The Really Real
REAL STORY

Wannabe Bullies Wearing Yellow Scarves!

Here we are into another week and the Chicken Little Brigade continues its - at best useless and at worst destructive - assault on reason and the New Democratic Party. The Ultimatum Man, Ian Reid, each day has me more convinced that he is working for the success of the BC LIEberal Party. Why else would he day after day try to find new twists to convince the world that due to the mean Jenny Kwan and the “baked dozen” the NDP has doomed itself to another decade or two in the wilderness.

Yesterday he continued his ongoing campaign to aid and abet the LIEberal Party with yet another post accusing everyone who disagrees with his doomsday attitude of “spinning” while assuring his shrinking base of sycophants that his negative nattering is nothing less than the gospel truth. His desperation to convince the pathetic bunch of pessimists that infest his comment threads has extended to deleting comments by those with the temerity to disagree for whatever lame reason he can make up.

Commenter Kevin who patiently tried to explain his position gets deleted for using too many words. Grant G, the Powell River Persuader gets deleted and/or demeaned for being insulting. Yet those who adhere to the Ian Reid, the NDP is dead and Jenny Kwan is the female incarnation of the devil can spew insults in all directions, using how ever many words they need. I’m done commenting there as yesterday I responded directly to questions from both “get it together” and Ian himself, in a succinct manner, and it has since been deleted. I can only assume this is because it was too logical was thus too difficult for the Chicken Little Brigade to discredit. I’ve been deleted or banned from classier blogs than The Real (sic) Story.

Perhaps the most over the top in Ian’s choir is Linda. Might this be the same Linda (who regularly attacks that other enemy of mankind Bill T at his place) with so much time on her hands she can go to THREE different MLA open houses in one day? Even though I’m in the middle of three NDP ridings, I couldn’t even drive to all three of their homes in one day, even if I didn’t stop at any of them – of course I live in the HURTLAND, the region most victimized by the Campbelloid scorched earth policies.

Perhaps I should point out that two of my local MLAs did the honourable thing and resigned their elevated positions - Norm MacDonald to my north and my MLA, who NOW has more local support than before – Katrine Conroy. The third, Michelle Mungall (who had to submit to a gender test to replace Corky - shades of the South African runner) donned a yellowbelly scarf, but I don’t hold that against her, she's a young rooke with less than two years in caucus. In the Kootenays we had issues with many Carole James policies or lack of coherent policies – including the exclusion of potential candidates with the wrong genitalia, preferring the right to choose the best candidate in the eyes of the local members to represent our interests):

Adrian is right about one thing — it is extremely hypocritical for those who viciously attacked and publicly humiliated Carole James to now tell us who are James supporters that we can’t comment or criticize what they’ve done…../snip

This “coup d’etat” has made us the laughing stock of the media and the Liberals.

I would hardly call questioning Carole’s leadership or mildly criticizing a dull substance free speech “vicious attacks.” It appeared to me that Carole and her gang were the folks into trying to “publicly humiliate” people with the childish yellow scarf gambit. And now if anyone is saying you guys (Ian, Kevin, Linda, et. al.) can’t comment or criticize those Carole called “bullies and selfish,” it is pretty clear you ARE NOT paying any attention and certainly not thinking about the work that has to be done to move ahead. Carole realized that rules be damned, she didn’t have (and going so long without any real review didn’t deserve) the support of almost forty percent of the people in her caucus - people CHOSEN by the voters themselves – the same voters who will be helping to decide the next election. There was no “coup d’etat,” Ms. James wasn’t assassinated and it is time start discussing who should lead the party into an election that could come as soon as next spring – and get off of this foolishness that a genuine OMOV selection wouldn’t be honoured by even the “dissidents.” However, winning the leadership isn’t like getting appointed to the Supreme Court – it isn’t a LIFE TIME position.

Because of the deliberate actions of a minority of MLAs, the party is deeply divided and I wonder if the wounds will ever heal. Not only is the caucus divided but the membership is also fractured

The dissidents didn’t divide the party, they were a sign that the party had become divided and didn’t have leadership capable of holding it together through either vision or discipline. When a hockey team is losing, even though the coach and GM neither score goals, nor play defence, they are ones who generally pay the price in the hope that the new “leadership” can get better results from the same players.

Enough with Ian Reid - as he is easy to understand and impossible to reason with. If I had been Carole’s Chief of Staff for part of the last seven years, I would be unhappy as well. I would feel like I had been giving bad, ineffective advice and was a major part of the reason that Carole personally and the NDP as a party had been providing ineffective lacklustre opposition and failing to connect with the voters beyond the diehard committed party faithful who would vote NDP if Robert Pickton was the leader. Then again, if Mr. Reid was a mole for the BC LIEberals, as it would appear, the unhappiness may be only a faux display and the real cause the loss of Carole James, the LIEberal’s not so secret weapon.

Norman Farrell, Attorney at Law (not!)

I'll begin by apologizing to Norm for calling him a nasty name, just above. But, after reading this morning's piece over at Northern Insights, one of my VERY favorite blogs, I am puzzled by his apparent committment to parsing the rules of the New Democratic Party to prove that Jenny Kwan and company are snakes and the NDP is doomed - or the Ian Reid canard without the petulance.

This flight of fancy from Norm caught me by surprise because I consider Norm, along with BC Mary, perhaps the most rational, non-partisan blogger on the local scene. I also consider him one of the most articulate with an uncanny ability to express complex ideas with an amazing degree of clarity.

But it seems to me that Norm must be going to law school in his retirement as he is really getting picayune with his detailed critiques of why the Jenny Kwan wing is wrong based on a detailed analysis of the “Official Rules” of the New Democratic Party. As it is my impression that while he may be a supporter, at least at times of the NDP, he isn’t an actual member of any party. If I remember correctly he even apologized at Northern Insights for voting Liberal in 2001.

To begin with he spouts a lot of nonsense from the recent Mustel Poll showing the Liberals on the way to the promised land and and the poor dippers freefalling into the depths of hell, where they will likely be sent on to an even worse place by Satan himself for their bad, bad, behaviour. I won't even discuss these polls as I consider H.P. Lovecraft, Grimm's Fairy Tales and Mother Goose herself to be more reality based than any so-called poll from Evi Mustel.

But then Norm goes into almost brain liquefying detail, parsing in grand Clintonian style, the NDP Party constitution and about rule number such and such sub-section such and such and why the dissidents should stand in the corner and the party itself take a ten year time out for flaunting this sacred rules.

