And yet, after the voters ordered them to get rid of the HST,  they are INCAPABLE of  returning for a full NINETEEN MONTHS  to a provincial sales tax regime that was in effect in this province for probably more than 50 years.

Pay special attention to the time lines … because I believe they tell you a lot about the Liberals’ abilities/willingness to act/react and carry out the voters’ instructions:

The Liberals were re-elected May 12, 2009 and we now know that within a very few days, their government was having dealings with the federal government over bringing in the HST …even though Premier Gordon Campbell had personally denied during the election campaign, that the HST was even being considered.

Amazingly, though, they were able to announce plans ….complete with finalized negotiations with Ottawa… to introduce the HST in BC on July 23, 2009 … only NINE WEEKS after election day…and only EIGHT WEEKS after the new government was sworn in. 

Yes, the Liberals clearly CAN work fast when they want to … it was only their acumen with financial figures was soon shown to be quite fictional ….  after they, and their economic experts, had all vowed the HST would be “revenue neutral”.

And too many in the media actually believed them … parroting that “expert assessment”  over and over ….hook, line and stinker.

But there was still more VERY FAST work to come… the Hated Sales Tax went through complete legislative consideration, debate, approval, Royal Assent, a business education program, province-wide cash register adjustments and a huge advertising campaign … ALL fast enough for the new tax to go INTO EFFECT July 1, 2010 … less than ELEVEN MONTHS after this MAJOR change in the way British Columbia does business was approved and taxpayers began paying the new levy.

Amazing speed!

And yet they expect the public to believe now that things actually take a lot longer to reverse than to implement.

Sure.

The voters spoke in August 2011 and told the government: GET RID OF THE HST.

Seems to me that would be a fairly simple legislative task: just bring back the previously repealed legislation and lists of eligible and exempt products and services.  Maybe consolidate some of old bills into a single new one; maybe even tweak the coverage; and certainly give business enough time to reset their cash registers.

Six months …tops!

But no, the business experts’ party now say the transition … back to the system we used for so many decades … will take until April 1, 2013 to implement:  NINETEEN months after the referendum results were announced.

Are provincial bureaucrats so incompetent or lazy that they can’t bring back the previous tax …legislation, regulations and all (complete with any recommended modifications of the previous Acts) in six or nine months?  If so, they are lucky to be working in government: because any administrators in private industry who said it would take them more than a year and a half to bring back a system they had used for decades before…would be out on their rear ends within weeks (without fancy lucrative severance packages too)!

I believe the lonnnnnnnnng delay is due to political reasons: an arrogant government that disrespects the will of the people as long as possible so their big business friends … and the government itself ….  can cash in as long as possible on the lop-sided HST, which has loaded an extra tax burden of hundreds of millions of dollars on consumers …especially the middle class.

And I believe the public knows this too: the latest poll dropping the Liberals to a miserable 23 per cent popular support.

The election is now only 12 months away … yet the Liberals still show no signs of understanding … let alone catering to … the public will.

People WANTED the HST be gone by now!

It could have been done; it should have been done; and every day it remains … and every extra dollar it continues to pull out of the voters’ pockets … is another nail in the coffin of the current Liberal government.

With the announcement that  the HST will linger to April 1, 2013 the only thing that can save them now would be some sort of huge NDP/Dix gaff.

Otherwise, they’re toast.

Harv Oberfeld

However, the archives/search will be open should you like to review the many topics we have discussed here.

Chat again in a few weeks.

Harv Oberfeld

I was very proud to be part of the generation that sought and demanded freedom and equality for ALL … and that, to this day, I hope has been reflected in my reporting and my blogging.

But yet, I am still so often so disappointed in the world we see: in Afghanistan, in Syria, in the Middle East in general, in China, in much of Asia, in Russia, in Africa, in Cuba, in the U.S. …. and in CANADA.

Hard to believe, but a nationwide poll of Canadians just a few weeks ago showed more than half of those asked believe Muslims can’t be trusted at all or only a little.  And to make it worse, 42 per cent of us felt discrimination against Muslims “is mainly their fault”.

Good grief!

How can this be!  How can so many Canadians still condemn an entire religious group … or the vast majority of them  … for the disgraceful actions of a very TINY, TINY minority of  violent extremists in their midst, well under 1% of the Muslim population here … and around the world?

