Friday, December 24, 2010
Wishing British Columbia
.
to the wonderful people who contribute to The Legislature Raids and give me loads of encouragement,
to the wonderful bloggers who take on the extra work of maintaining their own unique and valuable blogs,
to the quiet readers who stop by, read a little, then move on to think things over from a little bit different angle,
to the genuine whistle-blowers, the genuine journalists, and all others who care deeply enough about British Columbia that they keep digging to find the hidden facts of what happened to that precious link: BC Rail,
I wish you a very merry Christmas with family and friends. I wish good health to everyone. I wish good luck and good news to us all.
I especially wish to send a loving Thank You to these exceptional Canadians:
Robin Mathews ... Laila Yuile ... RossK ... Kootcoot ... Grant Gough ... Gary Edwards ... Ian Reid. May your New Year be filled with good news.
Bill Tieleman deserves special thanks for unfailing generosity when asked for advice or information, and again thanks to Bill for setting up the process which says: Go to www.Facebook.com and search "Basi-Virk Public Inquiry" to find the page and join up to demand a Public Inquiry into how Canada's 3rd largest railway slipped from public ownership into private pockets.
Interesting suggestion from Skookum1 for improving the quality of government ...
Skookum1 comments:
There is a movement to get rid of Party politics in BC. Both the NDP and the Liberals have outlived their usefulness and have each contributed to the demise of the inherent wealth of BC. It is now up to each of us individually.
I'm all for an end to caucus solidarity as an institution, and party discipline of individual MLAs should be forbidden. Even a return to pre-1903 non-party times would be preferable to the warring camps of extremists we see doing nothing but lie, on the one side, and waffle and shuffle their feet, on the other.
Proposal: that the current Independents and those who may join them, from either side of the House or may win seats in the coming election, run under the "Independent Caucus" banner, and candidates using that promise to represent their constituents and refuse party ties.
Given the resentment and hostility towards the Punch-and-Judy show of the two-party system as we know it, it's quite possible the Independent Caucus could form a majority of seats; while not a party they could still hold enough sway to nominate/elect one of their number to be Premier and the Lieutenant-Governor would have to recognize that (as was the case 1871-1903).
Party disciplne must end, and if it results in half a dozen parties in the House and coalition government, then the resulting cabinet should also be coalition, or multi-party, on the European model; such that cabinet secrecy, when needed, is not used as a shield for partisan misconduct and illegal activities, as we have seen more and more evidence of.
The major media in CAnada constantly deride minority government as weak and unstable; really what they're doing is endorsing autocratic, centralized rule by majorities formed out of electoral minorities. The media, who are corporate in bias, view multi-party government and true democracy as a threat to "stability" - which means more of the same, business as usual, no upsetting the applecart of corporate-political corruption.
And that is the real reason they've tried to shove the BC Rail scandal and more into the dustbin of national politics and pretend it's not going on.
Until the bias is changed by an example of a coalition/minority/cooperative government, formed out of independent members who make a point of representing their constituents instead of serving as mouthpieces and pet monkeys of their party machine, that is. But most likely the Big Media will try and make life uncomfortable for the applecart-rockers, who are anathema to the political/media establishment in Canada. Every time you hear a politician talking about what a great system the parliamentary system is, that's just someone protecting their own interests, not someone speaking from high principle.
CP and BNSF and other bidders should have sued the BC government and/or CN. That they didn't doesn't mean that "we" can't....OmniTRAX would never have considered such a case, due to their own exposed involvement in influence-buying.....I suspect WMG didn't either, because of whatever they may have had Bruce Clark doing for them....
Merry Christmas 2010
to the wonderful people who contribute to The Legislature Raids and give me loads of encouragement,
to the wonderful bloggers who take on the extra work of maintaining their own unique and valuable blogs,
to the quiet readers who stop by, read a little, then move on to think things over from a little bit different angle,
to the genuine whistle-blowers, the genuine journalists, and all others who care deeply enough about British Columbia that they keep digging to find the hidden facts of what happened to that precious link: BC Rail,
I wish you a very merry Christmas with family and friends. I wish good health to everyone. I wish good luck and good news to us all.
I especially wish to send a loving Thank You to these exceptional Canadians:
Robin Mathews ... Laila Yuile ... RossK ... Kootcoot ... Grant Gough ... Gary Edwards ... Ian Reid. May your New Year be filled with good news.
Bill Tieleman deserves special thanks for unfailing generosity when asked for advice or information, and again thanks to Bill for setting up the process which says: Go to www.Facebook.com and search "Basi-Virk Public Inquiry" to find the page and join up to demand a Public Inquiry into how Canada's 3rd largest railway slipped from public ownership into private pockets.
