My friends who are NDP supporters are quick to condemn the BC Liberals for policies that favor big business, the rich and privileged, at the cost of the kids.
After all, there’s plenty of money to give the corporations more and more breaks (HST, tax grants, subsidies and even huge contracts for mega projects). We can afford a $6 Billion Olympics, a $600 million Sea to Sky highway, help to put a new $600 million roof on BC Place (note the 666 connection?) … BUT there’s not enough money to do the major repairs needed at so many deteriorating schools throughout the province; there’s too little dough now to adequately fund school sports programs; or to avoid slashing programs and funding for community groups that help kids and struggling parents just to get through life’s challenges and problems.
The left wouldn’t do that, would they?
Well, take a look at Vancouver! Vision has control of not only City Hall but the Parks Board as well … and here too, the kids will be taking the hit to fund ideology-driven left wing social programs.
It is absolutely incredible that, with costs now up to more that $600,000 to $800,000 per unit, Vision still has its ideological blinders on and is so determined to have 250 units of waterfront social housing, for no other reason that to have waterfront social housing, that is plowing ahead with a clearly financially unjustifiable scheme.
If they REALLY cared about social housing, they would sell those units at market value and likely be able to buy/build TWICE AS MANY social housing units throughout the city. Clearly they don’t really care as much as pretend: ideology trumps the real need!
And any suggestion they offer that they could set those units aside now for social housing but later sell them off to build more elsewhere, is pure bull! Can you just imagine the battle that would have to be fought by ANY city council that later changed the plan after those units are occupied and tried to move the social housing tenants out … evict them!
Just think of what the money from the sale of just ONE of those units could do for kids in the city!! Maybe even keep the Stanley Park children’s farm going, keep open the Bloedel conservatory in Queen Elizabeth Park ..and have $200,000 left over for other programs!!!
The Vision-controlled Park Board, despite $40 million dollars a year in user fees, can’t make a go of it. So their proposed solution … close the farm and the conservatory …. making kids take the hit!
The children’s farmyard draws 150,000 visitors each year … and is the only place left inside city, apart from the costly PNE, where youngsters can get to see real farm animals … aside from the meat department at the grocery store.
We don’t have the $160,000 needed to keep the kid’s farm going … and we can’t raise fees another $1 or make cuts anywhere else?
But we had $48 MILLION to refurbish the Queen Elizabeth theatre. (I hear the new chandeliers are particularly beautiful.)
And this summer, when I took a couple of Florida visitors to the Bloedel conservatory,while the beauty of the plants … from tropical to desert varieties … enthralled the adults, I could not help but notice how all the kids visiting at the time were absolutely captivated by the brilliant colours of the exotic birds flying around inside. Something they can’t see anywhere else in the Lower Mainland.
Surely a city is more than a place of skyscrapers, roads, buses, arenas and monuments!
It’s things like the children’s farm and the conservatory that add to Vancouver’s soul. And bring smiles and giggles to so many kids.
We will all be the poorer for it if City Hall “vision” is so ideologically driven that it is determined to waste money on its own “pet” mega projects … and make the kids take the hit.
Maybe they’re not so different from the Liberals after all.
Harv Oberfeld
16 responses so far ↓
1 SharingIsGood // Nov 19, 2009 at 2:26 am
I wonder, Is Vision really a left-wing group, or are they just slightly left of the BC Liberals? I don’t see the mayor as being particularly left wing. I see him as being just a bit left of Gordon Campbell’s liberals; we know that the BC Liberals are extremely right wing (Fraser Institute/”Chicago School” economics followers) who always aspire to privatize as much as the populace will allow.
