Horgan Speaks...If This Is 'Prickly', Bring More Pears Such As These By The Bushelful Please.

ThereIsAClub
AndIt'sForMembersOnlyVille


It would appear that the Dean of the legislative press gallery, Vaughn Palmer, was taken aback as he watched ('from the sidelines') an exchange between opposition leader John Horgan and the Province's Michael Smyth:

...Horgan has been mostly cool and methodical since assuming the New Democratic Party leadership last year. But he confesses to having a quick temper and sometimes in the past he’s lost it when dealing with reporters on what he regards as unfair coverage.

Witness what happened Monday when the scrum moved on to asking him about that bit of political performance art the B.C. Liberals staged in the legislature last week on the hydroelectric dam at Site C on the Peace River.

Horgan was not in the house for the debate on the motion — which the NDP opposed — claiming he had business elsewhere. Nor was he present the following day when Premier Christy Clark taunted the Opposition by rattling off a long list of similar projects the party had also opposed.

So the reporters’ questions were valid. But, as I watched from the sidelines, Horgan betrayed increasing exasperation as each one, no matter how politely phrased, came his way.

What did Horgan think of the premier’s pitch for Site C? “If I could read her mind I would be horrified,” he returned. “If you are just playing a game, which is what she is doing, then you are wasting time and you are wasting energy.”

Did Horgan dispute the premier’s list of projects his party opposed?

“What’s to dispute? Mike,” he fired back at Mike Smyth, the Province columnist. “I appear to be responsible for every sin of every New Democrat who’s walked the earth and she’s not responsible for what came out of her mouth yesterday.”

Horgan named projects he did support, including two mines and adding new turbines on the existing Revelstoke and Mica dams.

“This isn’t an ideological divide,” he continued. “It’s her making politics and mischief and I know that suits well with your column and go ahead.”

Voice rising, the NDP leader challenged the columnist to write about Hydro repeatedly missing the mark in forecasting energy needs. “Don’t you think that is more interesting to readers of your column?”...

Mr. Palmer then goes on state that challenging a journalist to 'change the subject' is rarely an 'effective technique in news management'.

To which I reply, most emphatically....

Hogwash.

And/or who gives a flying fiddle-faddle.

Because, I for one, do want Mess'rs Palmer and Smyth and their ilk to actually do their bloody jobs and write about the substance of these matters rather than the faux-swordplay of Ms. Clark and her minions that is taking place on bedding sprinkled with sparkle pony toe nail clippings that litters the fainting couch where no journalist shall ever be called out by a 'prickly' politician.

Specifically....

I want them to find out, as Merv Adey asked on the Twittmachine this morning, what the actual business case for Site C is?

And...

I want them to find out why, exactly, that case, and others of import not being put before the BCUC?

And, while we're at it, what, exactly, will our Hydro rates be over the next five years as our future obligations to the very finest of the fine folks holding all those IPP contracts approach $100 billion?

****

Now.

Why do I want the proMedia club members to actually write about stuff that matters?

Because stuff that matters actually does.

To all British Columbians, whether they know it or not.

(and how can they know it if folks like Palmer, Smyth and Baldrey et al. don't tell them about it)

OK?


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The 'Club'?....Ian Reid, back when he was still kickin' and givin' 'em a lickin', wrote about it awhile back.


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#Elxn42...Why Stealth-Cons Should Be (Not) Seen And Not Heard.

CreditingTheTotallyDiscreditedWheneverPossible
NonsenseVille


Jennifer Ditchburn of the CP has the story.

All you need is her lede:

A Conservative candidate in suburban Toronto is defending therapies that attempt to turn gays straight, having penned an editorial that referred to homosexuality as "unnatural behaviour" and heterosexuals as "normal."...

Just to be clear here...

An editorial is still not considered to be the same thing as errant tweet.

Right?



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This Afternoon In Clarkland...Independent Power Producer Tax Haven Blues.

AllYourBillions'RUs
GrandCaymenA-Go-GoVille


First, a quote from a post by Norm Farrell noting the prescience of the good folks from the Wilderness Committee speaking way back in 2009:

...“Private power coming from so-called ‘run of river’ projects comes mostly at the wrong time of year for British Columbians, is costing us far above market rates, and threatens our rivers and streams. Ratepayers are already on the hook for $31 billion [$56 billion as of March 2015] in energy agreements to the likes of General Electric. The BC government’s decision to order Hydro to buy even more of this power is irrational and unacceptable,” said Wilderness Committee campaign director Joe Foy...