In a province that has been run into the ground by the Campbell Crime Family for the last decade, this concern with rules seems almost quaint. The government itself breaks the LAW almost daily, if not indeed 24/7, as many of their questionable actions effect British Columbians every waking (and for the homeless, elderly and ill, even while trying to sleep). Cabinet ministers are under investigation for various potentially criminal activity almost constantly and the RCMP refuses to even consider investigating many legitimate complaints from sober well meaning citizens. They have been found guilty of breaking the law in the very courts they so successfully manipulate most of the time and left the tax payers on the hook for not only their defence, but the penalties imposed when they are found guilty of such transactions as illegally tearing up binding legally signed contracts. It is positively embarrassing to have one’s own province sanctioned by UN agencies for trampling on worker’s or human rights in various slimy ways. When it comes to “rules” the only rule for the BC liaRs seems to be – “We will only cheat if we need to, to win - and we only LIE when we Speak.”

Meanwhile, if Carole James had spent as much energy and focus on holding the Campbell forces to account for their routine transgressions as she expended on her critics within her own party questioning the party direction and her leadership, we might not be having this discussion.

Keeping in mind that every single thing from invading Poland to gassing six million Jews was completely LEGAL under the law as it was enshrined in the Third Reich, methinks this harping from many about the "Rules" is a bit disingenuous. As I said above in the section devoted to the Surreal Story of Ian Reid, the dissidents didn't create the rift in the party - they were merely a visible sign that it was there and needed to be addressed. Addressing it next fall when we're buckling down for at least four more years of Liberal abuse under Emperor Falcon or Empress Clark just wasn't going to cut it.

The revolt against James was strictly a powerplay by party operatives and the caucus, an undemocratic coup that disregarded the party's constitution, a condition so fundamental to an egalitarian organization that full recovery will be difficult. How can the next leader or the membership feel comfortable when consent to a common set of rules is lacking

The idea that after a real leadership contest with an honest exchange of ideas the party can't unite behind a freshly chosen leader is pure hogwash worthy of Les(s) Leyne or Bill "not so" Good. Carole James' for all the good she had done was running on a mandate that had frankly run out in the view of too many REAL NDPers and potential NDP voters. Why not say that if Christy Cluck Cluck wins the leadership of the liaR Party, Kevvie Birdbrain and all his supporters will flee to the BC First Party or start calling themselve HarpoCons - or actually call themselves what they really are?

Opinion 250 - More Gloom and Doom

While I was working on this post the Powell River Persuader sent me a link to more nonsense this time from Ben Meisner. The often sensible Meisner picks up the sky is falling ball with so much bafflegab and nonsense I can't even understand him - for example:

It wasn’t her (James-kc), you may remember, who took the approach that the attack on the government record would be the way to grab power from the Liberals in the last election. That advice came from the supposed,”well informed “ who said this was the best tactic to win the approval of the voting public.

She fully understood that she shouldn’t have listened to them following the election, in which her showing was pretty admirable in any event.

The above statement makes me wonder if he was watching the same, May 2009 election, that the rest of us witnessed. The way I remember it Carole and her Krogs were so busy trying to be "nice" and kiss the butt of business that the Liberals were able to carry on their lies about their fiscal prudence, the dismal dark age of the nineties, how they were bringing in a new era (in a good way) in education and health care and they rarely even had to resort to Wally's favorite tape loop - "It's before the courts." Instead the lies were permitted to stand,unchallenged and too many voters were convinced they were lucky to be alive if they had lived in BC during the dreaded nineties under Josef GlenStalin Clark.

It's astounding that Ben Meisner seems to think the NDP don't deserve to form a government because they are (hopefully) sorting out some leadership issues for the election bound to come long before next fall's purported leadership convention, much less in May of 2013.

Maybe Ben doesn't remember the Prince George that was the industrial powerhouse and transportation hub of the northern heartland before a decade of BC Liberal policies reduced it to the unemployment and crime capital of Canada. If we have to suffer four or six more years of Liberal abuse perhaps Prince George could become the Juarez of North America, replacing the real Juarez. Seems like a heavy price to pay for a bit of internal dissension amongst the only party with a prayer of replacing the Campbell Crime Family with nothing more than a new capo.

Of course after four to six years of Liberal pillaging and abandonment of the hurtland, the Prince George resident with the means (a functioning vehicle, gas money and some change) might well want to move to Juarez because at least there it won't ever hit -40C with hydro or fuel too expensive to buy, and there could be jobs at a maquiladora, Prince George being too far from the border of anywhere where people might be able to buy stuff - meaning no maquiladoras for PG.


What I've been trying to avoid saying:

The ranters of doom have finally driven me to the point of expressing something I've been thinking for awhile now, but really didn't want to say, because it it too much like saying something nice about the silver haired prevaricating one. But understandable as it is that neither he nor Ms. James really wanted to step down from their lofty perch as leaders of their parties - I can't escape the fact that Gordo actually was more gracious and less petulant in biting the bullet. While James blamed everybody but herself, calling them selfish bullies and such, Gordo didn't even refer to Wild Bill Bennett, or Blair Leckstrom or the other restive caucus members who forced his hand. Nope, the man more people detest than anyone else in BeeCee mainly said he was stepping down for the good of his party because it was becoming "all about him." That compared to Carole's threats to hold people accountable like schoolchildren right up to the hastily cancelled Sunday afternoon meeting and then still blaming the bullies seemed like Gordo was the one actually accepting some personal responsibility for his position (or the loss of his position).

I know Ian Reid and his ilk don't want to hear that, just as he seems oblivious to his own role as a chief adviser in Carole's ultimate failure to capture the premiership and rescue the province from the LIEberal clutches.

And I'm NOT Ben Meisner, but that is my opinion!

Yellow Scarves
& Sour Grapes!

"The report of my death is an exaggeration"
                                                Mark Twain 1897

In the ongoing clown show that BC Politics appears to be, especially to those unfortunate enough to live on the wrong side of the Rockies, in recent weeks two developments stand out as truly weird. Well, on the surface at least, until one gives some thought to the motives of the people involved in each case.

