Robertson juiced to smack absentee landlords

After a rousing nominating meeting enjoyed by all not connected with Allan DeGenova, Vision Vancouver has elected Gregor Robertson as their nominee. As this page posted on Friday, most of this page's lack of an endorsement for Robertson came from a desire to see him remain as an MLA. However, if we see more positions coming from him like a tax on owners of vacant condominiums, who is this page to argue that 12th and Cambie isn't a better place for him?

It's now more pivotal than ever that Vancouverites put people in City Hall who are willing to stand up to the vicious cabal of real estate developers who treat Vancouver like their own game of Monopoly, brushing those in need of social housing off the board like so many potato chip crumbs. Peter Ladner and the NPA will continue welcome these cutthroats with open arms, and after the outright betrayal of social housing provisions in the 2010 Olympic bid by VANOC and the NPA, the City of Vancouver can't afford to keep that welcome mat out any longer.

Vision Impaired

Vision Vancouver will stage their Mayoral nomination meeting this Sunday at the Croatian Cultural Centre. As COPE has opted to sit on the sidelines (for now) with respect to going after the big chair, this page actually took out a Vision membership, and will be marking my preferential ballot in the following order:

1. Raymond Louie - This is not a case, as the Samantha Orwell's of the world have suggested, of supporting Louie because he's the Chinese candidate. For this page it's a case of supporting Louie because he's the candidate from a Labour background: anybody who stood up for CEP during Conrad Black's reign of terror gets a big leg up from this page. Unlike his major competitor, Louie also knows how City Hall works - the platform may be limited, but he gets that it's only a three-year term and bigger initiatives could run up against the de facto Mayor of Vancouver and his Public-Private Partnershit Lieberal pals in Victoria.

2. Gregor Robertson - This page has lived in Vancouver long enough to understand that anybody who runs for Mayor needs a bit of a mean streak. Larry Campbell had it, Sam Sullivan had way too much of it, but Robertson doesn't have it. My selfish inner partisan tells me that the Juice King is doing way to good of a job as the MLA for Vancouver-Fairview, and making voting NDP palatable to a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't. One would think that staring across from Emperor Gord every day in the Legislature, Robertson would know that not every former Vancouver Mayor makes a good Premier.

3. Allan De Genova - De Genova decided to throw his hat into the ring to spite Sam Sullivan for the Mayor's remaking of the NPA into Sam's own mean, barking dog, neck-stomping image. This Parks Board Commissioner is the only NPA candidate this page has ever voted for, particularly for his efforts to save Nat Bailey Stadium (and with it, pro baseball in Vancouver) from pre-2010 wrecking ball/redevelopment idiocy. This page would consider voting for De Genova for a Council position, but I'm not about to trust the big chair to anyone who thinks actively seeking support from Federal Liberals is a good idea - the last guy I heard say that was Ujjal Dosanjh.

What, me sorry?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has issued an apology on behalf of all Canadians to First Nations for the physical, emotional, and psychological abuse suffered by those who attended Residential Schools.

This page says that's nice, but it's too easy to score political points by extending apologies for past transgressions, and it's not always the afflicted party one is trying to reach out to. This is not a sincere effort towards reconciliation with Aboriginal people, this is an exercise in covering for the churches who ran the residential schools so that good Evangelical Christian Racist Tory voters can sleep at night knowing their man in Ottawa has done the heavy lifting. Harper is looking to get out in front of this parade of regret and steer it to the right well after progressive Christians have already addressed the residential schools issue.

A sincere effort towards building a relationship with First Nations would be something like restoring the Kelowna Accord or abiding by the United Nations Declaration on Aborginal Peoples: when is Harper going to call a press conference to apologize for trashing one and dismissing the other?

BC 150, History 0

Stan Hagen, the Minister for Tourism, Sport, and Arts doesn't want Victoria's Showcase Theatre Society to get a BC 150 grant to produce a play chronicling the life of Labour firebrand Ginger Goodwin. Is this page surprised? Not really. The overwhelming majority of British Columbians are indifferent to our history because successive right wing governments ignore our true history, and expect cultural institutions to do the same, as a means of social control.

Imagine how the Bill 29 dispute would have played out if someone besides the Hospital Employees Union and the B.C. Federation of Labour were conscious of the fact that there was a General Strike in Vancouver a year before the well-documented Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. What if people knew enough about the On-to-Ottawa Trek to draw comparisons to the Anti-Poverty Committee? Don't claim denying the grant for 'Dancing in the Coal Dust' isn't political when governments have a stake in manipulating popular history. If the public knows that this kind of Opposition, Resistance and Direct Action have happened before, and society has changed for the better as a result, how can governments scare people into submission and continue to consume the spoon-fed propaganda of 'The Best Place on Earth'?

History ain't pretty. If it is, it ain't worth mentioning. There's a reason why Storyeum failed miserably and sits as an empty shell in Gastown.

Stick between the Spokes

Mayor Sam Sullivan was upended by Councillor Peter Ladner at Sunday's Mayoral nomination meeting for the so-called 'Non-Partisan Association' (NPA).

A couple of things - a coalition of anti-labour, anti-progressive poor bashing thugs shouldn't be considered 'Non Partisan'. Vancouver is the one major city in Canada where there exists a substantial number of people who realize that Liberals and Conservatives are cut from the same selfish, elitist cloth, so do us a favour, drop the charade, and exhort people to vote for the Board of Trade Whores we know you are. Secondly, when will we start calling these mayoral nomination contests 'primaries'? Given the hall-busting recruiting which has been going on, particularly on the Vision Vancouver, it seems that almost as many people could be voting for mayoral nominees as will be voting for Council, School Board and Parks Board positions in the fall.

Despite the fear-mongering from the likes of Ian King and Peter Tsukmanis, Citizen Sam's Army of Darkness, the one which allegedly left Carole Taylor trembling in fear and clutching her hat instead of throwing it into the ring, never materialized to take down Ladner. Don't get me wrong, this page is glad to see Sullivan sent packing, and hopefully as he goes so go his deluded synchophants on Council and such policy blunders-in-waiting as 'EcoDensity', a Skytrain line to UBC, and further privatization of police operations. However, the Enemy of my Enemy is not this page's friend when voters are about to be deluded that the NPA is tacking towards moderation. This will be the same NPA who thinks that City Hall should be subservient to the whims of our B.C. Liberal overlords in Victoria, and demand that hardworking, cash-stressed homeowners pay more property taxes to pay for tax cuts dished out from 12th and Cambie to the Likes of Best Buy, Canadian Tire, and Wal-Mart.

The other loser besides Sullivan (who sensible voters know was a loser long before Sunday's vote) is Allan De Genova, who bolted from the NPA after personal disputes with Sullivan to seek Vision's nomination for the big chair. Spite might make for a few passably readable paragraphs on a blog, but it's not credible logic to lead the third largest city in Canada.

Cash in Your Chips

The Premier is apparently concerned about money laundering at B.C. casinos.

This page says that Gordon Campbell is probably as concerned about money laundering at casinos as he was about drunk driving, leveraging the sale of crown corporations with dirty money, evidence tampering, ripping up legally binding contracts, conflicts of interest, and rigging the next election. Why should one worry about breaking the law when one can act as if he's above the law?