Readers of this blog know I am a proud, strong supporter of Israel; I often have condemned strongly radical Islamists not just for their disgraceful hate-filled violence against Israelis and Jewish institutions around the world, for their barbaric middle-ages beliefs regarding women and gays; for their intolerance against Christians and other faiths; and for the damage they’ve done to the quality of life for millions of innocent people and families … including Muslims… around the world.

But surely we should be educated enough and tolerant enough to realize and understand that NO ENTIRE PEOPLE OR NATION OR FAITH should be condemned or distrusted or isolated or discriminated against because of the actions and idiocy of a small minority!

I know many will say these poll results show the Muslim majority should therefore speak up more often and more loudly to separate themselves from the extremists, terrorism-supporters and plain old racist idiots in their own midst.

Perhaps they are right:  I believe the poll shows most Canadians don’t like their silence, some questionnable fund-raising and may even see all that as complicit support for the radicals.

But whatever the cause: clearly Canada’s Islamic community has an image and p.r. problem amongst their neighbours.

But the poll was also disappointing to me in other areas the pundits regarded as “good” news.

Reportedly 70% of respondents reported high levels of trust regarding Protestants, Catholics and Jews, and 64% said they trust Aboriginals while 63% would trust immigrants.

That’s good news?  Maybe I expect too much, but in the year 2012,, in an educated society like Canada, can it be really “good news” that 35% of the population still distrust people … not because of their individual remarks or their actions … but just because of their religion or ethnicity that most of them just happened to be born into?

Aaaargh!!!!!!

And it gets worse.

How ironic that just a few weeks ago, I wrote about Canada’s largely unaddressed and hidden racist society: Quebec.  In a blog entitled “STOP Giving Quebec a Free Racism Pass” I pointed to a new study/news reports that exposed Quebec’s continuing backwardness in welcoming, accepting and integrating as full fellow citizens Quebeckers who weren’t white, Catholic, Francophone.

Of course, that did not sit well with some …as the Comments section reflected.  But this latest poll shows I was quite correct ..almost to a disappointing extent!

More than 70% of French-Canadians openly said they have “little” or “no” trust of Muslims, just because they are Muslims.

Doesn’t that do “les Quebecois” proud!

Just think about the implications of that in terms of what Muslim children face in schools, what Muslim residents experience in residential choices or finding jobs or social acceptance in Francophone communities.

“How many roads….?”

When the openly expressed distrust hits 52% among Canadians generally and 70% among Francophones, the federal and provincial governments (or federal NDP Opposition) SHOULD speak up, condemn loudly and act  … but won’t.

The votes of the racists among us are clearly more important than the principles of justice and equality in a little song.

Harv Oberfeld

(Please note: Time to take my Spring retirement trip: the blog will be down April 15 – May 15. Will then be back …all charged up, and raring to rant on!)

But contributor DonGar’s offering … and the North Shore News story he points to …. deserves special attention.

Here it is … very telling, well written …and hilarious (for most!):

“The truth be told.

Gabe Garfinkel, Executive Assistant to the Premier

“When the premier speaks, we would rather her comments not be reported.”

Read more: http://www.nsnews.com/news/Clark+words+some+ears+only/6427441/story.html#ixzz1rUF9ANTQ

Now that’s keeping it real.”

DonGar

Thanks Don.  You made my day!

Harv Oberfeld

But my political crystal ball suggested there was unhappiness growing in the land of the free enterprise empire.

Unthinkable in BC at the time … but having lived before in Quebec (where the Liberals ousted the once unbeatable Union National)  and Saskatchewan (where the NDP  overthrew the everlasting Liberals) …I knew nothing in politics is forever… even if it looks like it is.

And 1972, the people of BC did what many thought was unthinkable … and elected the “socialists”.

It was a true historical moment, and although the Socreds were returned to power, under a different Bennett (Bill) in 1975, the Socred political monopoly had been broken … forever. Various governments …Socred and NDP came and went …but again, who would ever have believed the Socreds would ever disappear from BC’s political scene completely!

Until it did … de facto if not de jure, the Socreds losing their official party status in the Legislature in 1991… never again to emerge as a political force.

What eventually replaced the Socreds was the current version of a Liberal government …a centre right coalition of Liberals, Conservatives, Socred and Reform supporters united to battle … as always …the “socialists”.

The Liberals, many thought, would be the new Socreds … destined to govern and champion the free enterprise cause for decades.

It didn’t turn out that way , as the NDP under Mike Harcourt and Glen Clark can testify.  So you would think the Liberals would have realized the modern day fragilities of attaining and keeping power.

