Public Eye Lives!

AllTheArchivesThatFit
GoldenEraRevistedVille


I'm telling you.

There is nothing I like better than heading on over to Sean Holman's old website 'Public Eye Online' and punching something interesting into the search box like, say....

...Mr. T. Richard Turner.

And why that particular name on this particular day?

Well, it turns out that Mr. Turner, who once ran the BC Lottery Corporation while he was simultaneously a minor investor in Paragon Gaming, but before he became a major investor in Paragon when the latter wanted to build the massive Casino next to BC Place Stadium and thus then called a cabinet minister named Kevin (not Falcon) and, according to the latter at least, said that if the people of British Columbia didn't spend $600 million on a new roof (for the stadium, not the casino) it would be a 'deal breaker', is back in the news....

Why?

Because he's apparently still fighting an old FOIR initiated by....

You guessed it....

Sean Holman.

Ian Reid, with an assist from Bob Mackin, has the story.



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Mr. Holman's new site is here.

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Now Here's Something That Might Turn Out To Be Interesting...

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....Or, At The Very Least, Entertaining.

What the heckfire am I on about this time?

Why, ...the possibility that we soon may get to see Smilin' Sammy try to rip Little Lord Lorne's throat out, of course.

The Yaletowner has the story:

The rumours are true.

Former MLA Lorne Mayencourt has confirmed speculation he’ll compete against former mayor Sam Sullivan for the B.C. Liberal nomination in Vancouver-False Creek.

“I’m really excited to have made the decision,” Mayencourt said at Yaletown restaurant La Terrazza on Wednesday. He’s “quite linked” to the riding that includes about one third of the former Vancouver-Burrard riding, which he represented from 2001 to 2008.

And he’s “not too worried” about going up against Sullivan in what’s sure to be a close race between two highly recognized politicians.


Scary....

Very scary....

But you and I both know we will not be able to stop watching.

(and/or laughin')


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And, yeah, we chose the 'Yaletowner' to tag because we're getting ready for the coming of the paywalls...Personally, I think it will be boon for Bloggodome...And besides, all the biggies'  best stuff is on the Twittmobile before it hits the corpPixels anyway...Guess the real question is...Are the big proMedia organs different enough that people will pay for them?...Will be interesting to see...

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This Day In Snookland...Can We Get Rid Of The Rating Agencies Too?

Progress?
WeDon'tNeedNoStinkin'Progress!Ville



"Who's going to protect the economy for families? ... I'm hopeful and confident they'll say, 'Christy's the one who will make sure my job is protected.' "

Clark said her focus on the economy is the reason that her government is spending $15 million on ads boasting about B.C. job growth — ads she insisted will continue despite criticism.

"People need to know British Columbia is stable and growing," she said.

Christy Clark

Dec 12th, 2012

****

Moody's Investors Service has revised the outlook on the Province of British Columbia's Aaa issuer and debt ratings to negative from stable, affecting approximately CAD39.8 billion in debt securities.

"The negative outlook reflects Moody's assessment of the risks to the province's ability to reverse the recent accumulation in debt with the softened economic outlook, weaker commodity prices and continued expense pressures," said Moody's Assistant Vice President Jennifer Wong, lead analyst for the province....

Moody's Investor Service

Dec 12th, 2012

And yes, if you go and read the Moody's thing you will see that the budget update shenanigans factored into their decision.

But here's something kind of weird (that makes me wonder if the Moodsters really know what the heckfire their talking about)...They too were taken in by 'Little Mountain property sale deferral' gambit.

Hmmmmm.....

Does anybody else smell a set-up?



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And apropos of absolutely everything....Did you all catch the (not)Premier referring to herself in the third person....Delusions of?

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This Day In Snookland...Railgate Is Just So Silly.

GiveTheAuditorGeneralWhatHeWants
SaveBigMoneyImmediatelyVille


Well, well, well....

Whadd'ya know.

Our mandateless  and unelected (not)Premier, Ms. Christy Clark, seems to think that getting to the bottom of the Railgate matter is nothing but straight-up sillyness.

Seriously.

Mike Smyth has the story in The Province:

...Premier Christy Clark has hired a lawyer to defend her in the B.C. Rail conflict of interest probe, insisting the "silly" affair is a waste of public money.

"Taxpayers' money is being spent on this, but not by me," Clark said Tuesday, revealing she's paying for her own lawyer.

Former solicitor-general John van Dongen filed the complaint against Clark, suggesting she improperly participated in cabinet meetings on the government's 2003 sale of the railroad despite a conflict of interest.

