When Mr. Farrell Speaks...

...We Listen.

The kicker to Norm's latest:

...Premier Clark stands before the people, during the Christmas season, and says we cannot afford appropriate care for the province's most vulnerable children. It is hypocrisy that exceeds the most egregious action of a most sanctimonious woman...

Now go read the whole thing, because there, once again, you will find real numbers vs. (as many of Norm's readers point out) the fungible anti-fact fantasia that the Clarklandians are once again pumping out on a regular basis.

And, now that I think of it, I wonder of all the faux numbers that Ms. Clark et al. have been throwing around recently are actually an effort to deflector spike spin Norm's number crunching given the traction it has been getting on both the Twittmachine and Ian Jessop's radio show.


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The Keef Report: Watercarrier, Or...

...Something Else Entirely?

I mean, I guess it is possible that the good Mr. Baldrey is actually trying to say that Mr. Plecas is being ridiculously hypocritical in going after Ms. Turpel-Lafond for no good reason at all.

But I can't find out if that is the case of if Mr. Baldrey is instead being a straight-up anti-Mulgrewlian carrier of water for the Clarklandians.

Why?

Because the good Mr. Baldrey won't let me.

Gosh.

Was it something I said?


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The Advent Jukebox, Day 14...Silent Night.

NotQuiteTheTomWaitsVersionAtTheTopOfThatPostcardFromMinneapolis
TuneVille


A capella, for reasons explained.

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This Day In Clarkland...A Most Interesting Hiring Timeline.

FollowTheHiring
TimingVille


First, the following, from CKNW 'Staff' (i.e. no bylines that could be frozen out of future 'exclusives'):

Retired civil servant Bob Plecas has penned a report blaming B.C.’s Representative for Children and Youth, the media and the Opposition for problems with the Ministry of Children and Family Development...

{snip}

...Plecas’ appointment to conduct the so-called “independent review” was not without controversy.

While he spent decades working for the B.C government under both Social Credit and NDP, he’s hardly an outsider as a retired career civil servant.

In fact, he’s credited with creating the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

Plecas also has a family connection to the current Clark government.

His daughter, Bobbi Plecas, is the associate deputy minister for the Office of the Premier....


So.

About that original 'controversy' of Mr. B. Plecas' appointment as noted by Ian Mulgrew in his first VSun piece on this matter published back on July 25th, 2015:

Children and Families Minister Stephanie Cadieux has declared war on B.C.’s children’s advocate by appointing Bob Plecas to review the latest scandal to beset the government.

In the face of a damning decision that lambasted her ministry, Cadieux is making the problem worse with her response to findings that child welfare workers gave an abusive dad the opportunity to commit sex abuse while labelling the caring mom crazy...
{snip}

...Instead of inviting the woman with the legislative mandate to get involved (Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond), Cadieux gave the job Friday (July 24th, 2015) to the longtime, retired bureaucrat.

She said Turpel-Lafond has exhibited bias.


All of which brings us to the timing of Ms. Clark's hiring of Ms. B. Plecas to work in her (Ms. Clark's) office, based on the spade work of North Van's Grumps over at Merv Adey's place:

...As of the July 30 (2015) Cabinet shake-up, is now working out of the Office of the Premier: Bobbi Plecas, Associate Deputy Minister... (scroll down to the bottom, here)


All of which is just purely coincidental timing, of course.

And nothing that any Lotuslandian proMedia member should spend any time, effort and/or insider access capital on by asking our fine premier specific, pointed questions about it.

Right?


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This Day In Clarkland...She Knew.

TheFixIsAlways
InVille


I'll have more to say about Ian Mulgrew's VSunpiece on the MCFD whitewash later.

But here's the thing.

When our fine Premier said the following last Thursday...

The Ministry of Children and Family Development will get more money if that is what an independent review calls for — but the money will only be available if the economy has grown, says B.C. Premier Christy Clark...


She already had the whitewash in the bag.

How do we know that?

Because the Dean threw the following up on the Twittmachine on Friday:

Which, of course, gave Ms. Clark time to fire up the the Trump rhetoric deflector spin on Sunday.

Gosh our Premier is good at the machinations of everything except actually governing.


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The Advent Jukebox, Day 13...Christmas Waltz.

It'sTheTimeOf
YearVille


Have always liked this song.

Have to admit, however, that it was that She and Him thing (which is a very good holiday album, by the way) that got me going on actually covering it...

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The Advent Jukebox, Day 12....Merry Christmas Baby.

WhyAreThereNoBlues
InChristmasVille

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This Weekend In Clarkland: IT Boondoggles, 2.5 Billion...Kids In Need, Zero.

GutlessnessIs
HerVille


Following up on our fine Premier's statement earlier this week that she can't do anything to help British Columbia's kids that need our help right now due to a lack of government funds....

This just in (following up on the original spade work by Lindsay Kines of the VTC) from from Rob Shaw and Lori Culbert of the VSun:

...(T)he Integrated Case Management system, designed to link the children’s ministry and the social development ministry into one database, has been fully online since November 2014. Despite overshooting its original $108 million budget by $74 million, it is performing only a third of the tasks the government had initially hoped it would do.

