I would have thought that Campbell’s resignation would have improved the Liberal’s prospects, not the NDP’s prospects.

“Kerry Jang is a name I hear mentioned. Possibly Raymond Louie. Heather Deal, Geoff Meggs, George Chow?”
LOL
And why exactly would they qualify for a higher office may I ask? So far they’ve been a disaster for this city and I’m being easy on them here.
Of course, unless all the above have plans to abandon the Vision ship in the same manner their predecessors abandoned the COPE ship.
Rats are already in Victoria. Who needs more of the same?
And BTW, I am sure that Carol James will never be premier, even IF NDP wins the next election.

Who would want to take over B.C. next…Campbell’s bills are just starting to come in.

@Roger : How many elections did they let Dave Barrett lose? Ms. James is learning that Bob Williams is behind her particular curtain and he has his own ideas about who should lead the NDP (hint: not her). Even he will have trouble turning any of the sow’s ears in the NDP caucus into a silk purse in time for the next election. One imagines Moe Sihota and the rest of the Politburo at the retreat struggling over the question: is Robertson pretty enough to make people forget Glen Clark?
It’s worth remembering that everybody who thought they knew better than Mr. Campbell on pretty much everything, were wrong again and again and again (and still are). Winning three elections in a row in BC, where parties eat their young after 4 or 5 years (government or opposition), is something other politicians can only dream about and assures Mr. Campbell a place in the history of BC politics.
All you HST fighters should ask yourselves: who do you turn to when the NDP or the BC First party takes power and explains that the books were way worse than they thought and that, despite all that stuff they said during the campaign, they have no choice but to raise taxes and cut programs? Then will you admit that you’re being played for patsies by amoral opportunists? What’s it going to take?
@ Spartikus: as usual you have it backwards. Those aren’t bills, they’re HST rebate checks.

Yes, I must live in backwards world – the only “HST rebate cheques” people deal with are the cheques they write to Victoria.

Campbell as good administrator. Well, you know, that’s subject that requires a book to properly discuss. But this being the internet, let’s digest it down to a pithy sentence or two…

Campbell gave away a lot of our sovereignty. Campbell’s policies benefited the privileged. And, to this observer, those things that the majority could enjoy – the Canada Line’s et al…well, it was never the actual “thing”. More transit -> great, after all.

It was the murky and iffy financing behind these things.

We haven’t gotten all the bills from this man’s reign yet. We’re going to get nasty surprises for a generation or two.

@ spartikus,

[shrugs] well we agree to disagree.

Even though AB and ON have even lower income taxes for the highest income earners. I would think that AB’s 10% flat tax is more regressive and really benefits high income earners more than BC’s tax rates. [1]

I tried to avoid mentioning social issues as there a lot more variables influencing it and Ms Bula’s blog is more for civic matters. You can highlight, though the expansion of funding for HIV reasearch and access to antiretrovirals and its benefits for people in Vancouver.

“Gordon Campbell, the leader of home province British Columbia has invested deeply in helping us develop and prove the concept Treatment as Prevention and he deserves our appreciation.” – Dr. Julio Montaner, July 2010 [2]

I am still not running for mayor. But………..I will have to wait to see what the Opposition party does before I decide if I’m also not running for Premier.
Being semi-retired isn’t as interesting as I had hoped, maybe theirs still hope to make it onto the crush list.

Britain is a good example of where an unpopular leader’s resignation far ahead of an election still didn’t help their prospects enough.

The two situations are very similar: unpopular legislation (Iraq war, HST), absolute belief they are “doing the right thing” in the face of polls that indicate the contrary, concentration of power in the leader’s advisory circle, and an acrimonious to nonexistent succession plan.

Good luck, Liberals.

mezzanine,

Carbon tax is a good policy? Has it lowered carbon emissions in BC?

Has it improved transit options for people? Has it helped fund green jobs? Has it done anything but green wash?

