BC General Election May 14, 2013 - Advance Voting Wed May 8 to Sat May 11 - See Post #433

[Heretic]

Interesting article about BC's economy (from January 1st):

One of the top three business/economic issues for 2013 in B.C will be (according to Jock Findlayson Executive vice-president, Business Council of BC):

• The return to the PST as the HST is dismantled. This will significantly erode B.C.'s competitive position across a wide range of sectors – including manufacturing, film production, telecommunications and resource processing.

http://www.biv.com/a...utpace-national

As far as which party has done better for the GDP over the years, this was an interesting find (albeit it's from 2009):

http://thetyee.ca/Vi...9/04/23/BCEcon/

So, it looks like after the last election, the economy was improving under the Liberals...

"BC NDP's proposed $20 welfare raise 'won't tackle poverty,' says advocate"

http://thetyee.ca/Bl.../TwentyDollars/

[Lockout Casualty]

Reality Check | Who's leaving B.C.?

From January 1998 to December 2001 B.C.'s net outmigration was about 50,000 people — but that's not the full story

CBC's Reality Check team decided test to the B.C. Liberal Party's claim that tens of thousands of people left B.C. under the NDP government back in the 1990s.

"Remember Adrian Dix and the NDP 90's. Their out of control of spending meant families were pulled apart, as 50,000 people left B.C. to find work," says the Liberals' campaign ad.

When CBC News asked the Liberals for more details, they said the ad was talking about something called interprovincial migration – which is people moving in or out of B.C. to or from other provinces — not to or from other countries.

And there is some truth to what the party is saying.

According to Statistics Canada, from January 1998 to December 2001 the number of people who left B.C. for other provinces outnumbered Canadians moving to B.C. by about 50,000.

Those final years of the NDP government were the worst four years for outmigration in more than two decades for B.C.

Adrian Dix served as Chief of Staff to NDP Premier Glen clark for three years, from 1996 to 1999.

Digging deeper tells another story

But when CBC's Reality Check team started digging deeper into the stats, all the way back to 1991 — the year the NDP took office — we found people were flooding into B.C. from other provinces.

The trend continued for most of the NDP years in power. In fact so many Canadians came to B.C. during the NDP years, it more than compensated for a drain that began in 1997.

During the NDP decade from 1991 to 2001 B.C. had a net gain of 126,000 people.

According to Statistics Canada, that's double number of people who moved to B.C. during the last decade of Liberal government.

The figures show under the Liberals from 2001 to 2012, B.C. had a net gain of only 54,510 from other provinces.

New wave of outmigration underway

And there is another trend that is likely to make the Liberals uncomfortable — a new wave of outmigration underway right now.

According to Statistics Canada, beginning in 2011 more Canadians left B.C. than moved here. For the 2011-2012 year — the last numbers available, nearly 5,000 people left for other provinces.

Aaron Lind is part of this new wave of people leaving the province. He's a university graduate in history and political science who couldn't make ends meet in his field in Vancouver.

"I'm moving to Saskatchewan, because that's where I'm from. I have a great network there. I can live for free with my parents, eat some humble pie and save some money. That's the game plan," Lind told the Reality Check team.

"The people of my generation aren't foolish. Stronger economy and job creation are meaningless buzzwords. You can talk all you want about job creation, but when the jobs are seasonal, or low paying or come without benefits, long-term you are doing more harm than good."

Spinning the truth

So to sum up, the Reality Check team has concluded there is some truth to the claim that in the late 1990's (when Adrian Dix was with the NDP government) 50,000 people did leave B.C for other provinces.

But it can't be proven that they all left to find work. That's because Statistics Canada doesn't measure why they left. Some of those 50,000 were retirees, and children leaving with their families.

And looking at the 1990's as a whole, the reverse was true, the figures show.

So the Reality Check team finds the B.C. Liberal Party's claim is full of spin.

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...tmigration.html

[inane]

But but but global economies something something and they want to just tax tax tax and and shut up.

[Lockout Casualty]

But but but global economies something something and they want to just tax tax tax and and shut up.

[aGENT]

Vote Green

[Heretic]

Reality Check | Who's leaving B.C.?

From January 1998 to December 2001 B.C.'s net outmigration was about 50,000 people — but that's not the full story

CBC's Reality Check team decided test to the B.C. Liberal Party's claim that tens of thousands of people left B.C. under the NDP government back in the 1990s.

