Quick Wins...The Dean Catches Up.

There'sThatNameAgain
PostElectionToastiesVille


Mr. Palmer of the VSun has a column up about 'Quick Wins' and 'connections' and 'offers' and 'x dollars per month' - type Emails and all that.

And, oh ya, the work of a Special Prosecutor and charges too.

Gosh.

We're sure glad the Dean is keeping up with idiot bloggers with no established credibility and all that (months after the fact, of course).

****

Now.

You can't really blame the bet-hedging Mr. Palmer for raising the expectations on this thing just a wee bit at this late date after he appeared to do his best to bury the real lede oh those many months ago. 

After all, as we the idiots and great unwashed learned some time ago just by paying attention,  Special Prosecutor Butcher previously announced that he would probably finish his investigation in the 'New Year' which led to all sorts of wild-eyed predictions, et cetera, as 2015 dawned.

My take?

The Dean has brand new all important, super-secret insider-accessed information that an announcement on that investigation is coming soon.

Maybe even next week.


_______
Too bad Mr. Palmer and friends decided to let this all this stuff go BEFORE the election, eh?.....And too bad Mr. Palmer couldn't bring himself to write the name of the very fine former public servant who carried out the Clarklandian Quick Wins 'investigation' that allowed he and his to pretty much ignore the matter in the run-up to that election, despite the fact that the actual data gathered during the investigation wasn't actually released, in full, until after the fact....Personally, I won't be surprised if the Keef suddenly fires up his Twittmachine feed once again to tell us that the NDP is off its rocker for even bothering re-raise an issue that goes to the core of the democratic process given that it is something that was already 'decided' by said polling day outcome. 



.

The Return Of Gordon Campbell...The Creme Also Rises.

WouldTheySendALimousine
AnywayVille


Remember that recent story about the phone polling (done by an actual person!) asking folks if they thought Gordon Campbell is trusty-worthy?

Well.

It turns out that it was all about the new federal riding of Vancouver Granville which is, in large part, Shaughnessy (aka 'Cremeville').

It also turns out that it apparently had nothing to do with Senatorville and everything to do with Mr. Campbell's potential run at the seat under the FedCon banner as the Globe's Steven Chase told us late last week. 

But here's the thing that few have been talking about, which is that the already declared candidate for the Conservative nomination in that highest of high-fat ridings is none other than the former Cremeinator herself, Ms. Jennifer Clarke:

...The Conservative Party has yet to hold a nomination contest there and one candidate running to carry the Tory banner is Jennifer Clarke...


Gosh.

Will wonders never cease?



________
Can the Knotty Gordian win in that riding?....Of course he can...After all, this is Cremeville we're talking about....In other words, it's the place where the chosen ones did absolutely fabulously under Premier Gord while everyone else in the province paid.
And don't forget....It was Laila who figured out that something was going down here first.... Just by paying attention.


.

The Dog Days Of Winter...Pitchers And Catchers Report In Less Than A Month!

TheSolsticeIsAMonthInTheRearView
WindowVille


Don't know about you but these days spring training is on my mind.

For all kinds of reasons, including the chance to get a free breakfast from the Colorado Rockies.

Seriously though, one of the things I love about going to spring training, Cactus League division, is heading out to the minor league camps to watch all the old guys/stars from days gone by hanging around the orange groves doing stuff like hitting fungos into the high desert sun and throwing batting practice gopher balls from behind wire mesh screens.

****

Speaking of old guys....

Here's Luke Appling hitting a quasi-legitimate big league home run during a 1982 old timers game at JFK Stadium in Washington off of Warren Spahn.

The kicker here is that Mr. Appling was 75 years young at the time.

________
The irony?....During a big-league career that spanned 21 seasons Appling only hit 45 home runs, total... His best year was eight.
The take home message?...As a young man (i.e. during his playing days) Appling was known as 'Old Aches And Pains' because he was always complaining about this or that minor ailment...Ha!


.

Mr. Harper's Reverse Onioning Of Canada.