Happy New Year 2011
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Interesting suggestion from Skookum1 for improving the quality of government ...
Skookum1 comments:
There is a movement to get rid of Party politics in BC. Both the NDP and the Liberals have outlived their usefulness and have each contributed to the demise of the inherent wealth of BC. It is now up to each of us individually.
I'm all for an end to caucus solidarity as an institution, and party discipline of individual MLAs should be forbidden. Even a return to pre-1903 non-party times would be preferable to the warring camps of extremists we see doing nothing but lie, on the one side, and waffle and shuffle their feet, on the other.
Proposal: that the current Independents and those who may join them, from either side of the House or may win seats in the coming election, run under the "Independent Caucus" banner, and candidates using that promise to represent their constituents and refuse party ties.
Given the resentment and hostility towards the Punch-and-Judy show of the two-party system as we know it, it's quite possible the Independent Caucus could form a majority of seats; while not a party they could still hold enough sway to nominate/elect one of their number to be Premier and the Lieutenant-Governor would have to recognize that (as was the case 1871-1903).
Party disciplne must end, and if it results in half a dozen parties in the House and coalition government, then the resulting cabinet should also be coalition, or multi-party, on the European model; such that cabinet secrecy, when needed, is not used as a shield for partisan misconduct and illegal activities, as we have seen more and more evidence of.
The major media in CAnada constantly deride minority government as weak and unstable; really what they're doing is endorsing autocratic, centralized rule by majorities formed out of electoral minorities. The media, who are corporate in bias, view multi-party government and true democracy as a threat to "stability" - which means more of the same, business as usual, no upsetting the applecart of corporate-political corruption.
And that is the real reason they've tried to shove the BC Rail scandal and more into the dustbin of national politics and pretend it's not going on.
Until the bias is changed by an example of a coalition/minority/cooperative government, formed out of independent members who make a point of representing their constituents instead of serving as mouthpieces and pet monkeys of their party machine, that is. But most likely the Big Media will try and make life uncomfortable for the applecart-rockers, who are anathema to the political/media establishment in Canada. Every time you hear a politician talking about what a great system the parliamentary system is, that's just someone protecting their own interests, not someone speaking from high principle.
CP and BNSF and other bidders should have sued the BC government and/or CN. That they didn't doesn't mean that "we" can't....OmniTRAX would never have considered such a case, due to their own exposed involvement in influence-buying.....I suspect WMG didn't either, because of whatever they may have had Bruce Clark doing for them....
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Comments:
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And to you Mary, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from myself and both my families, new and old.
And thank you so much for keeping me on track, so to speak, and for starting this incredible blog.
For Kootcoot, Grant RossK. Laila, and Ian,and many others thank you for your help, which came in may forms. Merry Christmas and Happy New year to you all as well.
Gary Edwards
and two families.
And thank you so much for keeping me on track, so to speak, and for starting this incredible blog.
For Kootcoot, Grant RossK. Laila, and Ian,and many others thank you for your help, which came in may forms. Merry Christmas and Happy New year to you all as well.
Gary Edwards
and two families.
Merry Christmas Mary, and thanks for your year round gifts to all of us.
# posted by 
: December 25, 2010 at 8:18 a.m.
: December 25, 2010 at 8:18 a.m.
I appreciate how hard you work for the people of BC. Your honesty and wisdom, always shines through.
Have a good Christmas Mary.
Gloria
Have a good Christmas Mary.
Gloria
# posted by : December 25, 2010 at 9:42 a.m.
: December 25, 2010 at 9:42 a.m.
Merry Christmas to all.
Skookum, I couldn't agree wuth you more. What we have now serves the wishes of the political party and some their financiers and party hierarchy while the rest become nothing more than roadkill. The idea that those we elect both federally and provincially can suck and blow at the same time just doesn't pass the smell test.
Skookum, I couldn't agree wuth you more. What we have now serves the wishes of the political party and some their financiers and party hierarchy while the rest become nothing more than roadkill. The idea that those we elect both federally and provincially can suck and blow at the same time just doesn't pass the smell test.
# posted by : December 25, 2010 at 11:21 p.m.
: December 25, 2010 at 11:21 p.m.
i am so mad at the BC govt, the crown, for stealing BC rail and to ad insult to injury, stealing 18M from us to put in lawyers pockets, the theft relating to basi and virk lying thought their teeth and who now sit at home under the xmas tree.
shame on the people of bc for letting this wholesale theft happen. shame on us all!
shame on the people of bc for letting this wholesale theft happen. shame on us all!
# posted by : December 26, 2010 at 11:11 a.m.
: December 26, 2010 at 11:11 a.m.