"Remember Adrian Dix and the NDP 90's. Their out of control of spending meant families were pulled apart, as 50,000 people left B.C. to find work," says the Liberals' campaign ad.

When CBC News asked the Liberals for more details, they said the ad was talking about something called interprovincial migration – which is people moving in or out of B.C. to or from other provinces — not to or from other countries.

And there is some truth to what the party is saying.

According to Statistics Canada, from January 1998 to December 2001 the number of people who left B.C. for other provinces outnumbered Canadians moving to B.C. by about 50,000.

Those final years of the NDP government were the worst four years for outmigration in more than two decades for B.C.

Adrian Dix served as Chief of Staff to NDP Premier Glen clark for three years, from 1996 to 1999.

Digging deeper tells another story

But when CBC's Reality Check team started digging deeper into the stats, all the way back to 1991 — the year the NDP took office — we found people were flooding into B.C. from other provinces.

The trend continued for most of the NDP years in power. In fact so many Canadians came to B.C. during the NDP years, it more than compensated for a drain that began in 1997.

During the NDP decade from 1991 to 2001 B.C. had a net gain of 126,000 people.

According to Statistics Canada, that's double number of people who moved to B.C. during the last decade of Liberal government.

The figures show under the Liberals from 2001 to 2012, B.C. had a net gain of only 54,510 from other provinces.

New wave of outmigration underway

And there is another trend that is likely to make the Liberals uncomfortable — a new wave of outmigration underway right now.

According to Statistics Canada, beginning in 2011 more Canadians left B.C. than moved here. For the 2011-2012 year — the last numbers available, nearly 5,000 people left for other provinces.

Aaron Lind is part of this new wave of people leaving the province. He's a university graduate in history and political science who couldn't make ends meet in his field in Vancouver.

"I'm moving to Saskatchewan, because that's where I'm from. I have a great network there. I can live for free with my parents, eat some humble pie and save some money. That's the game plan," Lind told the Reality Check team.

"The people of my generation aren't foolish. Stronger economy and job creation are meaningless buzzwords. You can talk all you want about job creation, but when the jobs are seasonal, or low paying or come without benefits, long-term you are doing more harm than good."

Spinning the truth

So to sum up, the Reality Check team has concluded there is some truth to the claim that in the late 1990's (when Adrian Dix was with the NDP government) 50,000 people did leave B.C for other provinces.

But it can't be proven that they all left to find work. That's because Statistics Canada doesn't measure why they left. Some of those 50,000 were retirees, and children leaving with their families.

And looking at the 1990's as a whole, the reverse was true, the figures show.

So the Reality Check team finds the B.C. Liberal Party's claim is full of spin.

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...tmigration.html

[inane]

VANCOUVER — It’s no secret that Christy Clark’s government has a credibility problem.

For the B.C. Liberal party to avoid annihilation on May 14, repairing damage caused by broken promises and re-establishing trust with the electorate must be priorities. But it seems they are not. Instead of treading carefully, taking pains to ensure that whatever she presents during the election campaign is airtight, verifiable and the plain honest truth, Ms. Clark continues to misinform, mislead and just make up stuff.

The premier spent almost an hour this week speaking with Vancouver radio talk show host Bill Good. He challenged her on a number of claims she’s been making on the campaign trail. Ms. Clark refers repeatedly to her government’s “balanced budget” and its efforts to make the province “debt free.”

“We have balanced the budget,” Ms. Clark insisted, once again. Not really. B.C.’s latest budget, like all government budgets presented at the start of a fiscal year, is just a document based on assumptions. It’s a “plan,” and a “forecast,” but not, as the premier tried to suggest, an achievement.

Her government’s 2013-14 budget forecasts a surplus by the fiscal year’s end. But the plan has yet to be even implemented; the election interrupted the legislative process. The province’s accounts are still in the red and the accumulated debt continues to grow. According to the Clark government’s best case scenario, the total debt will increase to almost $70 billion three years hence and won’t be eliminated for another 30 years.

Mr. Good reminded Ms. Clark of all this. “Go ask Moody’s,” the premier fired back. “Moody’s is a debt rating agency that works all over the world and looks at everybody’s budgets and decides whether or not those budgets are balanced. They said [the February budget] was balanced.”

Moody’s Investor Service said no such thing. In a research report released April 4, the credit rating agency noted that B.C. has a “plan to reach a balanced operating budget in 2013-14.” It also noted the plan “did not pass before the election.”

