Category: Canadian politics

Class warfare politics again

If you’re just tuning in now, you may have been tempted to think the rising star of the conservatives will run to the rescue of beleaguered modest and middle income earners and save Canada from the elitist egg heads of the Liberal Party.

There’s a problem with that.

Both Liberal and Conservative politicians serve the same super-establishment and 1% to the cost of everyone else.

Both defend a neoliberal economic model. In fact, they all champion an economic model that since the 1980’s has wrecked the middle class and driven the wedge between rich and poor to its worst extreme in recent history.

Through no fault of their own, the rising generation of millenials may need to save for 29 years in order to afford a home in Canada’s cities.

Now, I’m a ½ generation ahead of a millenial; the so-called “GenX” now at age 45. Getting into the home ownership game wasn’t that severe for us. And we were the first unfortunate beneficiary of this neoliberal economic model. Now it’s worse.

The current duopoly of red/blue governments do nothing to change this. Their promises are mere window dressing next to the mess it’s made.

Tiny tax cuts here, boutique tax credits there hide the ugly truth behind the big lie. Both Liberals and Conservatives offer no change. More of the same.

So who does?

This guy.

For the business rags to condemn the NDPs tax agenda (which even I think is relatively timid) means that the NDP is headed in the correct direction.

Finally.

And let’s undo a narrative right now. The conservatives seem ready to cast the Liberals as a bunch of Eastern, out of touch, university egg heads completely detached from the reality on Main Street.

While there may be an element of truth to that, there is nothing wrong with being educated. In fact, that’s what we parents look forward to in our kids. Finish school, get some education/vocation and make something of yourself. Those who would demonize the educated are attacking our own youth. Stop it.

And what’s worse is that the conservatives have their own brand of super elite “egg heads” that are just as out of touch with every day folks. But they come in the flavour of energy lobbyists, social conservatives, xenophobic policy writers and advocates of the super rich.

So we’re back into a class warfare politics again. But don’t think for a moment that team blue is any better than team red. They’re both terrible.

My2bits

Everyone calm the fuck down

The NDP is not going through some existential crisis, the political ground that’s moving is on the right and far right; and this is not a playground the NDP should dabble in. Ever.

Its worth reminding folks that Saint Jack Layton was a relative centrist in his overall philosophy; this is why he appealed to so many independents and made it possible to draft folks like Thomas Mulcair. It was Jack Layton who made a pitch to the “progressives” of the (then) freshly disemboweled PC party to come aboard. If you’re keeping up, that means appealing to folks like Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell, or “red tories”.

The left of the NDP didn’t protest much as they saw the electoral success of opening that tent further and it shocked the federal Liberals to see Jack Layton eat their lunch.

So when I hear folks complain that the NDP isn’t left enough, remember that this is how we ended up with our little putsch that dumped Mulcair after his inaugural election that saw the NDP with its second best showing ever. We weren’t left enough. So we picked Jagmeet Singh.

There is some racism that’s alive and well in Canada who won’t vote for the brown man, but then those folks aren’t the type I want my party appealing to anyway. Go vote PPC since that’s more appropriate to your hateful thinking.

But in changing from the relative centrist Mulcair in favour of Jagmeet Singh, we got a left wing party whose platform is the most progressive I’ve seen in a generation. It has a green new deal and a tax on the 1%.

Oh yes, some will say it’s not enough, and some will say it goes to far. Thing is, it’s the Greens that are saying the NDP plan doesn’t go far enough and the Liberals saying it goes to far.

Wonderful! If radical Greens say your plan isn’t radical enough and do-nothing Liberals say it goes too far, then we’re probably exactly where we need to be.

As long as the NDP doesn’t fumble around in the bigoted anti immigrant tropes that the PPC/CPC are mired into, there’s plenty of room to expand the reach of the NDP.

Liberals have revealed themselves again as the party that will say anything to get elected, while doing as few possible progressive things except as necessary to stay in office.