Clark's ex-husband, Mark Marissen, worked for the consultant firm that oversaw the $1-billion deal, and her brother, Bruce Clark, worked for a private-sector bidder for a B.C. Rail spur line.

"I did absolutely nothing wrong," Clark said during a year-end interview at her office. "The allegations that he [van Dongen] has made are just silly."

But Clark refused to say whether she participated in a cabinet meeting where the B.C. Rail deal — which resulted in the conviction of two senior government insiders on corruption charges — was ever discussed.

"When the conflict commissioner rules on this, you'll have all the answers," said Clark, who declined to name the lawyer she's hired...

'ALL' the answers Ms. Clark?

Sure thing.

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Meanwhile, The Dean snuck in through the backdoor yesterday to actually, gasp (!), bring up the matter of the false Railgate Pay-Off affidavit, if somewhat obliquely...But note the weird cliffhanger at the end of the piece: "As well as correcting the record, the affidavit provides a no-less-shocking account of why this blunder occurred in the first place.But that is a story for another day."...Blunder?...Hmmmmm...We await Mr. Palmer's analysis with ba(i)ted breath...(with) or without fish(iness)...See comments for explanation thanks to discerning readers...

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The Only Thing You Need To Fight BC Liberal Claims Of The 'Bad Old Dipper Days'

The above image is from the front page of the now defunct 'Progress Board' of British Columbia.

The Progress Board was set up in 2001 by Gordon Campbell.

Here is how Paul Willcocks described it awhile back:

...(Gordon) Campbell asked a group of business leaders — David Emerson was the first chair, Jimmy Pattison was on board — to set measurable goals for the province, report on progress each year and offer advice on critical issues.

The boards out six important areas — economic growth, standard of living, jobs, the environment, health outcomes and social conditions. Then it identified key indicators that could be used to measure how well the province was doing each year, things like exports per capita and birth weights and educational achievement...

{snippety doo-dah}

...It’s been a useful exercise. Citizens, and government, can see what is and isn’t working. The spin by government and opposition can be replaced by facts...

In other words, the Progress Board once sifted all the data and gave a pretty unbiased, essentially spin-free account of where we were and where we were going.

Now....

The past tense used above was purposeful.

Why?

Because when Christy Clark came to power one of her first acts was to kill the spin-free Progress Board.

Surprised?


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And here's the real thing...We were actually in better shape at the end of the Dipper regime than we were at the end of the Campbell regime (and I would be 'now')...And those better ranking were achieved without the massive Greenspan put/free money hedgefundapalooza of the aughts....Or the big tax shift onto the backs of the citizenry...Or the massive sell-off of public assets to friends, cronies and multinats...OK?
David Bieber, in 24 Hrs, also used the ProgBoard rankings to explain how the Dipperian '90's weren't so bad earlier this week... 


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Spam-A-Lot Revisited...There's No Such Thing As Bad Press!

SpamSpamEverywhere
AndNotACanToEatVille


Back in the old days, when Stephen Quinn was still working the City Beat for the MoCo, one of the most satisfying tag-lines I've ever heard was uttered by Quinn when he called the regime of then Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan 'Spam-A-Lot' because of its penchant for pretending that any and all matters trivial were more important than, say, a sighting of Bruno Gerussi's Medallion shining high in the night sky above 12th and Cambie.

Well...

Just in case anyone was worried that Spam-A-Lot was dead....

Never fear....Mr. Klassen is here!

And yes, indeed, Charlie Smith's piece on Smilin' Sammy's attempted comeback as a BC Liberal Party candidate in Vancouver False Creek is the most hit story upon over at the GStraight recently.

But here's the thing....It's for all the 'wrong' reasons, in terms of realPolitick, as indicated by the online poll attached to the piece...

Heckfire!

Those disapproval numbers are worse than those of the fellow mayoral candidate that Mr. Sullivan and friends kneecapped in 2005.

You remember her, right?


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Whatever happened to the CityBeat at the local CBC anyway?....Did it get in the way of FLee or something?...And, for the record, Quinn's Quiz was, in my humble opinion, way more fun when it was still civic-focussed...
In case you've already forgotten, Mr. Klassen was, along with Daniel Fontaine, a former denizen of Spam-A-Lot who kept playing their little games and quickly set-up the anti-Vision 'CityCaucus' website after the electoral demise of Spam-A-Lot late in 2008 (Snowmaggedon!)...It has been rumoured that a super-secret team of former CoV sanitation engineers are still searching for the now empty war chest...Allegedly.

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Walking The Musical Streets Of Dublin...