The first was how Vaughn the Pawn, Keith the Smug Cynic, Les(s) "than gifted" Leyne, Bill "not so" Good and the rest of the BC LIEberal cheering section posing as journalists reversed their position on Carole James, erstwhile leader of the dreaded Socialists at the Gate, otherwise known as the New Democratic Party. This crew of sycophants who a few months ago could only either ignore or mock Ms. James had a communal revelation that she was the best leader that the NDP ever had, bar none! This was fairly easy to understand, as at the same time her leadership was becoming under threat and Gord's boys and girls in the media knew that the BC liaRs would hate to lose their secret weapon and best hope of winning yet another four years to abuse the province.

More difficult to understand though has been the wailing and gnashing of gums by so-called dippers who have formed their own Chicken Little Brigade and have been screaming from the rooftops that the NDP has blown its "opportunity" to form the next government or maybe to EVER form a government again. Somehow the fact that the Libs themselves are barely governing at the moment, most ministries being without a minister as most heavy hitters have announced their intention to occupy the Big Chair occupied for the last 17 years by the victim of their own recent coup. Of course this doesn't even take into account the ministers or members currently undergoing investigation or prosecution for one thing or another.

Ian Reid, formerly Chief of Staff to Carole James, has led the choir of doom with help from the likes of David Shreck and former cabinet minister Paul Ramsey. Though it seems that Mr. Shreck may be coming to his senses if one is to believe a recent post at his Blog Strategic Thoughts , Parties Tied 36-36 - bolding by kootcoot.

As expected there was a big jump in those who would vote for the BC Liberals following Gordon Campbell's November 3rd announcement. The Angus Reid online poll of 804 randomly selected BC adults conducted from December 7th to December 8th also revealed that the tie was reduced from 36 to 36 to 14 to 14 when those surveyed were asked which party they would support regardless of who wins the respective leadership contests. At 36% the BC Liberals are down 10 points from their 2009 actual election results, and the NDP is down 6 points. Both parties have to work to regain public confidence.

It may be disappointing for some New Democrats to see the disappearance of the 21 point advantage (47 to 26) the NDP enjoyed in the November Angus Reid poll. That poll was concluded hours before Campbell's announcement, while the December poll was conducted immediately after Carole James resigned following a month of bitter public infighting. For the NDP to tie the BC Liberals in the aftermath of its civil war is a better outcome than I expected. It offers hope that with the right leader, and a leadership campaign that isn't further damaging, the NDP may be competitive in the next election.

I don't know where Mr. Ramsey stands today, but as far as I can tell, Mr. Reid, in spite of promising to leave, if the "baked dozen" "won,"

My ultimatum to Kwan and the others is this: if you win I’m out. And I’m not alone.

has decided to stay and lead the chorus of doomsday naysayers over at his place, therealstory.ca. I don't know why his followers are so hysterical about the unlikely notion that going in to yet another election with Ms. James at the helm would lead to victory, but Ian Reid himself should look in the mirror. Instead of being like his former boss and blaming Jenny Kwan, bullies, and everyone else in sight or hearing, perhaps he should take some blame for the last seven years of Liberal raping and pillaging of the province. After all, as Chief of Staff he must have something to do with the lack of coherent policy positions, tendency to trail significantly her own party in the polls that plagued Carole James and losing two elections to a lying drunken crook, the last one a gimmee!

Over at his place I compared Mr. Reid to Rahm Emanuel, Israeli/Corporate Mole who helped Bill Clinton turn into Republican Lite and has helped President Obama lose almost all of his natural support through his advocacy for Zionists and financial institutions - with no visible hope of winning over the "blue dogs," Rethugs and TeaBaggers. Rahm also helped George Bush the Lesser - "he was an important player in the recent passage of President Bush's $700 billion financial bailout plan, helping to mobilize Democratic votes to pass the measure."

Of course when Emanuel Rahm isn't busy advising or helping elect Republican presidents posing as Democrats, or being a member of Congress he might take time off to serve in the Israeli Defense Forces as he did during Gulf War One. Then again he might roll up his sleeves and earn a quick sixteen million as a managing director of a global Chicago based investment bank as he did after leaving the Clinton administration.

I might not agree with Rahm Emanuel's motives or policies, indeed I would think most Americans would rather have the President's top advisor serve in the US Military, after all, the US was in (well actually running it) that war, too! Then his finacial background may explain why he apparently advised Obama that bailing out the fraudsters that put the world on the brink of economic collapse was more important than helping out the people losing their jobs and homes to these same crooks. But one has to admit he can help ELECT people and get policy enacted, and even get elected to Congress himself.

If Carole James couldn't convince a substantial number of (Provincial Council 84% is meaningless outside the backroom to most BCers) NDP members, much less enough voters in general that Carole James was the one with the Royal Jelly to lead her party to the promised land - Ian Reid should be asking himself why? So I take back my comparison of Ian Reid to Rahm Emanuel - Ian Reid IS NO Rahm Emanuel, because Rahm Emanuel is a winner. I may feel that he and Rahm both led their bosses in a direction I wasn't comfortable with, though in Rahm's case, he and his guys have won - though Obama could pay the price in 2012. I would rather see a US Democratic candidate or BC NDPer lose while at least representing the values of the party, than to turn into the other guys just to win - whether they win or lose.

For some balanced insight into the state of the two main parties today, I would recommend reading Making Sense of a Brutal Political Season in BC by the man that can actually do math, Will McMartin:

New Democrats wring hands and squabble

Unlike their BC Liberal opponents, members of the New Democratic Party seem unable to move past the internal fight that James supposedly ended with her resignation announcement.
David Schreck and Paul Ramsey, two prominent former NDP MLAs, have separately predicted (see here and here) that James' departure assures the BC Liberals of a fourth consecutive electoral victory.
That view is echoed by Kennedy Stewart, a professor at Simon Fraser University and one-time federal NDP candidate (see here.)
Why they -- and many other New Democrats -- believe this to be so is puzzling. How can it be that the party that has been competitive in nine of British Columbia's last 10 general elections (the exception being 2001), and formed the government on three occasions, is so badly fractured or paralyzed by James' departure that it won't be able to compete -- even with a shiny new leader?..../snip