We’re done with this.

The neoliberal economic philosophy is how we got here. The major gaps in rich and poor, the crushing of unions, the disregard towards the environment and climate change; it’s all related. None of the other party’s are prepared to tackle the system. The NDP will.

So stop your navel gazing. Let the reactionary radicals in the Greens and PPC light their hair on fire, let the Liberals and Conservatives engage in platitudes and dithering, the NDP just needs to plow forward. We’re on the right path.

My2bits

Repeat after me: “tax cuts do not pay for themselves”

Trickle down economics has never worked. Ever. Yet it was tried again here in BC when the BC Liberals took office in 2001 with results that literally anyone could have predicted.

Now a former Gordon Campbell cabinet minister reflects back on the times that were and thinks it wasn’t good times. We could have told you that Mr Abbott, but you went along with it anyways.

It’s worth noting that former BC Premier Gordon Campbell is advising the Ford gov’t in Ontario, ostensibly with a mandate to uncover areas worth cutting funds to.

New Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has also diverted some of that stinky BC Liberal bathwater to help his new govt settle into power.

This isn’t going to work out well for Alberta or Ontario.

“Tax cuts pay for themselves” is a rebranded “trickle down economics” and it’s never worked, not a single time. Yet we’re drifting towards parties that believe in this mythology.

Don’t fall for it again.

My2bits

Fair question, but poor timing, Ben.

By now, most Canadians have heard the story of the Victoria city councillor who put forward a motion to city hall to ask the Department of National Defence to help defray the policing costs of Remembrance Day and related events.

This request originated from the city’s police board as costs predictably increased.

So far so good, right? How about asking this of city hall on D-Day itself..

Ooops. Very poor timing Ben Isit.

He was met with howls of outrage from folks across the nation; seeing this as a deliberate poke at veterans.

Hold on a moment.

I have no personal connection with Ben Isit, but I’m pretty certain that he does not have a hate on for our military veterans.

We, on the left, have deep admiration for those who gave so much in the defense of our freedoms. We will always honour their sacrifice.

But if it makes it any easier, pretend it was another topic for which this is based.

Ben has inadvertently opened up a discussion on superior government offloading to local government the associated, unfunded costs of a virtually mandated event.

Nobody seems to have caught on to this. Strange that none of the taxpayer guardian organizations spoke up.

Ben didn’t suggest that the city cancel it’s Remembrance Day events or drastically reduce its scope (funding); he asked a question.

I’m not suggesting that Ben was right or even smart to lay this egg on D-Day, but his right to pose the question at all is exactly the thing that our veterans fought to defend.

If it’s true that the unfunded part of the issue is well over $100k, then someone had to speak up for taxpayers. Otherwise, city hall would have had to find funds from elsewhere to cover this gap; and given the fact that local government cannot legally run a deficit, this means either funding cuts somewhere or tax increases everywhere.

I’m sure I’m in the minority opinion here, as some would brush aside questions over “who’s gonna pay for this” because it’s the *right* thing to do.

Asking who’s going to pay for things is also the right thing to do.

My2bits.

Edit: I’ve been told that the date when the above mentioned ‘motion’ wasn’t picked by Ben Isit, but as assigned by city staff. So there’s that.

Happy pride month!

Look, as a straight white guy, I shouldn’t have anything to say about Pride Month, the rainbow flag or the many pride parades and related events happening in June.

Except for this: human rights.

Once you accept the fact that the state has no business interfering with the private affairs of consenting adults, it’s an easy journey to see why it’s our duty to speak out in support of our allies in the various corners within the rainbow community.

Nowhere on earth is it illegal for straight people to exist. Nowhere would a straight person be put to death for being straight. But in this time, on this planet, gays, transgendered folks, women, people of colour, are all feeling the hysterical backlash by powerful conservative social engineering.

It’s open season in some areas.