Could it be because Psychopaths don't care about the law, let alone anything or anyone else? Money laundering at casinos is one thing, the BC Lieberals and their corporate masters gambling with the future of British Columbia is another.

How Stupid Are You?

While standing in the line at the drugstore checkout yesterday afternoon, this page scanned the magazine rack and noticed a publication with this title: "The Complete Idiot's Guide to NASCAR" No, I am not making this up - "The Complete Idiot's Guide" is a line of how-to books similar to the 'Dummies' series (at least 'Dummies' is little more pejorative than referring to one's audience as Complete Idiots). Why do Complete Idiots need a guide to a "sport" which is only popular with Complete Idiots? What complicated strategy could there possibly be in NASCAR? Get in the car and drive really fast? Be sure to keep turning left?

The fact that stupid publications about stupid and destructive diversions litter our magazine racks and collective consciousness only proves how far we are from any notion of becoming an advanced civilization. The public accepts the stupidity of NASCAR, American Idol, 'Reality' TV, Wal-Mart, Perpetual War and Neoliberal Tax Cut Politics because for the past few decades that this page has been alive, the public has been conditioned to believe that we are Complete Idiots.

This page is haunted by a conversation I had with a friend over the roulette wheel in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. She felt that her dialogue with me was 'an education', but she didn't really feel the need to be involved with politics because, by her own admission, she felt comfortable and compared to other parts of the world, didn't believe life in Canada is all that bad. This friend of mine is anything but a Complete Idiot: she has a PhD, and is simultaneously working on an MBA while conducting some pretty advanced research which, by comparison, would relegate this page to ranks of the Complete Idiots.

Imagine that my friend focused just a tiny bit of her attention more on the systematic corruption and injustice perpetrated by the arrogant criminals who think we live in "The Best Place on Earth". Imagine that she found a tiny piece of her mind, which is otherwise devoted to extremely demanding and worthwhile pursuits, to give to these so-called "leaders". Imagine yourself doing the same thing. Our lives may not be so bad, but there is nothing wrong with wanting better lives marked by compassion, sustainability, and democracy, especially when what we want for ourselves, we want for all. There are enough of us to create real change, unless of course, we are Complete Idiots.

Hope I Die Before I Get Old

Courtesy of our friends at Valley Haven Rest Home in Chilliwack, The Fraser Health Authority, and our B.C. Lieberal Government, here's another shining example of your tax dollars at work...or more to the point, your tax dollars diddling around on the sofa with the PlayStation blazing a few Js with their tax-cut addicted friends while their grandparents are forcibly shacked up with complete Alzheimer's-stricken strangers.

Thanks to BILL 42, THE BRITISH COLUMBIA RIGGED ELECTIONS ACT, expect more of the same in perpetuity. If you voted for Gordon Campbell and B.C. Liberals in 2005, or plan to do the same again, do this page a favour and take a nice hot bath with your hairdryer while its plugged in because YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A SELFISH UNETHICAL PSYCHOPATHIC SACK OF SHIT!! When the 2009 Election inevitably turns ugly/violent, you will have no one to blame but Gordon Campbell, Wally Oppal and yourselves, but you assholes want it that way, don't you?

Vote Early. Vote Often.

Mark Latham at VoterMedia.org has informed this page that I have been entered in the Vancouver Voters' Guide Blogging Contest. Mr. Latham says that the purpose of the contest is to stimulate 2008 Vancouver election coverage among bloggers by offering financial incentives. Believe it or not, but this page was granted a late entry, apparently as the result of popular demand, and currently sits 12th among 12 blogs listed.

You know those murder mysteries where Agatha Christie puts together different types of people, one of them is the murderer, but they all have a good alibi? That's what being in this kind of contest is like for this page, and to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if I go down in the first couple of chapters. There are people who deserve to be read and discussed, like David Eby, there are major professional players like Bill Tielmann, Sean Holman, and there are bloggers who do a lot better job of putting themselves out there, like Samantha Orwell and her Vancouver Manifesto. This page has never considered himself as part of a blogging 'community', but there's a nice feeling just being mentioned in the same breath as this group.

Of course, there are also self-deluded sack-of-shit B.C. Lieberal Apologists like Walter Schultz who obviously need to take a little break. If you do check out the contest, I would appreciate your support, but bear in mind that doing this for free and under a pseudonym gives this page certain freedoms not readily enjoyed elsewhere, like the freedom to call Walter Schultz a sack-of-shit B.C. Lieberal Apologist. It's more important to me that Latham's money stays out of the hands of a right-wing propagandist shill than it is that it goes into my hands.

...and the guy in the Red Shirt always dies.

Last night this page was flipping channels between Star Trek and CNN's coverage of John Edwards' endorsement of Barack Obama. During Anderson Cooper's turn at feeding Time Warner's stable of pundits, Obama was criticized for a dearth of new ideas, while John McCain was lauded for such 'new' ideas like the President submitting to a question-and-answer session with Congress, "just like the Prime Minister does with the Parliament in Britain".

First of all, any idea that begins with the words "just like..." is not a new idea. On this one McCain is cribbing from Jon Stewart, who was obviously cribbing from the BBC during an edition of The Daily Show a few months ago. Captain Kirk and Captain Picard can claim that the U.S.S. Enterprise travels "where no man/no one has gone before", but why is it that in every episode there's always somebody to meet them wherever they go? It's 2008: are there really going to be any new ideas? Does America need new ideas, or new leadership to make the ideas that already exist (affordable health care, reduced dependence on foreign oil, reality-based foreign policy) actually work?

There's a reason why there's no longer a Star Trek TV series in production anymore: this page may still be a fan, but most of the audience has seen all the phasers and transporters and warp drives and all the other neat stuff, and it no longer captures their imagination, just like how Question Period stopped capturing the imagination of Canada's electorate decades ago. For American voters, won't be the candidate who throws out dubiously new ideas with a limited shelf life, it's the candidate who people believe is most capable on delivering the solid good ideas.

One Nation Under Canada, with Liberty and Justice for Some

This page is passing out gold starts to the three Minnesota eighth-graders who were suspended for sitting out a recitation of The Pledge of Allegiance. Growing up in Canada, this page had to endure the inanity of reciting an oath of allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the II at the beginning of my school days. If the Minnesota kids are anything like me at that age, they understand on some level that these ceremonies are exercises in institutional conformity. How come schools don't have the students recite the Bill of Rights or the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?

If eigth graders are expected to grow up and defend the United States of America and its 'freedoms' on the killing fields of Iran, North Korea, or Venezuela (I'm projecting here), then perhaps these children should be treated like they live in a free society and be spared the forced patriotism. As for the grown-ups among us, we can hope for the day that we can attend a professional sporting event without having to prove our loyalty to the state by rising in support of some American Idol wannabe screeching the national anthem before the game begins.

