Thursday, April 13, 2017

This Pro-Pundit In Clarkland...Show Us The (Real) Data!

AreWeNot
IrelandVille


Mr. Mason, he of the Globe and (No Longer Empire) Mail, has written yet another conventionally obvious column in which he concludes that, for the BC Liberals to lose, folks in in the 'mushy ideological middle' will have to turn their backs on...


"...a government that has boasted arguably the strongest economy in the country over the past four years, unquestionably the best record of fiscal management among the provinces and an enviable job-creation record..."



Now.

I would argue that the three conclusions made by Mr. Mason, above, are not fully supported by the available data (as has been repeatedly illustrated by the digging, graph making and writing of Norm Farrell).

Regardless, consider the following...

Does this kind of superficial analysis from the likes of Mr. Mason even matter if most mushy middle folk, regardless their ideology, can't buy a house, or find their own doctor, or get a decent daycare space, or book a teacher's aide when one is required, or get an ambulance when they need one, or even get a campsite if they don't have a spread on one of the Gulf Islands when it's time for summer vacation? 

The point is that a generation ago most middling British Columbians could do all of those things and more. And now, well, a great many of them can't.

And what did all those folks receive in return for giving up all those previously available/attainable things?

Why, absolutely nothing except, of course, a massive tax shift in the form user fees up the wazuk...errr...wazoo (i.e. the HST by another name), a humongous crony-assisted sell off of public assets/treasures/rivers, and the accumulation of a massive pile of real debt that Mr. Mason and his fellow proMedia club members refuse to talk seriously about.

In other words, it's 'Heads They Win, Tails We Lose' all over again.

And there's absolutely nothing mushy about the middle of that big money coin I reckon.

OK?



.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

SH:

Something tells me Jerry's Rangers are pissed.

RossK said...

SH--

Very, very, very pissed.

(as are all those 'mushy middle' people that use/need them)


.

Anonymous said...

https://gangstersout.blogspot.ca/2017/04/gordon-clark-spins-for-peter-leask.html

e.a.f. said...

yes I did read the gangster out blog the other day and saw that. not much to figure out. B.C. Lieberals don't want any more trouble getting out especially from a judge who says those types of things at a rape trial. I'd image some one in the set not so distant from Christy clark and the B.C. Lieberals gave the Province newspaper a call and reminded them how much the b.c. government had paid them, oh right purchased advertising and suddenly it was all changed. there is nothing more messy during an election where a judge says he isn't that interested in listening to a rape trial when he could be home in Vancouver in his own bed or some such thing. People really ought to go have a read of the Gangster Out blog on that little item. '

The blogger isn't that keen on Peter leask that wonderful fine specimen of a male judge, but the blogger does report the news, like a lot of other bloggers in this province.

Now if that little item could just get a tad more traction like items such as this did in other provinces. of course that wouldn't suite our fine premier and all her fine friends. yes, there was the fine premier with all that fine young testosterone on the t.v. news. ay yes, and a shortage of judges wouldn't be something she'd want talked about and she certainly wouldn't want it to be questioned that a judge her government employeed said such things.

e.a.f. said...

and the night before the election we can expect all the MSM to once again recommend the people of the province to vote B.C. Lieberal.

As you've outlined in your blog, yes that is all we used to have and now we have none of it. Oh, we do have that $100 BILLION debt.

People really need to ask themselves: I am better off than I was 10 years ago. if they're not they ought to ask why. Hell even Alberta, in the middle of an economic down turn, has shorter waiting lists for surgery than here in B.C. So what is Christy's excuse on that one?

People might want to understand Christy and her financial supporters don't care about them. They are only interested in advancing their financial position in life. There may be jobs but when they don't pay enough to stay above the poverty line, what is the point of having a job? You can't afford to buy or for that matter rent a decent place. You need at least a million to purchase a free standing house in Greater Vancouver. That has all changed with Christy Clarke and her B.C. Lieberals. She and her government knew what was going on in the housing market and did nothing. I'm sure bob Rennie and the rest of the developers were ever so happy.

Now suddenly Ontario has the problem and they're talking to the feds about it and their Premier was on t.v. the other night acknowledging they have a problem. she certainly has been faster off the mark than old Christy Crunch was.

In London, England where they have had the foreign buyer problem for a lot longer than we have, they at least forced all buyers to declare who they actually were. No secret buyers. No numbered companies. Now the problem has spread to other parts of England. The conclusion some came to, is with the rate of foreign buyers of homes, even if building of new homes kept up at the same rate for the next 20 years, the citizens of Great Britian would still not be able to purchase a home because the majority of them are being sold to foreign buyers and being left empty. They had 8500 people sleeping rough in London and there are 85 thousand children living in temporary accommodation. that is what is coming to B.C. and Christy Clark and her Lieberals have done nothing about it because this works for her and Bob Rennie and all their fine friends who go to those fine soirees where Christy and the B.C. Lieberals raised $12M to ensure their re election and she got to skim $300K because she couldn't make it on her $200K a year salary. gee and she expects the disabled to get by on $908 per month plus $21,and a bus pass.

Anonymous said...

http://willcocks.blogspot.com/2017/04/postmedia-hits-wall.html

Hugh said...

Dear Mr. Mason,

If racking up over $170 billion in total debt and contractual obligations is the best record of fiscal management among the provinces, I'd say the other provinces must be doing rather poorly.

Cheers,

Hugh

Anonymous said...

Every government spends money. Under Clark, the liberals have set priorities that misrepresent,spin, and weight the teeter-todder for self interest and for their close friends and which have left the general public high and dry. With those priorities, change is required to re-calibrate and refocus what government should be about. B.C. citizens cannot afford to live on empty promises of future rewards, constant reviews, court challenges,and delayed action for serious social issues. May 9 gives voters a chance to, not only change direction, but end the present governments arrogance and sense of entitlement. The liberals motives and priorities are not in sync with what the public requires to make B.C. a desirable place to live.