Revolt erupts

The floodgates of dissent opened in Oct. 2010, after NDP MLA Bob Simpson offered mild criticism of his leader's speech at a convention of the Union of B.C. Municipalities. James responded by kicking Simpson out of her caucus.
Norm Macdonald then quit as NDP caucus chair, and shortly thereafter, Katrine Conroy resigned as caucus whip. Former NDP cabinet ministers (Bob Williams, Corky Evans, Dale Lovick) began to openly call for James' departure.
Matters came to a head at a NDP provincial council meeting in Victoria on Nov. 20. The good news for James was that she received a massive vote of support, 84 per cent, from the assembled delegates; the bad news was that 13 NDP MLAs refused to wear yellow scarves handed out to the leader’s supporters. Dissent now was out in the open for all to see.
The situation deteriorated for James on Dec. 1 when Jenny Kwan, a 14-year caucus veteran, released a lengthy public statement that called for a leadership convention as soon as possible. Public-opinion polls, wrote the Vancouver-Mt. Pleasant MLA, illustrated "Carole James' inability to capture the interest and support of British Columbians. At a time when the BC Liberal Party and the premier's personal approval rating have fallen to all time lows, the NDP under her leadership has not been able to capitalize on the BC Liberals' downfall."
James blustered and her supporters desperately ("she'll refuse to sign the dissidents' nomination papers!") tried to spin press-gallery reporters (the Province's Michael Smyth most notably wasn't biting) -- but her position clearly was untenable.

When I was last over at Will's post, there were over 160 comments from all sides of the raging debate - from those who figure that the NDP is dead as the dodo to those who think we can finally move on and get ready to take the wheel of the province away from the gangsters who've been running the show!

The only sure thing from where I stand, is that we are into and in for interesting times.

Misrepresenting
Your Constituents

Recall Ida Chong

The Republican Party in the failing state to our south has, at least since the reign of Ronnie Raygun, been highly successful at getting large portions of the electorate to vote against their own interests by a combination of outright lies and cunning exploitation of wedge issues. While being faithful to their real constituency (and owner operators) the rich and the corporate elite, they manage to also gain the support of the same coal miners whose lives are put at risk by the de-regulation policies dear to their real constituency. They sweep elections among the rednecks of southern states who if lucky - work for minimal wages - and if not so lucky are unemployed because of the wholesale shipment of their jobs overseas where children and other unfortunates will do the work even cheaper. They even get away with cutting off unemployment benefits to those whom their policies have thrown out of work and making assistance either inaccessible or too meagre because well - it's Un-American after all. Besides, a gay couple MIGHT live next door!

Here in BeeCee the BC LIEberals, and for today's discussion Ida Chong and Phil Hochstein, successfully sing from the same Karl Rove copyrighted playbook to the devastation of most of the people in the province, including their own supporters and/or members.

Ida Chong lies almost as easily as she breathes when she tells the folks of Oak Bay -Gordon Head that the recall campaign launched against her is an NDP plot or that it has nothing to do with removing the HST. For starters, the current NDP couldn't run a successful plot to take over a cub scout troop and besides, nobody can or will even say where the party (at least under the James Gang) stands on the HST or what they would do about it if they had the power to do anything. Ida does speak the truth (it must be an accident) when she says that all a successful recall in her riding will do is vacate her seat and force a bye election. However this is Bill VanderZalm and the anti-HST forces strategic next step in trying to eliminate the hated tax. With the government having ignored the wishes of the people, Mr. Fantastic is now moving to pick off LIEberal MLAs one by one until they smarten up and actually act on the wishes of the 700,000 who signed the petition or until the government falls by attrition. Personally I think there are better reasons to take down (and arrest and prosecute) the Campbell government, but hey, I'll go along with whatever works.

Phil "I wish I could make piles of money in construction without having to pay any construction workers at all" Hochstein is an even more nasty piece of work, making Ida seem almost seem like some sweet girl guide. He has picked up the mantle from his predecessor Kerkoff and spends every waking hour trying to destroy unions and degrade the quality of life for working people everywhere. But the following press release from the anti-HST group clearly describes the despicable depths of duplicity and outright betrayal of his own dues paying members that he will go to in his effort to have British Columbia be the first jurisdiction in the western/developed world to return to a feudal society. As I often can't seem to refrain from doing I will highlight parts that I find particularly illuminating.

FIGHT HST LAUNCHES BOYCOTT OF INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS AND BUSINESS ASSOCIATION MEMBERS

Vander Zalm: Business lobby group is targeting canvassers and voters in smear campaign in a bid to try to stop Recall and save the HST

VICTORIA (December 9, 2010) – Fight HST Leader Bill Vander Zalm is calling for a province wide boycott of the businesses and members of the Independent Contractors and Business Association of BC (ICBA) for their attack campaign directed at the canvassers working to Recall Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA Ida Chong.

Vander Zalm says the ICBA, led by their president Phil Hochstein, are trying to smear canvassers in the riding and intimidate voters from signing the Recall petition with deliberately misleading comments in an advertising campaign funded by their members from across BC. He says a series of ads, together with a web site called “stoprecall.ca” encourages voters not to sign the petition because doing so “means giving your name, your signature, and your phone number to people you don’t know”.

“That is a ludicrous statement given that Elections BC requires this information and given that canvassers are required by law not to use the voters’ information for any other purpose but Recall,” said Vander Zalm. “It’s just pure intimidation.”

Since I posted this piece, a commentor pointed out just to what degree these venal excuses for humans, especially Hochstein, will distort, twist and downright turn the truth on its head to suit their venal agenda.

Anonymous said...
Conveniently forgotten in the Phil Hochstein claim that peoples' privacy is "at risk" with recall petitioners is the fact that Elections BC gives a voters list to recall proponents after they file.

They already have the information.

And are bound by the law to keep it confidential.

Back to the press release:

Vander Zalm says the ICBA goes further by smearing the citizens conducting the Recall, describing them as an “army”, “disgraced”, “fringe”, “defeated”, and “opportunists”, and then saying “Do these sound like the types of people you want to hand your personal information over to?”

“It is unbelievable that the members of the ICBA would see fit to attack the citizens of BC by funding a massive advertising campaign to stop Recall and to try to save the HST,” said Vander Zalm. “Especially when many of their contractors, roofers, new home builders, renovators and trades people who sell directly to the public have been hurt by the HST and our efforts are actually helping them.”

“You’d think they would be cheering us on, but instead they are spending mega dollars to attack the democratic process with misleading ads and deliberate smears designed to scare people.”

Vander Zalm says his group has published a list of the members of the ICBA on the Fight HST web site and will be sending it out to the Fight HST supporters list of over 7,000 members with instructions to create a viral campaign across BC using the internet. He is encouraging all British Columbians to cancel any jobs or contracts they have lined up with ICBA businesses and to seek alternative companies to work with.

