May Day!      
May Day!

This is the day that the children in small communities all over British Columbia do the dance around the May Pole thing. There are beer gardens, bocci tournaments, pancake breakfasts and smaller and/or larger parades presided over by the May Queens and princesses from the communities.

As well as Spring in general the holiday celebrates Queen Victoria's Birthday. It is usually the first summer like holiday of the year, even though it isn't summer yet, the weather is often quite nice and many British Columbians get out and get away from home and onto the beach or into the countryside. It also gives the government a break from answering questions, or maybe more accurately, from not answering questions. The opposition also gets a break from not asking the right questions or getting sucked into can't win arguments about irrelevant issues.

I find it incredible that this excuse for a government can manage to totally break most campaign promises such as not selling BC Rail, having open and accountable government, improving access to health care and then award themselves with gold-plated retirement parachutes and up to an over 50% pay raise in the case of the Soup Nazi himself with a minimum of 29% for the lowest of backbenchers and somehow convince the public that it is the NDP, the powerless and apparently inarticulate NDP, for all that is rotten in Queen VickyVille. Of course having Canned West and their minions such as Keith Baldrey, Vaughn Palmer and Michael Smythe acting as a PR firm on retainer rather than journalists is very helpful in portraying a false reality. As one of the commenters over at BC Mary's blog pointed out:

Only in BC would the press turn on the opposition who have rejected a 29-50% pay increase, instead of the porkers who introduced this.

The same anonymouse also points out that Michael Smythe can hardly contain his glee, as he misplaces the blame for the greed and somehow convinces many of the readers that the NDP are the bad guys in this scenario. As if somehow they could do anything to stop Gordo the Greedmonger from receiving his 53% or 54% raise and retirement package worth an estimated $2,000.000+. Fortunately for both of us I only have to see the sneering face of Minister DeJong on TV as he attacks the NDP and Carole James for lack of leadership, because if I was in the same room his face would suffer some trauma and I would get arrested for assault; and that's a best case scenario. They look like slime, they sound like slime and they act like slime. What's the odds that they are actually sleazy slime?

The past couple weeks have been quite dramatic in the ongoing pre-trial activity surrounding the charges against the two Basis and Mr. Virk. The defense has brought up myriad allegations that would suggest that their clients were at worst following the instructions of their bosses, the elected officials who we have been repeatedly assured (but I've always had my doubts) are squeaky clean. I won't go into the details of the various allegations and the relatively lame, so far, responses from the prosecution as Bill Tieleman in the Tyee and on his blog and BC Mary at her blog the Legislature Raids have been performing yeoman and well appreciated service at digging up and reporting on available information. Robin Matthews of course has also been present as much as possible and publishing his observations and analysis both on Mary's blog and at ViveleCanada.

This year May Days has yet a third meaning, for me anyway. I like to think that the Criminal Cabal generally known as the BC Liberal government is springing leaks. In spite of a compliant media, possible obstruction of the Justice system and the power to be investigated or not by an RCMP perhaps tainted by relationships of blood and/or marriage, the good bad ship captained by the Soup Nazi himself seems to be springing leaks almost daily. So I manage to squeeze a little more enjoyment from the holiday by imagining the Soup Nazi, Colin "I perfected the Sneer" Hansen, Mike "ding-dong" deJong, StoneWally Oppal and the rest of the cabinet full of crackers running around the good bad ship H.M.S Lieberal yelling Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

The image above brightens up for me what was already a holiday and I wish the rest of you a very pleasant and enjoyable May Day. In my part of the province even the weather seems pretty darn nice today. So.................

Enjoy....