The Coffee We Can Count Out

A Tim Horton's coffee shop employee in London, Ontario has been given her job back only after a substantial public and media outcry. What was the outrageous misconduct which her employer felt was just cause to hand Nicole Lilliman, a single parent with four children, her walking papers? Helping to soothe a distressed child by giving that child a Timbit. For those of you scoring at home outside Canada, a Timbit is a pastry sold at Tim Hortons. It's about the size of a donut hole and has a retail value of about 20 cents.

This is not about one particular bastard of a store manager, or how this is an isolated incident and other Tim Horton's locations don't have a problem going out of their way for customers. This is what happens when mom-and-pop businesses (or in Tim Horton's case, NHL player before journeyman defencemen became millionaires-business) become large, publicly-traded corporations whose shares are held by institutional investors that have a fiduciary duty to return as much profit as possible. If that means forgoing organic and fair trade coffee, so be it. If that means busting a union, so be it. If that means firing a single parent because she was nice to a child, so be it.

At present, there are almost 2800 Tim Horton's locations in Canada, almost twice as many stores than McDonald's has in this country. Not only does Tim's have the Golden Arches beat when it comes to franchises, it appears that Tim's also beats the Golden Arches when it comes to disgusting and reprehensible labour practices.

Memo to Tim Horton's and your shareholders: you know where you can 'Roll up your Rim'...

Clinton's Last Chance: The BS WMD?

After Tuesday night's commanding victory for Barack Obama in North Carolina and the close finish in Indiana, Hillary Clinton's bid for the Democratic Presidential nomination is on life support. However, that isn't stopping the former First Lady from continuing to beat her breast like she's giving CPR to herself. Clinton has neither the remaining delegates in play or projected shift in the popular vote to lay claim to the nomination, so what magic formula can she possibly employ to swipe it from Obama and his legions of energized new voters? The same formula her husband used during his administration: bullshit. And what's the biggest load of bullshit out there being dished out by the Clinton campaign? Clinton won all the states that matter (i.e. bigger states and 'swing' states), meaning that only she can beat John McCain in November. This page finds this blend of fertilizer to be particularly porous, when one takes into account that:

-Unlike their Republican opponents, Democrats use proportional representation to pick their nominee. 14 of Clinton's 16 primary victories were by less than 20 points, meaning that Obama was still picking up 30 to 40 % of the delegates in places like California. By contrast, 21 of the 29 primaries won by Obama were by margins of 20% or more. Better to be a big fish in several smaller ponds around the country than a fish trying to find a sympathetic judge to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates.

-Some of the big states (like Clinton' s 'home' state of New York) are solidly Democratic 'Blue' states and would go to pretty much any Democratic nominee in the general election. If Hillary Clinton is claiming momentum from winning those states, she may need some of those little blue pills her husband's been hiding from her.

-In any primary, the results will be skewed by whether its an open or closed primary. In an open primary, there's a chance for all kinds of hijinx, such as Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos. In a closed primary, Democrats are voting for Democrats, which is more than likely an exercise in marginal voter preference: they like vanilla, they like chocolate, they like one a little better than the other and if they're lucky they'll get some kind of frosty swirl on the same ticket. This page does not seriously believe that Clinton's supporters will all break for John McCain if Obama wins the nomination. As for those who might, the talking heads love to punctuate Clinton's hold on 'Reagan Democrats' in the Rust Belt states (Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania), but in the general election, who will these people go to? Hillary Clinton, or the happy-go-lucky 71 year old who wants to Give War a Chance? Which one reminds you more of Ronald Reagan? The answer is, come November, these aren't Clinton's people anyway.

There is nowhere to go for the Clinton campaign. Hillary either bows out or starts flailing wildly at whatever procedural buttons are handy (the Florida & Michigan delegates, superdelegates, recounts, etc.) - even if that means one of those buttons is the Big Red One that explodes all the positive energy generated by the campaign so far and leaves behind bitter fallout for the Democratic Party. Having seen enough departures from reality and common sense at the beginning (the Florida recount), and during (9/11, Iraq) the Bush Administration, it wouldn't surprise this page if the Democrats mark its end with some insanity of their own.

Repressed Again for the First Time

An RCMP Security Consultant says that 'changing tactics' by activist groups pose a security threat to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. This page says what we have here is a failure to communicate. Tom Quiggan's warning doesn't come as a surprise, given that it's wrapped in the usual fear-mongering over-reaction marked by the right-wing ascendancy. Remember how the B.C. Lieberals turned panhandling into 'Aggressive Panhandling'? According to Quiggan and the Mounties, Protesters are now 'Violent Protesters'. 'Security' doesn't mean the prevention of harm to the life and limb of the general public, it means that the undisturbed hegemony of the 'Olympic Family' and their corporate and government lackeys must be preserved at all costs, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms be damned.

People concerned about the Environment, the rights of First Nations, or the embarrassing lack of Social Housing in Vancouver have the right to be heard, and should not be on the same RCMP agenda as Al-Qaeda or Islamic Jihad. Based on this page's protest experience at other international gatherings, the real threat of violence surrounding activist groups comes from the agents provocateurs used by the police to infiltrate and stir things up, allowing the Jackboots to justify their head-cracking existence.

Quiggan says that "usually fragmented, single-issue groups are converging and organizing in ways never seen before". This is the security consultant that the RCMP has on their taxpayer-funded payroll? Where was this guy during APEC in Vancouver? The WTO in Seattle? The World Petroleum Congress and G8 Summit in Alberta? The Summit of the Americas in Quebec City? The SPP meetings in Montebello? Either Quiggan seriously needs to get out more, or he's a genius when it comes to fabricating a threat out of a handful of peaceful demonstrators: Everything seems scarier when you tell people it's never happened before.

This guy was a judge?

Last week at the Legislature, Solicitor General Wally Oppal introduced Bill 42 to prohibit third-party advertising before and during B.C. election campaigns. Once again, the B.C. Lieberals flaunt their anti-union credentials by trying to bludgeon labour's right to political action. While Oppal cries about the rise of 'American-style' campaigning, it was the Lieberals themselves who put B.C. voters on this path by establishing fixed election dates and spending taxpayers' money on their perpetual 'Best Place on Earth' campaign. This isn't just about trying to shut up the Unions, it's also about ducking the real issue of just how much corporate money flows into Lieberal coffers to buy influence with Gordon Campbell and his gang. Last year $4 million of the $6 million raised by the Lieberals came from corporations, whereas only $220, 000 of the $3.1 raised by New Democrats came from Unions.

Note to Mr. Oppal: Bill 42 is American-style campaigning - it's a voter suppression tactic which matches Karl Rove's best work in turning the United States into a Rethuglican crony police state. Bill 42 turns single-issue voters away from the electoral process for being denied information, turns elections into the sole property of political parties, allows the corporate (read: rabidly pro-BC Lieberal) media far too great an influence in the outcome, and infringes on any organization's right to communicate with its members and act in the best interests of those members.

If Oppal doesn't withdraw Bill 42 for those reasons, here's a couple of other reasons he should consider: One, it's not like the Lieberals have such a great record with the Supreme Court of Canada, and two: if they find the NDP nipping at their collective heels in the dying weeks of the 2009 campaign like they did four years ago, Jimmy Pattison and the Vancouver Board of Trade won't be able to come to their rescue with their 'The Sky is Falling', fear-mongering shenanigans again - because Bill 42 will have foreclosed on the roller coaster.