But then came Gordon Campbell, whose critics would no doubt argue became more and more arrogant and deceitful as he held office: starting with the tearing up of legal hospital employee contracts all the way through to the HST debacle.

If Campbell did not destroy the BC Liberal brand, he sure devastated it….finally resigning in political disgrace.

Christy Clark was supposed to turn things around: make that necessary clean break from Campbell’s fall from grace; put a new progressive and respectable face on the BC Liberal brand; and bring wandering voters back into the Liberal flock. And Clark’s initial poll results showed the public was willing to give her a chance.

But little changed.

Promises of an early election were abandoned; vows to hold regular  town hall meetings around the province ended up in the bin; even appearances on friendly radio talk shows were all but cast aside; appearances/speeches of substance were substituted by photo-ops; even a Throne Speech was abandoned;  implementing the voters’ decision on the HST has been so long delayed, few believe it couldn’t be done faster; nothing was done to solve the long-suffering paramedics’ dispute; and, BC’s teachers and children became victims in a ludicrous “zero increase”  negotiating stance that seems more to be part of a Liberal campaign to try to entrap and embarrass the NDP.

And through it all, the once-destitute BC Conservative Party began to rebuild, with a new, experienced leader and new promise as a free enterprise alternative.

A recent Angus Reid poll gave the NDP , with 43 per cent support, a 20-point lead over the Liberals.

But what I found most important is that the BC Conservative Party is now tied with the Liberals …both at 23 per cent voter support.  And the Conservatives’ fortunes are clearly on the rise, while those of the Liberals are CONTINUING to decline.

So once more, my “hard to imagine” political crystal ball is acting up: it shows we could be watching the self-destruction and future demise of the Liberal Party as a BC provincial governing party.

Not in the next provincial election …but very possibly in the one following.

If the Conservatives continue to grow as a viable alternative to the failing and flailing Liberals, and they don’t turn middle of the road free-enterprisers offvoters off with some wacky ultra-right policies or even statements by leader John Cummins or the party’s candidates,,  they will have a very good chance of forming … probably not the government (unless Dix/NDP really screw up) in 2013 … but the next Official Opposition.

Just imagine what that could mean for the Conservatives in terms of credibility and opportunity as a viable alternative, and for the Liberals in terms of loss of relevance, and even public revenge for their errant past!

The fall into political oblivion could be a swift one.

Harv Oberfeld

(By the way, a reminder: I will soon be taking my Spring travel break (after all, I am retired!).  To get an instant alert as soon as I begin blogging again on my return, just sign up to follow me, free of course, on Twitter … @harveyoberfeld . No spam, ever.)

It’s our dollars after all, so we should be grateful for any effort at doing that.  And with my own experience on Parliament Hill and also dealing with the federal bureaucracy from Vancouver , I can tell you there’s lots of room for cuts … especially if they could get more public servants to work as hard and efficiently as most of us do in the private sector.

And I can regale you with LOTS of stories of what I would view as waste I personally have observed in watching the CBC at work … from fairly close up! (Maybe a future blog there!)

SO, although I appreciate and believe in the CBC’s role in our society and Canadian broadcasting, I’m not saddened, in difficult economic times, to see Finance Minister Jim Flaherty  cut the CBC’s budget by 10% over the next three years … $115 Million by 2014-15.

And frankly, I was happy to see civil service cuts in Ottawa … in the usually-untouchable bureaucracies of the Privy Council, Department of Finance and Treasury Board.  But I’m not sure about the reductions in Transport and Defence  … two departments that I’ve always felt do steady, important jobs for the country.

Tough times, though.  Right?

Well, then why …when the government uses that reason to even increase future eligibility for Old Age Security to 67 from 65 … do MPs and THEIR GOLDEN PENSIONS emerge unscathed …yet again!!!

We have to suffer; government departments have to suffer; public programs miust be cut …but our politicians will continue to wallow FOREVER in huge cash rewards they have bestowed upon themselves!

That stinks!

They certainly don’t talk about it much… but the facts are: not only do MPs get pensions after only six years in office, they can start collecting as early as 55 years of age.  (Try telling YOUR boss you want that too!)

And that’s not all: the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation calculates MPs contribute only $1 for about every $6 you and I put into THEIR pension fund … in the private sector, most of us contribute 50%; when they retire, they will also collect as pension 75% of their annual salary …most of us get 20%  …or less: and. of course, THEIRS is fully indexed … many of ours are not.

