Thoughts on BC Politics and More

The Vancouver Observer, and in particular Sandy Garossino, have / has sparked a little controversy recently.   For me it was an article she wrote entitled, “ Taxes are for the little people - Withpermanent tax exemption, Christy Clark takes care of the beleaguered 1% .”      For me, I found the story extremely slanted, and I believed it to be more of an opinion, or editorial piece, rather than a news story. Thankfully, and to give her credit, it was however posted to the opinion section of the paper.    That said, in posting an opinion piece, one would expect that it should be accurate – I do not believe it was as it simply parroted the long held mantra of the BCTF that those in the private education system come from elitist families … private schools take away valuable resources from the public education system, and of course that it’s only the ‘little people’ that pay their fair share of taxes (more of a socialist opinion).    All of these much trotted out comments, in

On Tuesday I did a post entitled; Kamloops City Councillor Tina Lange; “It's the next step to Kamloops coming of age .”    Today (June 9 th ) a Kamloops couple decided they wanted to be a part of ensuring the new Performing Arts facility gets approved by the people of Kamloops.   Here’s a story from Kamloops own TV7:    A Kamloops couple is putting some muscle behind their support for the proposed performing arts centre.  Ron and Rae Fawcett, who own Kelson Group Property Management, have committed to donate $5 million to the project if it passes a city-wide referendum on November 7.    Kamloops will be asking residents whether they're ok with the city borrowing $49 million to have the centre built at the old Daily News building on Seymour Street.     MORE: http://cfjctv.com/story.php?id=23548     This is great news, and the kind of spark that can lead to Kamloops residents voting yes to approve the go-ahead on this important addition to our community. 

While Canadians debate the right or wrong of Canadian coffee / donut icon Tim Horton’s pulling ads for Enbridge (by the way they were indeed wrong), all is still quiet in Kamloops when it comes to discussions and debate regarding the new proposed Performing Arts Centre for Kamloops.   Meantime the former Kamloops Daily News building and parking lot, site of the centre, continues to look like a bigger and bigger eyesore in our community.   Downtown Kamloops It would seem Kamloops City Councilor Tina Lange agrees, telling me that a new performing arts centre would provide us with many benefits including giving our downtown a jump start … providing an amazing anchor … creating quality jobs to build it … and because Seymour street is pretty dismal at the moment, it would drive investment in the existing properties .   As the preliminary report of the performing arts centre states, the discussion on the need in our community for a facility of this kind, has been a proc

Have you by chance happened to read the editorial in the National Post by Conrad Black, entitled " Canada’s treatment of aboriginals was shameful, but it was not genocide "? I know some (many?) will find it 'shameful' that I am not filled with righteous outrage at the the treatment of first nation people, at residential schools, however --- ENOUGH already! YES ... there were many things in our past that we can now look back on, with the viewpoint of today's enlightened culture, however our forefathers / mothers do not have that same opportunity.  They did things they way they were accustomed too ... at that time ... based on the prejudices they grew up with, in the society of that time period .   No surprise there.  They were biased by what they saw at the time, by their upbringing, and by their own wrongly held feelings of superiority. There were many hard-working people at the time who truly did want to improve the lives of First Nations people, and t

The latest rant against the private education system in British Columbia continues to be a part of social media this week.  with that in mind, and since my original post on this earlier this week, I thought I would do a follow-up.   Did you know there are 76,000 children who are part of the private school education system in BC.   To move ALL of these students into the public system, the government would need to build, or create, an additional 3,040 classrooms.   On top of that there would of course be the necessary and required libraries, gyms, staff rooms, science and computer labs, metal and wood shops, offices, washrooms, etc.   Anyone care to guess what that would cost? The private education system receives an FTE (full time equivalent) grant of $4,000 for each student, vs. the $8,000 grant required by school boards for every student in the public school system.   To move the entire 76,000 students from the private school system, to the public system, would cost BC taxpa

Sandy Garossino, the editor-in-chief of the Vancouver Observer, is the latest in a long line of individuals who appear to take delight in bashing the private school system, because of the alleged, and totally miss-placed insinuation that private schools don’t pay their fair share into the system, AND that they take valuable resources from the public school system. (http://www.vancouverobserver.com/contributors/sandy-garossino)   Neither of these assertions is true.   She starts her piece by stating, “ Christy Clark never met a millionaire she didn’t like. And that goes double for their little darlings .”   Even the subtitle to her piece, “With permanent tax exemption, Christy Clark takes care of the beleaguered 1%” is in fact a slap in the face to the thousands of parents in BC – who are in large part in the middle class – that make financial sacrifices to have their children in the private school system for a variety of reasons.   And in large part, they are NOT parents

To (site) C or not to (site) C ... that is the question (sorry Shakespeare)I It seems some people, when called to justify their action, and or statements, become master of the duck, dive, and weave method of politics.  On Wednesday Keith Baldrey posted this note on Twitter, “NDP denounces deal struck between BC Hydro-Building Trades Union to build Site C dam. #bcpoli ”.     This was picked up by Emile Scheffel who referenced Baldreys post and made his own comment stating, “ Today's #BCNDP : opposed to 10,000 family-supporting jobs for union, non-union, and Aboriginal workers. https://twitter.com/keithbaldrey/status/603677885522640896 … #bcpoli ”    Both comments are fair and accurate, given that anyone can go online and check the facts for themselves.   For example:   Construction of Site C will create approximately10,000 person-years of direct employment during construction, and approximately 33,000 total person-years of employment through all stages of developm