The chips taste like plastic, and there's no dip...

This page returns from an enjoyable hiatus in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada, a city which more than likely surpasses 1950's Detroit in its Union density. Everywhere I went I was greeted by members of the Teamsters, UNITE Here, Culinary Workers, and a variety of Brothers and Sisters from other Unions with the urgent desire to render assistance to me, usually in the form of a free drink while I looked after the slot machines for them. For anyone still stupid enough to believe that unions kill jobs, tell that to the dealers, pit bosses, cocktail waitresses, maids, lifeguards, bellhops, security guards, cooks, and front desk staff who were nothing but professional and friendly during my stay - could it be that professionalism and friendliness comes from having a secure job at a liveable wage in one of the fastest growing cities in America?

On the other hand, anyone who goes to Las Vegas looking for anything organic, free-range, recyclable, biodegradable, ethically-purchased, politically correct or environmentally friendly will more than likely be told by the locals that 1. You're a hippie, and 2. You should go back to Los Angeles. Some of the regression is all in good fun, like the retro-crooner shenanigans of The Rat Pack is Back, some of it is embarrassing, if not stupefying, like strolling past this poster for Tao Asian Bistro at the Venetian. Ick - I can only guess what my female Asian friend thought as we went by. Walnut Boat and I stayed at the Flamingo, where everything is a neon pink, coconut-scented oxygen is pumped into the casino, and the music is all 80's, all the time. At this hotel, it's like the Reagan Administration never went away, despite the reports of high gas prices, foreclosures, and a General Strike by 10,000 West Coast Port Workers over an unwinnable war in Iraq which flashed from the small handful of TV screens not being used by the Race & Sports book.

I'll keep this short so it doesn't devolve into a trip report. Did I mention the endless supply of free liquor?

Canada's NEW Government now Canada's SUE Government

That change in branding is now more than apparent after yesterday's RCMP raid on Conservative Party headquarters. Rather than show actual leadership in addressing his party's 'in and out' fundraising scheme which violated Elections Canada rules, Stephen Harper is screaming to the courts for a pound of Elections Canada's flesh. The Conservatives don't see anything wrong in giving money to local candidates and having those candidates hand it back to them for national TV & radio odds, pushing the Tory campaign over its legal spending limit. What they do believe is wrong is being caught by Elections Canada, hence another lawsuit to bookend the Tories' lawsuit against the Liberal Party of Canada.

Canadians live next to American elections decided by hanging chads, voting machine failures, partisan officiating, and organized suppression of the electorate. A little further south is Mexico, where an independent Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) has only been place for little over a decade, and as this page noticed personally, operates at gunpoint to protect themselves from longstanding traditions of corruption and violence at the polls. By comparison, Elections Canada is a model of non-partisan democratic efficiency, and Stephen Harper has no business dragging its officers to the courts.

Where'd Everybody Go?

This page took a look at the hit counter this morning, and noticed that the number of hits have dropped from something in the 28,000 range to something in the 2,200 range.

Either it's a technical issue, or 26,000 people (or robots) have retroactively decided never to have read this page. At the least, I know how the CanWest papers feel. Anyone remember Pulse?

The National Post?

Next Steal..err. Station: YVR

Nothing annoys the flying public like having to pay surcharges right before the security gate - that's why the Vancouver Airport Authority, after years of complaints from travellers, finally decided to roll its Airport Improvement Fee into the cost of airline tickets rather than having passengers line up to be shaken down. This would be an example of the kind of idiocy that unelected transportation authorities with rabid privatization agendas inflict on the public. Is it possible that the new Translink Board, created by the same Ministry of Transportation with the same lack of accountability, has learned anything from the Airport's experience when it comes to mass transit service to and from the airport?

No! Of course not! What else can British Columbians (particularly those who work at YVR who were supposed to be taking the Canada Line) expect from a public-private partnership? This is as much a partnership as the partnership between the mugger and a traveller on the way to the airport. Contrary to what the Translink apologists claim, YVR is not simply going to be another fare zone (for those of you outside of Metro Vancouver, Translink uses an insipid zone system to punish commuters who can't afford to live near downtown) - it's going to be a lot more, why else would the Translink Board meet behind closed doors to determine what the surcharge will be?

How much will the surcharge be? There's a simple formula to figure that out: take the amount of money it will take to pacify the other ground transportation interests at YVR: rental car agencies, taxi companies, and hotel shuttles. Multiply that amount by the what the incompetent contractor thugs who are building the Canada Line need to turn a profit to shareholders (as opposed to a cost-effective, publicly built and financed system that only needs to break even for taxpayers). Divide that by the handful of riders who will be able to afford the Canada Line airport service, and that's what the surcharge will be - give or take whatever legal and public relations money gets thrown around when airport commuters and the public realize that Translink is giving them another Cambie Street Stick-Up.

I'd rather be Right than Sustainable

The B.C. Liberals plan to graft the 'principle' of 'sustainability' on to the Canada Health Act through their proposed Medicare 'Protection' Act.

For those of you scoring at home, the gratutious use of quotation marks in the previous sentence was intended to illustrate the Lieberals unsustainable application of other principles, like the truth. This legislation is not about making the health care system any more cost-effective or efficient, it's about the Liberals legally empowering themselves to continue the destruction of public health care in British Columbia. Campbell and Company tried the sustainability argument when they passed Bill 29, claiming that labour costs for front-line health care were out of control. They ended up getting slapped down hard by the Supreme Court of Canada, with taxpayers footing the bill for legal fees and compensation for the members of the Hospital Employees Union whose lives were destroyed by Campbell's assault on the principles of Collective Bargaining.

This page can't help but see the Medicare Protection Act meeting the same legal fate. Sustainability cuts a lot of ways, and the Supreme Court Justices just might ask themselves exactly how a privatized health care system is supposed to more 'sustainable' for BC taxpayers when the government can borrow money at far lower interest rates than private health care providers, and all Victoria has to do is break even, as opposed to any corporate imperative to return profits to shareholders. Also, a judge is not going to be hoodwinked by a Carole Taylor shrieking about health care taking up a growing chunk of the provincial budget, while at the same time other government mandates are rolled back and tax cuts are thrown off the back of a truck to make the Medicare piece of the pie look that much bigger.

Here's hoping that Canada maintains a judiciary that continues to operate on the basis of right and wrong, rather than profit and loss. Health care is a right for Canadians, not a commodity to be screwed around with by small-minded buzzword-toting provinicial governments.

Forecast: More Rain, Homeless

Initial numbers from the March 11 homeless count in Vancouver show approximately 2,600 people living on the streets, and increase of 19% from the 2005 survey. While this number may be amplified by the fact that there were more volunteers this time around, this page shudders to think what the number would be like if more people were doing the counting. It's obvious that no level of government has their collective heads wrapped around this issue, and the least among us will continue to suffer as a result.