AllTheInspirationThatFits
Just'TisVille


With 'The Guy'....

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And, ya, despite the way it is played in the movie, I reckon that 'Say It To Me Now' is, at least in some small part, about Mr. Hansard's relationship with his Da' at the end...But maybe I'm wrong....After all, Frank McCourt was a little more explicit...

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Robo/Real Calls...It's The Champerty, Stupid!

NeverMindTheFacts
CPCVille

Or some such thing, according to McMaher of Postmedia. Here's their lede:

OTTAWA — A left-of-centre advocacy group that brought legal challenges against the election of six Conservative MPs was looking for “payback” and wanted to advance its “anti-Harper agenda” the MPs’ lawyer told the Federal Court in an often tense hearing Monday.

Conservative lawyer Arthur Hamilton says the Council of Canadians is the true litigant behind the six legal challenges.

Lawyers for voters in six ridings allege voter suppression calls affected the results of the election, and want the court to order byelections.

Hamilton wants the court to toss out the six cases based on the legal prohibition against “champerty and maintenance” — trying to benefit from someone else’s lawsuit...


Thus, apparently, the Cons' first gambit is is to make like Mr. Jaggers and try to wash everything away by claiming that the six citizens involved are buying into the Council's lawsuit.

Oh.

That and it's all political.

Or some such thing.

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Alison has more.....Much more.

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She Knows If They've Been Bad Or Good...

SheKnowsIfYou'veBeenSleeping
StayAwakeVille


Laila has her top five 'naughty' BC (notreally)Liberals up over at the local HuffPo outlet.

And yes, because of the dearth of proMedia stories on the false affidavit thing, she links to, gasp(!)...

...Bloggers.


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Robo/Real Calls Go To Court...

AllTheCitizensThatFit
WithoutAnyHelpFromE-CanadaWhatsoeverVille


Postmedia's Glimmer Twins, Stephen Maher and Glen McGregor, had a good primmer up on Friday.

Here's a chunk (but go read the whole thing to get the big picture and a lot of the details as well):

...In Federal Court in Ottawa on Monday (Dec 10th), a lawyer representing (Kenneth) Ferance — along with voters in five other ridings who say they also received deceptive calls — will ask a judge to overturn the election results in their ridings.

The lawyer leading the challenge, Steven Shrybman, will argue that the elections ought to be set aside because of an orchestrated voter-suppression scheme, a deliberate attempt to stop people from voting, mostly by calling them and giving them misleading information about the location of their polling stations.

The litigation is backed by the left-of-centre advocacy group, the Council of Canadians, and targets six ridings all won by close margins by Conservatives, including Jay Aspin, who beat Liberal incumbent Anthony Rota by 18 votes in the Ferance’s riding, Nipissing-Timiskaming.

In the courtroom, Shrybman will face Arthur Hamilton, the lawyer for the Conservative MPs. He will argue that the applicants can’t prove that they were disenfranchised because they all voted, and they haven’t managed to prove that the result was affected by fraud.

The hearings will mark the first time a court has looked into allegations of voter suppression since Postmedia News and the Ottawa Citizen first reported on Elections Canada’s “robocall” investigation in February.

The reports drew public attention to an apparent pattern of voter suppression calls and prompted a nationwide investigation into calls like the one Ferance received. As the Federal Court case is argued, Elections Canada continues to investigate robocalls made in the riding of Guelph and live and recorded calls reported by voters across the country.

The applicants in the Federal Court cases must meet a difficult legal burden, proving that any “irregularity, fraud, corrupt practice or illegal practice” was enough to change the outcome of the votes...


Mr. McGregor is live tweeting the thing, and taking on all comers (including young Mr. Sona), here.


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This Day In Snookland...Jobs, Jobs, Jobs (Not)!

ShiningALittleLightOnTheLotusland
PropStenMachineVille

I first noticed this one late on Friday when David Akin unleashed a series of serial blurbs on the Twittmobile within which he expressed his total flummoxxedness at the fact that our (not) Premier and her surrogates and wizards, not to mention the local Lotuslandian pro-media, were all wurlitzering the falsehood that BC is holding the line on its fantasmagorical ability to make gazillions of jobs appear out of thin air, mandarin oranges, and big budget junketapaloozas.

Or some such thing.

And then, on the weekend Mr. Akin put up a detailed, well researched proBlog post where he took the denizens of Snookland, and their enablers in the local proMedia, to task for their propagandizing/stenography:

...Clark’s government, having staked a good chunk of her political fortunes on the BC Jobs Plan she announced on Sept. 22, 2011, now gets cheered or jeered once a month when Statscan publishes the scorecard on how Clark’s Jobs Plan is doing.