“Companies like Able Roofing Contractors; Gabe’s Painting and Decorating; and Howell Electric in Kamloops, Canpro Construction; Four Flower Enterprises; PBS Contracting and Soare Contracting in Victoria, as well as hundreds of others around the province are supporting this attack campaign,” said Vander Zalm.

“We don’t have the big money of these groups, so we can only counter their efforts by suggesting a boycott. Hopefully, the ICBA members will come to their senses and let Mr. Hochstein know they don’t agree with the use of their membership dues for such a purpose.”
Vander Zalm says the ICBA has donated over $325,000 to the BC Liberals since 1996. “We challenge Mr. Hochstein to tell British Columbians just how much of his members’ money he is planning to spend to defeat the Recall.”

Vander Zalm notes that Hochstein has gone on record saying there are no limits on his groups’ spending against Recall.

“They’ve found another loop hole in the Recall legislation and are using it to act as a conduit for the BC Government to attack the Recalls. The big business lobby went to bat for the BC Liberals during the petition by trying to strike it down in court and lost. Now they’re trying again with a mega bucks ad campaign designed to subvert the ‘equal spending’ rules for proponents and opponents.”

Vander Zalm is calling on all of the BC Liberal leadership candidates to say where they stand on what he describes as an “abuse of the Recall process.”

“It is totally unfair and undemocratic. The ICBA must be held to account by the people, and refusing to do business with ICBA member companies is the most effective way to do that,” concluded Vander Zalm.

To see the almost sixty page list in .pdf format, click on the live link or paste in the actual link below.

ICBA Members List: http://fighthst.ca/media/ICBAMembersList.pdf

Except for the really big construction companies who build bridges, highways, dams and other big money infrastructure, more and more of which come from outside of BC if not Canada and profit more the less they can pay the workers (temporary virtually indentured foreign workers being the most desirable when possible of course)- the HST hurts most smaller contractors and will force even more residential construction and reno work underground. I always felt there was a real correlation between the beginning of the major attack on union, especially construction/trades unions, in the Bennett the Lesser years and the leaky condo crimes that too many people are still having to deal with and of course today we've gotten to the point where new bridges need to be shut down and repaired with in months of opening (Hi Kelowna!).

There are only a handful of companies on the ICBA list in the Kootenays and most of them are in the far eastern part that may as well be part of "right to work" Alberta. The only two I could find to boycott in the Central/West Kootenay region are:

E. Verigin Consultants
Castlegar, BC
Services: consulting

Esteem Administrative Services
Montrose, BC
Services: employment services — specialty services

But then around here we almost never send treasonous BC liaRs to Victoria to represent our interests, because we learned in 2001, with Air Blair Suffredine that they only represent the interests of Gordon Campbell and his Howe Street constituency!

British Columbia's
Leadership Follies

A Real Dragon's Den,
but they invest in their friends,
with OUR MONEY!

There is no question that the political landscape in British Columbia is pretty polarized generally, or at least the rhetoric can be counted on to be so. Like politics elsewhere though the rhetoric often bears no relation to reality. Premier for Life (or so it seemed at the time) W.A.C. Bennett was in charge when I first lived in the province. Actually, the quality of opposition and government was so superior then when the two leaders were Bennett the Greater and Little Davey Barrett. I wasn't a fan of Wacky in those days, as he seemed so Republican, or almost a MacCarthyite, screaming about the "socialist hordes at the gates" as if the Alberta border was the Berlin Wall.

But now that Gordon Campbell has almost finished DESTROYING everything that W.A.C. built, I look back at him with fondness. In actuality he was more like a fifties and sixties version of Hugo Chavez of the north as he nationalized railways, hydroelectric companies, ferries and built infrastructure to access the vast resources of the province as agressively as the Imperial Romans on crack. Actually, looking back, W.A.C. wasn't so far to the right, he was a man of the people and the center, who realized that the things that private enterprise could accomplish should be left to private enterprise, but that some things in a jurisdiction bigger than Washington, Oregon and California combined with challenging terrain and even storm tossed waters separating the regions could prosper only if the state stepped up to do what it could do best or at all.

The (sales)paper of the center of the universe, which actually usually covers B.C. politics better than the local stenographers for the PAB, not a difficult task, have weighed in on the current NDP leadership excitement with BC is back to being an alternative political universe.

After a relatively long hiatus of rare normalcy, politics on the way-out West Coast have drifted back into their familiar roost in the twilight zone.

It’s not every province – none, in fact – that can boast two major political parties shedding their leaders at the same time.

Anarchists of the world, unite and come to beautiful British Columbia. This leadership-free province is yours for the taking.

I would suggest that is is Rod Mickleburgh and others making equally silly statements that are living in the "twilight zone" or smoking curious substances.

It isn't a surprise that the BC LIEberals themselves, the PABlum Brigade of PostMedia, Glow Ball, and CeeTeeVee should be jumping on this current state of flux for the NDP and declare them dead in the water for the next decade, century or forever. After all, they are in mourning, since on Monday they lost their secret weapon - Carole James as leader to beat up yet again, most likely LONG BEFORE May of 2013. Also in the unlikely event the Libs win yet another undeserved mandate with enough lies repeated frequently enough, they would at the least MAYBE actually face some actual, you know, opposition from a rejuvenated NDP with a new leader who is more interested in holding the government accountable, than her own members accountable to her sense of entitlement to be Queen.

What I find puzzling and frankly disgusting is David Shreck and Ian Reid and his flock of Chicken Littles bemoaning the death of democracy as we know it and calling for the heads of Jenny Kwan and the "baked dozen" (already an tiresome term, BTW). After promising to go away and shut up if Jenny and the dissidents won and forced his mommy Carole to step down, now he's acting more like Gordo "GOD" Campbell (the Brett Farve of BC Politics) and continues to bleat "the sky is falling, the sky is falling" and Jenny must resign and the rest of the anti-James Gang shouldn't be re-nominated or re-elected.

Of course Ian wouldn't agree, but the reality is more like Bill Tileman puts it in She Had to Go. I couldn't put it more succinctly, maybe that's why Bill is successful in the communications business.

The B.C. NDP leader's second consecutive loss to B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell was fatal to her political future. But she refused to acknowledge that fact until Monday, more than 18 months later.

Unfortunately, James decided not to consult with her caucus or the party before announcing just weeks after her defeat that she would be leader going into the 2013 election.

