BC Liberal MLA Ida Chong and newly-independent MLA Blair Lekstrom - May 2006Former BC Liberal Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom quit both the cabinet and BC Liberal caucus on Friday June 11 over his riding's opposition to the HST to sit as an independent - will BC Liberal cabinet minister Ida Chong be the next to go?
One thing is abundantly clear from Chong's interview with Victoria CFAX radio host Adam Sterling on Friday - the Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA is not making any commitment to stay on the sinking ship captained by BC Premier Gordon Campbell after Lekstrom's stunning resignation.
The new Small Business Minister Chong - promoted courtesy of Lekstrom's departure - repeatedly refused to rule out quitting the caucus under intense questioning from Sterling.
The question is - why wouldn't she answer the question? Answer it plainly, that is.
Chong knows her very slim win in the 2009 election and overwhelming opposition to the Harmonized Sales Tax in her riding mean she is on the slippery slope to Recall come November.
Here is CFAX Radio AM 1070's news report of the interview - judge for yourself Chong's commitment to staying in the shell-shocked BC Liberal caucus.
And don't forget to vote in this blog's new poll on which BC Liberal MLA is most likely to quit next - it's on the upper right hand side of this web page.
Adam Stirling: "The question on everybody's minds right now is: do you, or do you ever see yourself resigning over opposition to the HST as another BC cabinet member?"
Ida Chong: "You know I got elected because I was worried about this province and I joined a party that I believe had all the fundamentals to keep our economy strong and moving forward. And as long as we can continue to do that, I will do that, and I realize that at times there will be tough decisions and tough decisions require courage and require leadership and that's what I'm prepared to provide.
Stirling: "So, that's a NO?"
Chong: "It means I'm going to continue to work hard to make sure our constituents get the best economy and the best quality of life that we can"
Stirling: "So is that not a NO?"
Chong: "You know, I think it's really clear that when you talk about standing for office you have to stand on the basis for which you were first elected and those are the principles that I have."
Apparently Chong is considering which priniciples those are - blind loyalty to Gordon Campbell or her responsibility to the voters who elected her as their representative - and who don't want the HST imposed on them.
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42 comments:
Reminds me of am interview that was made with Harcourt about as Premier if he would cross a picket line set up by the BCGEU as a result of a labour protest.
He kept insisting that he would have already been in his office before any instance of a picket line existed which isn't possible, since he would have had to camp out there). So he would not have crossed any picket line in the first place.
With Ida Chong, bet on her being where she is to the 2013 election.
Sorry Bill. I can't vote in your survey because you don't have MLA Donna Barnett there. But if you were to ask which of the ones posted would quit I'd have to say Pat Pimm.
Ida is not a very popular person and her leaving caucus sure wouldn't make much difference in the Legislature.She has a reputation of being a no results person. Mind you she sure can clap when other cabinet folks make silly comments. She likes the money but if a recall comes along, well she might well end up unemployed
Having known Ida for almost twenty years, Ida loves being an MLA and the "Anglo-Saxon social standing" it gives her in Oak Bay too much to ever do anything radical.
Ida will keep her mouth shut, her butt glued to her chair and the MLA's salary coming until the last moment.
The cities will stay loyal to THE LEADER and this revolt will start in the rural areas.
The GREAT SATAN
I think with a bit more pressure that she may also quit.
Ummm, she's trying to buy time from the inevitable recall and will be turfed by her consitutents. HST is just the start. There's also the sell-off of the Jordan River forest lands for subdivisions (the decision finally ended up on her desk as a Cabinet minister and she allowed it to go through.) Plus she's a terrible MLA.
Don McRae also has another problem. VIHA and St Joseph's Hospital decided to cut 22% of the medical/surgical beds at St Jo's.
The petition circulated by the local health coalition to keep those beds has about 8,500 signatures. Unless McRae starts supporting issues his constituents care about, he's on the A-list for recall in November.
An anonymous (6:08)poster said:
"With Ida Chong, bet on her being where she is to the 2013 election."