Ms. Clark didn’t stop there. Moody’s, she insisted, “said they are concerned if the government changes, that we are going to have a financial mess again in this province, based on what they saw in the 1990s.”

The credit agency’s April 4 report does not express such a concern. But it does drop the province’s credit rating outlook from “stable” to “negative.” This, says Moody’s, “reflects the risks to the provinces ability to reverse the recent accumulation in debt given a softened economic outlook, weaker commodity prices and continued expense pressures.”

Ms. Clark is a seasoned politician. She knows that voter mistrust is a major issue for her party. She has to be aware that each time she equivocates, she’ll be caught out. Every statement from Ms. Clark and other candidates is being seized upon, scrutinized, parsed to the letter.

Clark will disappoint those who don’t relish four years ahead with a spendthrift NDP government

Media are on hyperbole alert. Voters, too.

If Ms. Clark has a script — of course she does — she does not keep to it. At a campaign event last Thursday, she decided to play up her party’s conservative-oriented support. She claimed that two well-regarded B.C. politicians who served in federal cabinet under Prime Minister Stephen Harper were actively supporting her party’s election campaign. Stockwell Day and Chuck Strahl are “very actively helping us on the campaign and I’m really proud of the contribution they’re making,” Ms. Clark said.

Great. But Chuck Strahl is chairman of Canada’s Security Intelligence Review Committee, the group that oversees Canada’s spy agency, CSIS. As Canada’s chief spy watchdog, a position he has held since May 2012, he is expressly forbidden from playing politics. He cannot make so much as a partisan comment or he’ll damage his own credibility and that of the committee he heads. No one knows this better than Mr. Strahl.

Suggesting that he is assisting the B.C. Liberals in the current election campaign was unhelpful: To Ms. Clark, to her party and to Mr. Strahl, who had no choice but come out later and deny it.

Most won’t admit it, but B.C. Liberals despair of Ms. Clark. She’ll also disappoint others who don’t relish four years ahead with a spendthrift NDP government. The NDP’s policy platform is being released bit by bit over the provincial campaign, now in its second week. To date, the party has offered in bits and pieces a classic tax-and-spend policy, with deficit and debt relief taking a back seat. It’s anathema to a huge portion of B.C. voters.

Provincial Liberals have properly seized upon the NDP plan. They have identified and have begun to exploit the most obvious, ideological differences between the B.C. Liberals and their rivals. But Ms. Clark’s off-kilter musings undermine these efforts and they baffle. It’s their frequency that no longer causes surprise.

National Post

[aGENT]

VANCOUVER — It's no secret that Christy Clark's government has a credibility problem.

For the B.C. Liberal party to avoid annihilation on May 14, repairing damage caused by broken promises and re-establishing trust with the electorate must be priorities. But it seems they are not. Instead of treading carefully, taking pains to ensure that whatever she presents during the election campaign is airtight, verifiable and the plain honest truth, Ms. Clark continues to misinform, mislead and just make up stuff.

The premier spent almost an hour this week speaking with Vancouver radio talk show host Bill Good. He challenged her on a number of claims she's been making on the campaign trail. Ms. Clark refers repeatedly to her government's "balanced budget" and its efforts to make the province "debt free."

"We have balanced the budget," Ms. Clark insisted, once again. Not really. B.C.'s latest budget, like all government budgets presented at the start of a fiscal year, is just a document based on assumptions. It's a "plan," and a "forecast," but not, as the premier tried to suggest, an achievement.

Her government's 2013-14 budget forecasts a surplus by the fiscal year's end. But the plan has yet to be even implemented; the election interrupted the legislative process. The province's accounts are still in the red and the accumulated debt continues to grow. According to the Clark government's best case scenario, the total debt will increase to almost $70 billion three years hence and won't be eliminated for another 30 years.

Mr. Good reminded Ms. Clark of all this. "Go ask Moody's," the premier fired back. "Moody's is a debt rating agency that works all over the world and looks at everybody's budgets and decides whether or not those budgets are balanced. They said [the February budget] was balanced."

Moody's Investor Service said no such thing. In a research report released April 4, the credit rating agency noted that B.C. has a "plan to reach a balanced operating budget in 2013-14." It also noted the plan "did not pass before the election."

Ms. Clark didn't stop there. Moody's, she insisted, "said they are concerned if the government changes, that we are going to have a financial mess again in this province, based on what they saw in the 1990s."