Next, this wee bit from 'Citizens For Tax Justice' via Reuters, published today:

The 500 largest American companies hold more than $2.1 trillion in accumulated profits offshore to avoid U.S. taxes and would collectively owe an estimated $620 billion in U.S. taxes if they repatriated the funds, according to a study released on Tuesday...

{snip}

...The conglomerate General Electric has booked $119 billion offshore in 18 tax havens, software firm Microsoft is holding $108.3 billion in five tax haven subsidiaries and drug company Pfizer is holding $74 billion in 151 subsidiaries, the study said...

Aren't you glad we destroying our public utility, not to mention our rivers and streams to privatize the profits for a massive hydra-headed-tax-scofflaw that is 'independent?

Sheesh.


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This Day In Clarkland...Sparkle Ponies On Hold! (Again)

AllThe(Potential)DelaysThat
FitVille


This time for as much as an additional five years.

Alexander Winifred of the The Malaysian Reserve (who knew!) has the story:

Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) is likely to defer commercial operations of its Canadian liquified natural gas (LNG) project to 2022 or 2024 as the depressed oil and gas (O&G) prices continue to shroud earnings prospects, analysts said....

But never mind all those non-existent jobs that have been promised every which way to a millenium of never ending Sundays...

Because, surprise!, suddenly we've got ourselves a passel of utterly useless red-tape-wrapped anti-red-tape legislation.

Which, apparently, makes Mike Smyth the arbiter of all things 'Mr Yes'.

Or some such bloody thing.

Sheesh.

______
Tip-O'-The-Toque to Bob Mackin on the Twittmachine.

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Elxn42: The Disenfranchising.

AllPoliticsIs
LocalVille


An old gradual student came by for a visit last week.

She's been out of the country for awhile, toiling away as a post-doctoral fellow south of the border at that fancy-schmancy private school not far from all that silicon and that so-called valley.

Now.

Here's the thing.

This kid, who is some kind of quasi-middle stock Canadian, has done very well for herself and has every intention of returning home when she's finished her training in the next year or so.

To be more specific...She was born in Canada, she went to school in Canada, she holds a Canadian passport, and she is living in the United States on a temporary visa while she finishes her science geek apprenticeship.

Anyway....

We were sitting around having coffee and kibbitzing after she gave us a seminar on Friday afternoon (she doesn't drink, so the gradual student keg was off-limits!) and we got to talking about local stuff.

She mentioned that her parents, who live in Richmond, we're going to vote CPC. As such she was all set to head on down to the advance poll the next morning to counter-act, as she called it, 'their wanton act of destruction'.

Well.

I think you can imagine her incredulity when we informed her of disenfranchisement.

****

Is this Canada?

Seriously, is it?


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#Elxn42...A Reader's Son Helps Him Do The Right Thing.

AllTheSoulSearchingThatFits
33PercentMinus1Ville


From the comment thread to the recent 'Sparkle Ponies-In-A-Pit-Of-Candy-Coloured-Listeria' post:

"...One of my sons asked me how I was going to vote. I said the same way I always have, for the conservatives. Then he pointed out something to me. He says since I have been very small you have taught me to be honest. He says haven't the conservative party been convicted of election fraud, isn't that being dishonest. How can you trust them then? Well what an eye opener for me. He is totally correct how can I trust them. I will be voting for a different party this election. I was so proud of my 13 year old son..."


Hard to argue with that, especially if you are a real tory/'progressive' conservative who has seen what the folks running things have done to their party and their country.

And, yes, we are still waiting for Joe Clark to step up to the plate and do what Maureen McTeer has already done.


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#Elxn 42: Stephen Harper's Folksy Oct 5th/Two Weeks To Go Advertisement...

...In Which He Tells The Entire Country To 'Go Prop-13 Itself!'

Because that's what he promised with his "no-new-federal-taxes-of-any-kind-thousand-year-ham-stringing-us-all-up-forever-law".

I mean...

Given that, why didn't he also promise to make it a law that kittens will never die and that municipal off-loading will be dealt with by the flinging of new stock Canadians into pits of candy-coloured Listeria to raise funds to pay for the pushcarts that will replace all crumbling transit systems everywhere.

Not to mention all the sparkle pony dreams paid for with the crushed femurs of environmentalists too.

****

Look.

Snarkolpesy aside, this is rank insanity.