Personally, I wouldn't bet on the Liberals lasting until a 2013 election - particularly this Liberal. I believe that the BC Liberals could easily lose their majority, and a provincial election will be called earlier than 2013.
For you Facebookers out there, here is an interesting new FB group that is considering the organizing of a general strike to coincide with the anti-HST/recall MLA sentiments.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=124180544285124
"For you Facebookers out there, here is an interesting new FB group that is considering the organizing of a general strike to coincide with the anti-HST/recall MLA sentiments."
General strikes are 1930's mentality.
They don't work, and people have to, to earn money to pay for the mortage, students have to get to school, and people have to travel to and from work.
Better to just get busy and re-work the NDP into something that actually can mean a good alternative for those who don't want the BC Liberals next time
Turfing Liberals is one thing.
Putting NDP members in their place is something else.
The newly 'independent' Liberals - such as Lekstrom, possibly Chong and others - are simply waiting to see what rises from the fiercely burning ashes of the Campbell Liberals.
By next summer, BC's new government will be a coalition of Conservatives, Liberals and independents.
"By next summer, BC's new government will be a coalition of Conservatives, Liberals and independents."
In other words, same old, same old that we have been terrorized by for the last decade, eh?
The Great Satan is likely right, the sheeple in the Big Smoke might be happy with der Furher, what's not to like with all the goodies they get at our (the country mice from the vast hurtland) expense, but people like Donna Barnett and the Glimmer (of intelligence) Twins from Kamloops that share a combined IQ of about 17, better start retraining for another career.
Perhaps they could start out in the "real" world at the special Campbelloid $6.00 per hour training wage, as they've undoubtably forgotten what it's like to have a real job, if they ever knew in the first place.
Norm Letnick, Terry Lake and Don McRae:
1) All first timers elected in 2009.
2) All backbench MLAs. McRae and Lake have some political experience at the local level.
3) All with youngish families and won't like the prosepects of fighting a recall campaign.
4) Letnick and McRae toured the province extensively last year, and heard about the public's disappointment with the lack of consultation on the HST. Lake will not be looking forward to the initative campaign.
5) McRae and Lake are high on the possibles for recall...high number of signatures and low voter turnover. Letnick, like Lekstrom, has already voted against the party on legislation.
"Perhaps they could start out in the "real" world at the special Campbelloid $6.00 per hour training wage, as they've undoubtably forgotten what it's like to have a real job, if they ever knew in the first place."
Perhaps someone could start out in the "real" political world and volunteer within an NDP riding association to work policy and help with the riding's growth leading to the nominating of a good candidate to go against the BC Liberal one.
That is if that someone knew in the first place.
Anon 10:56 said:
"General strikes are 1930's mentality."
I get that. What I also get is that for the first time since the Great Depression we have an income disparity as wide as it is between rich and poor. Further, the poor continue to remain poor and the middle class grows poorer while the wealthiest 10% (who already own 90%) are still collecting 6,7,8,9 and 10-figure incomes. Nothing hurts the wealthy more than having their serfs refusing to do anything for them. I am not advocating a general strike, mind you, I am merely providing information. I haven't made my mind up about whether a general strike is the best way for the 90% who are subservient to the 1% who own more than half of everything.
I see the PAB Bots are busy1
"I get that. What I also get is that for the first time since the Great Depression we have an income disparity as wide as it is between rich and poor."
That's been relative over the ages.
But sounds a bit socialist to me. If a person needs a hand up, not a hand out, help them, but why are
left wingers always going after those who can be a success? If there's a complaint, talk to Glen Clark.
"Further, the poor continue to remain poor and the middle class grows poorer while the wealthiest 10% (who already own 90%) are still collecting 6,7,8,9 and 10-figure incomes. Nothing hurts the wealthy more than having their serfs refusing to do anything for them."
Well become successful like Glen Clark has.
"I am not advocating a general strike, mind you, I am merely providing information. I haven't made my mind up about whether a general strike is the best way for the 90% who are subservient to the 1% who own more than half of everything."
