It's just a part Mr. Rustad's Dreamy Team, above.
Which has me wondering...
Can dogs whistle parental rights and sports into one unified (non-existent) portfolio's merry base-filled tune to rule them all?
The culture war loving base, I mean.
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Tuesday Morning Links
1 hour ago
16 comments:
Well, Eby's team is no great hell either and the NDP are sure porkin up at the trough.
My fav is Farnsworth's punishment (he is blamed for his mishandling of the RCMP debacle in Surrey, which cost the NDP dearly) as Minister of Transportation as there is a lot of bad news coming on that front.
The total cost of the Expo and Millennium Line's upgrades are now passing $16 billion and that is just for 21.7 km of new route; the Hwy 1 expansion is now passing $12 billion; there will be nos subway to UBC; there will be no SkyTrain to the North Shore and to top it off, Alstom has strongly indicated that they will abandon production of the obsolete Innovia 300 light metro cars (local name is MK.5 cars) as they are problematic and Alstom will only do what they are contractually obliged to do so and no more.
In short they are not investing one penny into the system and as no one else produces compatible cars, new stock will just cost more in the future.
From my count TransLink is short of $4 to $5 billion to complete the E&M expansion project.
Then there is the E&N on the Island as the NDP are stalling and blaming the first nations; and it goes on from there.
It could be Eby may wish he lost the election and let Rustad take the blame, but as it stands now, the NDP are in a 4 year cycle of bad news and other fiascos, like Vancouver's Park's Board debate and that water treatment plant in the North Shore. Oh yes and there is Fifa......................
Re, Then there is the E&N on the Island as the NDP are stalling and blaming the first nation...
We dont and wont have enough freight traffic to make an island rail line work without a massive subsidy!
As for a ministry of parental rights and sports that goes hand in hand with a ministry of silly walks.
TB
Thanks EE--
Always value your knowledge and insight on all things transit and transportation.
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TB--
Re: The Ministry of Silly Walks...I wish it were so and so easily dismissible.
However, in my opinion, this is coded language that the base recognizes as a ministry of anti-wokeness and cruelty.
Starting, of course, with aiming such cruelty at LGBTQ people and, especially, kids.
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I guess Rob Shaw missed that one in his list of highlights.
Given the rwnjs focus on sogi related matters etc. brings up the questions: which parents rights? are some parents more equal than others,?
Culture war stuff sells with the low information voters (formerly known as ignorant), and the only way to fix for that is education (some would say social engineering), so there's no easy fix. The only thing to do is to show them how they are being scammed by the emotional appeal of these so-called hot button issues. In the end, the energy companies backers of these parties will do what they've always done. Drill Baby Drill!
The problem with the E&N is that the government is using 50 year old stats for their arguments against restoring the E&N. The problem is it is now 2024, in the age of Global Warming and climate change and the modern railway.
From mt investigation, the cost to restore the E&N is now a bit north of $3 billion and that is for a complete rebuild and resignalling and providing the capacity for a maximum of 3 trains per hour per direction.
Basically, we are talking 6 lanes of traffic.
$3 billion is a lot of coin, for sure, but is shy of 30% of the cost of $16 billion+, 21.7 km extension of the Expo and Millennium Lines.
The real reason the NDP are fudging on the E&N is that it will attract far more new ridership to transit, than the $16 billion E&M Lines extensions.
In fact, new ridership projections on the E&M Lines are poor and will be less than the percentage of population increase.
A further note: Part of the $3 billion cost mentioned above includes the $800 million or so removing and replacing of the creosote ties, which must be done even if the railway is abandoned.
This means the real cost is actually $2.2 billion or $8 billion less than the 50 km or so of the #1 highway rebuild.
E&N is that the government is using 50 year old stats for their arguments against restoring the E&N.!!
Perhaps so and maybe not.
The railway was built on industrial scale use to move forest products of which little still exists as what was left of the traffic is now done by road.
Sure it would be nice to have a Royal Hudson wannabee running up and down the Island during summer months but not on my dime thankyou.
I still remember the bud cars going from Nanaimo to Victoria with but a handful of passengers , sorry not economical even now.
Nanaimo has spent thousands building bike lanes which I have seldom seen a bike on on!
You/we can pay to lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink!
As for the rest; most people have little time( except conservatives) to dwell upon LGBTQ issues whilst the homeless roam the streets and others strive to put food on the table.
Painting a rainbow across the street is not a priority to them !
When the Titanic is sinking you has to get your priorities in order.
TB
Er, Anonymous, not quite true.