And you know what?

The befuddled proMedia in this country will keep on keepin' on with it's five docile questions a day and not call Mr. Harper out on any of it.

Which is what he's counting on to get to that magic 33% plus one.

I despair.

Honestly, I do.


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#Elxn42: Stealth-Con Rising In Burnaby North...

....Four Strikes And He's (Still Hidden) In 

(Mr. Harper's Candidate Closet)!

Mark Little is the CPC candidate in Burnaby North Seymour.

Allegedly.

Why the qualifier?

Because, according to a CBC radio report this morning (National News @ 8:00am PDT), the good Mr. Little has been a no show at four all-candidates' debates.

The MoCo gave the alleged candidate an entire week to explain himself.

In fact they went so far as to offer to interview him anytime and/or anyplace.

Mr. Little did not respond to their repeated requests.

If that does not demonstrate a clear contempt for his constituency I do not know what does.

****

Here's the best guess of the current state-of-play in Burnaby North - Seymour, thanks to riding-specific polling commissioned by the Dogwood Initiative:

Please note the Stealth-Con line rising between May and September, which is outside the M.O.E.

So...

If you are a member of the Seventy (plus) Percent in Burnaby North who would like to see this contempt of democracy end, do not...I repeat...DO NOT split the vote and help elect the Stealth-Con.

In other words, if you are undecided (grey) or you are 'leaning' Liberal or Green, do the right thing and vote Orange instead.

OK?


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And, make no mistake, that undecided number in this riding is very, very scary indeed...Because, all the contemptuous leader of the Stealth-Cons needs is 8% to get to that magic 33% that makes his gollems golden...Now do you see the reason they are running a campaign of hate and misdirection...It's the Rovian Rules folks, writ large.
Image at the top of the post is from the flickr page of the NatO's Mychalo Prystupa...It was taken BEFORE the election began...How else are you going to find a picture of Stealth-Con actually out among actual people in his or her riding...



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Saturday Night's Alright For Low-Fi Indie (NotCover) Fighting!

SiouxFallsWho
KnewVille


These kids, who call themselves 'Th'Rattletrap', just slay me with this tune.

Especially the combination of shamoblics and the wicked guitar breakdown that begin at 2:15.

And, as far as I can tell, it looks like the kid taking care of the latter is doing pretty much all of it with her thumb.

All killer and absolutely no filler...

_______
The band's page is...Here.
And the Sioux Falls South Dakota visualaudioscapish incubator where I've been getting all my new stuff lately is a place called the White Wall Sessions. Check out their artist archives...They're really quite something.
Previous versions of our usual Saturday Night Uke Cover Fighting feature can be found...Here.

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Tweet Of The Week....Some Things Are Worth So Much More Than Money.

It's from Bigger E.,  taken while playing for the kindness of the people down at Granville Island.

She posts her daily schedule...Here.



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Of course, I could not help but notice that the particular currency concerned was orange.
You can hear E. doing her thing in the Tunebox below on 'Fare Thee Well'.
There's a new song in the Tunebox btw, just in case you didn't notice...It's called 'Devil Town'...
And, for the Ear worm afficanados...Yup...It is 'Ingrid Bergman'.


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#Elxn42: Mr. Harper's Saudi Arabian Problem May Involve More Than Just Arms Sales.

SomeAtrocitiesAreMoreAtrocious
ThanOthersVille


First, the following, from Neil Macdonald's CBC report on Thursday's french language debate:

...Gilles Duceppe, who has suddenly taken a great interest in anything pertaining to radical Islam, kicked things off during the French-language leaders' debate last Thursday.

"As we combat ISIS," he asked Stephen Harper, "We must realize that its ideology was financed and promoted by Saudi Arabia, and we are sending billions worth of arms to Saudi Arabia.

"Would it not be sensible to say that's enough, we're stopping arms sales to Saudi Arabia? Wouldn't that be logical, given our fight with ISIS?"

Harper, a man who has portrayed his government's foreign policy as more principled and less susceptible to the power of the almighty dollar than other governments, basically replied that there's a lot of money at stake and thousands of jobs in London, Ont.

The contract to export $15 billion worth of armoured vehicles to the Saudis, he noted, is the largest in Canadian history.

Cancelling it would only punish Canadian workers, he said, and besides, the contract is "support for an ally."...