It isn't. The concept of a general strike is long gone. People are just too busy working to bother with a left wing protest that wouldn't amount to much of anything.
The BC Liberals will still be here, the NDP will still be here and Bill Tieleman will still be here and Bill VanderZalm will still be here.
Who or what is PAB that one poster is all a flutter about, and what value would there be for whomever they are to post to a left wing blog run by an NDP politico such as this one?
Anon 9:38 said:
"The concept of a general strike is long gone. People are just too busy working to bother with a left wing protest that wouldn't amount to much of anything."
I think that things amount to what people want them to amount to. Average people are working harder than they ever have. They have less free time than they have ever had, and yet, it now takes a higher percentage of 2 incomes to purchase a home than it used to take of one income from 1967 until Canada's centenial.
There is nothing wrong with people sharing, with socialism. It is what has given us public healthcare, education, toll-free roads, and laws to protect the non-greedy, laws to protect those who may be quite good at working and contributing but not necessarily good at trying to get a bigger piece of pie than is their due.
The selfish greed is good wet dream that has taken over during the last 30+ years has created more waste, more pollution, more unhealthiness and more unhappiness than it has brought happiness. The trouble with the greed mentality is that their is never enough of anything for it to be sated. I know of no greedy person who is happy for longer than but short bits of time. They always want more. On a planet with fewer resources with each passing day, greed is what is so passe'. Greed is so 1920s, and we know where that took us.
The earth as we know it is at a very critical juncture. Though we may have already reached the tipping point, it would be foolish for our species to not attempt to halt our direction down our destructive path. The Ayn Rand/Ferengi life is but a virtueless joke to play upon a finite world; yet, that is the empty life promoted by objectivists/capitalists.
These collected psalms of greed ring pathetic when compared to true virtues:
http://projectsanctuary.com/the_complete_ferengi_rules_of_acquisition.htm
corrections:
"...from 1967 until Canada's centenial."
from [1867] until Canada's centenial.
...also a "their" should have been "there".
My apologies all.
further to my 11:24 post:
It seems the link doesn't work.
The link I tried to post was my attempt to provide a list. Similar lists may be found by Googling:
Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
The link I provided was not an attempt to direct a person toward the other content at that web site. In fact, I do not even know what that website is about.
Thanks for your patience.
'A flutter'?
Hardly. If you don't know what the PAB is then you're the one who should be 'a flutter'...because you're clearly not fully aware or awake in the current world of media manipulation in British Columbia.
"Hardly. If you don't know what the PAB is then you're the one who should be 'a flutter'...because you're clearly not fully aware or awake in the current world of media manipulation in British Columbia."
someone obviously is a bit paranoid.
Wonder what this person would do if the same thing happened within an NDP government, that is this PAB exists under an NDP government?
The previous poster shouldn't get to serious. Politics in the form of writing to a blog such as this one is just a hobby, not a source of income to pay the mortgage or buy the groceries.
to Anonymous 11:20 am. Following and writing on political blogs such as this one is, in my view, social responsibility. It is keeping oneself and others informed in a democracy, where everyone has a responsibility to help maintain a healthy system. BC's Public Affairs Bureau has ballooned during these "Liberal" years, for obvious and, sadly, effective puposes. I suspect you already know that, but are pretending not to, so I won't waste any more of my time explaining.
"to Anonymous 11:20 am. Following and writing on political blogs such as this one is, in my view, social responsibility."
No it isn't. It is just a secondary means of getting opinion to a person who spends hobby time
hosting a means of conveyance of observance and opinion. There is no mandatory "responsibility" to post to blogs, it is hobby time for political watchers who wish to use this means to expend opinion.
" It is keeping oneself and others informed in a democracy, where everyone has a responsibility to help maintain a healthy system."
It is a means of digital conversation, has nothing inherent to do with democracy itself other than a conveyance of free expression even expeding that free expression which is beyond the accpeted limitation of a few opinion contributors (i.e. right wing observance in a left wing environment).