The credit agency's April 4 report does not express such a concern. But it does drop the province's credit rating outlook from "stable" to "negative." This, says Moody's, "reflects the risks to the provinces ability to reverse the recent accumulation in debt given a softened economic outlook, weaker commodity prices and continued expense pressures."

Ms. Clark is a seasoned politician. She knows that voter mistrust is a major issue for her party. She has to be aware that each time she equivocates, she'll be caught out. Every statement from Ms. Clark and other candidates is being seized upon, scrutinized, parsed to the letter.

Clark will disappoint those who don't relish four years ahead with a spendthrift NDP government

Media are on hyperbole alert. Voters, too.

If Ms. Clark has a script — of course she does — she does not keep to it. At a campaign event last Thursday, she decided to play up her party's conservative-oriented support. She claimed that two well-regarded B.C. politicians who served in federal cabinet under Prime Minister Stephen Harper were actively supporting her party's election campaign. Stockwell Day and Chuck Strahl are "very actively helping us on the campaign and I'm really proud of the contribution they're making," Ms. Clark said.

Great. But Chuck Strahl is chairman of Canada's Security Intelligence Review Committee, the group that oversees Canada's spy agency, CSIS. As Canada's chief spy watchdog, a position he has held since May 2012, he is expressly forbidden from playing politics. He cannot make so much as a partisan comment or he'll damage his own credibility and that of the committee he heads. No one knows this better than Mr. Strahl.

Suggesting that he is assisting the B.C. Liberals in the current election campaign was unhelpful: To Ms. Clark, to her party and to Mr. Strahl, who had no choice but come out later and deny it.

Most won't admit it, but B.C. Liberals despair of Ms. Clark. She'll also disappoint others who don't relish four years ahead with a spendthrift NDP government. The NDP's policy platform is being released bit by bit over the provincial campaign, now in its second week. To date, the party has offered in bits and pieces a classic tax-and-spend policy, with deficit and debt relief taking a back seat. It's anathema to a huge portion of B.C. voters.

Provincial Liberals have properly seized upon the NDP plan. They have identified and have begun to exploit the most obvious, ideological differences between the B.C. Liberals and their rivals. But Ms. Clark's off-kilter musings undermine these efforts and they baffle. It's their frequency that no longer causes surprise.

National Post

[Armada]

Spoken like a true Liberal supporter.

I got mine, frack you.

[inane]

I know what's best for our province.

I have no problem with the NDP as much as I have a problem with Adrian Dix, something about that man worries me.

On a side note I would have voted for Jack Layton and the NDP for Federal.

[aGENT]

I know what's best for our province.

I have no problem with the NDP as much as I have a problem with Adrian Dix, something about that man worries me.

On a side note I would have voted for Jack Layton and the NDP for Federal.

[canucks_dynasty]

NDP would consider privatizing BC Place as per NEWS1130 twitter.

[ronthecivil]

NDP would consider privatizing BC Place as per NEWS1130 twitter.

[canucks_dynasty]

Much like they would consider a twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. Except they actually did say no before the actual application.

The NDP will not privatize BC Place. Not sure why they would even float the idea.

[silverpig]

Much like they would consider a twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. Except they actually did say no before the actual application.

The NDP will not privatize BC Place. Not sure why they would even float the idea.

[ronthecivil]

I heard that it wasn't just BC place, but that it was the convention center too.

They are probably just setting up the talking point of how these two projects combined cost well over a billion dollars, and want to make them into a Liberal version of the fast ferries. They won't sell them if elected, they just want to make some noise about Liberal spending now.

[Wetcoaster]

I heard that it wasn't just BC place, but that it was the convention center too.

They are probably just setting up the talking point of how these two projects combined cost well over a billion dollars, and want to make them into a Liberal version of the fast ferries. They won't sell them if elected, they just want to make some noise about Liberal spending now.

[silverpig]

Unlike the not so Fast Ferries, BC Place and the Convention Centre are valuable operating assets.

[inane]

http://www.bcndp.ca/...rm-2013-Web.pdf

NDP platform.

I certainly like the recommendations under 'enhance our democracy'.

[ronthecivil]

I heard that it wasn't just BC place, but that it was the convention center too.

They are probably just setting up the talking point of how these two projects combined cost well over a billion dollars, and want to make them into a Liberal version of the fast ferries. They won't sell them if elected, they just want to make some noise about Liberal spending now.