I don’t think so (although I’m willing to listen to how it has)

Had Campbell taken the money from the tax and put it into transit improvement, funding for business in the green job section, home retrofits and other green spending, not only would this have reduced carbon emissions, added green jobs to BC and helped kick start the green job sector in BC.

Instead he just put on another tax that in effect shifted the tax burden from the poor and middle class (who can’t afford a new car or to retrofit their home, if they even own it) from the upper middle and rich class (who can buy a new car and retrofit their home, if they even care to)

@Ryan,

The Carbon tax AFAIK as made no concrete drop in carbon use yet, but I agreee with the concept of consumption taxes. Don’t like cigarettes? raise taxes on smokes. Want to save more money on taxes,? try to drive less, take transit or bike and be more efficient with carbon-based fuels. We are the only jurisdiction in NA with a carbon tax, so we are stuck with taking small steps, but it’s a move in the right direction.

As with the HST. Want to save on taxes? Consume less. High income earners consume the most, so the lion’s share of HST revenue should come from them. Middle income earners? Hoefully the income tax cut should help with HST costs (and IMO should have been inroduced with HST roll out, not several months later). Low income earners? Adjust the HST rebate.

@mezzanine

The points we are trying to make are not incompatible.

mezzanine: There’s been growth.

spartikus: That growth has not been broadly shared.

I would agree that BC is mostly a cork on the waves of the global economy.

And I would strongly agree the train wreck that is California must be avoided at all costs.

@spartikus:

“That growth has not been broadly shared.”

But that’s more subjective. How do you define “broadly sharing” growth? Who sets the standard? Your canwest link @20 goes on to detail how registered nurses income rose 14% while food and beverage workers income declined 14%. Can we as a society accept this (let’s give financial incentives to those with post-secondary training)? If we can’t what are the alternatives and their impacts?

That being said, BC minimum wage shouldn’t be the lowest in canada. (it shouldn’t be the highest, either). I suspect this will be a much larger issue for the restaurant industry than the HST, whenever we get a new admistration in Victoria.

@Spartikus:

“It’s not [subjective]. The link is about median income ”

I would disagree, although perhaps instead of saying subjective it would be more accurate to say it lacks detail.

At the very least, you cannot acertain if the decrease in median income is from a lot of people making a little less money or from a few people making a lot more money and a lot of people making a less money. Or if jobs in 2000 remained static and all new jobs were lower-paying ones. You can speculate, but as with all stats, you have to think about what it means.

And of course, you have to look at where that income is coming from. how many well-paid resource industry jobs were lost in that time period? is it possible to bring those jobs back in this age?

FWIW, i am unable to find the statscan page with anymore detail. this was the only one I was able to find( lacks details):
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/080505/dq080505a-eng.htm

i am unable to find the statscan page with anymore detail.

It exists, you just need to pay for it. Here’s more Statscan info on income distribution/inequality, though.

Geez, Michael. You want my next civic election vote, don’t you?

@spartikus, nice link, i’ll concede the point. In 2007, at least, income disparity was the greatest in BC within Canada. I hope the next group can improve on this, among other things.

——

That being said, I still think Gordo was one of our better premiers for BC and Vancouver in recent memory and I think that history will look on him favorably.

Now when do we roll Vander Zalm back into the crypt again?

Meggs and Louie off to run for a seat in the legislature? Yes, please. How can I contribute? Guys, don’t wait for polls, resign from council and start your campaigns now.

Norman and Crazy!
What they said.
To Meggs and Louie,
I am hoping your little commuter plane goes down, but you survive (see I am not an ass like you are) but no one finds you. You are stranded on this little deserted island. And then you two start a family 🙂

Income inequality is not necessarily the same thing as poverty, although BC leads in various of those categories as well – the most bandied being the child poverty rate.

It is, however, a reflection of imbalance in a society, an imbalance that can affect political stability. If one group enjoys all the benefits and wields all the power, then the others lose their stake and incentive to work within the system.

