Saturday, March 28, 2009
March 28, 2009 - Gary Mason, Ian Bailey, Les Leyne, Times Colonist editorial, Neal Hall
.
As election looms, new revelations about BC Rail stir up waters
Gary Mason
The Globe and Mail - March 28, 2009
VANCOUVER — B.C. Liberals are hoping new questions regarding Premier Gordon Campbell's involvement in the controversial sale of BC Rail back in 2003 fade away – just as they did then.
But it may be different this time ...
Read Gary Mason's complete column HERE. Recommended.
______________________________
BC Premier sticks to 'no comment'
Ian Bailey
The Globe and Mail - March 28, 2009
Politically correct. Might help if readers act fast and leave comments, before The Globe and Mail closes off further submissions.
Read Ian Bailey's complete column HERE.
______________________________________
BC Rail needed management smarts
Les Leyne
Times Colonist - March 28, 2009
The reader of this next column may require boxing gloves. But if you can take the punch-up, it's a useful test of where the issues are important, and where they are not. Of course, it leaves out the question of "How did we lose BC Rail?", but here are two gems from the pen of Les Leyne:
Quote: ... but here's something that needs to be said: His [Kinsella's] $297,000 contract with B.C. Rail was a flat-out farce. And the explanation given for it is an even bigger farce. Imagine a government-owned entity hiring the ranking government relations expert in B.C. in order to get advice on how to deal with the government.
On what planet does that scenario make any sense? Since when do Crown corporations need government relations advice?
Quote: B.C. Rail, in an unsigned statement, said the contract ran 49 months, from 2001 to 2005, and he was paid $6,000 a month. But the whole core review exercise -- that searching examination of everything government was doing -- didn't even last half that long. It was a distant memory by 2005.
The management geniuses kept shelling out $6,000 a month for outside advice for about two years after the conclusion of the project on which they were seeking advice.
If nothing else, the contract and the justification explain why B.C. Rail was such a dead loss as a business enterprise. The management was so completely bereft of business smarts they had to hire outside help to tell them how to get along with their only shareholder.
And if you buy their ridiculous story, they kept him around for years longer than needed.
It leads to a paradoxical conclusion: The sale of B.C. Rail was a good deal, if only because it rescued the company from management that didn't even know how to deal with the government, let alone run a railway properly.
Read Les Leyne's complete paradoxical column HERE.
Excuse me, Les: BC Rail was NOT a dead loss. Not even close. Where'd you get that idea? - BC Mary
________________________________________________________
We need answers on Kinsella's role
Editorial
Times Colonist - March 28, 2009
Quote: ... It is important to avoid prejudicing the accuseds' rights to a fair trial; it's also important to recognize the public interest in the sale and its handling.
And it is possible to reconcile the two. The trial is not being heard by a jury, which provides more latitude for answers. Judges are considered able to ignore information that is not relevant or admissible in reaching their decisions, unless it is extremely prejudicial. ...
Full editorial HERE.
Apart from the usual back-handed swipes at the Opposition -- as if the New Democrat Opposition had sold BC Rail in a secret deal -- this is an interesting new statement to be coming at this time from a CanWest newspaper. It poses the new question: is it really possible to ride a horse in two opposite directions at the same time?? - BC Mary.
________________________________________________________
Kinsella worked for both sides, lawyer says
NDP hits Liberals over BC Rail deal
Neal Hall
Vancouver Sun - March 27, 2009.
Read the full story HERE.
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As election looms, new revelations about BC Rail stir up waters
Gary Mason
The Globe and Mail - March 28, 2009
VANCOUVER — B.C. Liberals are hoping new questions regarding Premier Gordon Campbell's involvement in the controversial sale of BC Rail back in 2003 fade away – just as they did then.
But it may be different this time ...
Read Gary Mason's complete column HERE. Recommended.
______________________________
BC Premier sticks to 'no comment'
Ian Bailey
The Globe and Mail - March 28, 2009
Politically correct. Might help if readers act fast and leave comments, before The Globe and Mail closes off further submissions.
Read Ian Bailey's complete column HERE.
______________________________________
BC Rail needed management smarts
Les Leyne
Times Colonist - March 28, 2009
The reader of this next column may require boxing gloves. But if you can take the punch-up, it's a useful test of where the issues are important, and where they are not. Of course, it leaves out the question of "How did we lose BC Rail?", but here are two gems from the pen of Les Leyne:
Quote: ... but here's something that needs to be said: His [Kinsella's] $297,000 contract with B.C. Rail was a flat-out farce. And the explanation given for it is an even bigger farce. Imagine a government-owned entity hiring the ranking government relations expert in B.C. in order to get advice on how to deal with the government.
On what planet does that scenario make any sense? Since when do Crown corporations need government relations advice?
Quote: B.C. Rail, in an unsigned statement, said the contract ran 49 months, from 2001 to 2005, and he was paid $6,000 a month. But the whole core review exercise -- that searching examination of everything government was doing -- didn't even last half that long. It was a distant memory by 2005.
The management geniuses kept shelling out $6,000 a month for outside advice for about two years after the conclusion of the project on which they were seeking advice.
If nothing else, the contract and the justification explain why B.C. Rail was such a dead loss as a business enterprise. The management was so completely bereft of business smarts they had to hire outside help to tell them how to get along with their only shareholder.
And if you buy their ridiculous story, they kept him around for years longer than needed.
It leads to a paradoxical conclusion: The sale of B.C. Rail was a good deal, if only because it rescued the company from management that didn't even know how to deal with the government, let alone run a railway properly.
Read Les Leyne's complete paradoxical column HERE.