That set in motion a series of events leading to crisis after crisis until James could no simply longer continue...../snip

But when Campbell was forced to resign by his own caucus revolt, the reality that an election would likely be held in 2011 under a new BC Liberal premier jolted the NDP awake.

The planned yes/no review of James' leadership at the Nov. 2011 NDP convention was no longer soon enough to deal with lingering doubts that she could win a third election try.

Meanwhile over at Chicken Little's Coop Ian shares wisdom(?) like:

A minority of caucus led by Jenny Kwan took the leader of the party down in a coup for unspecified and undocumented charges. Their coup overrode the party constitution and the overwhelming wishes of its governing body. Their coup overrode the wishes and support of the majority in caucus.

The 13 loudly aired their dirty laundry in public. They followed a thought out plan with the pressure ratched up in public and fed by strategic leaks and prepared statements.

The coup has likely cost the party the next election. The media is already full of comment saying the NDP aren’t up to opposition let alone government. And I’m told the party started hemorrhaging money and members at precisely 11:15 yesterday.

The highlighted parts are important because:

1."the party constitution and the overwhelming wishes of its governing body" represent nothing more than a bunch of lovers of the status quo, which in the new environment with no Gordon Campbell to kick around anymore and an impending election SOON, JUST WEREN'T LIKELY TO CUT IT!

2. As far as the "dirty laundry in public" accusation, it was Carole herself with her over top ejection of Bob Simpson (even though he probably IS really an INDEPENDENT) for mild criticism of a vacuous speech, and the childish attempt at intimidation with the silly yellow scarves that created a public spectacle out of an internal debate.

3. "The coup has likely cost the party the next election." Well with people like Ian, Shreck and Paul Ramsey helping the pro-LIEberal media to reinforce the meme, he may be right - they are certainly trying to make it so.

The other thing is this constant refrain that Jenny Kwan (and for some folks the whole baker's dozen) must resign. Well, I don't recall Jenny or anybody else asking for anything more than either a leadership review (before the next election, which makes fall 2011 TOO LATE) or for Carole to step down AS LEADER! But apparently Jenny and perhaps others, in order to be fair and HEAL the party, need to RESIGN. Well all Jenny has now is her seat in the mostly deserted legislature and in caucus - as far as I know she had no assigned "shadow cabinet" role. Norm MacDonald and Katrine Conroy both resigned their elevated party "mucky-muck" positions - it seems self defeating to ask them all to now to join the growing legion of independents - though for the voters it just might be for the best.

The thing that the pro-LIEberal media ignores and the flock of Chicken Littles forgets is that the so-called governing party, the BC Liberals are also in disarray. Gordon Campbell didn't just wake up one morning and say, "jeez, I'm tired of being premier, I've stolen enough, I wanna just go lie on the beach on Maui and drink my face off and hustle chicks."

No the greedy micromanaging one was facing his own internal dissension, because his minions knew he would cost them their cushy jobs for sure, and although this impending caucus revolt was no secret, it was going to become more and more obvious to the public in spite of the shoveling of the PABlum Brigade. So how come we don't hear "How can whomever is elected the new LIEberal leader TRUST those (some in cabinet even) who brought down the most hated man in BeeCee? Don't forget also that less than two years ago, Gordo the not so Great had not only renewed the support of his caucus, but had won an effing election (though he and his minions did have to lie their faces off to do it - but that is just business as usual for this crew).

So now we are looking at the BC Libs as interchangeable Campbell clones of both sexes prepare to do battle for the soiled chair in which Gordo has sat for 17 years. We have Christy, the female Campbell with enough baggage to fill 18 BC Rail CN boxcars. Then there is Ding Dong "if you keep your mouth shut here's six million dollars" DeJong and Mr. BrownShirt hisself (oh wait, it's the Chinese dictators that he would like to emulate) Kevie "BirdBrain" Falcon. George Abbott seems to be the only one amongst them with the slightest chance to be re-habilitated into a non-sociopathic human being with a sense of ethics and/or compassion.

I was gonna add a section about the "outsider" (what a joke!), Christy Clark, who announced today, but I'll leave her and her 18 (and multiplying) boxcars of stuff that writes itself for another day. Within minutes of her actual announcement this morning - that she was officially running to be Premier (not MLA, just premier or nuthin' for this excuse for a gal)- some goofy pundit on the radio, maybe a member of Chicken Little's flock, declared the election run and won by Christy (exact words "It's all over now) now that she was in. I guess I won't bother to vote then, since its already over - by the way, she is mayor of Vancouver right now, isn't she? I never get down that way these days! Oh wait a minute, that's right, she never even won the NOMINATION!

Things that don't
Concern Us
and go bump in the night!

Living in British Columbia would be a lot like being a mushroom, being in the dark and feeding on horse manure, if it wasn't for the internet. If it was up to PostMedia, Global, CeeTeeVee and increasingly even the CBC, we would never know anything that doesn't suit the corporate owners of our media and our government or promote their greed greased agenda. Just next door in Idaho and Montana there is a major kefluffle going on that directly relates to us and our neighbor Texas North, otherwise known as Alberta, you know the province whose interests the Prime Minister of Canada represents in Ottawa, Cancun and where ever else he goes embarrassing Canadians globally.

This story has it all, globalization and the loss of manufacturing jobs in North America, environmental devastation writ large in the blot on the planet the goo pits of Northern Alberta.

I'll let the Portland Oregonian take it from here:

Giant Alberta-bound oil-sands shipments stall in Idaho as opposition mounts

Imperial Oil managers thought they'd discovered a new Northwest Passage when they decided to send more than 200 giant factory building blocks from South Korea to Canada via Idaho.

The largest of the massive modules, built as pieces of an $8 billion project in Alberta's oil sands, are wide as two-lane highways, taller than freeway overpasses and two-thirds the length of football fields. Imperial planned to ship the behemoths to Vancouver, barge them upriver and unload them in Lewiston, Idaho.

For $100 million or so, Imperial intended to relocate overhead wires in Idaho and Montana, build dozens of highway pullouts and haul each load in the dead of night to Canada. The route, on winding highways free of overpasses, would avoid a much longer journey through the Panama Canal, the Great Lakes and Minnesota.