There is no such thing as a "railway built for an industrial scale" (this is a common man of straw argument), rather the railway was built for both freight and passenger services and roadbed was built as such. The E&N is no logging railway and has a history of being able to operate rather fast passenger services.
Even the Budd cars could operate at 70 + mph on portions of the line prior to the 1990's when track maintenance declined.
If you do not want to pay "your dime" for the E&N, they you are paying one hell of a lot of dimes for the Expo and Millennium Line extensions and highway upgrades now costing upwards of $26 billion!
In fact it would be cheaper to upgrade the E&N than build a new highway on the Malahat!
By the way, operating steam trains are a massive tourist draw, far more than trackless bridges and "rails for trails".
Your economic comment does not hold water, we are talking about a critical upgrade of infrastructure and the railway is the only known method of reducing auto traffic.
Even the Budd cars could operate at 70 + mph on portions of the line prior to the 1990's
Yes with a dozen passengers or so!
Rail makes sense in highly populated areas such as the lower mainland, not so much on VI.
A successful railroad on VI would require thousands of daily travellers between Comox and Victoria, not going to happen.( wish it could)
We cannot even make a successful bus service.
TB
when I first moved to the Island the train was still running, then it stopped. Really wish it was running these days, it would be so much easier to take the train from Nanaimo to Victoria.
The population is greater now than when they stopped the train and the population will continue to increase.
When you build infrastructure, if you're building it for now you are too late. It was usually needed at least 10 yrs ago. You build for the future so the province can grow.
The Inland Highway is going to be like the freeway through the Valley in not too distant future. Building things now will be less expensive. The highway through the Fraser Valley is bumper now. Had the widening of the highway had been done 10 years ago, life would be so much easier.
Just the number of freight trucks going up the Inland Highway is going to increase as the northern end of the islands population grows. My home over looks the Inland Highway and yes, there certainly is traffic and the freight is increasing. Everything once it lands on the Island has to be transported by highway. In the long run, a train would be more economical and more enviornmental.
parents' rights???? Parents already have rights, is the kids who are lacking in rights. The real issue is children frequently don't have human rights. now adults, they have human rights so why the need for parental rights. Its not like any one is violating those too often. Children's rights though, they really do need to be dealt with in a better manner.
Children don't vote, they don't contribute to political parties, so really many just don't care about them. Many children aren't feed adequately but we have billions for whatever else others want. Their parents frequently don't make enough money to adequately provide for them and if the parental unit is on a disability pension or welfare, well its even grimmer. Until all those idiots start ensuring children are adequately provided for, they ought to stop trying to control their bodies. Like what is it with those idiots and their pre occupation with the bodies of children who aren't theirs. Its just so dam weird. Those idiots don't seem to care that there aren't enough beds in hospitals for kids or enough services for kids with disabilities or teachers but they sure seem to care a tad too much about a kids genitals. and then they wonder why we have so many addicts in this province. Well have a good look at how they were raised. Certainly things started to go down hill when Bennett started his restraint program and eliminated all the special teams for kids. Haven't been able to figure it out since I was a kid and at 75 still can't figure it out. I always knew we did not lack for anything and had annual vacations. There were other children at school and you could tell they were poor, like really poor.
as time has passed by Canada has more millionaires and billionaires and they have more money now than they used to. There really needs to be a shift in priorities. If there isn't enough money to provide adequate services for children, then raise taxes, the billionaires and millionaires can surely afford it. O.K. enough of my rant and being off topic.
Budd cars could carry more than a dozen passengers depending on the model. Easy to look up.They were used on BC rail as well.
More misinformation. The VIA service ran one train up and one train down a day and was popular with tourists. I am talking 2 to 3 trains an hour from Victoria to Courtney, connecting the towns from Victoria to Courtney.
Two completely different services.
If one is serious about Global Warming and Climate change, rail is the the only alternative to the car, simple.
Exactly. Sadly the present government is anti rail and i could never figure our why. But the major investment in highways, $10 billion just for the #1 and a massive project along the #99 in East Delta tells me the NDP are in the Road Builders Association's pocket.
It has been ever thus.
NDP are in the Road Builders Association's pocket.....!
Whilst I would like to see documented proof of that , the NDP certainly bent backwards when they had the Vancouver Island Highway constructed!
FWIW..
https://www.islandrail.ca/rail/history-of-the-en-railway/#:~:text=The%20Vancouver%20Island%20Railway%2C%20first,Royal%20Navy%20Base%20as%20Esquimalt.
The demise of BC's rail network began with the sale of BC Rail.
O'h how I miss BC Mary!
TB
I miss her too TB.
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