Excuse me, Les: BC Rail was NOT a dead loss. Not even close. Where'd you get that idea? - BC Mary
________________________________________________________
We need answers on Kinsella's role
Editorial
Times Colonist - March 28, 2009
Quote: ... It is important to avoid prejudicing the accuseds' rights to a fair trial; it's also important to recognize the public interest in the sale and its handling.
And it is possible to reconcile the two. The trial is not being heard by a jury, which provides more latitude for answers. Judges are considered able to ignore information that is not relevant or admissible in reaching their decisions, unless it is extremely prejudicial. ...
Full editorial HERE.
Apart from the usual back-handed swipes at the Opposition -- as if the New Democrat Opposition had sold BC Rail in a secret deal -- this is an interesting new statement to be coming at this time from a CanWest newspaper. It poses the new question: is it really possible to ride a horse in two opposite directions at the same time?? - BC Mary.
________________________________________________________
Kinsella worked for both sides, lawyer says
NDP hits Liberals over BC Rail deal
Neal Hall
Vancouver Sun - March 27, 2009.
Read the full story HERE.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Comments:
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I'm sorry....
But.
The flaws in Mr. Leyne's logic are laughable.
Not to mention the assumptions he uses to base his conclusion on.
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Mason's column is good, but...you really have to wonder if he's seen something more than the Pilothouse memo re: the CN/BCR consultant connection.
.
But.
The flaws in Mr. Leyne's logic are laughable.
Not to mention the assumptions he uses to base his conclusion on.
____
Mason's column is good, but...you really have to wonder if he's seen something more than the Pilothouse memo re: the CN/BCR consultant connection.
.
From the Times-Colonist editorial:
"According to the financial records of B.C. Rail, Kinsella's companies were paid $297,000 between 2002 and 2005."
How come we are allowed to know how much Gordo's bud Pat was paid, but five years later STILL have no idea about the terms of the actual sale, or lease, or disposal/giveaway - whatever - of BC Rail. I guess it depends on which of Gordo's statements one chooses to accept. Like many others, I wonder what happened to the obligatory picture of the Premier smiling while holding up the oversize ONE BILLION dollar cheque?
"If Kinsella was also a lobbyist or adviser to CN, did Campbell understand that was his role?"
"Did the premier's office consider him a lobbyist or an adviser? Was it aware that B.C. Rail was paying his companies $6,000 a month for advice?"
The above are definitely good questions, BUT, was the editorial writer able to keep a straight face while typing them? As if the micro-managing CEO of BC wouldn't know exactly what his buddy and campaign manager was doing!"
"According to the financial records of B.C. Rail, Kinsella's companies were paid $297,000 between 2002 and 2005."
How come we are allowed to know how much Gordo's bud Pat was paid, but five years later STILL have no idea about the terms of the actual sale, or lease, or disposal/giveaway - whatever - of BC Rail. I guess it depends on which of Gordo's statements one chooses to accept. Like many others, I wonder what happened to the obligatory picture of the Premier smiling while holding up the oversize ONE BILLION dollar cheque?
"If Kinsella was also a lobbyist or adviser to CN, did Campbell understand that was his role?"
"Did the premier's office consider him a lobbyist or an adviser? Was it aware that B.C. Rail was paying his companies $6,000 a month for advice?"
The above are definitely good questions, BUT, was the editorial writer able to keep a straight face while typing them? As if the micro-managing CEO of BC wouldn't know exactly what his buddy and campaign manager was doing!"
.
We're so accustomed to hearing it over and over ... but it suddenly seemed hysterically laughable today (in the TC editorial too) when it began to seem as if it was the NDP that sold BC Rail ... !
At very least, the bad, ba-a-ad NDP keeps mentioning stuff like Kinsella, and Dobell, and so it' all an election ploy.
Yeah, that's it ... BC Rail is a mere election ploy. Again.
.
We're so accustomed to hearing it over and over ... but it suddenly seemed hysterically laughable today (in the TC editorial too) when it began to seem as if it was the NDP that sold BC Rail ... !
At very least, the bad, ba-a-ad NDP keeps mentioning stuff like Kinsella, and Dobell, and so it' all an election ploy.
Yeah, that's it ... BC Rail is a mere election ploy. Again.
.
Mary and/or Anon-O-Mice et al.--
Does anybody know anything about this potential 'extra' $200,000 that may have gone to one of Mr. Kinsella's companies as a 'bonus' that was mentioned in Mr. Mason's column this morning?
Thanks,
RossK
_____
(fleshed out a little at my place for anybody interested, here)
.
Does anybody know anything about this potential 'extra' $200,000 that may have gone to one of Mr. Kinsella's companies as a 'bonus' that was mentioned in Mr. Mason's column this morning?
Thanks,
RossK
_____
(fleshed out a little at my place for anybody interested, here)
.
Has anyone seen the Premier, in public, since he slipped into the Legislature to appease the First Nation people via a speech but not the Press, and out again?
Over at Mr. T's Deep Throat has set the stage:
"Mr. Premier, its Clark Roberts here…let me in.
Oh, hello Clark.
Mr. Premier, it’s really dark in here why don’t you open your office blinds after all it’s a beautiful Victoria sunny day outside…"
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Over at Mr. T's Deep Throat has set the stage:
"Mr. Premier, its Clark Roberts here…let me in.
Oh, hello Clark.
Mr. Premier, it’s really dark in here why don’t you open your office blinds after all it’s a beautiful Victoria sunny day outside…"
# posted by 
: March 29, 2009 at 3:23 p.m.
: March 29, 2009 at 3:23 p.m. << Home