SometimesTruthIsStrangerThan
(Satirical)FictionVille


Made a quick trip over to Victoria this weekend to see my Mom and Pops, in part to help them set up their WiFi as well as their tablet-thingy, which was not entirely easy given that neither of the experts in the family, also known as Bigger E. and littler e., was with me.

Anyway....

While downstairs at Mom and Pops I found myself perusing some linear-type geopoliticallishmishmashable material from days gone by and came upon the following 'historical' passage:

"...(T)he nation of Canada will never be as great as the United States so long as it continues to burden its citizens with universal health care, refuses to drill for oil in federally protected wildlife reserves, and neglects its duty to blindly support unilateral invasions of Middle Eastern states..."


So.

Where the heckfire did that come from?

Why none other than a hefty tome published by the fine folks at The Onion titled "Our Dumb World: Atlas Of The Planet Earth".

Published in...

Wait for it...

...2007.

.

Palmer v. Farrell....Five Billion Here And Five Billion There Is Real Money.

Gov'tPressNotes
AreNotRealNumbersVille


Vaughn Palmer wrote a column last week (which is still easy to find on the VSun website, by the way) in which he concluded that a significant portion of the BC Hydro debt is all the NDP's fault.

Based on unimpeachable sources (eg. the statements of Gordon Campbell and current BC Liberal government press-type releases etc.), Mr. Palmer figures that the Dippers from way back when (i.e. starting in 1992) scooped $2.5 billion out of Hydro and dumped it into general revenue. The Dean of the Lotuslandian Legislative Press Gallery then goes on to surmise that that number has since risen kinda/sorta modestly to $5.4 billion under the BC Liberals which has led to a borrowing hole of $3.2 billion.

And Mr. Palmer's point?

Well, as near as I can figure it, it is designed to inform us, with all the established credibility (and top-drawer access of insider boweevel info) that he can muster that 'both sides do it' and that they always will.

Norm Farrell, who is crazy enough to eschew all that boweevil insider info business and actually comb through publicly accessible financial databases in detail has come to the conclusion that the good Mr. Palmer's numbers and conclusions are falsely equivalent in the extreme:

...Since 2001, BC Hydro payments to government total almost $10 billion and it does not take a graduate degree in finance to know, had that money not been paid out, the crown corporation's borrowings would be reduced by the same amount. It is an illogical fiction to pretend that only $3.2 billion had to be borrowed to make payments to government during the past 23 years...


And, for good measure, Mr. Farrell has the following to say about the Tale of Two Clarks chapter in this saga:

... (Mr.) Palmer could also have reported that when Glen Clark became Premier, BC Hydro's long-term debt was $7.496 billion and, when he left the office three years later, it was $7.474 billion. When Christy Clark became Premier, the utility's debt was $11.712 billion. According to the September 2014 financial statements, the debt was $16.588 billion, not the lesser amount from ten months ago noted on the BC Liberal's press notes...


It's really a superlative, fact-backed fisking by Norm and you should go read his entire post.

****

My take?

The real problem we have 'round here is NOT the boweevils who pump out all that insider access.

Instead, it is those that use rely on it to keep on keepin' on (and on and on and on).

OK?



.

The Ultimate Deadlines.

OfFreelancersAndDailies
JournoVille


Rod Mickleburgh, writing for free, writes three great tributes on the passing of Alicia Priest, Sean Rossiter and Doug Sagi.

Here is just one passage, but go read it all:

...Alicia (after learning she had ALS) faced her fate head on. She chose to regard it as a deadline for a writing project she’d had in her mind for years: the story of her family and her flawed, off-beat father, who masterminded the great Yukon silver heist of the early 1960’s. Of course, it was a deadline no writer or reporter would ever want, but it was a deadline nevertheless, one referred to by Alicia as “the ultimate deadline”. As always, she met it with flying colours. Her book, A Rock Fell on the Moon, was published to glowing reviews last fall. Best of all, although unable to speak and nourished through a tube, Alicia was able to return to the Yukon in October for a very special book launch at the Baked Café in Whitehorse...

.

Journos Taking Money From The People They Cover...

