The Last Day Of Snookland?...Is My Old Laughingstock Post Stalking Me?

CouldTheImpossibleHappenAfterMore
ThanAMonthOfSundaysVille


Back around the time the Wizards of the Snooklandian inner circle were hatching their Ethnic Voter Manipulation Strategy Plan (ie. January of 2012) that would run on wheel fueled by government cheese, I wrote a post in which the kicker was the following:

...What if the Cons (within the BC Liberal Party) were to suddenly depose The Snook, anoint The Birdman, and then engineer a fusion-based love-in with The Curmudgeon.

How would those (Lib/Con aggregate) numbers look then?...

Now, two things...

First, after referring to the post in question, Eleanor Gregory raised this very possibility on Sean Holman's old radio show the following Sunday. Not too surprisingly, I suppose, all of the other rabble-rousers on the show that morning, as well the host I might add, laughed it off derisively.

Second, while I realize that a full-on Lib/Con Fusion would still only get them to 40% at best, it would still get them to within a scant few 'wedge issues on a silver platter-type striking distance of the 47% Dippers.

The next week to ten days could be very, very interesting, indeed.


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Note added in proof....The VSun's J. Fowlie, on the Twittmachine, says he has been 'told' there are three options....Surprisingly, none of them include sparkle ponies or unicorns...Clearly, Ms. Pamela Martin was not involved in reaching out to set the agenda with various and assorted sundry cabinet meanies.


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Latenight In Snookland...Is This The (Eve Of The) End?

AllTheEmergenyMeetingsThatFit
Caucus-A-Go-GoVille


Perhaps.

Because, as Bob Mackin is reporting, there will be an emergency meeting of the BC Liberal Party Cabinet tomorrow afternoon in advance of a Caucus meeting Monday.

Here is Mr. Mackin's lede and a tiny bit more:

Media in Vancouver are scrambling, as an emergency meeting has been called of the British Columbia cabinet for 4 p.m. on March 3 -- 71 days before the scheduled May 14 provincial election. All polls point to an NDP cakewalk. But what happens if Christy Clark suddenly becomes the ex-premier?...

{snippety doo-dah}

...A leadership change in cabinet on a Sunday could prevent the embarrassment of backbench MLAs quitting caucus to become independents or the anguish of losing a non-confidence vote in the Legislature...

Now.

As we've been discussing a little bit in the comments, if you are someone who wants to see a change of government in May, this may not actually be a good thing.

But I'm sure that is something we will be discussing, in detail, in the next few days if the axe does fall tomorrow.



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If this is, indeed, the end...One can only wonder if Ms. Clark has her own Henry Kissinger to commiserate with...Can't be Ms. Martin because she, apparently, is helping enact 'the strategy' even as I type...Seriously.



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This Day In Snookland (ctd)...Peering Behind The Wizards' Curtain.

AllTheHypocrisyThatFits
InThe(Not)Premier'sInnerCircle


Well, actually...

In this post we will peer into a  'spreadsheet'.

As in...

The spreadsheet of the 'Ethnogate' strategy session/meeting held by a number of Ms. Christy Clark's Wizards of the Inner Circle who are listed as having been 'present' on the bottom line of the following excerpt from said spreadsheet...

Now.

Before I go on, I would like to first return you to those glorious days of yesteryear (ie. last November) and remind you that, when a number government caucus staffers (ie. folks working for BC Liberal Party MLAs whose salaries are paid for by you and me to help run the government) were caught doing party ratf*ck-hack work building an Adrian Dix smear site on governmnet time, they were slapped on the wrists by the executive director of the BC Liberal Party government caucus, Ms. Prim Carson.

Here is the memo that delivered said wrist-slapping:

Good morning,

As you have read in today’s Vancouver Province, there is an article in which staff are accused of using Caucus funded email accounts to work on a partisan activity during business hours.

Given the nature of our positions, I realize that there are unique challenges that we face in performing our day-to-day tasks in supporting our BC Liberal MLAs. That being said, all of us must make sure we do not cross the line and perform tasks that contravene our Standards of Conduct.

Please note that our Standards of Conduct states that:

“If engaging in political party activities, employees must be able to retain the perception of impartiality in relation to their duties and responsibilities. Employees must not engage in political party activities during working hours or use government facilities, equipment or resources in support of these activities.”

