BC Election: The Race Is Run... What Will The Winners Actually Do Now?

AroundTheOldOak
TreeVille

 

All of today's pro-media coverage is about how Mr. Eby lost the race before it even got to the clubhouse turn.

Some, like the estimable Mr. Palmer, from the safety of Postmedia's innermost of harbours, reckon it was lost before the horses even got to the gate. Although, to be fair, the Dean of the Legislative Press Gallery, did use a different metaphor.

But nevermind all that.

Because I've been looking for an analysis of what the BC Conservatives will actually do in government.

You know, the stuff that actually matters to how lives here in British Columbia will be lived for the next four years or so.

Of course, there has been very little of that in the public prints.

But, luckily for us, Norm Farrell has been paying very close attention.

Here is Norm's recent analysis:

Housing: Cut construction taxes and charges, accelerate approvals, and reduce energy-efficiency requirements. End provincial density requirements. Support infrastructure needed by growth. Provide tax credits for creating self-contained accommodation for senior relatives.

Education:Accelerate pathways into trades. Further restrict phones, and enable school police liaison programs.

Environment/Climate: Repeal CleanBC, expand fossil fuel production, and support pipelines.

Healthcare: Fund treatment by private practictioners. Recruit and train more staff.

Reconciliation: Repeal DRIPA. Seek constitutional changes to eliminate Indigenous rights.

In my opinion there is some very scary reactionary stuff in there, even if the regressive 'open for extractive business' approach actually gives a short term boost to the economy. 

But my opinion isn't worth a hill of beans to the 48% of the British Columbia electorate who wanted either one of those two things, or both

But here's something to consider.

Aren't both of those things what a similar percentage of our neighbours to the South got bamboozled into voting for a couple of years ago?
 

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Image at the top of the post?...End of the backstretch at the old Sandown Park, circa 1977, in North Saanich.
So..What should provincial progressives do now?...Well, what if, as reader Graham has suggested, we had an actual Orange/Green supergroup that worked together in opposition and even took heed of what the progressive parties in Vancouver did come election time...And yes, I am thinking of making deals about where it makes the most sense for one party or the other to stand down in strategic ridings to ensure that the splitting of votes, like what just lost them Saanich South (Con 39%, Dipper 35%, Green 26%), doesn't happen again in 2030...


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BC Election: Sunday Morning Coming Down?

DidHeListenToTheSongsThatThey
WereSingingVille


Last Saturday night seems so long ago now.

Here in Vancouver it was the night of the progressive greening.

But here's the thing...

When you look hard at the numbers above, it's pretty easy to see why right-sider Ken Sim's mayoral numbers dropped so precipitously compared to the last civic election in 2022.

It's those three rightish-siders below Mr. Sim on the list above, all of whom either worked with or worked for Sim in the past.

And, so, if you give the numbers garnered by that trio back to Mr. Sim the totality of the Greening (and the Copeing) would likely not have happened given that the split on the right was even more significant in the councillors' race. 

In contrast, the numbers suggest that David Eby will not receive such a split-driven assist in tomorrow's provincial election.
 

Importantly, that Leger poll, above, which was published in Thursday's Vancouver Sun, is not a one-off. 

As such, it really and truly appears that the right-sided split that Mr. Eby was betting on is gone.

And, to add insult to injury, that bit of a late game bounce for the provincial Greens could be a double-whammy in close metropolitan Dipper/Con ridings.

Which means that we will very likely see a big change of government Sunday morning coming down. 

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Earworm in the header?...Of course...This!
The best, I think, we of a progressive bent who are not in the 'burn it all down camp because Eby is so bad' camp can hope for is that the advances were orange enough that there is another NDP/Green coalition...But that really looks like a longshot at this point, especially given that the Green bump does not appear to be translating into seat gains.


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About That Breakthrough Pancreatic Cancer Drug (Again)...

GTPase
JammingVille


Recently, I wrote (quite a lot) about the development of a new drug that has shown efficacy against hard-to-treat pancreatic cancers.

The initial findings with 'daraxonrasib', an innovative inhibitor against the virulent Ras oncoprotein, were so positive that it has been deemed a breakthrough wonder drug.

Except, as so often happens with new anti-cancer treatments, it is turning out that a significant percentage of the treated tumours rapidly evolve and become resistant to the drug.

As a result, clinicians have ramped up follow-up studies in which the tumours of treated patients are being longitudinally biopsied/sampled before and during treatment in an effort to identify ways that the tumors can be better treated for more long lasting responses.

So far, preliminary findings, which were presented at a conference of the American Association for Cancer Research last week, suggest two not necessarily mutually exclusive possibilities:

1) The fraction of tumor cells that survive the initial treatment may be more susceptible to classical chemotherapy which suggests that a combinatorial treatment strategy may be effective.

2) The surviving tumor cells also appear to start producing increased amounts of the Ras oncoprotein. This suggests that whacking the cells with multiple Ras inhibitors (there are a bunch more of them in the pipeline) might also be effective.

It's important to reiterate that these findings are still preliminary. They are also correlative and have not been functionally tested yet. Additionally, the work has  not yet been rigorously peer-reviewed. 

Having said all that, it sure is interesting to see the science being reported,pretty much in real time, given that the initial FDA approval of daraxonrasib was only granted in August of this year in response to the initial breakthrough clinical trial results.

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