...What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

From Sean Craig's Canadaland series on Ms. Amanda Lang's efforts to kill the MoCo's story about RBC's in-sourcing of temporary foreign workers so that they could be trained to take the trainers' (i.e. Canadian) jobs:

...(A)s CBC journalists across the country pulled in information to advance the story, they were summoned to a conference call with Kathy Tomlinson (who was the lead investigatory journalist on the story) and, to their surprise: Amanda Lang.

CANADALAND spoke to three CBC employees who were on the conference call with Tomlinson and Lang.

Lang, they recall, relentlessly pushed to undermine the RBC story. She argued that RBC was in the right, that their outsourcing practices were “business as usual,” and that the story didn’t merit significant coverage. She and a defiant Tomlinson faced off in a tense, extended argument. Two of the CBC employees we spoke to recall a wave of frustrated hang-ups by participants.

“I cannot emphasize enough how wrong it was,” said one CBC employee we spoke to. “That another journalist, not involved in a story, would intervene in the reporting of others and question the integrity of her colleagues like that. I haven’t seen anything like it before or since.”...



Gosh.

Sure glad we don't have any journos 'round here that take money and favours from the fine folks they cover.

Oh.

Wait.

Didn't Norm Farrell, with an assist from the GStraight's Charlie Smith, have something on that not long ago?



________
Alison has more, much more, on the toothless tigger that the MoCo/CBC is fast becoming.
And don't you just wish that bloggers, the folks who have brought all this stuff to light, had just a wee bit more established 'credibility'?...Because that's what matters...Right?



.

Saturday Night's Alright For (Uke Cover) Fighting!

There'sNoUkeLikeCover
UkeVille


First, the original...

Next, the (opera) uke cover!



________
And here is the real original, Mr. Jones, doing the original....Orginally.
Thanks, as always, to LA Photochronicler extraordinare, Ellen Bloom, for the image of the UkePegHead at the top of the post.


.

If Gordon Campbell Flew In Today...

...Would They Send Him A Limousine Anyway?

Laila Yuile has the latest to suggest that it is most definitely, maybe, a possibility.

Apparently, there's a phone poll going down asking folks if they find the good Mr. Campbell 'trustworthy'.

I kid you not.



________
Header giving you a phantom earworm?....This!
It's a tune I've written about before...In an entirely different context.
Update: Norm Farrell has more, much more, on the subject of Mr. Campbell's 'trustyworthiness'.



.

This Day In Clarkland...How Obscure Can A Ferry System Be?

TheThingsTheyWillDoToPretendTheBooksAre
BalancedVille


Stephen Hume an excellent piece on the BCLiberal government practice of 'obscrurantism' (i.e. pretending to be transparent while hiding the real facts from we, the public) that is embodied by the situation at BC Ferries up at the VSun:

...Thanks to government ideology, millions of ferry passengers have been driven off by a policy of raising prices and slashing services while foisting overhead onto small community users to whom ferries are not a discretionary recreational diversion but an essential service for getting to doctors’ appointments, school, work, minor hockey tournaments and the grocery store.

Does anyone still subscribe to the illusion that this corporate fairy tale serves any other purpose than to obscure the way in which capital debt is shifted from where it belongs, on the province’s books?...



It's a piece well worth reading in its entirety.

But, as an addendum to how we are being played for saps on this one, on all counts, I cannot help but return to the good Premier's recent bizarre utterances pretending that previous massive fare increases have not already significantly affected ridership:

...Fares are “about as high as they can get without really impacting ridership,” said Premier Christy Clark...


I mean, seriously, is it possible that that piece by Ian Gill in The Tyee today wasn't even really satire?



_______
You know,  it would be much easier for those amongst us who are not reality challenged to cut these people some slack if there was any evidence whatsoever that what they do in the name of ideology and regressive anti-people policies actually works...But there is not...And Ms. Clark actually does understand that reality.



.

Public v. Private Schooling in BC....The 'Personalization' Conundrum.

AllTheSubsidiesThat
FitVille


Erin Miller has an in-depth article in BIV up on why so many folks are opting out of the public system and are instead sending their kids to private schools.