What happened over a year ago is a reminder of what can happen when these lines are crossed. Those who had involvement in this incident have been reproached.

I wish to remind everyone to follow the Standards of Conduct. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you,

Prim Carson

Primrose Carson
Executive Director of
B.C. Government Caucus

****

Now.

I hope it has not escaped your attention that the 'Prim' in the image above from the Ethnogate 'spreadsheet' of the meeting that occurred in January of last year is actually, as has been confirmed by Cassidy Olivier of the Province, the same person who delivered the wrist-slapping of the flunkies above.

Got it so far?

Good, because here comes the kicker...Which is the following image, also from the 'Ethnogate' spreadsheet...





So, there you have it.

In January of 2012, Ms. Prim Carson a Wizard of Ms. Christy Clark's inner circle was tasked with coordinating the efforts of the EthnicVoter Manipulation Strategy between the government, the caucus and the BC Liberal Party.

All.

On.

Government.

Time.

And then, a scant 11 months later, in November of 2012, it was the same Ms. Carson who was telling a bunch of low level flunkies that they had crossed the line by doing funkitudinous hackwork on government time.

Seriously?

These are the Wizards of Snooklandia we have been dealing with for the last two years.

I mean, honestly...

Is it any wonder that actual things that actually have to be dealt with, things like, say,  Translink funding, the mess at BC Ferries, and the disaster at MCFD,  just to name three, have been totally ignored by these people?


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This Day In Snookland...The Wizards Defined...

AllTheCommentsThatFit
BloggopaloozaVille


Perfectly.

By a reader....

 Anonymous said...

Everything they touch turns into graft.

10:35 AM, March 01, 2013

 

OK?


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And my apologies for getting behind on my own comment commenting and discussifying over the last few days...I really have been spending lots of time in the lab, so many of my posts have been rapid fire...Hope to get back to normal now...Coming soon...Were the new multimultimulti-million all-in-one carecards tied to the next megamegamegamillions deal with Maximus?

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This Day In Snookland...(Early Morning) Weekend Edition

WhatGoesAroundKeepsOnKeepin'On
ComingRoundAndRoundAndRoundVille


If the VT-C's Les Leyne is right I owe Ms. Clark an apology.

Because on Thursday, after I typed out her undated and unsigned 'apology' that Rob Shaw snapped with his cell phone, I castigated the (not)Premier for not having the guts to show up in the legislature to read it.

But....

Again, if Les Leyne is right, I was wrong.

Because I should have said, instead, that Ms. Clark, the 'scrapper' (as Mr. Gary Mason just called her), didn't have the guts, or foresight, or political street-smarts, or whatever to even talk to her cabinet as they went into full-metal revolt mode and wrote her apology for her.

Oh.

And another thing.

If Les Leyne is right...

The always campaigning, and scheming, and smearing (but never governing) Ms. Clark is...

Done.



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Oh, and Mr. Mason, if Ms. Clark is such a 'scrapper' who will never quit....What, exactly, really happened in 2004?...And, perhaps more importantly now, for a British Columbia stuck in the mess she has made,  just who (and what), exactly, started  her political resurrection shuffle way back when anyway...Huh?

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The Day That Mr. Flanagan Felt 'Very (Not John) Manly'

BlahBlahBlahBlah*&@#!
FreeeeeeeeedomOfEgregiousSpeechVille


A lot of ink has already been spilled about the most recent egregious comments from infamous Calgary School standard-bearer, Mr. Tom Flanagan.

You know, the ones that got him fired the other day from both the CBC and the Alberta Wild Rose Party.

Which, are, of course, two peas in a fellow traveller pod.

Or some such thing.

****

Interestingly, however, not a whole lot of corpMedia ink has been spilled over the just as (or more?) egregious comments Mr. Flanagan made while he was actually on the CBC.

Egregious comments that did NOT get Mr. Flanagan fired when he uttered them in 2010 (and please note how none of the smiling surrender panel monkeys raised either a finger or a vocal cord to object to Mr. Flanagan's extreme egregiousity)...

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*Thanks to reader J King for the memory jog on this one...