It is one of eight high-profile IT projects recently launched by the province — with a total price tag of $2.5 billion — that The Sun has investigated for this series of stories. Several have taken much longer than originally planned; many have defects or are underperforming; and five of them have shot over budget, so far by a combined $350 million, including $72 million spent on an electronic health records system that had to be reset after the contractor was fired...


Surprise!


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And this does not even count, as far as I can tell from the specific VSun story at hand at least, the disaster that is 'My Education BC' which is a Multinat-driven pile of junk that replaced a system that worked (and also swept aside a homegrown system that teachers and frontline folks are apparently not allowed to mention, ever).


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The Advent Jukebox, Day 11....Oh Christmas Tree.

TwoWeeksTo
GoVille

....'Tis the season!

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This Day In Clarkland...Nevermind The Plecas.

AllMyDiversions'RYourReal
ProblemsVille


This just in from Richard Zussman of the MoCo:

The Ministry of Children and Family Development will get more money if that is what an independent review calls for — but the money will only be available if the economy has grown, says B.C. Premier Christy Clark.

"We don't have the resources to fix those problems unless we grow the economy," Clark said in a year-end interview with CBC legislative reporter Richard Zussman....


Now.

Nevermind  that already-in-the-bag 'review' from the good Mr. Plecas.

Because what is really disturbing here is the rationale for not bringing resources to bear to fix the MCFD immediately.

As in right now.

Especially when the resources are there for a business case-free 10 billion dollar dam....A 5 billion dollar bridge...A 10 million dollar Bogus Bollywood Bonanza....Oodles of money for private jets and helicopter trips, not to mention uannounced trips to tiny villages on Haida Gwaii to shovel money out of the back of the podium....And, while were at it....How much will that subsidy be for the Casino-Industrial Complex be again?...And, heckfire, didn't we dole out a big whack of cash to for no good reason at all this time last year to pay for a private corporations football finale under a magic carpet that cost another $600 million?

Look.

We don't need a review from the good Mr. Plecas to tell us that kids who were stuck in hotels have died.

And we sure as hell don't need that review to tell us that many more kids who need our help most are being ill-served by problematic private companies who have been hired (presumably) to cut costs so that we can spend the savings on the billion dollar boondoggles that just keep coming.

And, in spite of all that, our Premier has the gall to say that the MCFD will be the LAST ministry to get money.

This really is heartless.

Not to mention, in my opinion, gutless.

Because, clearly Mr. Clark is telling us that she doesn't have the guts to stand up to the cronies behind her party's facade when the chips are down and it is time to do the right thing.



OK?


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Advent Jukebox, Day 10....Rocking Around The Christmas Tree.

Party
HopVille


Don't know about you all, but this is the weekend we'll likely go get our tree.

The E's and me will head up to the Lions Club lot at John Oliver school.

We will pick out our tree, nothing fancy or sculpted, probably a little Charlie Brownish in the 5-7 ft straight-up DFir division...They will then offer us candy canes while they cut off the bottom bit of the trunk...Finally, they will offer to carry the tree to the car and the E's will say no because it has been their job to do the carrying since they were both tiny.

This one is by E. and me, together - which is all for the (much) better...

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This Day In Clarkland...The 'Other' Phone Call.

TheNumberOnTheMatchbookIsOldAnd
FadedVille


Earlier today we were talking about the phone call that Bruce Clark helped Massett Village Chief Councillor Ken Rea make to someone unknown in the Education Ministry of the government of Christy Clark.

All of which got me to thinking about a phone call that Mr. Clark himself made to a former member of the Gordon Campbell government that Ms. Clark herself ran away from as fast as she could some years before.

Neither of which had anything to do with anything untoward whatsoever.

Here is a transcript of that phone call from days of yore, for the record, based on a recording made by the RCMP for no reasons of untowardness whatsoverest, even if the discussion in the call was focussed on a draft  'requests for proposal' (RFP) for a certain railway spur lineine whose proposed  'sale' (which was to be based, presumably, on responses to the 'RFP') would later be cancelled based on completely, totally and absolutely unrelated reports of any and all potential untowardness from that very same RCMP:


David Basi: "So basically, um, what we have is the draft RFP." 

Bruce Clark: "Okay."

Basi: "Um, that uh, we have t' make changes and y'know, uh, um, we can draft it anyway we want now, right: so..."

Clark: "Whose, wh', whose hands is it in?"

Basi: "It's, it's in our hands right now."

Clark: "Okay."

Basi: "Uh, and then it'll go back to transportation. And then they'll look at it and then they'll uh, um, issue the official RFP."

Clark: "Okay. What are the time lines like?"

Basi: "Uh, two weeks."

Basi: "So, I can sit on this thing for two weeks. So if you come back next week then you can take it and look at it, show it to them. They can, they can, y'know, change some of the words around, that's obviously, some buzz words they wanna see in there, right?"