Perhaps in anticipation of a few jeers, the BC government was out early with a press release trying to spin some silver linings into what was otherwise a rather dark cloud. The press release announced that “B.C.’s investment in job creation provides stability” and seemed to rather hope that you wouldn’t look under the hood or examine any of the facts too closely.

The press release notes, for example, that if you look at the year-over-year job numbers for B.C., things don’t look that bad. B.C. job creation record is fourth overall! Just one problem with settling for fourth: The premier quite loudly promised to be number one. That’s what I heard when Clark spoke to the B.C. Liberal convention at the end of October and it’s what The Vancouver Sun’s Jonathan Fowlie (and many other B.C. reporters there) zeroed in on as the key takeaway from the speech:

“We have set out these bold goals and we are reaching our targets,” she continued, adding that while she will announce additions to the plan in the weeks to come, it will form the bedrock of her party’s campaign.

“I’m going to run in the next election on the strong economy. I’m going to run on (being) number one in job creation,” she said.

And yet, the press release issued by Clark’s government concedes:

With 29,400 job gains since November 2011, B.C. ranks fourth compared to other province.

If you’re going to run-on being number one, probably best not to point out to voters that “We’re Number Four!” And it’s true, year-over-year, B.C. trails Quebec (+109,200 net new jobs), Ontario (+85,300) and Alberta (+38,900) .

But —

If you measure the year-over-year performance on a relative basis — the percentage change in the number of employed people — B.C. is doing much worse than fourth. It’s actually sixth or, to put it another way, fourth worst. B.C. has year-over-year employment improvement of 1.29 per cent, just ahead of Ontario’s 1.27 per cent improvement but behind Newfoundland (+3.79%), Saskatchewan (3.07%), Quebec (+2.78%), Alberta (1.82%) and Manitoba (1.36%). In fact, as the astute reader will have already noticed, B.C.’s employment growth over the last year is the worst among the Western provinces...

Or, put another way, the Jobs Plan of Ms. Clark has done absolutely nothing except plunk us down in the middle, at best.

Now.

It was good of Mr. Akin to actually go through all kinds of real (i.e. Stats Can) numbers before he came to this inescapable conclusion that no current proMedia pundit located in Lotusland is willing to trumpet with Doc Severinsenish style, elan and swagger (take that PBrown!).

Interestingly, however, until quite recently there actually was a reasonably objective homegrown group in British Columbia that did the same kind of digging, number sifting and analyzing.

And they came to exactly same conclusion as Mr. Akin.

In fact, they came to the same 'stuck-in-the-middle-with-you' Stealer's Wheelish conclusion about the entire Gordon Campbell/Christy Clark 'Golden Era', and they even noted that the Gordon/Christina record was essentially the same as that of the previous Dipper regime way, way back in the 'bad' old 1990's (the latter, achieved, of course, WITHOUT a massive tax shift from the corporations and the well-off to the backs of everyone else in the province).

Actually, to be more precise, in the dying days of the Dipper regime (i.e. in the new millenium year of 2000) we were doing as well, or slightly better, in each of six of key indicators than our position in the Olympic hype-heap/megaproject moola-assisted year of 2010 just before Mr. Campbell was run out of Lotusland on a rail that the people of British Columbia no longer owned thanks to the other thing that happened during the Golden Era, which was the gargantuan public to private asset shift.

And just who (or what) was this homegrown group who was doing all this analyzing and concluding and ranking you may be asking?

Why, it was a little provincial government-sponsored outfit called the 'Progress Board'.

And it was set up by Gordon Campbell.

And, surprise (!), in one of her first acts after after she gained control of the BC Liberal government, Christy Clark killed it.

The Progress Board, I mean.

But, based on what we have seen of Ms. Clark and Wizards behind her curtains so far, perhaps that was not the least surprising in retrospect.

After all, as Mr. Akin makes clear above, it would appear that there is no room in Snookland for fact-based truth-telling amongst all that propaganda and stenography that is being catapulted onto the Six O'Clock news five days a week.

Regardless whether or not that 'news' for 'real' or bought and paid for.

OK?


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Paul Willcocks, who wrote the 'death of the Progress Board' linked to above, also wrote an important piece about the people behind the numbers who lost their jobs in BC last month...here.
Meanwhile, it is now a full week since the false Railgate affidavit story broke, and....You guessed it...The only proMedia piece on the thing is still just the original one by Mark Hume in The Globe...
Meanwileyercoyote...Rumour has it that at least one local media maven is getting ready to drop the bomb that Adrian Dix is secretly, with the blinds drawn and all the doors locked, reading 'that' book....You know the one by Rod Mickleburgh and Geoff Meggs about....gasp!....Dave Barrett.

