Tuesday, February 09, 2010

What a terrible BC Throne Speech! Cliche-O-Matic

Regrettably I don't have time to fully comment on today's BC Throne Speech - but what an absolutely terrible piece of work it was.

I'm not even talking about the content - which was ominous and bad - but about the cliched, hackneyed and downright awful speechwriting!

I felt embarrassed for Lieutenant-Governor
For example, this winner: "A new decade is upon us that demands we leave the past behind and embrace new solutions for this new century. In this age of relentless change and global transformation, standing still is not an option."

Wow! I didn't know "standing still is not an option"! I thought that was a real possibility.

Or another scintillating passage: "These priorities will help advance this government's five great goals. They demand collaborative partnerships, smart action and firm commitment."

Yahoo - firm commitment!

And it just got better and better: "The tasks ahead are daunting, but future generations deserve all the effort and wisdom we can muster in meeting this challenge."

Daunting tasks! Future generations! Meeting this challenge!

It was a dark and stormy night! Whoops, that just slipped in - but the others are all there - and paid for by your tax dollars.

And then, mercifully: "His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor retired from the chamber."

I'd retire after having to read that pap! Steven Point deserves a province's thanks for not puking on the red carpet.

But the coup de grace was yet to come: "Mr. Speaker: Hon. members, in order to prevent mistakes, I've obtained a copy of His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor's speech."

Way, way too late for that - the mistake is now in the history books.

Cliches away!



9 comments:

Anonymous said...

How unfortuate for all of BC. The premire hand picked the Lt.Govn., which (not witch)should be an elected post.Good choice on gordos part picking an aboriinal man,but its like, if you want the job, do as your told.

Anonymous said...

The throne speech was just getting us psyched for the torch run of that famous canadian The Terminator , Arnold. Campbells just getting us ready for he's trying to live up to the nickname fumigator as he destroys BC.

Anonymous said...

Bill the new decade starts in 2011.
1 to 10 not 0 to 9

DPL said...

Another good slant on the garbage can be found at David's Strategic Thoughts. One can oly guess Gordo wrote it between command performances at some torch event, and with his made in China red mittens firmly glued in position.

Anonymous said...

These are truly Blue times as Campbell continues to hand control of this province to his corporate American friends.

The Olympics used to be represented by five colours - blue, yellow, black, green and red - but here in BC we have been downsized to two - blue and green. The original colour scheme was meant to represent diverse interests working together to build a better world, but not here in BC.

Yesterday was also the day that the Vancouver Whistler 2010 Olympic torch was carried into the United States. Tomorrow, they break the policy of not allowing politicians to run in the relay when the Governator carries up the flame.

Yes, always an exception for Campbell's corporate friends.

Could this be the result of Americans demanding payback for the big Powerex ripoff?

http://tdworld.com/news/Powerex-California-lawsuit/

And could the continued push for Private-Public Power be another payback for the crimes of Campbell's cronies?

The Throne Speech was not all cliches. It continues the degradation of our already-weak environmental protection laws and there are many ominous words that must be heeded, Bill, such as this:

"We must curtail expectations of government"

Things are going to get worse.

Kim said...

It says to me that he plans to privatise education.

Ed Seedhouse said...

I will not curtail my expectations of government! I want better government and a better society. If you can't deliver, make way for someone who will at least try.

Anonymous said...

Tieleman is still pissed that the throne speech didn't mention facebookgate. I hope the government raises taxes 5% across the board to maintain current levels of services. We don't deserve more.

BC Mary said...

My most UN-favourite line in the Throne Speech is: "BC Rail will be brought back into government and wound down as a Crown Corporation."

It's only one line in the Throne Speech of February 9, 2010 but the timing and sneakiness are the exclusive hallmark of the premier. With the Olympics starting, not everyone would see that sentence about bringing BC Rail home in order to finish killing it off.

Once again, Gordon Campbell would have us thinking that BC Rail is a small, worn-out piece of old trash to toss aside. It's our Gordo saying "Just move along, folks, thank you. Nothin' to see here. No, nothin' to see. Just keep movin' along ..."

But what about Deltaport? What about that 40-km. spur line which runs to Roberts Bank? And what about the 2,509 pieces of valuable lands owned by BC Rail? And what, for heaven sake, about the right-of-way and railbed for this vital 1,500 km of mainline from North Vancouver to Fort Nelson (plus branch lines)? All that, and probably more, are what's left of BCRail, not counting our hopes and memories.

Michael Smyth in his Feb. 11 column says getting rid of BCRail now is just brilliant economics because it will rid us of those overpaid BCRail CEOs.

But is it rocket science to cut those bloated salaries? Fire them and get sensible new CEOs?

Because that large amount of BC Rail treasure needs proper management in the public interest.

Besides, the BCR-CN deal isn't carved in stone. It has default clauses in which repossession is possible. And i.m.o., CN has breached the terms in several places (that's without even seeing the full agreement, some of which is still secret) and i.m.o. BCRail could have repossessed the publicly-owned railway on July 15, 2009. Thanks Gordo. Thanks Leonard Krog.

So it's a sly, dangerous move to try to pass "what's left of BCRail" off as throwaway trash.

What's left of BC Rail is the mirror image of what was thrown away when the BCR-CN deal was negotiated. A little stiffening of the political spines would make a welcome difference to this picture.
.