Next, there's this, from the land of Mr. Harper's 'ally':

Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was, by all accounts, a regular 17-year-old boy who loved cars and hanging out with his friends when he was sentenced to death simply for protesting against Saudi Arabia's government.

Any day now, he will be publicly beheaded and his body will be crucified and left to fester out in the open for three days despite worldwide condemnation...

Now.

I was going to write something satirical about how the minions toiling away down in the flaming hot bowels of the CPC bunker probably won't be using video footage of the latter to reinforce the importance of the former in some kind of 'Anti-Terror Uber-Alles!'  advertising bonanza for the last week of the campaign.

But.

The hypocrisy here is just too great.

And my disgust at what said minions and their boss are doing to this country is even greater.

So I won't.

OK?


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This Day In Clarkland...In Which Norm Farrell Tells Us How To Shake Things Up At BC Hydro.

TakingItToTheStreets
MLAsOnParadeVille


Mr. Farrell has a heckfire of an idea:

Opposition parties in BC ought to create a set of hearings to conduct a thorough PUBLIC examination of independent power contracts, alternative less-destructive energy sources and the state and future of BC Hydro.

MLAs should try to initiate the examination as a committee of the legislature and when Liberals refuse to participate, cross the street to a public place and begin hearings. Leave empty chairs for Liberals.

The Christy Clark Government would try to ignore the event but the public would not and the corporate media could not, without destroying what little credibility they still have on matters of resources...


And later, in the comments Norm adds this important addendum:

...One of the reasons that IPPs wanted very long term contracts, is that it transferred all business risks to BC Hydro. If the energy market suddenly collapsed, IPPs would continue smiling. There was no good reason for BC Hydro to agree to long term deals that gave full protection to suppliers except the utility followed directives from corrupt mandarins and politicians. Managers at BC Hydro that saw the mistake were given a choice: stay silent and take rewards or leave now...


Can you imagine?


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#Elxn42...StratVoting The Stealth-Con In Nanaimo-LadySmith

BurnsOnTheLine

GoAheadConVille


Nanaimo-Ladysmith is one of the places where the good folks from Leadnow have raised citizen funds to pay for a riding-specific poll that was run by Insights West a couple of weeks ago (see image above).

Now.

A couple of things to consider here.

First is that this is analysis actually contains both decideds and leaners, so there is a softness to those numbers.

Second, last time around this riding was a lot closer than it was in the snapshot poll.

So it is really really important for folks who are not heart and soul decided but only leaning Liberal and (especially!) Green to think very, very carefully about NOT helping split the vote to potentially elect the Stealth-Con in their midst.

****

And, why exactly....

Have we decided that the CPC candidate in the riding, Mark MacDonald, is one more in an ever growing list of Stealth-Cons?

Well, it turns out that he was all lined-up to speak on a local talk show.

And then some folks, led by Tweeter/Blogger Robert Jago got to discussing calling in to ask questions.

And then, suddenly, the good Mr. MacDonald was gone from Talk Show's line up.

Surprised?


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My Morning Ride.

SpinningWheel

GotToGoRoundVille

I was very surprised to discover that Inspector Clouseau had moved into the neighbourhood when I emerged from the alley this morning (see ancient Citroen, above). 

Weirdly, as I rode across town it seemed like the entire city is having a Pro-D-Day.

Heckfire, even the Safeway on outer W10th was empty while the Ramones blared.

Yes.

The Ramones as muzak.

In Safeway.

_______

Scorecard:

The Good - Seeing an old trail acquaintance again for the first time in a long time -the slow running guy.

The Gooder - Seeing a honest-to-gosh indigenous tiny speedy squirrel on the trail as well (as opposed to one of those ubiquitous fat rats with tails that have taken over everywhere).

The Not-So-Gooder - getting out of the Safeway and realizing that I'd left the red tail light on my pack flashing the entire time I was in there.

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#Elxn42....Scared Stra(igh)t!

Because if the Tweet above doesn't scare the crap out of you, it's entirely possible that absolutely nothing will.

And with that, we bring you solace (i.e. riding-specific numbers) from the folks at the Dogwood Initiative by way of Insights West that will give some of you out there a clear path to Con-Stopping (i.e. this is a place for Dippers and Greeniacs to do the right thing).

OK?

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And don't get me wrong... Like Mr. Beer 'N Hockey, in the end I truly believe in voting for the good guys for all the right, and most important reasons....It's just that to get there I have concluded that, for this election at least, we, the majority have to try and take things out of the hands of the party.

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