.... grrrrrrrrrrr! merry xmas? Perhaps in the house of those lawyers whose delay tactics got the BC RAIL trial off the record.
A public inquiry is NOT needed. What is needed, is for someone to LAY CRIMINAL CHARGES and pursue those culpible. A public inquiry will only end up finding what we already know. We need people put in JAIL. But since we know that will never ever happen, we should just move along, nothing going on here.
IDA CHONG? What a waste of time she is ... Rip her out of office now, recall that stunned nitwit now.
Christy Clark? She is a smiling jackass, nothing more, but potentially very very dangerous because she believes her own dillusions.
What else would you call someone, other than a complete idiot, who is so dellusional she thinks she is doing right by parading around with CHONG, supporting CHONG who represents all that is sick, ill and unwell with BC govt today.
The message Clark sends is that if she gets her say-so, more of the same, status quo will prevail.
Unless you have been smoking crack cocaine from a VIHA funded crack pipe, or injecting heroin from a free, VIHA funded needle that you filled full of herion you bought after fencing stolen property and been fed a belly full of grub from the Open Door, funded by donations given to the United Way, you would know that everyone is so fed up with the Fiberals.
Even Moe Sihota (or maybe Carol -whats-her-name James) could win an election against the HATED liberals.
Mike De Jong? He reminds me of a boot-lick Smithers of Simpons fame. Unless his mother votes, I dont expdect him to get even one vote come next election.
Penner? He wants us to spend 1Billion on secondary sewage treatment that scientics say we dont need. Now thats a crime. He should be thrown in jail for even thinking of such a irresponsible use of my and your tax dollars.
18M in the pockets of Basi's lawyers appears like chicken feed in comparision.
A public inquiry is NOT needed. What is needed, is for someone to LAY CRIMINAL CHARGES and pursue those culpible. A public inquiry will only end up finding what we already know. We need people put in JAIL. But since we know that will never ever happen, we should just move along, nothing going on here.
IDA CHONG? What a waste of time she is ... Rip her out of office now, recall that stunned nitwit now.
Christy Clark? She is a smiling jackass, nothing more, but potentially very very dangerous because she believes her own dillusions.
What else would you call someone, other than a complete idiot, who is so dellusional she thinks she is doing right by parading around with CHONG, supporting CHONG who represents all that is sick, ill and unwell with BC govt today.
The message Clark sends is that if she gets her say-so, more of the same, status quo will prevail.
Unless you have been smoking crack cocaine from a VIHA funded crack pipe, or injecting heroin from a free, VIHA funded needle that you filled full of herion you bought after fencing stolen property and been fed a belly full of grub from the Open Door, funded by donations given to the United Way, you would know that everyone is so fed up with the Fiberals.
Even Moe Sihota (or maybe Carol -whats-her-name James) could win an election against the HATED liberals.
Mike De Jong? He reminds me of a boot-lick Smithers of Simpons fame. Unless his mother votes, I dont expdect him to get even one vote come next election.
Penner? He wants us to spend 1Billion on secondary sewage treatment that scientics say we dont need. Now thats a crime. He should be thrown in jail for even thinking of such a irresponsible use of my and your tax dollars.
18M in the pockets of Basi's lawyers appears like chicken feed in comparision.
# posted by : December 26, 2010 at 1:38 p.m.
: December 26, 2010 at 1:38 p.m.
from today's Michael Smyth column,
http://www.theprovince.com/life/Peace+tops+provincial+parties+wish+lists/4023103/story.html
with my response:
"A great, big, shiny federal appointment from Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "Ambassador" Campbell has a nice ring to it . . ."
Good grief, and here we're just assuming his payback for being such a willing sell-out he was just gonna get a seat on CN's board. And you're nominating him for AMBASSADOR? To where?? You want this man, who has bilked and lied and threatened and manipulated his ten years in power, and lied and cheated and more to get the leadership in the first place, and was hatchetman for developers when he was Mayor and previously in this other earlier capacity at City Hall - you want him involved in DIPLOMACY??
That's even worse than Chantal Hebert and Allan Gregg and the other "At Issue" pundits promoting him as Prime Ministerial material (GAG!).
you're talking about rewarding misconduct with not just a promotion, but status and nice digs in an Embassy in some unsuspecting country.
Give your head a shake, Smyth. Still aghast - a man many people believe should be behind bars, or should wind up there, and you're recommending him for an ambassadorship, and cheering Stephen Harper along - also betraying the Tory's obvious alliance with the BC Liberals, so very noticeable in the replacement of judges mid way through the Basi-Virk proceedings.