Where is the justice in all this?  How can those who have so much less be required to cut back, get less … while those who vote our cuts into law so openly guild themselves in gold …our gold?

Even Flaherty knows it’s a hard sell; his solution… “adjustments” to the MPs plan …not now, but sometime in the future, after consultation with and amongst all the MPs, and and legislation effecting anything they agree upon.  Please don’t hold your breath!

That’s what doesn’t wash with me …and I’d bet you too.

If our politicians want us to sacrifice, pay more and get less … for the good of the country…. so should they!

Especially when THEIR remuneration, pensions and benefits have so much more available room to manoeuvre.

That would be fair … so it won’t likely ever happen.

Harv Oberfeld

But what I found MOST interesting is how blunt he was in skewering the party and what it has become under Christy Clark.

Here is Van Dongen’s full statement to the Legislature:

And Canadian political traditions and practices are to blame.

Anyone who watches the Canadian electoral process … whether provincial or federal …  knows how it usually works: political parties promise us Heaven on earth ..all kinds of improvements, new programs and lower taxes…. IF we would just elect them.

Of course, when we do that… what we get soon after they’re elected, is … traditionally … just the opposite.  They sock it to us … program cuts, higher taxes and fees … saying they didn’t really know, until they saw the books,  how bad things were , and thus, they blame the previous evil government for our newly-imposed misery and suffering.

And miracle of miracles … they then, with their supposedly GREAT administration,  turn things around!  Just in time to hand out all kinds of promised goodies just before we vote again! Hallelujah!!

You can laugh at this …or cry… but the truth is IT WORKS.  Canadians fall for this over and over again … almost conditioning the politicians NOT to tell us the truth during election campaigns, but to play the game exactly as we expect.

The problem for governments, however, is when by-elections occur … usually in or beyond mid-term, but before most of  the goodies have started to flow … although a local bribe (project or funding announcement or two) often ingratiates the lucky communities going to the polls.

But by-elections catch most voters when they’re “not amused” … having suffered through the punishment first phase of the government’s term: a perfect opportunity to “let them have it back”.

That’s why the Opposition so often wins by-elections.

So in the case of the recently-announced April 19 by-elections in Port Moody-Coquitlam and Chilliwack-Hope a Liberal victory would be REALLY surprising … and a boost to the long-depressed fortunes of Christy Clark and her un-elected government.

Most might expect the NDP to win … sending “a message” to the Liberals and giving Adrian Dix and the Opposition a thumbs up vote of confidence, seemingly boding well for the future.  (Although history has often shown by-election wins are no guarantee of attainment of power in a general election that follows… after the goodies flow.)

However, these by-elections will be REALLY important and different:  because the party to watch is the Conservatives!

Just think of what a game-changer it could be if the new BC Tory party pulled even one of these off!

Clark would be in VERY BIG TROUBLE within her own caucus ….and, more importantly, with the power base and major funding sources behind the Liberal party.  Even if the backrooms are soundproofed, the thumps and bumps and pressures to dump will be heard around the province.

Even Dix would have to rethink positions and policies … although there would be absolutely no internal  revolt so close to the general election.

John Cummins and his Conservatives stand to be the big winner: not just if he wins even one of the two races, but even if the NDP wins and his party comes second … pushing the Liberals into the third place.

Wow!

This is why I love politics.

The party I support at any given time (it really does vary) need not win for me to really enjoy the process: sometimes seeing who comes second is even more interesting.

They’re just by-elections … but I can hardly wait!

Harv Oberfeld

NDP supporters won’t like it …but the TRUTH is that, in the push for power, former leader Jack Layton and the NDP party sold out the West and BC and pandered to Quebec every way they could: from proposing that ALL future Supreme Court justices be required to be expertly bilingual (bye-bye Western appointments!) to even denying Alberta and BC a fair increase in their currently under-represented number of Commons seats, to reflect the huge increase in our populations over the past decades.

At first glance, it may have looked  like turning its back on BC and the West worked: the NDP grovelling to Quebec scored well with voters in that province … but it turned the once-national party into basically a provincial power.

Disagree with that?

Well, point me PLEASE to any vote where BC’s NDP MPs have stood up for BC when it has come to achieving OUR deserved RIGHTS!

BC’s NDP MPs voted in favour of the Supreme Court bill that would SEVERELY deny BC and Western Canadian future appointments to the Supreme Court: the only thing that stopped the Bill from becoming law in the minority Parliament at the time was the much-maligned, but Tory-controlled Senate, that shot down the legislation ..and saved the West.