The key factor in Vancouver's homeless problem is addiciton: the addiction to right-wing, me-first, market-driven ideology at City Hall, the BC Legislature, and the House of Commons. The NPA responds to the homeless by criminalizing them with Giulianist idiocy like 'Project Civil City' and extending the unaccountable long arm of the 'Downtown Ambassadors' program. Meanwhile, in Victoria, the BC Liberals do everything possible to alleviate homelessness without actually having to do anything. The Gordon Campbells and Carole Taylors of the world don't grasp that rental subsidies and increasing the number of shelters don't help fight homelessness: if you get a rental subsidy, you may be poor, but you still have a home. As for shelters, I will say this only once, so pay attention: Shelters are not homes. Homes are places people can live in without being told to move on, and build themselves a base of operations for the journey into the workplace and society. Homelessness isn't just a local issue, it's a national epidemic, but the public won't get a response from the Harper Conservatives because in their faith-based/blame-the-victim view of the world, the homeless are getting what they deserve.

Of course, one can't mention the homeless crisis in Vancouver without mentioning the vicious, deluded, high-stakes real estate tomofoolery spurred by the 2010 Winter Olympics. The fact that the value of my home has increased over 150% in the past five years because this city will be host to the ski, skate & spandex set for a couple of weeks points to the absolute detachment of logic from capitalism. Rational leaders would do something to intervene, but at this point in time, our leaders refuse to lead - they simply don't have the imagination or the compassion. Why not place a small tax on Olympic tickets to subsidize social housing? With 1.6 million tickets going on sale, how much money could be raised to find 2,600 people a decent place to live? Why not consolidate the patchwork of social service agencies in the Downtown Eastside (and across Metro Vancouver) into a single, effective resource and advocate for the homeless? Why not tell developers who don't want to include social housing in their projects, that they must pay a social housing 'offset' to be paid so that housing could be built at another location?

The answer, again, comes down to leadership, and we have leadership addicted not only to ideology, but also easy money in the form of campaign contributions from the Real Estate industry. Change those people, and real change can begin.

Snuff out Beijing's Trolls

In reviewing the local national media's coverage of China's brutal crackdown in Tibet and the subsequent worldwide protests of the Olympic Torch relay, this page has noticed a chilling trend among the online discussion threads and letters to the editor stemming from the coverage - the high volume of disgusting posts from Chinese people in Canada supporting the actions of the Peoples' Revolutionary Army. This page does not consider these people to be Chinese Canadians. Chinese Canadians are Canadians, and Canadians respect the values inherent in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Some bloggers and commentators maintain there are two sides to every story, so as a public service, here's the Communist side of the story:

"In 1949, our little ragtag group led by Mao Tse Tung took over the country, and we're still in charge. We'll be damned if any other little ragtag group, be it Falun Gong, the Tibetans, or those annoying students in Tianman Square get anywhere near to challenging us, no matter how many of them we have to send to the prisons, the hospitals, and the executioners!!"

What these wannabe Jintaos and the Jiabos don't grasp is that for all their demonizing of the Tibeatan people and the Dalai Lama, it's not like anyone who stands in their way has any actual firepower. Having been through a few similar threads occupied by Chinese trolls, I've noticed that they work from a script more than likely drafted by the Xinhua News Agency. Here's a sample of some their regurgitated talking points:

-The Dalai Lama and his 'Dalai Clique' are terrorists, funded by the CIA.
-Any protest against China and the Beijing Olympics is 'violent'.
-Tibet is 'historically' part of China (for those of you scoring at home, this would be in the same way that parts of France 'historically' belong to England).
-China 'liberated' Tibet in 1952.
-The Dalai Lama wants Tibet to secede from China (for those of you scoring at home, the Dalai Lama has insisted that Tibet should function as the 'autonomous region' promised by China).
-China should be allowed to brutalize Tibetans because the U.S. brutalized Iraqis.
-China should be allowed to brutalized Tibetans because Canada brutalized First Nations people.
-China should be excused from its excessive brutality because of its unique cultural and slow adaptation to change. At the same time, Beijing should host the Olympics because China feels its ready to take its place among the 'advanced' nations of the world.

Anyone else sick of Communist Party hacks who refuse to tell the difference between democratic freedom and dictatorship capitalism? People may hate the opinions expressed by this page, but there's a huge difference here: I'm not pulled by anyone's strings, I'm not on anyone's payroll, and you can count my contributors on one hand. Freedom of expression is one thing, but just like we didn't hear Japanese Canadians whooping it up after Pearl Harbour, Chinese Canadians aren't celebrating the Communist beatdown in Lhasa. Anything else, as far as this page is concerned, is coming from the propaganda wing of the People's Republic, and if it continues to show up in Canadian media outlets, the RCMP and CSIS should investigate.

'Get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!!!'

'Mainstream America is depending on you—counting on you—to draw your sword and fight for them. These people have precious little time or resources to battle misguided Cinderella attitudes, the fringe propaganda of the homosexual coalition, the feminists who preach that it's a divine duty for women to hate men, blacks who raise a militant fist with one hand while they seek preference with the other, and all the New Age apologists for juvenile crime, who see roving gangs as a means of youthful expression.'

-Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston, the one-time actor and mascot for the National Rifle Association, is dead at the age of 84. Heston's last role of any consequence was in Michael Moore's Oscar winning documentary Bowling for Columbine, when just a few days after the tragic shootings at the suburban Denver High School, Moses the Monkey Slayer himself came to town to let the NRA faithful know that gun control advocates could take away his piece when they 'pry it from my cold, dead hands'.

YOINK!!

Boot for the Home Team

After yesterday's 2-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, the local hockey concern, the Vancouver Canucks, were disqualified from the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs. For those of you who who regard this turn of events as tragic, this page invites you to consider that things could be worse.

This page realizes that missing the playoffs means that the Canucks are now 0 for 38 seasons in securing an National Hockey League Championship, but here's something else Canucks fans have never experienced: the threat of their favourite team moving or an owner brave/foolish enough to follow through with that threat. This is something that fans of each of the Canucks' Northwest Division rivals know something about: Minnesota lost the North Stars to Dallas before the expansion Wild arrived in St. Paul. The Quebec Nordiques bolted to Denver in 1995 to win the Stanley Cup as the Colorado Avalanche the following year. The owners of both the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers both threatened their respective City Halls with relocation, and successfully siphoned Federal infrastructure grants that were intended for municipal projects not involving millionaires on skates.

Canucks fans could also look about 200 miles south to Seattle, where both MLB's Seattle Mariners and the NFL's Seahawks threatened to disembark for Tampa Bay and Los Angeles respectively unless new sporting palaces were plastered with public money, while public schools, transit, and other critical infrastructure went wanting . Seattle's other major pro team, the NBA's Supersonics, are packing their bags for Oklahoma City after new owner Clay Bennett was unsuccessful in holding the Washington State Legislature for a $500 million ransom in order to build a new arena in suburban of Renton. Bennett's group bought the Sonics from Starbucks' executive Howard Schultz and claimed they didn't want to move the team to his hometown (Oklahoma City), but for some reason they can live with only $120 million in OKC tax dollars to simply renovate the Ford Center. The final Sonics home games at the allegedly inadequate Key Arena have been marked by protests and an abundance of security guards. Sorry Canucks fans, Sonics fans have you sorely beaten when it comes to season-ending bitterness.