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Hey, Broken-Hearted Pope Picker Fixer Sucker Guys!

RedeemYourselves
'CauseYouNeedARevelationVille


Nevermind the 'ComicSans'.

Instead, just pick the real, and right, combinatorial comedic and clergical thing...

As for the header..Well...Of course...There's this.



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Thanks to CMontgomery for the Father Guido brainworm delivery system...

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Breaking...Apparently Someone 'Way Down The Chain' in Snookland Has Resigned.

AllTheChainsThatFit
Throne-FreeVille


Of course...

It's Ms. Haakstad.

At least according to the VSun's JFowlie on the Twittmachine.

Thus.

Ms. Clark's statement from an hour ago is alreay null and void.

Like we have noted numerous times over the last weeks and months, the (not)Premier really will...

'Say Anything!'



(and then, as expected, she runs for cover)


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Off Topic (but not really)...The things we wonder about....Who won the pro-pundit-pool (hour and minute), and, how much?

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This Day In Snookland (ctd)...'Say Anything'...Part 2,432.

NoCusack
NoBoomboxVille

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Late Friday Afternoon Update:  Oooooh.....Look!....Now there's video of the (not)Premier's saying absolutely anything in PG this afternoon...

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Well, well, well....

It would appear that the (not)Premier has emerged from her (private?) jet in Prince George.

How do we know this?

Because, according to the MoCo's  Chris Brown, she is babbling more than David Brooks.

Again.

Here is Mr. Brown's report, straight-from the Twittmachine...

Someone "way down the chain" apparently thought its ok to mix public money with partisanship,says Premier,in PG today.#bcpoli
— Chris Brown (@CBCChrisBrown) March 1, 2013

'Way down the chain'?

Seriously,  Ms. Clark?

You seriously want us to believe that your long, long, longterm loyalist,  alleged one time Spiderman dinner companion, and current deputy chief-of-staff is 'way down the chain'?

And, given all this talk of chains and things...

How, exactly, do you run things in your office anyway?

Like an episode of Game of Thrones?

Oh.

Wait.

I forgot.

You already told us, via 'Shock-Jocks, Part One', all about your infatuation with that particular game.

Right?

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This Day In (Still) Snookland (ctd)...In Which Darth Vader's Deadline Passes And The Dean Gets Snarky.

OurOwnPrivateSuperScarySensational
StorifyThingyVille


First...From Mr. Coleman, sans head-rolling...

Next...From Mr. Palmer, rapid fire and increasingly snarkoleptic (not to mention kinda/sorta funny too, ignoring for the moment the fact that BC is burning while the likes of Mr. Coleman, Ms. Clark and the Wizards fiddle)...

Regarding that last one, does this mean that Mr. Palmer is going to make like, oh, I dunno, Cassidy Olivier (and/or a younger version of himself) and really go after the Wizards on this one, no-holds-barred, and/or bets-a-hedged?



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And why was everybody waiting for Mr. Coleman's ridiculous 'endorsement' of Snooklandia anyway?....After all, he played ALL of his cards a long, long time ago?
Oh and just in case you're wondering where the (not)Premier is hiding today....Well...Uncle Bob thinks she might be stowed away on Mr. (nolongerBC's)Rail's private jet....If so, you can bet that we (i.e. you and me) are paying for it....

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This Day In Snookland (ctd)...Where's The Kruegernator Now?

ForgettingTheDobellRule
Don'tWriteAnythingVille

Please Note: This one got moved back thanks to Cassidy Olivier's reportage this morning (which is still pouring out of him on the Twittmachine, btw)....

****

There's more today on the Wood Centre BC Liberal Government Pork-thingy in Prince George.

This time Andy Hoffman and Justine Hunter of The Globe have the story

And it is a story that, based on the evidence, so far lays waste to Mr. Pat Bell's claims that he did not in anyway try to influence the procurement process.

Here is their lede:

B.C. cabinet ministers Pat Bell and Shirley Bond were aware of and appear to have played a role in the procurement process for a multimillion-dollar contract in Prince George now at the centre of a deepening government scandal, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail, contradicting denials that the ministers were involved in the matter...