Clark: "Yeah."

Basi: "And these, these companies know how to, how to, y'know, get the fluff out of this shit and how to tailor it to themselves, right?"

Clark: "Of course." 

...{snippety doo-dah}... 

Clark: "Wonder, wonder if it would be better if you got it couriered from here or not?"

Basi: "I don't care. Whatever you want. I don't care."

Clark: "Okay, well maybe I'll get you to courier it to Europe for me, or something."

Basi: "You want me to courier it to Europe?"

Clark: "Sure, you could do that."


...{snippety doodle-dandy}...


Clark: "Or uh, or, or can it be faxed or something or?"

Basi: "Oh it can be faxed, yeah. Do you wanna give me a fax, secure fax number?"

Clark: "Yeah, I'll get you a secure fax number and we can do it that way."

Basi: "Yeah, you get me a fax number and I'll fax it to you.

Clark: "Sounds great my friend."

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Sub-header worming its way into your ears?...This should help.

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This Day In Clarkland...Who You Gonna Call?

SomePlayReallyDoes
PayVille


Earlier we commented on Mark Hume's piece in the Globe which noted that Christy Clark recently made an unannounced trip to the small community Old Masset on Haida Gwaii to dole out a whack of our money for a project supported by a band leader named Ken Rea who just happened to be in the midst of a campaign for his re-election at the time.

Interestingly,  Mr. Rea's opponent in that election campaign, Kimball Davidson, was opposed to a business deal between the local council and a company named Broadwing Renewables, Inc. that is proposing to erect a wind farm there.

Perhaps just as interestingly, if not more so, Mr. Rea supports the deal.

And, perhaps most interestingly, it turns out that the president of Broadwing is a very, very fine fellow named Mr. Bruce Clark who also just happens to be Ms. Clark's brother.

Now, of course, Mr. Clark's office is denying any political inference and/or skullduggery whatsoever.

But.

How did Mr. Rea get in touch with members of Ms. Clark's government in the first place?

Well, for that, let's return to Mr. Hume's piece, shall we....

...Mr. Clark said he had nothing to do with the grant and denied doing anything to get Ms. Clark to visit Old Massett.

“I have trouble getting her to come for family dinners,” he said.

Mr. Clark said he did help Mr. Rea make connections with government education officials.

“I simply told [Mr. Rea], ‘If you have issues, here’s who you talk to,’” he said.

Mr. Clark said due to his sister’s job as premier he is very sensitive to potential conflicts of interest, and he won’t get involved in business deals unless it’s through a public bidding process.

“At the end of the day, when you go through a public process and you’ve been prescreened and qualified and you have the best price and you win, I don’t see how anybody can complain about that,” he said.

Mr. Rea agreed Mr. Clark’s only role was that he helped make connections with the government.

“I don’t know anybody at the province, so Bruce gave me a number to call,” he said.

Mr. Rea said he dealt with officials in the Ministry of Education, not the Premier’s office, and Ms. Clark’s visit had nothing to do with the election...

So.

Here's a very specific question.

Whose phone number in the Education Ministry of the government of Christy Clark, exactly, did Mr. Bruce Clark give to Mr. Rea?

And, as a follow-up, is Mr. Bruce Clark registered as a lobbyist for Mr. Rea and his band with the provincial government of Ms. Christy Clark?


_______
And, like me, those of you with long memories may be wondering...Are there still phone booths on Haida Gwaii...Because....Well....Spiderman!


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This Day In Clarkland...It's A Wonderful Pay-To-Play Life.

Who'sPotter
NowVille


From the lede to Mark Hume's latest in the Globe:

Premier Christy Clark has been accused of interfering in a local band election to help a candidate who supports a $10-million wind farm proposal involving her brother, Bruce Clark.

Ms. Clark was not available for comment, but her office denied that the Premier’s recent visit to Haida Gwaii was in any way meant to influence the campaign of Chief Ken Rea, who was narrowly re-elected Monday, or to assist Mr. Clark’s business deal with the band...


Of course, those very fine denials from the office of the Premier included statements to the effect that Ms. Clark's sudden unannounced visit to Haida Gwaii to give money to a band school that is under federal (i.e. not provincial) jurisdiction, had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the business interests of the good Mr. Clark and/or that eight thousand in tax....errrrr...building and loan dollars that Uncle Billy lost in a folded-up newspaper that sure as heckfire wasn't a December 1946 edition of the Vancouver Sun.

Or some such thing.



_______
And, yes, apparently 'It's A Wonderful Life' really is our fine Premier's favourite movie...Who'd a thunk it.


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Advent Jukebox, Day 9...The Mating Of The Doves.

TheTrueMeaningOf
AdventVille


Back in the days of the first Advent Juke I got into a bit of an argument with myself about whether this Ian Felice tune is appropriate for such an endeavour.

And then I did a little reading about advent and came to the realization that it is probably more appropriate than just about anything in the modern Christmas carol canon.

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Image at the top of post.... The Two E's running through, as the tune calls them, 'The Rolling hills of Oregon'.


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