And since the election, BC’s NDP MPs have continued to pander to Quebec … to the point of voting AGAINST BC getting any increase in Commons seats, UNLESS Quebec  (despite its dwindling population) also got more seats ..thus WIPING OUT any potential justice for their “home” province.

Only the Tory majority (much as I hate to admit it) assured BC a fairer share of seats for future elections.

Unfortunately, I don’t see a single NDP federal leadership hopeful who I can comfortably believe would give BC’s interests and needs a FAIR representation on the national scene.  Not one!

I know a lot of British Columbians are backing our own homegrown MP Nathan Cullen …but tell me, where was HE when BC was being short-changed, discriminated against and denied equality?  From everything I can see: NOWHERE!  In fact, from my point of  view,  he was just another one of the BC NDP MP lemmings who failed to stand up for fairness on our behalf.

And if you think I’m being too “provincial”, what about the candidates???

Have you seen anything that shows Thomas Mulcair, the former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister,  would EVER vote against Quebec’s interests in Ottawa to give the West a fair break; any hint that Ottawa MP Paul Dewar would deviate from backing his Ottawa constituents interests; or that Peggy Nash, a former Toronto MP,  who seems to worship “la francophonie” would DARE to ever stand up to Quebec nationalists or against Ontario’s power in Ottawa to back BC or Alberta???

Which brings me to Brian Topp … again, not a great past proven voice for BC either, but at least as former party president, he has a history of working for the NDP when it was a national, not a regional party.

He knows the importance of the West and therefore seems to recognize the need to return the NDP to being a NATIONAL party if it is ever to achieve power.

He has, in fact, actually lived in BC and  also worked in Saskatchewan for the NDP Romanow government. And Adrian Dix at one time tagged him to manage the next provincial NDP election campaign here.

Because he was part of the NDP establishment under Layton … I can’t give him an unqualified endorsement either as someone who I can wholeheartedly trust to give BC a fair deal on issues in Ottawa if elected as leader.

But at least he hasn’t voted AGAINST us. Yet.

Harv Oberfeld

This week I watched Clark’s latest director of “communications” (LOL!), Sara Macintyre,  standing there on camera, telling reporters the premier would not be taking any questions that day. (LOL!)  While Clark was there for all to see, in a kind of faraway fuzzy photo-op, as if she was pretending to be premier… but avoiding “the riff raff” public’s messengers  and their questions (LOL!).

I actually laughed out loud watching that bizarre scene! (LOL!)

But the on-going message, witnessed by a couple of hundred thousand British Columbians,  is quite a serious one…

Clark is becoming a joke.

A provincial premier, never elected to that post, now decides she just won’t take any questions except when she wants to  …even when she’s out doing “public” appearances.

Who does she think she is?  Queen Elizabeth?  Oprah? Lindsay Lohan?  Or Stephen Harper?

LOL!

Why Harper? Because in her previous incarnation, Macintyre was press secretary for Harper … one of the most unapproachable prime ministers I can ever remember … who not only rarely takes questions, but also forbade public officials from answering media questions or doing interviews without getting approvals … and the party line…from Ottawa HQ.

Almost a total disrespect for the public’s right to know..or the media’s right to ask questions.

Another funny thing, though: before joining the dark side, Macintyre worked for the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation, which has a long history of supporting the public’s right to ask questions, get all kinds of information and demand answers from politicians.  And she was a great spokesperson for them IN VICTORIA!!!

A hypocrite?  Or just a joke?

No matter.  It’s not her who will pay for the highest price for this latest stupidity: it will be Clark.

Clark and Macintyre and anyone else who supposedly is in the business of managing the premier  know BC is NOT Ottawa. In the nation’s capital, there are so many spread out ministries and constantly changing issues  as well as all kinds of regional affairs …not to mention a huge security bubble …  that the PM and his ministers can easily avoid the media and the people. Not so in BC: both the media and public here are a lot closer to the politicians on a daily basis.

Does the acting premier actually believe the people of this province will be impressed when they see her media manipulators pronouncing “The premier will take no questions today!” ?????

Who is plotting her communications strategy these days? John Cummins?

I hope the media will show that and report that EACH AND EVERY TIME IT HAPPENS.

That will put an end to the practice …or show just how badly Clark’s handling of herself in the premiers job is deteriorating day by day.

Harv Oberfeld