But Imperial finds its initial 34 shipments stranded in Lewiston, lacking state highway permits to complete the U.S. portion of the trip and facing activist groups with names like Fighting Goliath and All Against the Haul. Environmentalists are seizing the chance to rally U.S. opposition to Alberta's oil sands, where miners wrest tarry deposits from sand and send about 780,000 barrels of petroleum a day to the United States....../snip

Environmentalists oppose Imperial's mega loads on two main grounds, one being what they call permanent industrialization of Idaho and Montana scenic corridors, and the other being oil-sands impacts on Alberta and climate change. Bob McEnaney, a Natural Resources Defense Council public-lands expert, dug up Korean-language documents showing, he says, that over the next 10 years ExxonMobil expects another 1,000 massive factory modules made by South Korean company Sung Jin Geotec.

"You're basically industrializing what is one of the nation's first wild and scenic rivers," said, McEnaney, referring to Idaho's Lochsa River. "We're opposed to the tar sands to begin with because of the climate impacts."

Opponents are well organized with legal backing...../snip

A huge truck, a pusher truck, three pilot cars and two police cruisers would take nine nights to bring each load on the 510-mile route through Idaho and Montana...../snip
Imperial's permit applications are mired in a thicket of state court decisions and bureaucracy.

The controversy has snagged separate shipments of giant coker-drum equipment that Clackamas heavy hauler Emmert International plans to truck from Lewiston to a ConocoPhillips refinery in Billings, Mont. The four loads would travel partway on the same U.S. 12 route as the Imperial modules.

The ConocoPhillips debate went to the Idaho Supreme Court, which returned it to the state transportation department. A hearing is planned in Boise Wednesday and Thursday.

"We're still sitting and waiting," said Mark Hefty, project development manager for Emmert, which specializes in large loads. "It's the first time we've ever run into anything like that."

Oil-sands critics are not generally trying to shut down operations. Instead The Pembina Institute, a Canadian research organization, calls for a pause on new approvals to give time to plan new projects responsibly and to reduce cumulative effects.

A commenter on the article going by the handle dinoslayer in the Portland newspaper makes perhaps too much sense when he suggests:

This, my friends, is just how stupid a species we truly are.

Why don't you....duhhhhh.... build the things where they're going to be used???

It's not as if Canada is lacking in skilled engineers, welders and just about any other specialist you'd want.

The expression, "penny wise but pound foolish" comes to mind.

Breaking News

A Message from Nathan Cullen - MP Skeena-Bulkley Valley:

DAY 5: We did it!
Thanks to your outstanding support we made our message clear.
We just won 143 – 138!
The House of Commons has now added its collective voice to our movement and given the Government clear direction to ban oil supertankers.
This is an important step towards protecting our ecosystem and marine economy – but work remains to be done.
Stay tuned for an update tomorrow morning
Thanks again!

Nathan Cullen, MP
Skeena-Bulkley Valley

And speaking of those upstanding individuals from Big Oil:

BREAKING: Nigeria Files Charges Against Cheney in Halliburton Bribery Scheme

Jason Leopold, Truthout: "The former vice president was charged by Nigerian officials Tuesday along with eight other individuals in a bribery scheme involving the construction of a liquefied natural gas facility that took place while Cheney was chief executive of Halliburton. Halliburton and its one-time subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), were also charged, according to Nigerian prosecutor Godwin Obla. 'It includes Dick Cheney,' Obla said about the 16-count charge filed in Abuja, Nigeria's capital. 'There are conspiracy charges and giving gratification to public officers. There is also a charge for obstruction of justice.'"

Robin Mathews on
a Confused BCNDP

Two Pretenders - the one on the left is a professional! *photo credit

I'm fully expecting to turn on my TeeVee anyday now and see Carole James, fists balled up, stomping her feet and fully engaged in throwing a temper tantrum unless she can be leader of the British Columbia NDP. I can't believe the rhetoric I'm hearing from the BC Lamestream Media as they praise Carole to the skies because their LIEberal/Corporate bosses fear nothing more than a new leader and an NDP fully able to take advantage of the palpable hatred of Gordon Campbell, the BC Liberals and their province destroying policies.

Therefore this morning I was thrilled to receive the following article to be (or maybe already) published in vivelecanada from Robin Mathews. Now I can relax and not worry about trying to explain why I think that the selfish and childish ones in the ongoing inter-necine strife within the NDP aren't the home-wrecking baker's dozen dissidents, but the leader herself and those calling the shots that have allowed the Campbell Crime Family to rape and pillage this province and its people for a decade now.

I can't resist bolding certain parts, though it is difficult to not just bold it ALL!

The NDP Crisis
In British Columbia Politics

by - Robin Mathews

for vive le canada

The corporate owners of the Gordon Campbell Liberals in B.C. are at this moment assembling their politicians, the Mainstream Press and Media (which they own), and the “faithful foot soldiers” to disguise their massive sell-out of B.C. wealth and the deep corruption of democratic processes in the province.

Political king-pin of that sell-out and corruption, Gordon Campbell, premier, is so completely exposed he has been told to go … but not until he has hammered a few more anti-democratic structures into place.

The goal? To lunge one more time for power in the province.

The NDP – which should be topping the polls by a huge margin … is not. The reasons are simple. Leadership. Policy. Support. Sell-out. In fact, the NDP is divided all the way from the grass-roots to the shadow-cabinet. If ever in the history of the province government by the NDP has been possible, now is the time it should move most easily to a solid majority in the B.C. legislature. But ….

If the value of property – as realtors say – is based on “location, location, location”, the hope of any political party is based on “leadership, leadership, leadership”. That is why Gordon Campbell has been told to go, and has announced his resignation … sometime….

A political leader – besides being someone who can speak to the population convincingly, with sincerity, excitement, empathy, and originality – is much, much more than that. He or she sets the boundaries for trust, for openness, for collegiality within the group that makes up, and forms around, the elected.

The NDP leader cannot speak effectively to the population, and she has plainly lost the trust of (at least) 40% of the caucus. They no longer trust her or believe in her collegiality. They do not have her support. And a former NDP MLA insists she has violated the trust of all the party by rash, preemptive, attacks on colleagues.

A political leader has, also, to respect the boundaries of the philosophy of the party he or she speaks for. Through lying, secrecy, intimidation, and anti-democratic methods, Gordon Campbell respects the philosophical boundaries of a Rightest party. He steals from the poor to give to the rich. He serves the corporations at the cost of the population and democracy in the province. His error is carelessness. He has been ‘found out’ by the population. He has to go.