Let's have a public inquiry into official misconduct and fraud/collusion since 2001, and then we'll see.....you're saying he deserves a reward for being a good toady to the neo-con movement/ but a mounting chorus of people in BC think he should be IN JAIL.
----------
http://www.theprovince.com/life/Peace+tops+provincial+parties+wish+lists/4023103/story.html
with my response:
"A great, big, shiny federal appointment from Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "Ambassador" Campbell has a nice ring to it . . ."
Good grief, and here we're just assuming his payback for being such a willing sell-out he was just gonna get a seat on CN's board. And you're nominating him for AMBASSADOR? To where?? You want this man, who has bilked and lied and threatened and manipulated his ten years in power, and lied and cheated and more to get the leadership in the first place, and was hatchetman for developers when he was Mayor and previously in this other earlier capacity at City Hall - you want him involved in DIPLOMACY??
That's even worse than Chantal Hebert and Allan Gregg and the other "At Issue" pundits promoting him as Prime Ministerial material (GAG!).
you're talking about rewarding misconduct with not just a promotion, but status and nice digs in an Embassy in some unsuspecting country.
Give your head a shake, Smyth. Still aghast - a man many people believe should be behind bars, or should wind up there, and you're recommending him for an ambassadorship, and cheering Stephen Harper along - also betraying the Tory's obvious alliance with the BC Liberals, so very noticeable in the replacement of judges mid way through the Basi-Virk proceedings.
Let's have a public inquiry into official misconduct and fraud/collusion since 2001, and then we'll see.....you're saying he deserves a reward for being a good toady to the neo-con movement/ but a mounting chorus of people in BC think he should be IN JAIL.
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# posted by : December 26, 2010 at 7:36 p.m.
: December 26, 2010 at 7:36 p.m.
With regard to re-possession:
It's been five and a half years since I came to work to hear, for the first time, a CN official in charge at BC Rail. He had camped out in the office next to mine and was chewing out a sub-ordinate on the phone as I arrived. By the end of the first 8:30 am conference call, we stopped marshalling loaded woodchip cars behind sulphur cars which ended a decades old practice used to avoid contaminating sulphur with wood chips. "We don't do that at CN...", he said without consulting anyone.
For many years, I pined for the glory days of BC Rail (2002-June 2004) when we successfully challenged the CN model of precision railroading in the centralized work order centre in North Vancouver. Those days are gone. Rebuilding that magic seems like a pipe dream now - so many have retired and/or moved on. The odd person from the BC Rail head office actually still works for CN.
What could a re-possession plan look like? Should a CN competitor like CPR, BNSF or SRY take over, or would the province truly run BC Rail again as it was?
Railroads are complicated and require a vast variety of expertise to operate. I'd love to see a return to the glory days of BC Rail, but is there truly a viable plan out there to
1. re-possess which includes buying back the rolling stock and organizing a skilled work force of 1500-2000 people
2. service former BC Rail customers efficiently and profitably?
I'd love be involved in such a plan, but is there support for such an undertaking that all the former BC Rail executives that I know simply think is crazy (even the ones who opposed the sale).
To make re-possession a reality, this game's gotta be amped up to bloodcurdling scream heard continent wide. Otherwise it just nostalgia - and I'm a daily addict of this blog.
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It's been five and a half years since I came to work to hear, for the first time, a CN official in charge at BC Rail. He had camped out in the office next to mine and was chewing out a sub-ordinate on the phone as I arrived. By the end of the first 8:30 am conference call, we stopped marshalling loaded woodchip cars behind sulphur cars which ended a decades old practice used to avoid contaminating sulphur with wood chips. "We don't do that at CN...", he said without consulting anyone.
For many years, I pined for the glory days of BC Rail (2002-June 2004) when we successfully challenged the CN model of precision railroading in the centralized work order centre in North Vancouver. Those days are gone. Rebuilding that magic seems like a pipe dream now - so many have retired and/or moved on. The odd person from the BC Rail head office actually still works for CN.
What could a re-possession plan look like? Should a CN competitor like CPR, BNSF or SRY take over, or would the province truly run BC Rail again as it was?
Railroads are complicated and require a vast variety of expertise to operate. I'd love to see a return to the glory days of BC Rail, but is there truly a viable plan out there to
1. re-possess which includes buying back the rolling stock and organizing a skilled work force of 1500-2000 people
2. service former BC Rail customers efficiently and profitably?
I'd love be involved in such a plan, but is there support for such an undertaking that all the former BC Rail executives that I know simply think is crazy (even the ones who opposed the sale).
To make re-possession a reality, this game's gotta be amped up to bloodcurdling scream heard continent wide. Otherwise it just nostalgia - and I'm a daily addict of this blog.
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