There is a lot in there and a lot of it is worth considering including the advances that can be made when a kid's education is 'personalized'.

But then there is this part, especially the bolded part, which Ms. Miller just leaves hanging:

...But this (personalized education) is a heck of a lot easier to achieve with the advantage of specialist teachers, ubiquitous technology and teacher training. Public school districts receive about $7,800 per student for operations (not including capital expenditures) from government. Private schools receive up to half of that amount in government subsidies—in addition to the $10,000 to $20,000 parents pay annually. In short, policymakers will need to invest more in specialist teachers and teacher training if they hope to make personalization a reality in public classrooms...


Why do I say 'hanging'?

Well, if we, the public plucked that low hanging private school subsidy fruit, which many reckon amounts to $250 to $300 million province-wide every single year, just imagine the good we could do on all fronts, including the one labeled 'personalized education'.


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This Day In Clarkland...Hey Rubes!

ThereAreFourMillionSuckers
RebornEveryMinuteVille


Hey Rubes!

We be making jails!

But we ain't gonna tell you how much it's costing you.

Joe Fries, of the Penticton Western News has the story, and the blank FOI documents to back it up.

Here's his lede:

Key information about the new Okanagan jail, including its long-term cost to taxpayers, remains locked away in government files.

A freedom of information request filed by the Western News to obtain copies of the construction timeline, details of contractor performance penalties and the 30-year schedule of payments was denied almost in full.

In its response letter, the Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens’ Services cited provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act that allow it to withhold information it believes could harm the financial interests of the government and its business partners...


About the building of a jail?

Do they really and truly believe that we are all saps?

Luckily for us that don't want to be (saps, I mean) Mr. Fries did a little more digging:

...The B.C. government entered into a public-private partnership with Plenary Justice to design, build, finance and maintain the $193-million jail near Oliver for 30 years.

During construction, the province will make payments totalling $73 million, and Plenary Justice, a consortium of private companies, will fund the balance of the $120-million capital cost with money it raised through a private bond issue.

Over the next three decades, B.C. taxpayers will then pay back to Plenary Justice that $120 million with interest, plus make regular life-cycle and maintenance payments, according to the documents obtained by the Western News. However, the actual payment amounts, spread over 360 months, were redacted...

And, of course, there is this too:

...Boundary-Similkameen (BC Liberal/Clarklandian) MLA Linda Larson, in whose riding the jail is being built, did not respond to a request for comment...

Sheesh-O-Rama.



.

This Day In Clarkland...The Dean Weighs In On The McNeil Report.

AllTheDocumentDumpserFiresThat
FitVille


Well, well, well whaddy'a know.

It looks like the pre-Christmas document dump of the McNeil report by the Clarklandians didn't quite work as planned.

Because it would appear (perhaps because Adrian Dix is still kicking up a bit of a fuss) that it is finally, three weeks after the fact, starting to get a little proMedia play.

Heckfire - even Mr. Palmer of the VSun has written a column about it.

And Mr. Palmer, unlike at least one other media outlet, actually got both parts of the kicker from the report right:

...“This report is not intended to, and does not, answer questions regarding the specific allegations against the employees,” wrote McNeil in a covering message. “Nor does it answer any lingering questions regarding whether any decision made about the employees was legally or factually sound.”...


Mr. Palmer also zoomed in another aspect of report that we, the great unwashed amongst the idiots in the bloggodome already discussed weeks ago (see comments) which is the following:

...One of the more disturbing lapses in due process was disclosed in a footnote to the report: “At no time before the termination decisions were made was (legal) advice with respect to whether there was just cause to dismiss the six ministry employees either sought or provided.”

That passage drew a rebuttal from former deputy minister of health Graham Whitmarsh, who’d signed off on the dismissals back in 2012. “The statement was very surprising to him,” wrote his lawyer in an open letter to government. “Mr. Whitmarsh’s understanding at the time was that legal advice had been sought and was being provided with respect to whether there was just cause for the dismissal of the employees.”