And here is a bit more:

...“I have had discussions, during September, 2009, with the Honourable Pat Bell, minister of Forests and Range, the Honourable Shirley Bond, minister of Transportation and Infrastructure and vice-chair of the Treasury Board … who have all clearly articulated the strong interest of having UNBC’s Wood Innovation and Design Centre located in downtown Prince George. The province is aware of the land assembly opportunity underway on the 500 block of George Street and it is a preferred location for both UNBC and the city of Prince George,” (Northern Development Trust CEO) Ms. (Janine)North's briefing notes (from 2009) say...

It really is astounding how at odds the documentation in this excellent bit of investigative journalism is with Mr. Bell's previous claims of total non-involvement.

And then, of course, there is the crony capitalism aspect of all this.

And do not forget who was Premier in 2009.

And who was running the Premier's office in 2009.

****

Now.

For all those Railgate cultists out there (and for our friend Mary too)....

May I remind you that all the available evidence strongly suggests that both Mr. Bell and Ms. Bond met with one Mr. Gordon Campbell in early 2002 so that they could be told, in secret, that BC Rail would, indeed, be sold.

This, as all cultists know, was a time when the official line being trumpeted by a government then being run by one Mr. Martyn Brown was that BC Rail would never be sold.

And soon thereafter, the media contracting, and the smearing, 'ripping of new ones' and everything else that would be used to shove the (lease not!) sale down our throats would begin.

My point?

Well, clearly...

Any and all duplicity and/or 'smeariness' that is occurring right now, or has occurred recently, within the current version of the BC Liberal Party and/or government is most definitely not, despite what very fine folks like Mr. Martyn Brown would like you to think, a new thing.

OK?

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This Day In Snookland (ctd)...Meanwhile While Christy and Company Fiddle...

....TransLink Burns.

From the MoCo:

The chair of TransLink's Mayors’ Council says he's frustrated with the province's inaction on funding proposals for the public transit system.

North Vancouver District Mayor Richard Walton says the council has introduced five proposals to the province but no action has been taken so far.

Walton says the province asked council to present funding options and strategies but it hasn't acted on any of them.

“The concern we have is we've been having these discussions for a very long time and we want very specific commitments to sit down and discuss these things and some commitment from the government that we're going to address these things,” he said.

“The [provincial] election is only 90 days away and at this point we've been asking for the same thing for close to two years.”...

Which is the real issue here.

Specifically, that...

While Ms. Clark and her Wizards have been busy campaigning, smearing and scheming for the last two years no one has been actually governing the province of British Columbia.

OK?


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As you might expect....The Minister (allegedly) responsible for TransLink, Mary Polak, is now telling anyone that will listen (including CKNW) that she can't possibly do anything until AFTER the coming election...Of course not, because if the Snooklandians had actually done anything, say, 18 months or even a year ago, that would be on the books of their 'Sparkle Ponies on Fantasy Island'  faux budget...
NW's Shane Woodford is also reporting that BCL Party Riding Association Presidents are starting to resign...Although, as VSun's Jonathan Fowlie makes clear, the res. letter from one prez, old party warhorse Brenda Locke, was written Feb 7th...

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This Day In Snookland (ctd)....Prim?...Where Have I Heard That Name Before?

AllThePAB-BotsThatLand
AtMyPlaceVille

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Early Friday Afternoon Update...How much of a an insider am I 'not'?....Well, originally I ascribed the wrong gender to Ms. Prim Carson...A thousand apologies...And thanks to a reader for knocking some sense into me...

Lunchtime Friday Update...Bob Mackin has more...It's sparkle ponies, unicorns and Pammy's diary!

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Earlier today we noted that the Province's Cassidy Olivier has a story up, with documentary evidence and everything(!),  that very strongly suggests that at least two staffers inside the Premier's inner circle had a hand in drafting the partisan flack-hackery that ultimately became the Multicult-Memo-Strategy in early January last year.

One of those staffers is Ms. Kim Haakstad, who is the person who sent the M-M-S to a group of very fine folks in the Premier's outer circle that Mr. Vaughn Palmer, the Dean of the Legislative Press Corps, so graciously and tactfully called 'hacks'.

The other is a staffer named Primrose Carson.

****

Now.