The NDP leader has violated the philosophy of both (a) an Opposition, and (b) the NDP. First, she has never made clear she represents a philosophy different from the Gordon Campbell group. She does not seriously “oppose”. She tinkers at the edges of Liberal policy, repeatedly saying it is necessary for her Party to show more friendliness to the corporations which own the Liberal Party in B.C.

As B.C. Ferries, BC Rail, and B.C. Hydro – owned by the people of British Columbia and symbols of what the NDP means – were being destroyed before our eyes, she refused to engage in serious Opposition and NDP frontline resistance – and she prevented caucus members from doing so. In fact, she must be seen as collaborating with the Gordon Campbell Liberals in keeping the truth about those huge thefts from the people of British Columbia. A large number of British Columbians still don’t know what has gone on because the NDP refuses both its Opposition and NDP role in making the thefts widely known and excoriated. That can only be called sell-out by the NDP.

The darling issue of the NDP leader is the issue of children and families - the treatment of the vulnerable. Even on that, she is a sell-out. The hero of the battle for the weak and the vulnerable in the province is Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, B.C. Representative for Children and Families.

Ms. Turpel-Lafond has fought the Campbell regime toe to toe for five years – and has had to do so for obvious reasons. The first purpose of the Liberal regime is to rob from the poor to give to the rich. For that reason it can’t – and be consistent – care for the poor and vulnerable. It has to try to put its boot in their faces. It has to act to show it believes the people Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond serves are undeserving trash.

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond has had to take public platform again and again to fight for the people the NDP leader claims to care about. But the NDP leader has never – in my memory – stood shoulder to shoulder with Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, in public, fighting for NDP values and the values the NDP leader says are dearest to her heart. She does not do so and has not done so, I believe, because she doesn’t want to offend the people who own the Liberal Party of B.C.

When Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond needs the presence and the ringing endorsement of the NDP leader … she doesn’t get it.

Policy is needed on all the matters named above – clear, understandable, forceful policy. The NDP leader has never produced it.

Policy is needed, as well, on government collusion with private corporations, on the absolute necessity of full disclosure of government contracting, on the sanctity of Crown Corporations, on the duties of cabinet members, on the admissibility of Public Private Partnerships, on the use of out-of-province financing, management, administration, advice … and on foreign takeovers. All legislation on those matters must have criminal penalties attached if corruption of the kind engaged in for the last nine years is to be ended.

Policy on the breach of trust of public officers within the province must be written by the NDP. It must be clearly expressed, and it must demand heavy penalties. What can be done within the province must be done soon – and pressure must be put on the federal government to re-write the Criminal Code on the matter so that breaches of trust of the kind engaged in by the present Liberal regime in B.C. can be easily nailed and the perpetrators imprisoned.

Policy – preceding legislation – on the environment needs to be loud and clear from the NDP – on fish farms, on tar sands and other pipelines, on coastal waters use, on the wholesale sell-out of river energy, on forestry and offshore sale of raw logs.

Policy is needed to outline the complete restructuring of investigation of complaints against the police, lawyers, and judges. Self-government of those bodies must be ended.

Constituency committees should be engaged and given the task of formulating policies and legislation. Democracy depends on the wisdom of the people. Use it. The NDP doesn’t use it.

I believe individual members of the legislature in the NDP could have fashioned policy and outlined legislation on those matters (and others) and made their work public in spite of the leader … but perhaps not. If not, blame for the absence of action on all those matters rests, finally, with the leader … like it or not.

The NDP leader doesn’t seem to have even the simplest understanding of what all that means. As a start on the renewal of the NDP in British Columbia, then, it follows the leader must go.

A view from the Kootenays

Corky Evans, who many people think should have won that leadership contest oh so long ago that crowned Carole James has published an open letter here to add his much more than two cents worth to the current debate. Perhaps Corky couldn't be king back in 2003, being cursed with the wrong genetalia or ethnic background. But, he was involved in backroom NDP politics and sat at the cabinet table, and his take on how things should be done, used to be done, and what is happening now is illuminating and honest and straightforward - a typical Corky quality. Some selected excerpts from Corky's letter follow:

Leadership, in any Party, is not a right..../snip


As we walked into the hotel the morning of the Provincial Council meeting, staff members stood in the hallway outside the meeting room and gave yellow scarves to everyone EXCEPT the folks they knew had signed or delivered the letter, and a few of the rest of us they figured might support the 13 signatories. The result was surreal. It was also the most divisive thing I have ever witnessed in our Party. The MLA’s who had NOT signed the letter asking Carol to resign were identified, in front of their peers and the Press, as Loyal and Good. Thus, the folks WITHOUT yellow scarves were immediately and publically identified as Disloyal and Bad.

It was awful. It was so unprecedented and unexpected (deriving, as it did, from a respectful and private meeting that everyone involved, except Carole, had intended to remain Private regardless of how she decided to respond) that none of us knew how to react, or feel, or think..../snip

Carole James has done something I never heard of before, which is to publicize and castigate MLA’s who, rightly or wrongly, thought they were acting in confidence and in the best interests of their Party. She could have told them they were wrong and stayed in her job. That has been done before in parliamentary democracies, probably hundreds of times. She could have accepted their advice and stepped down as Leader, perhaps while remaining as an MLA. That, too, has happened before, probably hundreds of times. Instead, she chose to do something that I have never heard of before (no doubt there is some historical precedent somewhere, although I don’t know about it and I can’t imagine that it turned out well) and publicly attacked those who came to her in confidence.

I don’t care if Carole wants to keep her job or not. Neither do I think this trouble is “about” Carole personally. I have, as probably every citizen does, thoughts about her leadership skill and style and believe they are irrelevant to the discourse. This is now about the democratization, or not, of how we do politics. It does not appear to be an issue that is limited to the NDP or even to B.C. I have heard similar thoughts about the erosion of democratic process and about the centralized control of political parties of late from members of the B.C. Liberal Party, the Federal Liberal Party, and the Alberta Conservative Party. It could be that this is a moment in our history when the political process is broken and reform and renewal are on the horizon.

As a New Democrat, I am heartsick at the troubles and I fervently wish Carol James had not orchestrated the public division of her Caucus. As a citizen, I am hopeful that the democratic process in Canada is being reborn. As her friend and supporter, I will go where Jenny Kwan goes, come what may.

Corky Evans

*The woman on the left is tribute artist Luisa Marshall, a very entertaining tribute artist who also does Lady Gaga and other artists in her high energy shows. More about Luisa, including her performance schedule and booking infromation can be found at luisamarshall.com