Whitmarsh declined to cooperate in the McNeil review, suspecting that the narrow terms of reference were crafted in part to make him the scapegoat. For her part, McNeil says in the report that she “reviewed records from counsel with the ministry of justice which are confidential and/or privileged in nature.”

So it would appear that if the legal advice cited by Whitmarsh exists in written form, it was not included in the records shared with McNeil. One more loose end in a report that, for all of McNeil’s effort to do her best within the government-imposed limitations, contains far too many them...


Of course there is another possibility about the actual 'existence' of that legal advice, which Mr. Palmer declined to suggest.

All in all, it's a pretty thorough hard-hitting column until (surprise!) the Dean pulls his final punch so that, one can only presume that he can live on to hedge his bets, as required, in the next round:

...Highlighting two more gaps in the record Wednesday, Opposition MLA Adrian Dix called on the Liberals to release details from the redacted-by-government appendices to the report.

The whited-out passages excluded key details of the flawed internal review that led to the firings as well as a chronology of the legal advice provided to government in the affair. Dix also repeated Opposition calls for a full-blown public inquiry with the power to call witnesses, compel testimony, secure all documents, and offer full legal protection to any whistleblowers.

Not likely will either the details or the inquiry be forthcoming. As the record to date suggests, the last thing the Clark government really wants is to get to the bottom of this affair...

Mr. Palmer does realize that lives were ruined here, right?



________
In an interesting sidebar, Merv Adey wonders why, on the Twitmachine, it is that Mr. Palmer's column is so heckfire hard to actually find on the VSun's website...Editor responds that it is all because of 'refreshments'...Or some such thing.


.

Fares Not Paid To Translink...The Irrelevant Show.

It'sAllThePoor's
FaultVille


Stephen Rees, perhaps the most thoughtful (and thorough) transit blogger in Lotusland makes the case that, in the big scheme of things, that all this fuss about dollars lost to poor people getting on the bus for free really means nothing in the grand scheme of things for Translink:

Jordan Bateman of the Canadian Taxpayers is making a big fuss about the number of times CMBC bus drivers push the button which records “fare not paid”. He thinks that the loss of fare revenue is such a big issue that it justifies voting NO in the upcoming referendum. You can’t trust Translink, he says.

I thought it might be helpful to actually work out what the size of the problem might be – something that Travis Lupick has a shot at in the article I linked to above but fails to make clear. The Average Fare on Translink was $1.86 in 2012 (Source: Translink) and the size of the business (according to Lupick’s article) $1.41 billion. 2,762,363 button pushes multiplied by $1.86 is a revenue loss of $5,137,995.10. It looks like a big number but it is 0.36% of the amount needed to cover Translink’s expenses...


Of course, there is another thing to consider here.

Which is the fact that when the screamers and the usual suspects started started making a similar cynical/diversionary fuss about this fare evasion business once before we soon thereafter got that man-of-many-hats-assisted $200 million dollar fare gate monstrosity foisted on us that will never, ever pay for itself.




_______
Mr. Rees' also links to an excellent blogpost from the Exile that makes it very clear that the good Mr. Bateman was once for transit expansion before he was against it....And, just for the record, another blogger once also pointed out that the good Mr. Bateman also laid down a little of the astroturf that helped make it possible for the BC Liberal government to pay for that ice bomb bridge that hardly cost taxpayers anything...Gosh, the crazy mixed-up things you can learn from blogs, eh?


.

This Day In Clarkland....P3 Conflictyness Everywhere?

AllTheReportsThatAreFitTo
IgnoreVille


The British Columbia Finance Ministry has written a report on the P3 process in this province and it would seem that they have found that conflicts abound.

The CCPA's Keith Reynolds has gone through it carefully and this is his take:

The BC Finance Ministry has produced a report much more critical of Partnerships BC and its activities around public private partnerships (P3s) than might have been expected by a province so committed to the practice. It raises issues of conflict of interest, dubious practices and questionable assumptions in the multi- billion dollar program...


One of the more interesting specific bits from the report, from a conflictyness point of view, was the following:

...The report also identifies (although it dismisses) the potential conflict of interest of hiring of the former PBC Chief Executive Officer, Larry Blain, as its Board Chair and then contracting with him to provide other services...