What happened to “do no harm”, or live and let live?

Objecting to someone else’s sexual identity or preference is like protesting what someone else orders from a restaurant menu.

It has zero effect on you so mind your own business. Or as the Bible says, “love thy neighbor”.

My2bits

Up is down and those protesting against the pending rise of a new fascism are the real enemy.

Everyone should be opposed to fascism.

I saw on my TV the white supremacist “protests” at Charlottesville from a year ago and the news of the woman their movement murdered in protesting these neo-nazis, but today I learned that this woman and the uppity protesters she was part of are the real enemy.

No seriously, that’s what opinion piece the National Post published today.

Look. In the normal discourse in politics, the normal left right and centre have this perpetual debate on issues of importance.

But it must never be ok or normalized that a group be protesting under the Nazi banner using phrases like “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil” (taken directly from 1930’s Germany).

Nobody should be ok with this. All rational left, right and centre thinking folks have to be united here. In fact, it was a failure of the rational majority to unite that saw Hitler rise to power.

Sure, opinions are constitutionally protected, especially ones published in news papers and related outlets. But it doesn’t make the article any less stupid.

Or wrong.

My2bits.

Andrew Wilkinson and his BC Liberals would be wise not to do a victory lap on the appeals court decision.

Whoops. Too late, they did.

How did we end up here? The NDP government tried to assert their right as a provincial government to protect rivers, streams and our coastline.

As it turns out, the environment wasn’t considered in this judgement, only a jurisdiction issue.

Which strikes me as odd, as the means the federal government used to initially approve #kmx was through a provincially signed “equivalency agreement”. Theoretically, if an agreement such as this can be approved, it can be repealed too.

Interesting words used in Andrew Wilkinson’s comments today that the BC govt was “smacked down”. Mr Hubris should remind Andy that it took the Supreme Court 20 minutes to “smack down” the BC Liberal government anti-teacher laws (after the BC appeals court upheld the BC Liberal government position).

This isn’t over yet. Not by a long shot.

My2bits

I’m voting for Bob Chamberlin, NDP

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This wasn’t a hard decision to be honest, but its a solid choice. Bob needs to be the next MP for Nanaimo-Ladysmith and I am happy to cast my vote for him.

But now a word about some unsettling developments that I have learned in the recent past.

I get that the other parties, candidates and their supporters/volunteers also want to win, but there is a disturbing narrative coming from some folks who profess their support for the Green party’s candidate.

I can’t say that I know their candidate on any personal level and have no reason to think he’s not genuine in his beliefs and philosophy, and I honour that – even if I’m not going to vote for that. But for some of his supporters to undercut the NDP candidate because “he’s not from here” is a chilling new kind of bigotry that I never thought would come from folks supporting a party called Green.

A short trip into history regarding their leader, Elizabeth May, would tell a story of how she went from an adviser in the Mulroney PC party government to holding memberships in the Liberals and NDP before settling on the Green Party. Her story takes her to several places as candidate before deciding on Saanich/Gulf Islands. She was a candidate in Nova Scotia and Ontario first before moving to Vancouver Island.

But, Bob Chamberlin, a ‘parachute candidate’ (who has lived in Nanaimo before, but resided in North Vancouver just prior to announcing his candidacy) is deemed by certain activists as unsuitable to be MP.

It sure takes some white-settler chutzpah to deride a First Nation candidate that he’s somehow unsuitable for this job because he spent seven years away in various roles. Especially by fans of a party that portrays itself as a friend to first nations (the Greens).

Bob Chamberlin with his long background in First Nation’s reconciliation, fish and wildlife habitat is deemed by at least some local area green party folks that his physical residency in Nanaimo deems him disqualified as a potential MP; regardless of the recent history of their own party leader travelling the country for a winnable seat to campaign in.