With all the political movement in North America to the right since the day Nixon got into power and made the US dollar the international monetary standard, many of us have forgotten what socialism truly is. I don’t believe that Robertson and his crew are socialists. I believe that if you drew a line in the middle between Fraser Institute Libertarianism and Norway’s Socialism, one would find that Vision Vancouver falls in the right half.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_school_(economics)
(Response: I wouldn’t call them socialist, but, in my view, they certainly are a lot further left than Gordon Campbell! h.o)
2 Genuine // Nov 19, 2009 at 2:53 am
And how much for that ideological bike lane on the Burrard street bridge?These politicians get worse as the years go by,just think how hard those kids that are growing up today are going to be.They have money to do whatever they did to the bridge a few concrete dividers and signage done in a matter of days cost a million dollars,I don’t believe that for a minute ,we are getting taken left,right and center,the very things we pay taxes for are being taken away while their junkets and perks climb through the roof ,what is needed is a wholesale revamping of democracy ,because they keep using the old phrase for the good of the many a few must suffer,well people they managed to completely turn that around because as I see it the many are suffering for the good of a few that were elected!!!
(Response: It’s not the bike lane itself that bothers me … seems to be working and not really hurting traffic flow across the bridge. But Vision has done NOTHING concrete to solve the problem for Art Knapp’s Garden Centre … literally letting that business suffer and possibly go under needlessly by banning right turns at that corner, destroying their drive-by customer base . Apparently this council don’t think bike users are capable of watching for right turning cars at that corner. Or is willing to sacrifice a business and all the jobs that go with it just for an ideologic idea. h.o.)
3 Brad // Nov 19, 2009 at 3:03 am
“This is a government that knows it misled … “They did it intentionally during the election campaign, and since they’ve gained power, have been finding every possible way to back away from the commitments they’ve made.”
Remember the BC Liberals during the election campaign? Well that quote is not about them but it should be.
It’s in actual reference to the new NDP government in Nova Scotia. And they are also backing away from their election promises as well as from helping the poor and unfortunate.
And that includes the kids.
Come again??? Only the BC Liberals do that??!!
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/9014097.html
No matter what political stripe, it’s “All Politics, All the Time.”
Sad unfortunately.
4 Norman Farrell // Nov 19, 2009 at 5:15 am
Please don’t assume those of us who criticize the BC Liberals are automatically NDP supporters. I haven’t seen anything yet from the Official Opposition that suggests they would be different that when they last held power. The Liberals are rewarding their friends at almost every opportunity but the NDP did that too. Just a different set of friends.
It is time for politicians to completely revise their manner of conduct. That means becoming accountable, in a realistic way, and living up to campaign promises.
Campbell said all the right things about open government before he was first made Premier. Like numerous other promises, that was thrown in the garbage. The lie openly – “The HST was not on our radar” – and laugh at citizens who object.
The NDP or Conservatives or BC Independence Party or whoever had better set out a firm platform with absolute guarantees that it is meaningful.
I’m thinking of trying to revive the Rhinoceros Party. At least, they openly promised to keep none of their promises. Turned out they were the only party being truthful.
(Response: Exactly correct. When I criticise one party, I am accused to supporting the other. Ho hum! You and I critique based on our views, ideas, experience and independent thought But what never ceases to amaze me are the partisan radicals ..who support their party, only their party (or ideology) and can NEVER see anything good in anything another party does.. How intellectually dishonest they are! h.o)
5 thecossack // Nov 19, 2009 at 5:52 am
Maybe there is a few dollars left over from the millions in the Stanley park tree fund to help out the kiddies. Or instead of wasting money on a dead tree that just wants to fall down, give it to the little farm. A number of possibilities are about.
Lets face it, history has shown us that regardless of political stripe, its the ideology of the elected that steers the decisions. Just for a change it would be nice to have ‘people’s needs’ driven agenda.
If the city wants to play land developer, let the profits go to something useful. Trouble is, everybody’s idea of that is different.
(Response: Good point about the tree .. although I understand that money was privately raised. But how can we find $$ for that..but not for useful, entertainingg and educational sites/prgrams! h.o)
6 Genuine // Nov 19, 2009 at 6:06 am
Exactly I’m of no political denomination,just like many others ,we sit back and expect to hear truthful platforms and promises,then we make up our minds,that’s the way its supposed to work!!But these bast#### lie cheat and steal,then the media try to shame us for not getting out to vote,I say shame on the media and shame on all politicians you both have let the citizens down ,and shame on us for giving you trust and notoriety .