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How Much Will CORUS Charge The Orphans' Fund This Year?

AdministrationChargesDefrayedAreStill
ChargesVille


Norm Farrell, making like I.F. Stone, has closely examined CRA documents to demonstrate that CORUS radio charged the Orphans' Fund more than $1 million dollars between 2006-11. 

Yes.

You read that right.

One Million Dollars....

Taken from a charity for disadvantaged kids by a for-profit corporation that has long trumpted its total altruism in this endeavour.

Interestingly, for some reason (Norm!) CORUS sent out a press release in the run-up to this year's 2012 campaign to kinda/sorta make it clear that they don't actually, really send every single dollar raised to 'the kids':

CKNW980 (a division of Corus Entertainment) provides funding to assist with administrative, promotional and marketing services, thereby allowing your donation to go further.

Did you catch that?

They said 'further', not 'furthest' which would be how far donors' money would go if CORUS was NOT charging the Orphans' Fund 'administrative, promotional and marketing' costs in the first place.

So.

Again.

How much, exactly will CORUS charge (i.e. reap) from hosting the Orphans' Fund on-air fundraiser this year?


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Please take a moment to go and read Norm Farrell's latest on this one....He has this and other extremely legitimate bones to pick as well because, in many ways, the whole deal is the opposite of Bedford Falls...If you get my Holiday Season spirit drift...

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There's No Rock Like...Geezer Rock!

HairCells?WeDon'tNeedNoStinkin'HairCells
ShatteredCochleiVille

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Update: Was fun, and the geezers were rocking and creaking...Weirdly though, the hit of the night was the opening act with low key Christmas carols backed by straight-up, plunky bass lines and brushes on the drums...

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Had to get up early to beat the hipsters to the rental counter at Long & McQuade this morning, especially given that it 'tis is the season and all that.

But I got the power (see above).

And we're ready, with perhaps one of the most geezereferized, not to mention refried, set-lists of all time:

Set 1

1.  Blues jam - Am/D....F/E/F/G/Ab/A

2.  Early in the morning - G/C/D....CCC....DDD

3.  Handshake drugs - D/G/F....D/G/C...

4.  Someday - A/Bm/D/A....A/E/F#m/D/A, hang on E

5.  Orange crush - E/G/D....Em/B/F#/B

6.  Catapult - G/Em/D...F/C/D...D/Dsus2/D-A

7.  What I like about you - E/A/D/A....G/D/G/A/B

8.  Rockin' in the free world - Em/D/C...G/D/C/Em...AAAA

Break + Christmassy Stuff...

Set 2

1.  Hotel womb - D/Am7/C9...Em/C9/G...5/10/8/6th

2.  Ocean pearl - E/A/E/A...G/B7/E/A/E/A

3.  American Girl - D/E7/G/A X2-A/D/G/Em/A...G/A/D/Bm/G/A/D...G/A/D

4.  Wavelength - C/F/C/F...Am/G/F...D7/G/D7/G...G/F

5.  6th avenue heartache - F/C/Gm/Bb

6.  Always on the run - Em...G/A/Em/G/A....Em...

7.  I shot the sheriff - Gm/Cm/Gm...Cm/Dm/Gm

8.  Jumpin' jack flash - Who cares, will be end of night anyway...

And, ya, I did have to fight with the guys to slip the Tweedy in there.

Will report back later....


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By the way....The UkeFolkFunkFusion-Fest is all set for early in the New Year...Send me an Email if you're interested....

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Our Good Friend West End Bob...

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....Has Lost His Really, Really, Really Good Four-Legged Friend.

Head on over to his place and give him your condolences.


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Coleman's Country..."There's Always Emotions Around Nominations, Right?"

AllTheWardHeelingThatFits
UnderTheGrindingOfVeryHeavyBootsVille


And, apparently, smirks.

Here is Mr. Coleman, on with Vaughn Palmer on Voice of BC last night talking, and smirking, about something or other that happened in Sliverville South recently...

Meanwhile Mr. Jordan Bateman, who once worked with Mr. Coleman and who was also once the leader of a 'grassroots' group that helped Mr. Coleman and friends spend (at least) an extra two billion taxpayer dollars to a build a bridge over a river, but who now states he is completely apolitical in his current job as a protector of the taxpayer, says the BC Liberals still have time to fix everything.


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