The Green party’s growth in recent years has been largely at the expense of the other, more established parties. This is a fact they are proud to talk about at length. Whereas, Bob Chamberlin wasn’t overtly a partisan previously, but the moment he becomes candidate he’s under attack because “he’s not from here”. That’s a very unwelcoming stand to take when your whole movement is based on welcoming folks from elsewhere.

I’m going to assume that this narrative is held only by a very small group and not promoted or held as a belief by the central campaign. We live in a region that see folks come and go all the time, and whether you just arrived here or have been here for 40+ years, you should be made to feel welcome regardless.

And to those who play that “he’s not from here, we don’t want him” card, go fuck yourself. That’s not how progressive Canadians roll.

my2bits

Shady ‘labour’ group upset at fair representation for workers

At stake are the regulations regarding large infrastructure projects in BC that the new NDP government has set in place. In a nutshell, the government is pursuing PLA’s (or project labour agreements) which pre-establish union rates and guarantee no work stoppage on a project. They can be more expensive in one sense as pay rates may be relatively higher, but also deliver certainty and are famous for their on-the-job training and apprenticeship programs.

Enter the Progressive Contractors Association, allies of CLAC.

CLAC, or Christian Labour Association of Canada and their allies, are mighty upset by this. While CLAC meets a legal definition of union in the sense of protected status as a member of an association, to most unions, they’d describe CLAC as a ‘rat union’.

CLAC hasn’t done itself any favours to quell this reputation, it lost a recent arbitration with a friendly employer it had a so-called ‘voluntary recognition agreement’ they fought against SEIU. I’ll let you read it for yourself; a link to the LRB decision is linked in the article.

CLAC and the PCA are friendly to the BC Liberals because dealing with these folks gives the BC Liberals some badly needed credentials that they need to not sound so anti-union.

We’re at this place because for 16 years, the BC Liberals gutted the apprenticeship and training programs in BC while the demand for construction and blue collar trades hasn’t gone anywhere but up. How bad is it? Then-Premier got up in front of a business crowd to call for more temporary foreign workers to build LNG.

So this may come as a surprise to folks when the BC Liberals have a phishing page on their site paying lip service to the call for BC workers being prioritized for LNG.

No, seriously.

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In my view, the court challenge being launched against the NDP government’s CBA (Community Benefit Agreement), which is a PLA by definition, is futile. PLA’s have been ruled legal and constitutional before and that’s how WAC Bennett got his dam built in the Peace Country (and many projects since).

Allies of CLAC and the BC Liberals should take this as a lesson that instead of being adversarial and attack working people, start treating them fairly and with respect and you’ll never be on the wrong side of labour again.

But that is a choice.

My2bits

Palmer’s advertorial for BC Liberal a sad display of using political talking points to draft “editorials”

A sad ‘editorial‘ published by Vaughn Palmer today misses the mark and faces a legitimate fact check.

The BC Liberals, desperate for an angle to attack the NDP have railed against the unusually high gas prices in BC, specifically in the lower mainland. They’re doing this by attacking the BC carbon tax that they would have you believe the NDP invented and jacked it all the way to 8.78 cents/litre. The fact is that the NDP did increase the already existing carbon tax by (wait for it) by 2 cents per litre in two years.

Enter, Vaughn Palmer.

Picking up where the BC Liberals left off, the opinion writer then attempts to pin *all* fuel taxes on the NDP (which were largely in place before assuming power in 2017). But don’t let a good spin get in the way of facts.

Vaughn then makes the flawed argument that the delayed Kinder Morgan expansion would ease gas prices. Its a flawed argument because its false. The pipeline expansion is for export only, and the price at the pump will likely increase.

Vaughn goes on about refineries; next time he opens his yap about refineries, he should do some research. The proposed Kitimat refinery and attached pipeline has the support of Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver.

These items are worthy of the theatrics of Question Period as they would easily be batted away by facts. I didn’t expect them to be picked up by long time reporter/opinion writer Vaughn Palmer.

my2bits