7 Crankypants // Nov 19, 2009 at 8:07 am
There is a very simple solution to the park board’s money woes. Deep six the park board. They are just another layer of bureaucracy that is costly and of no value. As far as I know, Vancouver is the only municipality that seems to have one. As a former Vancouver resident, I used to hate voting in municipal elections because their ballot was about the size of a phone book, and if the eliminated the park board portion of the programme, they could reduce the ballot size to maybe the size of a novel.
Seriously, the salaries saved by dumping the park board would go a long way to helping the city and its taxpayers deal with these economic times.
(Response: You really could be on to something here. I understand Vancouver is the only city in North America to have an elected Park Board. Let’s face it, City Hall still wields most of the power. So why not do away with board ..save millions on duplicate administrative costs and replace the board with a committee of council members and/or citizens who volunteer or participate for just an honorarium. h.o.)
8 DMJ // Nov 19, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I see, Vancouver continues to be a grade B movie, despite the council makeover.
Dumping on kids is not just a city or provincial thing, it is a national disgrace. I have traveled many times to Europe and the one thing that stands out that kids are number 1 (well except in the UK). Kids are the future of the country.
In Canada, Kids are impoverished, exploited used and abused by the nations political parties and being the cynic I am, feel it is simply because they can’t vote.
Government hates kids brcause they have to spend money on kids with little or no payback.
9 Dan // Nov 19, 2009 at 6:03 pm
RIGHT on Harvey, as usual! That’s probably the main reason for apathetic voter turn out, politicians all say what ever to get elected and then run with their unspoken agenda.
10 Leah // Nov 19, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Harvey, there has been so little difference between the NDP and the Liberals over the past 8 years, one can’t realistically expect change now, can they? In a word, the NDP have been “pathetic.”
This is quite the most useless opposition I’ve ever seen…and no, I’m not NDP, nor Liberal, nor Conservative, nor Green…I vote according to issues, and the needs of the province as a whole. I have to say, politically, I’ve never been more ashamed of the province I was born and raised in, than I am right now.
11 Kim // Nov 19, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Democracy is broken here, on every level of government. I have to lay some blame on us, the voters, for not doing a better job of communicating our needs to governments and backing it up with insisting that our objectives be met.
We fell asleep in the navigators seat and got taken for a joyride. I think commerialized tv programming probably bored us to sleep
(Response: You make an important point. TV HAS mesmerized most people into a non-participatory trance: they watch their dramas, sports, comedy, reality shows etc and most dont pay much attention to what’s going on with government, except that they surmise all parties are alike, all politicians are liars and you can’t believe anything any of them promise to do …or lately even NOT to do. PARENTS have to change trhat ..first with themselves and second, with their kids ..so the next generation will be the ACTIVE generation. h.o)
12 Kim // Nov 19, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Even what passes for news is fed to us in 30 second bytes, designed to anesthetize.
13 Henri Paul // Nov 19, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Leah // Nov 19, 2009 at 6:23 pm
This is quite the most useless opposition I’ve ever seen
————————————————-
Useless is putting it mildly, we had more going when there was only 2 sitting members in opposition.
We need a third party fast, or return to the better, two only in opposition strategy.
14 Leah // Nov 20, 2009 at 5:48 am
HP – I agree. We had far more effective opposition with only two…how sad is that?! Maybe we need to bring those two back to the top, and show the current do-lessers how it’s done.
We do need a third party, but we need it very, very soon. It will take time to build the new party with the quality of minds, and values this province is in critical need of. Any ideas?
15 Lynn // Nov 20, 2009 at 10:27 am
A third party? splitting the votes and letting El Gordo in AGAIN! Are you kidding me?
16 BC Mary // Nov 23, 2009 at 4:09 am
I’m with Lynn on this.
But … if we accept things as they are, it means we’re left with a 1-party system if the Opposition continues to fail expectations.
So to have a functioning 2-party democracy again, somebody with broad shoulders must shake some sense into the BC NDP. The Opposition are not bad people, but they have lost their bearings somehow or other.
Maybe there’s a clue in this YouTube, created by Citizen-Cameraman – Alastair Haythornthwaite — who has given permission to distribute it widely …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M583BUnIt9w
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