasped the notion of a Social Contract, or for that matter, any kind of contract. These so-called 'best and brightest' are only as bright as the people above them cutting a cheque, and the people below (like this page) who do their bidding. Anything else the public hears about the Lieberals wanting to 'retain quality people' is bullsh*t - the mark of 'quality' is not having a tax bracket to match the corporate stooges bankrolling this self-serving farce of a government.