If there are any Canucks fans who left GM Place last night wondering 'what might have been', this page hopes that they took a good, hard look at the dishevelled, desperate street people begging by the arena exits, just like every other major league stadium and arena in North America, and felt a sense of relief it wasn't them. Perhaps they could take that sense of relief, add it to the money they would have otherwise spent on playoff tickets, and put it towards doing something constructive for those who need it more than the Acquilini family or Molson Breweries.

The Separation of Church & Strata

For a city whose leaders are obsessed with cultivating a 'world-class' image, Vancouver has some odd ways of showing it. The latest unenlightened stumble comes from the Vancouver Parks Board and their decision to dismantle Dennis Oppenheim's renowned sculpture Device to Root Out Evil from it current Coal Harbour location. For those of you scoring at home, this page loves public art: it gives cities a real sense of place and also provides a familiar comfort if the piece doesn't take itself too seriously, like Oldenburg and Van Bruggen's Spoonbridge & Cherry at the Walker Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis. The upside-down church of Device to Root Out Evil reminded this page of the opening of the Wizard of Oz when Kansas is uprooted by a tornado, just like how the world view of many Vancouverites who emigrated from the Prairies (like this page) was uprooted by the diversity and intensity of our new surroundings.

Oppenheim's piece, commissioned in 2006 for the Vancouver Sculpture Biennale, more than serves its function as public art: it's interesting to look at and gets people talking, so why should the Parks Board remove it? Does this upside-down church really offend the religious sensitivities of people, or does it just make Coal Harbour condominium owners and their NIMBY Strata Councils, obsessed with the resale value of their properties, a little nervous? For that matter, why is it the Parks Board making this decision? What do people charged with maintaining bike paths and swimming pools know about art? Do we let the Athletic Commission pick the season for the Vancouver Opera?

If the Parks Board wants to address a quality of life issue surrounding a church, perhaps they should look on Great Northern Way between Main Street and Clark Drive, where St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church is building a massive expansion of their cathedral/private school. The complex takes up an entire block, and blocks out the North Shore Mountains view formerly enjoyed by residents on the south side of East 5th Avenue, who in fact, may not be Catholic and perhaps object to an overt display of religion dominating their view. By comparison, Oppenheim's piece is about the size of a bus and Stanley Park is still visible to the Starbucks Landed Gentry from their overpriced windows.

When somebody says that we should 'clean up this town', I don't think it means that we clean the city out of any sense of creativity or personality.

Je ne me souviens rien

Previously on ursa minor: bear604:

"...just like the Constitution, another item the Tories thought they could screw with behind closed doors. How did that work out?"

It appears that, given their plan to sucker Quebec voters by re-opening the Constitution, the Conservatives don't remember how that worked out. Obviously, Stephen Harper's declaration of Quebec as a 'Nation' didn't give the Conservatives the electoral traction they were looking for as most decided voters are still siding with the Bloc Quebecois, and the Holy Grail of a Tory majority remains denied. Harper remains convinced that Quebec holds the keys to the kingdom, even if that means still alienated westerners foregoing the polls and marginal Tory seats in BC and Saskatchewan slip into the hands of the NDP.

As I reside on the other side of the country, my knowledge of Quebec politics is admittedly sketchy. However, I think that the Tories, in courting the federalist vote in Quebec, don't really understand what the federalist vote is: One person's Asymmetrical Federalist is another person's Soft Nationalist. Wouldn't the real Quebec Federalists be the ones who are happy with the way things are? Given the choice, are those people going to consciously vote to relive the anxious, unstable, flag burning days of the early 1990s? Wouldn't they be more inclined to run for cover to the Liberals, led by the author of the Clarity Act, Stephane Dion?

This page says to the Conservative Party of Canada: hey, it's your funeral. Didn't Lucien Bouchard sire the Bloc Quebecois after the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord? Isn't your base made up of former Reform Party/Canadian Alliance types who cut their vicious right-wing fangs on the Charlottetown Accord? Didn't Reform and the Bloc wipe the floor with you guys in the 1993 election? Did Kim Campbell ever sell that car?

Another Conservative government aspires to a permanent lock on power by opportunistically rewriting the Constitution to suit Quebec's demands: La plus ca change...

Whose Flag is it Anyway?

If Jason Kenney's hand-picked panel and the Harperites have their way, Remembrance Day will virtually be the only occasion Canada's flag flies at half mast. This page says that the Conservatives, like everything else they get their greedy, grubby little paws on, are trying to use the flag as a political tool in order to reshape Canada in their own image. Rejecting the Opposition motion to fly the flag at half mast for each Canadian soldier killed is a cynical exercise in denial. For as much as the Tories enjoy blustering about Canada's proud military tradition, one would think that would include recognizing that the country is at war more often than every 11th of November. What's the problem with lower OUR flag at half mast when one of OUR troops is killed in action? They gave up their lives on the Kandahar killing fields, while Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon: guess who had the Maple Leaf lowered at their death?

Restricting the flag lowering to Remembrance Day is also an insult to other Canadians who made a valuable contribution to this country. As someone who lost a parent to an industrial accident, this page registers his profound disgust that the Tories would refuse to lower the flag on April 28, the International Day of Mourning for Killed and Injured Workers. Obviously, the military protects this country, but it's the people on the farms, in the factories and mills, in the classrooms, offices and on the roads that built this country, and must also be remembered for their sacrifice. As for the opinion of the so-called heraldry experts, why should their opinion, stuck in the bygone days of the Red Ensign and 'The Maple Leaf Forever', matter more than anyone else? The flag doesn't belong to them, the Royal Canadian Legion, nor a Conservative Party who hold a minority of seats in the House Commons: it belongs to the people, just like the Constitution, another item the Tories thought they could screw with behind closed doors. How did that work out?

The Chong Retains the Shame

B.C. Community Services Ida Chong has shot down Vancouver Councillor Raymond Louie's request for an investigation into the Nantich Policy Society's donations to Sam Sullivan and the 'Non-Partisan' Association (NPA). The Nanitch Society claims to promote the well being of "marginalized or disabled community members", which, based on their recent history, would amount to Sullivan himself: disabled by a skiing accident and marginalized by his callous arrogance. Nanitch donated $5,136 to the NPA in 2004 and were heavily involved in Sullivan's efforts to crush representative democracy in Vancouver by stopping a Ward system from being implemented.

Chong claims that because Louie can't name anyone who specifically donated to Nanitch for the purposes of funnelling the NPA, the province won't proceed with an investigation. This page says back up a minute: isn't that why there should be an investigation? Or at the least proposed campaign finance reforms to the Vancouver Charter, to fix the most corrupt municipal electoral system in Canada?