So.

Why has the public heard so little about this report that was released, you guessed it, just before Christmas?

Well, because, according to Mr. Reynolds at least, there has only been one established and credible proMedia story focussed on it so far from the VTC's Les Leyne although, as you might expect Mr. Leyne's view of the report is quite different from that of the CCPA's Mr. Reynolds.

Surprised?


.

This Day In Clarkland...Nobody Can Even Pretend To Make This Stuff Up.

SometimesTruthIs(Much)StrangerThan
FictionVille


Remember that crazy, mixed-up, non-credible top 10 list of bizarre things we thought the Clark government just might, but probably wouldn't, do in the upcoming year?

Well, it would appear that reality trumped that list, all in one day, just yesterday.

First off, Ian Mulgrew of the VSun has the story of the supreme court judge, and not the one who ruled for the teachers, is incensed that the Ms. Clark's Ministry of Children and Family Development did their very best to not do the right thing by a kid in trouble.

And then there was the report from Tamsyn Burgmann of the CPress about how the Clark government's prosecution is implementing one the first of 63 recommendations from Mr. Oppal's missing women inquiry, which is the good news. The bad news is the following, buried way, way under the lede:

...Other associated recommendations have yet to be completed, (Kasari) Govender of (Westcoast LEAF) said, including providing funding for research looking into why vulnerable witnesses are not believed in court and how that can be fixed...


And how about the flippety, floppity, flippettier and floppiest by Clarklandian transportation minister Todd Stone on the Translink tax as reported by the SLeader's Jeff Nagel?

Gosh.

It would appear that the polling and the focus groups and the business coalition must be driving the Clarklandian's crazy, because even Ms. Clark herself, at least according to the minions running her always quick-winning office has kinda/sorta, but not really reversed herself as well according to CTV News:

...Premier Christy Clark previously said it would be up to the TransLink Mayors’ Council to convince voters to accept the hike, and it’s unclear whether she will personally push for the “Yes” side.

She was unavailable for comment on Tuesday, but in a year-end interview with CTV News last month she spoke cautiously about the referendum.

“If people vote yes, we’re going to take that direction and make it work,” Clark said.

The Premier’s office said Tuesday that Clark will be voting “Yes.”...


Don't know about you but I, for one, sure am glad that our fine Premier doesn't need a weathervane to know which way the wind blows.


And then there was the Minister for Everything, Rich Coleman, who had his good friend and colleague Black Press' Tom Fletcher let us know that, while there will be no previously promised legislation, there will be 'regulation' to ensure that none of the crazy quilt patchwork of proposed gas pipes will be turned into dilbit conveyors, ever.

Don't know about you, but I sure do feel good about the permanence of a little red tape slapped on a set of big pipes by big Rich.

And speaking of permanence....

In the other 'big story' of the day, the Dean himself let us know that we shouldn't worry our pretty heads about the distinct possibility that the $344 billion in planned capital projects that the Clarklandians love to trumpet as a measure of their success won't happen. Why? Because the smart boys from the business land have crunched the numbers and told Mr. Palmer that it was always meant to be that way. Talk about a water carrying assist on the continued downgrading of Ms. Clark's Sparkle Ponies that began some time ago.

Is there an election coming in 2017 or something?

Sheesh.


.

What To Do About BC Ferries...A Reader's Brilliant Idea.

AllTheBlogWorldStageIsAComment
ThreadVille


In response to our earlier post on Todd Stone's shock, shock I tell you, about the bad management going down at BC Ferries, reader John's Aghast weighed in with the following re: what to do with the 'system':


"Lease it to Washington State!

For 999 years?

Make sure you retain ownership of the seabed though."

****

Hope your keyboard is still coffee splatter-free.

Because I know, for a fact, that mine is most definitely not.


_________
There was actually a bunch of really great stuff on that particular comment thread....Thanks everyone!
And don't forget to go read.....Norm!


.

What Is A Trillion Times More Corrosive Than Crocodile Tears?

AllTheWretchedAndMisanthropicPsyches
ThatFitVille


Face spite drippings, that's what.