And so on and on…

The growing gap between the wealthy and everyone else is a global trend…or at least a trend in the “Anglosphere”.

And while it’s been pronounced in BC compared to most of the rest of the country, it’s not the main mark against the Campbell reign, imho.

As mentioned above, it’s the less than AAA book-keeping and the murky financial arrangements behind…well, just about every major initiative of Campbell’s and the accompanying loss of sovereignty over our resources that will haunt this province for generations.

Example: Shadow tolls on the Sea-to-Sky.

But looking at the child poverty issue and BC’s #1 position, this ranking comes from LICOs, (low income cut-offs) that account for a lower income family trying to pay for basics such as shelter. IMO, a major reason why BCs ranks poorly is that shelter costs are so high and occupy a larger chunk of household income even for richer households. A short of tanking the economy and an exodus from BC, I don’t think this will change with any govt easily. [1]

Don’t get me wrong, I do want this stat to improve, but I am trying to see if we can learn from the stat. Alberta, with its regressive tax policy of a flat income tax and no consumption tax has less child poverty. they also seem to have less restriction to resource development in the province, allowing for more $ in the provincial coffers. Quebec, with universal child care also relies more on federal transfers. I am not sure what the answer is, but i think the law of unintended consequences would have a role to play with any action we take.
——
I’m not the expert on shadow tolls, can’t comment much. one obvious benefit and a main driver of why they chose it as a funding option is its emphasis on early completion dates (deadline for the olympics). as with any P3, it’s as good as the contract the govt drafts. Time will tell how successful they are, thye have been in europe for a several years now.

And loss of sovereignty? I would look at greece, or on a more local and similar scale, california. Situations always change with time. Look at BC rail, probably the most (in)famous example. What is the strategic interest of the province of BC to hold onto that asset? IMO it was built to ‘develop the north’, namely resources like forestry and mining. in 2010, i am unsure if that need is still critical. it was used to help develop the port at rupert, after the sale. in 100 years, this might change again, when we run low on oil, for example, and will call for a new plan.
—–
This was IMO key to gordon campbell. instead of wondering why it’s no longer 1970 like paul krugman, he made some attempts to engage what the future may hold (expanding vancouver’s ports and airports and related infrastructure, adding the carbon tax, continuing the tax credits to film and digital, without giving away the farm like ON or QC.).

Who knows, if the NDP are able to take and adapt to change happening around them in the world, and still provide more equality and oppurtunity to ppl in BC, that would be great. However, I can only go by their record, like bailing out sunset companies like skeena cellulose. I am really unsure of what vision they have for bc in the future.

BC Rail was profitable. Whether it still served it’s original purpose, could have been repurposed (high speed rail?), should have been privatized or whatever….that’s all a matter of opinion. What isn’t is the way it was privatized.

Personally I don’t think the people of BC have been well-served by the privatization of things like BC Rail and BC Ferries. Who, for example, does BC Ferries compete with – the competition with whom being the mechanism that is supposed to ensure efficiencies? What we have now is the worst of both worlds: a quasi-private monopoly for which the taxpayer is still on the hook, but who doesn’t have the legally required transparency of a Crown Corp.

I would look at greece, or on a more local and similar scale, california.

I think Ireland – a collapse caused by a property bubble + a government hamstringed by low taxes – might be the closer model for British Columbia.

But that’s not what I meant regarding loss of sovereignty – I meant the loss of control over our resources – the “run of river” business is one example.

This was IMO key to gordon campbell. instead of wondering why it’s no longer 1970 like paul krugman, he made some attempts to engage what the future may hold

I’ll have to strongly disagree with you there – the $21b Gateway Project (providing access for cheap Asian goods to the U.S. consumer market greased by cheap and easy credit) is yesterday’s model.

The U.S. consumer is in trouble and will be for decades, one hears. That world is gone.