Of course not, because even if the motives of the Nanitch Society, the NPA, and Sam Sullivan aren't transparent, the motives of Gordon Campbell and the B.C. Liberals are. Raymond Louie is a former Union organizer, sits a little to the left of the Vision Vancouver caucus, and is seeking his party's nomination for Mayor. Picking a fight with him makes things that much easier for the right-leaning Allan De Genova, the Parks Board Commissioner who defected from the NPA. A De Genova nomination virtually assures the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) runs its own candidate for Mayor, splitting the left of centre vote, handing the keys to 12th and Cambie back to the NPA, and the world would be kept safe for Real Estate developers, Bully Capitalists, and Mercenary Fascists who have the run of this 'fair' city. Just the way the Lieberals like it.

Also, the crushing defeat of the NPA in the 2002 civic election by the Coalition of Progressive Electors was instrumental in revitalizing social democrats and socialists in the Lower Mainland and made them feel good about themselves after the Lieberals swept the province a few months earlier. That success echoed in the NDP's comeback from 2 to 33 seats in the 2005 election, making it more than possible than Chong and the Lieberals don't want to see that kind of history repeating itself going into their 2009 campaign.

British Columbia: The Best Place on Earth.....to get away with it.

2010: The Beatdown Goes On

For those of you who are frustrated by China's information lockdown of the situation in Tibet and feel that you're missing out on something important, this page reminds you that you can watch law enforcement officials terrorize a marginalized and defenseless population right here in our own backyard.

All the people of the Downtown Eastside need is a Dalai Lama for the state propaganda machine to vilify and hurl accusations of wrecking the Olympics. In fact, the Dali Lama himself will be in the area in just a couple of weeks, any chance of a side trip to Vancouver to teach VANOC, City Hall, the VPD, and the rest of our Olympic Overlords a little something about compassion?

Take me out of the Ball Game

Last week, as Chinese authorities cut off Tibet from the outside world and brutalized its people, Major League Baseball announced plans for the second World Baseball Classic in the spring of 2009. This page's favourite game is moving in the right direction in distancing itself from the five-ring circus, albeit I wish it was moving consciously. MLB unfortunately felt obligated to bring the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres to Beijing for a couple of spring training games, as baseball, having been voted out of the Summer Games by the Eurocentric International Olympic Committee last year, makes its final Olympic appearance in China this summer.

This page doesn't see Baseball suffering from the lack of Olympic exposure. Soccer does just fine with its own global showcase, The World Cup. The Games of Beijing are poised to be a social and environmental catastrophe, and if there are no boycotts in the offing, at least very few people are going to be aware that baseball is being played at them. From the myopic rhetoric being spouted by Jacques Rogge about the Olympics not being political, it's obvious that the IOC has learned nothing from Berlin 1936, Mexico City 1968, or Moscow in 1980 about how the Olympics are used by brutal totalitarian regimes to legitimize themselves. They also never learned how African nations helped to bring about the collapse of South Africa's Apartheid regime by boycotting the Montreal Olympics in 1976.

Unfortunately, this page doesn't see the IOC learning anything from Beijing either. The Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010 and London's 2012 Summer Games will be used to claim that the Olympic ideals were right all along, and the cycle of hypocrisy will just renew itself. At least one major sport won't be taken for the ride next time around, and this page hopes that Baseball will realize how lucky they are.

China's Five Ring Circus of Death

On July 13, 2001, the world was a very different place. George W. Bush was getting ready to ignore FBI reports about Al-Qaida operatives learning to fly planes. Iraq was still contained by UN sanctions and had only begun concealing the Weapons of Mass Destruction which remain hidden to this day. Stephen Harper was tearing his original hair out watching the Canadian Alliance implode under Stockwell Day. Exposing oneself through 'Self-Generated Content' usually got people arrested. On July 13, 2001, the International Olympic Committee thought the Peoples' Republic of China could be reasoned with and gave Beijing the 2008 Olympics.

Almost seven years later, and with about five months before the Olympic Torch is relayed to the site of the Tianamen Square Massacre, it is glaringly apparent to everyone outside the Olympic 'Family' that the idea the Olympics would change the world's largest totalitarian dictatorship only proves the myopic and elitist delusions of Jacques Rogge and the Sporting Princes of Lusanne. The crackdown in Lhasa , complete with propaganda assaults against the Tibetan People and the Dalai Lama are only the first cracks in China's Great Wall of Olympic Failure. Athletes such as Haile Gebrselassie, the World Record holder in the Marathon, are refusing to choke down Beijing's pollution, and more will decide to stay home. If the air quality isn't bad enough, visiting athletes, spectators, and media will be subject to constant surveillance by the police and the military.

That is, if they are lucky enough to actually get into the country. Around the same time China was awarded these games, a friend of this page, who was born and raised near Shanghai, was barred from entering China and visiting the village where she was born and raised because she had committed the 'atrocity' of having previously visited Taiwan. I don't think she'll be missing much this summer in China, because as I recall, she's not a big fan of martial law, food riots, water shortages, or any of the other 'games' that Beijing will be hosting in August.

*For those of you scoring at home, had the IOC not awarded the Summer Games to Beijing that day, Vancouver would not have been forced to put up with the folly of the 2010 Winter Games because they would have gone somewhere else. The runner-up for the 2008 Summer Games was Toronto, which would have effectively eliminated Vancouver from bidding for the Winter games two years later.

BREAKING NEWS: JACK LAYTON DOESN'T GIVE A RAT'S ASS ABOUT VANCOUVER-QUADRA, FINDS OFFENSE WITH ODOUR OF CONSTITUENTS, AND WOULD NOT BLINK IF SAID RIDING WAS REDUCED TO A SMOLDERING CINDER

At least that how Charlie Smith at the Georgia Straight tells it in a note he sent to this page yesterday:

From: Charlie Smith (c_smith@straight.com)
To: bear604@hotmail.com (bear604@hotmail.com)

Why don't you put your name on your posting? As for stabbing the NDP in the back, check out who we recommended in the federal campaigns of 2004 and 2006. Coad is a good candidate, but the NDP threw in the towel in this race, and that's why we didn't recommend her. It's not about the cover and highlighting young politicians. It's that the NDP didn't want the cover because it didn't want attention on this race. That's pretty sad if you ask me.

That's why Layton went to Washington on Monday. Coad would have benefited from being on the cover because it would have boosted her name recognition for when she ran in a race that she could win. If the NDP wanted to win this race, it would have had Libby Davies, Bill Siksay, and Peter Julian on the bridges with signs on election day and on the previous weekend...and their crack organizers would have been breaking news stories every three or four days the way they do in other campaigns that they want to win.

One NDP candidate told me in a joking way that he would put a bullet in someone's head if he could get on the cover of our paper in the week leading up to the election. It's a no-brainer, and you can peddle this rubbish all you want, but it's crap. We both know this.

The NDP stabbed this young woman in the back, which is a real shame. The other young New Democrats who ran in that part of town all appear to have left the party. If this one leaves, it's probably a bigger loss because she could be a political star who could do a hell of a lot of good in our community.

In two races, we've gone against the grain for very good reasons. In 2005, Vision politicians helped ruin the transit system, wanted to fill this town with cops, and would have sat on their heels as Gordo prepared to shut down a hospital. This time, the NDP didn't try its best. We called them on it both times. Now you're pissed and you say we stabbed the NDP in the back. What a joke.

