Saturday, September 06, 2014

#BCED...The Fly In The Dean's Anti-Arbitration Ointment.

AllTheConsensusDeflectorSpikeSpin
ThatFits


Well, well, well...

It sure was amazing how fast the anti-binding arbitration blitzkrieg came flying out of the proMedia clubhouse yesterday wasn't it?

Vaughn Palmer even had a full column up on the VSun website sometime 'round dinnertime.

Essentially the argument goes like this...

The BC Liberals can't possibly agree to binding arbitration with the BCTF because, if they did, they would have to give away the family jewels and raise taxes.

And why would the fine folks (still) pulling the strings behind the BCLiberal curtain feel that way?

Well, because it happened in 2002 when Allan McEachern handed the province's doctors a contract that, according to Mr. Palmer and the rest of the Club membership, forced those bastions of good sense, propriety and future truth-telling, Mess'rs Gary Collins and Colin Hansen, to raise sales taxes and MSP premiums to pay for it.

But, here's the thing that Mr. Palmer cites and then skips right over as he continues on down the road:

...“Raising taxes is pretty much the last thing that this government ever wanted to do or ever intended to do,” said Collins, with a nod to the 25-per-cent reduction in income taxes announced by the Liberals on their first day in office...


Gosh.

An ideologically-driven twenty-five percent cut in income taxes right out of the gate?

Hmmmmm....

Is it possible that such a wreckless slashing of progressive tax revenue might have had something to do with the shift to consumption taxes and user fees that occurred subsequently on the back end?

After all, it's not like that the BC Liberals didn't keep on using that tax shifting/user fee strategy over and over and over and again, in the complete absence of any 'binding arbitration' excuse, in the ensuing 12 years or anything.

Right?


______
Oh, and the Knotty Gordians also raised tobacco taxes which, the Dean notes, still haven't come down...And this is a bad thing, how, exactly?
There is a Club?....You bet there is, and lowly, idiot bloggers with no established credibility are not in it...So, what might the Club members consider doing that could benefit their readers' understanding about whether or not binding arbitration would be helpful (or not) in the current situation with teachers...Well, they could consider going over the details of both sides position with a fine tooth comb and offering up an informed, rational opinion based on the situation today (as in right now) rather than something that happened 12 years ago.


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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

RossK Will you please STOP saying " 'idiot bloggers' with no established credibility"

We're starting to believe you.

RossK said...

Maybe.

Maybe not.

.

Bill said...

The good bloggers, the bad MSM, the ugly gov. The credible, incredible and incredulous.

The "Dean" is still paddling the Liberal Liferboat. Pretty sure he will be invited to the next Beer and Steer corporate/con LIBERAL BBQ. All has been forgiven.

Mr Palmer should really make his retirement official, only the liberal back room will miss his one sided deflections.

Baldrey and Palmer, honourary Liberal feather dusters - at great cost to honest government and the future of BC.

sd said...

The lieberals love to say incorrectly the the finances were a mess when they took office. Not true and how incompetent it would have been if it were the case to slash the income taxes. Lies, lies, and the club.Glad you brought that point up.

Anonymous said...

Nothing wrong with a little corporate media competition.AKA promedia/MSM.

How many crown corps have had money taken out for general revenue?
ICBC
BC Hydro
BC Ferry
MSP

And BC debt is now 63 Billion dollars and growing at least 1 billion a year


Anonymous said...

Ah, clarity...thank you!

Anonymous said...

For the law geeks among you who are patiently procrastinating while awaiting whatever...

Interim arbitration award (phase 1)

You can find links to the 225 page .PDF here
http://www.worldcat.org/title/interim-arbitration-award-phase-1/oclc/503076302

note it says (phase 1) because the Campbell BC Liberals (including our infamous CC) legislatively killed the rest of the project.

I won't say I've read all 225 pages, but I will say the little I've read supports McEachern's reputation.

G West, Victoria said...

It is indeed strange, in retrospect, to hear the carping and braying about Allan McEachern's arbitration reputation knowing that he was from the establishment law firm (as it then was) Russell Dumoulin and that he was also - again for those who remember - the same Chief Justice Allan McEachern who had ruled that aboriginal rights in general existed at the "pleasure of the crown" and could thus be extinguished "whenever the intention of the Crown to do so is clear and plain." That decision, vacated at the SCC in the final conclusion of Dalgamuukw v British Columbia, has become the basis for all the handwringing and concern about the increasing role and relevance of First Nations in BC in the development and exploitation of resources in this province (not to mention the struggle to form treaties where no treaties existed). It seems passing strange that the same man whose Liberal bona fides got him the arbitrator's job should now become the whipping boy for the current BC Liberals in their ongoing feud with public education.

e.a.f. said...

el gordo promised to raise corporate taxes from 10% to 11% to pay for education. What happened there b.c. lieberals?