RossK said...

Anon-Above--

Hadn't thought of it before, but the teeter-todder is an interesting analogy given that, if you heavily weigh down one end with tons and tons of crony lucre sooner or later the rest of on the other end are going to go flying off into nowhere.

Of course, one could argue that our fellow citizens who need our help most were flung off the ride a long, long time ago and are now pinned under the weight of all that lucre.

______
Hugh--

'Rather' poorly, indeed.

______

Anon-2-Above--

Mr. Willcocks, who really knows the business, does not appear to be crying wolf re: the imminent demise of PostMedia.

Despite what you may think, I am not happy about that because I actually love newspapers. Heckfire, I even enjoy the stares and gasps that the unfolding of a broadsheet on the bus elicits these days. Furthermore, I have very little problem with the actual reporting that still goes on at the local PostMedia print organs. My issue is with the crony-captured editorial slant and the calcification of the (so-called) top-line punditry at said organs.

______

Thanks, as always, for your perspective eaf.




.

Scotty on Denman said...

It'd be a weird kind of extortion: the only hope regular folks have for getting balanced MSM news that reflects and informs their concerns is to top what well-padded vested interests pay newspapers in order they both stay afloat.

It's not as if there isn't enough evidence of MSM partisanship and bias, spin and infernal omission for most readers to see---or see through. The bullhorn of an iconic masthead simply wears the distracted public down so they throw their hands up in surrender, "yeah, yeah, alright, already, just shut it off," like a Panamanian dictator, almost agreeing to be railroaded (what am I saying, "almost..."? D'uh, BCR musta slipped my nub). It's a perversion of the word "free," as in,"free choice" between a "free press'" incessant barking and a "free" face-press into a "free" bowl of crushed pineapple.

I'm relieved my Dad who went to war, much against his Christian belief and pacific nature, in the name of freedom, isn't here to see this.

Everyone knows both which side MSM is on and its rote. How unabashed does it get? Well, on the morrow of Albetar's NDP win, MSM railed as if a tiny minority had usurped the will of a vast and antipathetic electorate---I mean, the next damned day! I guess it falls under the rubric that, since vested interests had to buy the bullhorn anyway, they may as well blow it for all it's worth, even if it didn't really work as far as the election was concerned. Viable spoiled-brattishness, you might say.

I noticed on CBC Radio's The House this morning, a large dose of well-worn-out twaddle about "the best economy in the country," "the envy of all provinces-" -type of stuff headlining the BC election topic. From my view-point in BC, it seems that bag of horse bones was being whipped for the benefit of out-of-province BC Liberal donors; but nobody believes it around here.

Still, one does also notice Black Press---which owns all the newspapers on Van Isle and features the syndicated and inimitable right-wing curmudgeon Tom Fletcher---allowing consistently anti-BC Liberal editorial cartoons and even sharply critical editorials of late, a conspicuous change in attitude by these longtime right-wing rags. Perhaps it's gotten through the heads of the free-enterprisers who used to support the BC Liberals (the NDP allowed them to claim the mantle of "free enterprise" by neglecting to challenge the notion): here on Van Isle, BC Liberal ferry and hydro policies have measurably hurt businesses of all sizes (except, of course, IPP-cronies of the BC Liberals who're profitably parasitizing BC Hydro to death).

It's perverse redemption that Black Press could be graded as "improving" simply because it lightly criticizes the government and, while headlining criticism of the NDP, puts negative news about the BC Liberals on the back pages. But at least it's there now, where it never would have been printed even a half a year ago.

Is something changing?

Anonymous said...

SH: @ Scotty on Denman:

Weaver's ok with the BC Liberals getting back in, is that is a coded message to Right wing voters? — Don't worry, vote for us we're not the NDP, and things won't actually have to change...

btw weaver's names is teeny tiny on our 'Green' candidates lawn sign. Out of sight, out of mind?

Keith E. said...

Did Mr. Mason whilst gushing about the best record of fiscal management accidentally overlook the roaring success of a couple of bridges, one of which was built on Hwy 1 with no apparent contribution from the feds.?


http://theprovince.com/opinion/columnists/gordon-clark-port-mann-miscalculations-take-toll-on-taxpayers

North Van's Grumps said...

the link above to Gordon Clark speaks of Why isn't Sea to Sky Highway Tolled? It is, and isn't tolled! The money that the 'maintenance" company for the next 30 years is coming from South Western BC (Metro Vancouver) fuel tax.

Using one election plank of the BC NDP eg. Remove the tolls on all bridges in Metro Vancouver opens up the questions:

Has the the lifespan of the Pattullo Bridge been intentionally shortened by the BC Liberals to justify the need for a replacement?

Has the government determined the amount of Green House Gas (GHG) has been spewed into the air since the Port Mann Bridge opened ... with a toll?

Eliminating the tolls is a double edged sword. Former Finance Minister Colin HST-not-on-my-RADAR Hansen now sits on the Board that collects the funds for the Government.

There's a rumor that the BC Liberals have been skimming money from the tolled bridges to balance their budgets. T/F

Len said...

"TAX AND SPEND NDP"...YES PLEASE,they tax the people that are stealing our natural resourses for nothing and spend it on things like public education , healthcare and assisting the most needy in our province...sounds good to me,instead of the Lieberal way,"take huge donations from the rape and pillagers and spend it on their friends and family"tax free

North Van's Grumps said...

"Chance to Win" is a Lottery. NOT permitted by the Elections Act of British Columbia

BC Liberal Party's Fundraising Lottery

Anonymous said...

https://twitter.com/PalbergWERX/status/853992620858781696

vote split