One of the crime scenes

Sunday, April 11, 2010


"...Consistent with
Guilt..."



Once upon a time, there was a flakey little political party in England called Social Credit. Their platform included some radical notions about money, the value of the arts and artists and various other issues. Eventually a party of God fearing farmers in Alberta chose to use this name for their fairly conservative rural oriented party, with little concern for actually adopting any of its policy proposals. Later on in British Columbia a co-alition without a name seized upon the name yet again and lo and behold we had the dynasty of the Bennetts - Bennett I and then - Bennett Too, the lesser. Father W.A.C. or Cecil was premier from 1952 until the early seventies when Davy Barrett finally led the NDP to power. The party then re-organized itself and shed some of its vision and integrity and managed to replace Davy Barrett and the NDP after a short but incredibly productive three years in power having to fight the vested interests of the powers behind the new and definitely not improved version of Social Credit.

The era of W.A.C., especially with twenty-twenty hindsight was a golden era for the province. Cece's rhetoric about the "socialist hordes at the gates" was one thing and the policies he enacted and the actions that ensued was a whole 'nuther thing. Thanks to W.A.C.'s vision the province was connected from the coastal center of suits to the far-flung resource towns and ranchs and mines. The ribbon of steel, BC Rail, and the BC Ferries, and the 24/7/365 paving and highway construction under Flyin' Phil Gaglardi meant that those in the interior and north could get themselves to the coast and the products to market. The suits could put on casual clothes and go to the Kootenays, Cariboo and other regions of paradise.

And then there was the jewel of Bennett Sr.'s legacy, BC Hydro, that had provided the citizens and businesses of the province with some of the cleanest and cheapest electricity in North America, if not the world. But like BC Ferries and BC Rail before it, BC Hydro is under attack and being weakened so more, or more of the same cronies can pick up the jewels at fire-sale prices thanks to a cunning and persistent mis-information campaign and plain old forced buy high - sell low policies inflicted on what's left of the crown corporation, BC Hydro. If Josef Goebbels were alive today and living in BC, he would certainly be a good fit at the Public Affairs Bureau, and most likely be running it.

But then the the party fell on hard times. Like so many European royal families, the progeny didn't have the same mojo (or integrity) as the Father. Under the careless and often mean spirited watch of mini-WAC, son of Cece - Bill Bennett and our warrior prince against the HST, Bill Vanderzalm, the brand name became irreparably tarnished. What were the scam artists and flim-flam gang that had taken over and run the Social Credit party into pariah status to do?

An evil duke named Lord Campbell took some cronies aside and planned an assault on the people and assets of British Columbia that was soon put into action and continues full speed ahead to this day. An important first step was a name, a brand and lo and behold there was Gordon Wilson. Basically a good man, and leader of the currently almost irrelevant BC Liberal Party, he was in the midst of personal conflict and crisis that could be used for his character assassination - having an affair with an also married female member of the Official Opposition. Then there was the matter of dis-crediting the sitting premier, Glen Clark, which was accomplished with what may be the most choreographed and re-broadcast excecution of a search warrant in history.

Yesterday, Norm Farrell over at Northern Insights, published a piece that eloquently ties together the almost seamless attack coming from the criminal organization we call our govermeant. If everyone in the province read and understood Norm's piece, and his writing is so clear and calm - you have to be on the kool-aid intraveneously to not get it, the BC Ferries would practically sink with the walk-on and drive on passengers from all over the province headed to James Bay to have a word with "da Boss."

I'll let Norm take it from here,. I'll print few teasers from Not merely consistent with guilt but inconsistent with innocence to stimulate your interest, but heartily recommend you continue on over to Northern Insights and read the whole thing. Actually, it is difficult to not just cut and paste the entire post, but I think you should go on over there, there is lots more good stuff where this came from. If you like it maybe let Norm know on the comments board, or maybe even if you don't like it, or disagree - just try to explain why in a civil manner. See ya'll over there!

Not merely consistent with guilt but inconsistent with innocence.

Throughout the Campbell Liberal years, British Columbia has been remade. The provincial economy grew but fortunes of ordinary people declined for the first extended period in history. Wealth has been redistributed to the disadvantage of all but a tiny minority. This is by design and not incidental. A design created - no surprise here - by the beneficiaries of change.

..../snip

Message making began even before the 2001 election. Creating villains was the first act. A few old guard political opponents, Stupich and Williams come to mind as easy targets. Destroying Harcourt and Clark took longer because they were essentially good people, as lives after politics demonstrated.

..../snip

A long history of inexpensive clean power was targeted for elimination. Premier WAC Bennett said that low cost power would be the foundation for job development as long as the resource was used at home, not exported south to run factories of the USA. Gordon Campbell turned that policy on its head. Now, BC Hydro is obliged to purchase high cost interruptible power so they can dump it in the export market at a loss.

..../snip


Now, get outa here and get on over there......

2 Comments:

Blogger Norm Farrell said...

Thanks for this. You added some valid detail, particularly about the Bennetts. The statement of W.A.C. that I remember most was this, after BC Electric Co. refused to participate in his vision for hydro power, I think:
Socialism if necessary, but not necessarily socialism.

That might have been said about Black Ball ferries too, before BC Ferries. Cece was the ultimate pragmatist. If he had a vision, he'd employ any tool to achieve it.

One of his downfalls was closing his eyes to the crooks around him. Most were small scale although one of our now billionaire families made much of the wealth through real estate speculation made extra profitable by advance knowledge of where town by-pass roads were being built throughout the province.

Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 10:50:00 AM PDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Koot, the future for BC Hydro is grimm indeed. The sky high rates, of which will be coming and have so begun, will force many to live without electricity! Just like our American cousins, many will be forced to do without. In the winter, government intervention forces the companies to supply power so people can stay warm, but as soon as the weather improves, presto
!, the power may be shut off. 60,000 is the number for Detroit alone.

Oh humanity...

Friday, April 16, 2010 at 8:28:00 AM PDT  

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