Thanks to the blog-page that a PAB-Bot landed on this morning when he/she came by for a visit using the search string 'Prim Carson, OIC' I was reminded of the fact that I had written about the good Ms. Carson previously, back in late November of 2012.

Why?

Well....

It turns out that Ms. Carson was the inner-circlist concerned who was given the job of slapping a gaggle of caucus staffers on their wrists when they were caught doing a wee bit of partisan party flack-hackery on the public's dime (at that time the transgression was the construction of an Anti-Adrian Dix smear-site).

So there you have it...

Documentary evidence of the ways that the 'Wizards of Snooklandia' really run things....

Step One: Tell folks to stop their petty party flack-hackery one day.

Step Two: Engage in your own mega party flack-hackery the next.

Or.

Do I have that order reversed?

Who really knows given how this stuff just keeps going round and round and round.

****

Meanwhile.

While the Wizards fiddle....

Is anybody actually, you know...

Governing?

(that's the subject of a coming post....I really do write ahead...Honest)


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And who amongst us who have been paying attention to the flack-hacking since the early days of the Golden Era could forget another most similar sounding monicker...Ha!

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This Day In Clarkland...They're Inside Premier's Office Now!

DidWoodward&BernsteinStopDiggingWhenTheyGotToHaldeman&Erlichman
HeckNo!Ville


The Province's Cassidy Olivier, who really has been banging a whole lot of gongs recently with his digging, has the story.

Here is his lede:

A key member of Premier Christy Clark’s office and a senior member of government caucus staff were directly involved in drafting a controversial strategy to woo ethnic votes ahead of the May election, fresh evidence suggests.

According to a copy of an email leaked to The Province, longtime Clark loyalist Kim Haakstad — who also serves as the premier’s deputy chief of staff — and Primrose Carson, the executive director of government caucus, offered advice and input during the drafting stages of the plan.

The email was sent from the private account of David Ritchie, then an executive assistant to Harry Bloy and now a ministerial assistant in the Premier’s Office, on Jan. 6, 2012....


Now go read it all.

(and that includes Ms. Clark's ridiculous and pathetic 'say anything' denial that has, as expected, already been laid to waste by the...you know...facts)

Go.

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And as we've been saying for the last few days, it may be difficult for the (not)Premier to cut Mr. Haakstad loose...After all, Ms. H.  knows stuff...Stuff that goes all the way back to the old pre-Railgate Spiderman/Toga Party days...And goes all the way, forward, through the 2009 election campaign, to the silver platterish 'six-pack days' (and yes, we're looking at you, Mr. Holier-Than-Thou, Campbell-Legacy-Protector Brown)...

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Is It Possible That Mr. Brown's Memory Really Is Faulty?

ThereIsNoAmnesia
LikeSelectiveAmnesiaVille

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Friday morning ouef-on-visage update....Ya...I get it!...Mr. Brown had another op-ed in VSun today...What can I say?...I write ahead...And this post got pushed back given the Snooklandian molten-meltdown over the past few days...I'll have more to say about Mr. Brown's latest later (thanks for the heads-up to reader Bill)

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Mr. Martyn Brown was former BC Liberal Party Premier Mr. Gordon Campbell's longterm chief-of-staff throughout the entire the Golden Era.

Unfortunately, when called to the stand during the soon to be aborted Railgate Trial in 2010, Mr. Brown's memory failed him.

More recently, however, many have noted that Mr. Brown's memory has improved dramatically in his newfound role as an author and a pundit.

To wit, from Mr. Brown's latest, this time in the Georgia Strait:

"...Whether the issue of fiscal management will even be much of a factor in the upcoming election is a debatable point. I doubt it will, no matter what size of deficit Dix envisions in the NDP platform, or how much the Liberals rightly fixate on fiscal and economic management as their strongest suit. Yet despite the government’s relatively impressive fiscal and economic track record vis-à-vis virtually any other province, it will be hard pressed to overcome its credibility and trust deficit, as evidenced by recent opinion polls..."


Actually...

To put it bluntly, regarding that last bit about the Mr. Brown's BC Liberal Party Government's 'relatively impressive fiscal and economic record vis-a-vis virtually any other province' compared to the record of the NDP..

No.


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