Boris, over at the Galloping Beaver, explains.



.

This Day In Clarkland...Transport Minister's Casablanca Moment.

PlayItAgain(AndAgainAndAgainAndAgain)
SamVille


Apparently, Ms. Clark's Transportation minister, Mr. Todd Stone, is shocked, shocked I tell you, that there is bad management going on at BC Ferries.

Rob Shaw of the VSun has the non-story story. Here's his lede:

B.C.’s transportation minister says he’s frustrated with the slow pace of change within BC Ferries and says the corporation should look at cutting back on managers and free rides for employees before it looks for increased government subsidies and higher fares...


Hmmmmmm.....

And who foisted the quasi-private, management-heavy structure on we, the people, that we, the same people, are paying for in every way imaginable, including yet another 4% fee hike to come this year as well?

Well...

I'm pretty sure that Rich Coleman and/or Sean Leslie or some such luminary will soon tell us that the Dippers made them do it.

And I'm even more pretty surer that the Ledgie Boys will then weigh-in with sage advice about how the Knotty Gordians had to do 'something' because the pre-Hahn subsidy for actual ships and crews 'n things had just gotten too darned large and, besides, people who live on islands shouldn't be getting stuff for free.

Or some such thing.

****

Meanwhile, speaking of further fare increases and the damage they do, here is what Mr. Shaw of the Sun says our fine Premier had to say about that:

...Fares are “about as high as they can get without really impacting ridership,” said Premier Christy Clark...

Uhhhh.

Actually.

We passed that point a long, long time ago.

Which once again demonstrates just how challenging actual reality can actually be for our fine Premier, particularly as it pertains to things that actually matter to the actual citizenry.

Sheesh.



__________
You want actual numbers and graphs and stuff to demonstrate how divorced from reality Ms. Clark is on this issue?....Norm Farrell's got 'em...
And we're pretty sure Chris Montgomery might have something to say about this too...


.

Predicting BCPoli In 2015?.........#1.

NonCrediblePrognostications'RUs

IdiotSnarkolepticBloggerVille

Number 1.

First off, recall prediction #10:

The Premier's office secretly opens 'Aviation Division', with massive leasing budget, early in year....

Now.

What is it really all about Alfie?

Is it to make it possible for the Premier and her exponentially expanding entourage to ring up massive bills without having to submit them to budgetary scrutiny so that they can all fly to, say, Regina at the drop of a hat.

Or is it....

To make sure that perhaps those who made the up-front investment to benefit most from BC Liberal government largesse continues to keep on keepin' on at the public's expense?

Or is it so that Ms. Clark can call in the helicopters when the Legislative press gallery is finally forced by evil circumstance to ask her to explain the following in the wake of developments in the coming Bonney/Robertson trial:

So, finally, with all that preamble...

Why call in the leased helicopters to land on the Ledge lawn when such questions are asked?

Well, that way Ms. Clark can make like the Gipper himself as she says to the Keef, hand to ear while 'dry/ibbling' her way towards the whirring of the blades...

"Sorry...But.....I...Just..Can't...Hear you!"

****

That's it folks all ten for the 2015 to come...Please remember that all prognostications are completely and utterly non-credible because we are, after all, nothing but......Idiot bloggers.

_________

Number 10... Premier's office announces new 'Aviation Division'.

Number 9... Government tables 'Dobell Doctrine' legislation.

Number 8... Finance minister tables 'Cookie Dough' budget.

Number 7... Justice minister stops campaigning for 5 minutes...Chaos ensues.

Number 6... BCLC brings craps tables to seawall...It's 'VegasNotVegans!'

Number 5... TeeVee Ledge guy admonishes citizens with opinions to stay off the darned Twittmachine...Again.

Number 4... PAB-Bots Revolt!

Number 3... TFW quotas for all ministries and crown corporations...It's a 'Deca-Millenial Strategy'!

Number 2... Buy your ticket to win it....It's the 'Megaproject Contest' coming to a media contract near you!

.

Beer v. Dilbit...Is That A Pipeline We Could All Get Behind?