Charlie Smith

This page has responsed direcly to Mr. Smith, to ask this question: If the NDP had in fact bailed on Coad's campaign, why didn't the Straight run with that instead of claiming the lack of a carbon tax (or what the BC Liberals claim is a carbon tax) and the photo-op no show as rationale for standing up a quality candidate? I'll keep you posted.

The Straight's Vancouver Quandry

Former BC Environment Minister Joyce Murray retained Vancouver Quadra for Stephane Dion and the Liberals by a few votes over Conservative Deborah Meredith. Make it 15 years and counting for the Conservatives failing to an elect an MP in the City of Vancouver. For those of you scoring at home, and as the handbills which keep showing up around the neighbourhood me, David Emerson wasn't elected as a Tory.

NDP candidate Rebecca Coad finished third with 15%, which is a damned good result given that Quadra is where the most old money outside of Shaughnessy and the British Properties lives, Coad isn't exactly a star candidate, and the Georgia Strait stabbed the NDP campaign in the back by endorsing Dan Grice of the Green Party over Coad. The Strait's rationale? "the federal NDP has refused to promote a carbon tax. In this one respect, its climate-change policy is more regressive than that of one MLA for the area, Premier Gordon Campbell." Obviously, the editorial board at the Strait mistakes greenwashed Alberta-style vote buying intellectual fraud for sound environmental policy. Funny, New Democrats didn't have a carbon tax in their platform when the party won endorsements from Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, and former Greens like Stuart Parker and Joan Russow defected. I guess for a magazine growing ever more reliant on full-page condo ads, it follows that they would kneecap a party that believes in social justice AND protecting the environment, as opposed to Elizabeth May's band of Happy-go-Lucky Organic Libertarians.

As for publicizing Coad's refusal to do a cover photo with Grice, and citing it as some of the rationale to deny her an endorsement, this page can only think of one remedy for the Straight's editorial board exercise in petty vindictiveness. She won't do a patronizing 'cute kids of the wacky left' photo op...WAAAAAHHH!!! Suck it up: In case anyone hasn't noticed, real New Democrats aren't interested in photo-ops with Greens as the media continues to lump both parties in the 'left' category, without considering many Greens' outright contempt for organized labour or the social safety net. Also, Coad isn't obligated to regard herself as 'young people in politics' simply because the Straight says so. The Jib-Jab style front page of last week's edition with a caricature of Coad shrugging only adds insult to insult. The next time the Straight bitches about the government trying to unfairly tax them out of existence, remind me not to pay attention.

Smashmouth Commentary

This page is in need of a little dental surgery - regular episodes resume March 18.

Two Years Sunk & Still Surfacing

The Transportation Safety Board's report into the sinking of the Queen of the North is in, and on first glance, like a lot of investigations, it raises as many questions as it answers. Make no mistake, the sinking of the Queen of the North at Hartley Bay in March of 2006 was tragic and it's only natural that some people feel frustrated by the lack of closure in the TSB report. However, unlike the BC Ferries' internal investigation, the sole purpose of which was to defame the BC Ferry and Marine Workers Union for undertaking its legal obligation to protect its dues-paying members, absolve the corporation of any responsibility, and push David Hahn's privatization agenda even further, the purpose of the TSB investigation was to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.

All the finger-pointing and union-bashing in the world is not going to raise the Queen or the two passengers who disappeared in the frigid waters of Hartley Bay. The misanthropic, screaming well-to-do reactionaries are firing at the BCFMWU and BC's Labour Movement in general across the discussion boards and call in shows, as if stripping the collective bargaining rights of everyone in the province will alleviate the prospect of further maritime catastrophe. What they're missing is that, despite the militancy generated out of enlightened self-interest during bargaining periods, most people who work in the public service are (sadly) oblivious to their own unions, and are probably more oblivious if they have, in fact, lit up a joint or two while trying to navigate large ocean-going vessels in the middle of the night as it's been insinuated in some quarters.

The prospect of more truth being revealed in a judicial inquiry remains, but if there's one thing this page has learned during his time in British Columbia, justice is glacial (just ask families of the Air India families, Robert Pickton's victims, or David Basi and Rob Virk) and often freezes out those seeking it. This page would like to think that the outcome would be different and BC Ferries and the employees involved would each take their true proportion of responsibility, but I'm not holding my breath. At least I can stop holding my breath so much while riding BC Ferries, thanks to the TSB report.

Seal of Disapproval

Regular readers of this page are more than aware that I find common cause with any number of activist groups. However, if there is one activist community that I find repeatedly insipid to the edge of intellectual fraud, it's the animal rights movement. The latest campaign from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, now playing on billboards and bus shelters across the Lower Mainland, only reinforces that point for me. Some disclosure here: I eat animals, I wear animals, I was born and raised in Northern Alberta, and I have known a number of people, including First Nations people, who hunt and fish for sustenance and trade. Some of them hail from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador where the seal hunt/harvest takes place. I attended the Calgary Stampede on a number of occasions when I lived in Alberta. I am filing a contribution to the BCSPCA on my tax return this year. While animals exhibit some degree of intelligence, they are by definition, not human. When my cat becomes the first Siamese-Canadian elected to the House of Commons, perhaps I'll change my mind, but not before.

What annoys me about the IFAW campaign is the adolescent moral relativism attached to it: "250, 000 baby seals are about to be slaughtered, and your bus is two minutes late. Get angry for the right reasons." Anyone who's a genuine progressive should be frustrated that the Pamela Andersons and Brigette Bardots of the world can buy a spotlight for a pet cause (pun intended)which is exists in relative isolation, and shove the issues that real matter out of that spotlight. The ads in Vancouver could have easily read "250,000 baby seals are being slaughtered, and you're bitching about the lack of social housing". It's just like how anti-war demonstrations have been bumped off the evening news by a handful of deluded exhibitionists who would 'rather go naked than wear fur'. The fate of a seals harvested on the Atlantic ice floes is simply nowhere near as important as why there may not be Atlantic ice floes in the near future.

The seals are not an endangered species, and in fact have tripled in population since the 1970's. The '250,000' baby seals (some IFAW material says 275,000 or 300,000) refers to the quota established by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, not the actual number of seals killed. Veterinarians have consistently reported that the killing is done in a humane manner. As for those cute little whitecoat baby seals that animal rights crusaders embrace as their mascots of moral purity? It's been illegal to hunt them since 1987. The only noticeable ecological effect of the seal hunt/harvest would be a slight increase in Cod populations, who would inevitably be eaten by other creatures, such as humans.

As for this page, I think I am, in fact, angry for the right reasons, which have nothing to do with Atlantic Canadians and First Nations people earning their livelihood in a sustainable and traditional industry. And I'm not angry with the IFAW, just annoyed..

Legalized Prostitution

In the State of New York, an elected official is found out to be in the company of people with questionable virtue who live off of the business of trading favours for money. While charged with no crimes, said elected official is overwhelmingly expected by the his colleauges, the media, and the community at large to resign.

In the Province of British Columbia, elected officials are also found out to be in the company of people with questionable virtue who live off the business of trading favours for money. However, unlike the State of New York, it's the one trading favours who gets charged with a criminal offence, and nobody really expects anyone to resign.