Saturday, July 06, 2013

Is There A Way To Out 'Clark' Ms. Clark?

WhenInDoubtMakeEvenMore
StuffUpVille


From the round-up of the recent all-candidate's debate in the riding no longer owned by Ben Stewart (either now or, apparently, in 2017) by Castanet.net 'Staff':

...Clark may have gotten got the biggest and most positive response (form the audience) for her willingness to tackle the issue of a second bridge over Okanagan Lake saying “I believe it’s time for us to start planning a second crossing,

“Let’s get to work on it now,” said the premier. “If we can do it in the lower mainland, we can do it here.”...


Hmmmmm....

First off, there is the minor matter that Ms. Clark is not promising the arrival of a bridge (with the sparkle ponies and unicorns) sometime around the time 'StarTrek99 The Never-Ending Generation' comes out.

Instead, Ms. Clark is currently promising Lower Mainlander's a tunnel.

We think.

So nevermind any and all comparisons with that multi-billion dollar Icebomb Bridge that The Birdman built while he simultaneously put the squeeze on the budgets of Ministries that actually do actual stuff for actual British Columbians.

Because here's the real thing from the Westside-Kelowna debate....

Dipper Carole Gordon responded to Ms. Clark's balderdash in a careful, thoughtful manner that was based on reality and a true understanding of the local situation (i.e. she came off as someone who actually knows what the heckfire she is talking about). Not that something so trivial as that actually matters these days:

...(Ms. Clark's) adversary, (Carole) Gordon, was less convinced the second bridge idea is a good one, instead chastising designers of the current bridge for not building enough lanes in the first place, and wondered about taking on such an expense.

“The question is, how are we going to pay for it,” said Gordon.

Gordon was more specific and passionate about another transportation topic, namely Westside Road which has been voted the worst, and possibly most dangerous, in the province on more than one occasion.

“Westside Road needs to be brought up to provincial standard,” said Gordon.

Also on the subject of transportation was the West Kelowna couplet which dissects the downtown area by having separate highways for traffic going north and traffic driving south, thereby dividing the downtown region into three areas...



So...

How should Ms. Gordon have responded in this, the current 'she said/she said', media landscape if she wants to really win at all/any cost?

Well...

For starters, she should have said she has already offered the proprietors of the Dairy Queen on the outskirts of Westside a cool 5 million so that she can tear the old, tired ice cream emporium down.

Then, she would get to work building a second, even more expensive (let's say a cool billion), super suped-up version of BC Place (with free ice cream and vodka spritzer fountains for all 24/7 - and double that in the summer months).

Because with a plan like that everybody wins.

Especially if you sell-off, say, Vernon, in its entirety to pay for it.

OK?

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And besides, if we don't squander all our treasure and resources doing crazy, crony pocket-lining stuff like this how the heck will finest of the fine folks like the Goodship Watercarrier be able to constantly brush  actual British Columbians aside who want their government and its Ministries to actually do stuff for actual people with a rejoinder that pretty much always goes something like this..."But how we will pay for that school/hospital/apprentice program/housing for the adult disabled/wheelchair program for the elderly without raising taxes?!"...

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9 comments:

Grant G said...

The P3 bridge over the lake is new, completed a mere 5 years ago.

And perhaps Christy Clark should be reminded of the Provincial infrastructure/tolling procedure..

A second crossing would have to be tolled, only when there are no options between point A and point B are tolls waved.

One bridge tolled, one bridge free, unless...

Unless the new old bridge is torn down and a giant new bridge is built, thus forcing all to pay tolls, shadow or not..

On another note Ross..

In the BC Government capital spending plan, going out to 2019...

Guess what, that sparkly new Penticton hospital(remember the one Christy Clark said there was $hundreds of millions of "notional money" in the budget for) ..That Penticton hospital is nowhere to be found in the BC Liberal Government capital spending plan..

But there is, apparently "notional money" for a new Kelowna hospital..


Oh, one last thing, right after question period on Thursday past(July 4th)...John Horgan made a introduction, he welcomed to the house....

Drum roll please...From Hansard.


"J. Horgan: Joining us in the precincts are Christina Bates, former candidate in Victoria–Swan Lake, now ministerial assistant to the minister across the way; Hector Bremner, former candidate in New Westminster, now executive assistant to the Minister of Trade; Nick Facey, former candidate in North Island, now ministerial assistant to the Minister of Health; Steve Housser, former candidate in Cowichan Valley, now working in the nefarious GPCBDDD; and also former candidate from Vancouver-Kensington Gabby Kalaw, who's joining other former candidates Rishi Sharma, Karen Bill and Scott Harrison.

Would the House please make them all very welcome to the B.C. Liberals jobs plan.

Interjections.

Madame Speaker: Members"

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Cheers

RossK said...

Thanks Grant--

There you go, talking reality again...

On your second point... Initially I was going to say something about that town and that hospital but thought I would suggest the selling off of the lands including and surrounding Mr. Foster's constituency office instead.

Don't know what came over me.

Must have gotten the vapours waiting for Mr. Doyle's report on the big bribe to come out (which I assume Ms. Clark and her minions have already read and sent private Emails to each other discussing its findings).

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North Van's Grumps said...

Kelowna (Metro) population: 179,839

Vancouver (Metro) population: 2,313,328

The population of Vancouver is ALMOST 13 times larger than Kelowna.

Doesn't mean that everyone in Vancouver uses the Port Mann, however, Kelowna is a different kind of animal... the Lake runs through it... no way around it.

It will take ten times longer to pay off their Bridge.

As Grant G. has written, take one five lane bridge down (which still needs to be paid for) and build a Ten lane bridge and call it "Bill and Bill.." you were expecting Bill and Brad Bennett, Cradle of Free Enterprisers Free Bridges?

Anonymous said...

"Gordon, was less convinced the second bridge idea is a good one, instead chastising designers of the current bridge for not building enough lanes in the first place"

Falcon personally nixed the idea of one more lane saying it would push the $500,000,000.oo bridge over budget.

The reality is the engineering to add the lane is trivial and the P3 construction company had found (and eventually pocketed) millions by changing the southern approach.

The 6th lane should be there now (with the project completed on time and 'budget') - except for yet another lack of BC Liberal leadership.

RossK said...

Thanks a million Anon-Above for the most helpful, reality-based additional info.

Amazing how the legacy of The Birdman pops up all over the place.

So the real take home is that, once again the province's most prominent provincial Liberal suggests a fix for a problem her own government created, wantonly, and nobody in the know/proMedia calls her on it.

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Chris said...

Unless I missed something, the preem is promising the Lower Mainland a bridge AND a tunnel.
A replacement for the Massey tunnel.
And a replacement for the Patullo bridge.

RossK said...

Chris--

Fair enough.

But not a 'new' crossing.

.

Chris said...

Oh. Good point, my mistake.

RossK said...

Chris--

Not at all.

I'd forgotten about the Patullo...So this was a lucky out/save on my part.

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