There'sNoSudsLikeFlowing
SudsVille


It would appear that the time has come to pay attention to....

Those diabolical Belgians:

In the years since the De Halve Maan brewery opened a bottling facility outside Bruges (Belgium) in 2010, the company’s faced a tricky logistics problem. It still brews beer at its original site downtown, just as it has for nearly five centuries. To get all that delicious beer to the new factory for filtration, bottling, and shipping, it uses trucks...

{snip}

...No more. The city council has approved the brewery’s unusual but clever plan to save time and money while reducing emissions and congestion. It will build a pipeline to ferry the good stuff across town, underground. Yes, you read that right: A beer pipeline.

Instead of making the 3-mile drive in one of dozens of tankers that traverse town each day, the award-winning beer will flow through a 1.8-mile polyethylene pipeline, making the trip in 15 to 20 minutes. The pipeline will move 6,000 liters of beer every hour...


I mean, can you imagine what would happen if a homegrown beer pipeline of our very own were to spring a leak?

Somehow I don't think there would be much spillage to even begin cleaning up.


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Tip O' The Toque to E-car guy John Stonier on the Twittmachine.



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Predicting BC Poli in 2015?....#2.

NonCrediblePrognostications'RUs

IdiotSnarkolepticBloggerVille

Number 2.

To mollify revolting PAB-Bots (see prediction #4), the Premier announces a new 'Megaproject Lottery Contest' program in which members of the 'public' (i.e. does not exclude those average joes with lucrative media monitoring contracts) can propose new ways to waste millions and, maybe even, billions. 

Preference will be given to those proposals that include corporate money-shovel funnels/subsidies and quick winning slammer-jammers.

At the unveiling Ms. Clark states emphatically that there is no truth to the rumour that this will be a Dobell-Rogers production.

The next day the Glimmer twins move in to 740-999 Canada Place.

Hats fly!

_________

Number 10... Premier's office announces new 'Aviation Division'.

Number 9... Government tables 'Dobell Doctrine' legislation.

Number 8... Finance minister tables 'Cookie Dough' budget.

Number 7... Justice minister stops campaigning for 5 minutes...Chaos ensues.

Number 6... BCLC brings craps tables to seawall...It's 'VegasNotVegans!'

Number 5... TeeVee Ledge guy admonishes citizens with opinions to stay off the darned Twittmachine...Again.

Number 4... PAB-Bots Revolt!

Number 3... TFW quotas for all ministries and crown corporations...It's a 'Deca-Millenial Strategy'!

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Predicting BCPoli In 2015?.... #3.

NonCrediblePrognostications'RUs

IdiotSnarkolepticBloggerVille

Number 3.

Premier unveils new multi-generational, decanal-millenial strategy for staying strong, living free and snowbirding with velvet-cloaked fists of iron.

Or some such thing.

****

What could it possibly be, you ask?

Why, it's TFW hiring quotas for all government ministries, crown corporations and public money-sponsored/bought-and-paid-for initiatives (and that includes all Vegas-backed P3-gaming initiatives!).

When she is asked about the actual level of the actual quota the Premier will reportedly reply:

"Don't worry, it's only 20%. And if, say, BC Ferries is having trouble meeting the annual quota they can always fill all their summer positions with fine folks from Madagascar and Mazatlan. As for all those local kids looking for summer jobs to pay (a small chunk of) their (ballooning) university tuition? Well, there's a whole world of unpaid intern positions out there. Alternatively, they might want to travel to India or spend a season or three at the Sorbonne. After all, academic tourism worked out just fine for me!"

_________

Number 10... Premier's office announces new 'Aviation Division'.

Number 9... Government tables 'Dobell Doctrine' legislation.

Number 8... Finance minister tables 'Cookie Dough' budget.

Number 7... Justice minister stops campaigning for 5 minutes...Chaos ensues.

Number 6... BCLC brings craps tables to seawall...It's 'VegasNotVegans!'

Number 5... TeeVee Ledge guy admonishes citizens with opinions to stay off the darned Twittmachine...Again.

Number 4... PAB-Bots Revolt!

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