"BC's Public Affairs Bureau has ballooned during these "Liberal" years, for obvious and, sadly, effective puposes. I suspect you already know that, but are pretending not to, so I won't waste any more of my time explaining."
Good. It was the NDP that brought in that agency, and it will be up to them to alter it to accepted limitations once they become government. If they do not, then you will need to complain to the NDP MLA of choice.
Until then, enjoy World Cup Football.
Bill, I keep seeing your name in the comments on online news documents - you're an accused NDP plant!
You're pissing people off Bill, keep up the good work and thank you!
For concerned citizen, 12.40 PDT - you are right on - for Anonymouse 9.38 PDT - I resent having to pay your salary - please get a "life" for your self - if you sound like a sheep, bleet like a sheep, and follow like a sheep, then the "shoe" fits - if you haven't a mind of your own, God Bless - Joey
PAB
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100523/government-online-forums-100523/20100523?hub=QPeriod
I will suggest that Ida Chong will stay, until after Recall In The Fall.
It is becoming apparent up here in the Comox Valley that MLA Don McRae will stick around until he he recalled in the Fall.
He still hasn't gone on record with us Constituants as to how it is that EVERY Liberal M.L.A. was onside with the H.S.T. from the moment it was announced, days after the Election.
I think the reason Ida Chong didn't answer the question because she was not supplied an answer by Gordo's minions. I'm sure she will check with them and then get back to the reporter.
Wow. When all else fails, blame it all on Glen Clark. The Public Affairs Bureau (PAB) had, at its largest, 241 FTE's working under the Campbell Government. I'm sure Bill knows how many people worked in an equivalent position for Glen Clark. 5? 10? Cripes, the White House has a staff of 5 in its equivalent to the PAB. Over $30 million per year to run a press room bigger than Canwest's in the the Campbell government.
PS Ida's waiting for PAB to tell her what to say.
Anonymous 5:36 is wrong.
PAB was established in 2001 by the Campbell government, replacing a much smaller central communications body.
The Campbell government made three significant changes to the communications structure in 2001 when it established the Public Affairs Bureau (the same name used for the Bill Bennett communications structure devised by Patrick Kinsella). First they consolidated the entire government communications structure bringing it under central control reporting to the Premier's Office (Martyn Brown). Second they made all communications staff political (order in council) appointees and began filling them with Liberal party loyalists. Thirdly, they doubled the size of the communications staff.
That's the history of PAB under the Liberals Anonymous 5:36; A huge political spin machine for the Premier's Office.
Politics in the form of writing to a blog such as this one is just a hobby, not a source of income to pay the mortgage or buy the groceries.
Anonymous 11:20 - you're suggesting that your own writing here is paying the mortgage and/or buying the groceries. Unless you are willing to admit your own opinion is only hobby-spew like what you're condemning others here for; and therefore meaningless quibbling.
Epictetes: "All Cretans are liars" (Epictetes was a Cretan).
anonymous 5:36: Your attempt to blame the abuses of the PAB on the NDP simply because they created the office betrays that very set of abuses; PABers using their government salaries to spew governing-party propaganda. Because blaming the NDP is so much part of Liberal talking points it might as well be their party motto.
The NDP launched the Olympics here too; but it was the Liberals who bloated the budget, farmed out contracts to their friends, slashed government and community services to pay for the Games, brought in overdone security and restricted freedom of speech and also of artistic expression, even slashing school sports budgets, all to pay for the Games, and otherwise abused the Olympic agenda, just like they've abused the PAB and so many other things that have connections to the NDP.
Blaming the NDP for the misconduct of the Liberals is an idiot's game; you are clearly PAB, if not by payroll then surely by mentality.
Anon 9:41; 11:20; 5:36...
I haven't bothered to check your IP - because it's clear you are the same person - someone who, I'd suggest, has used the nom de plume BC Boy at Tyee and polluted the threads there for a couple of months.
Why David Beers and Bill Tieleman put up with your ilk is a mystery.
You are, clearly, little more than a shit-disturbing distraction; you know nothing about politics and public affairs and your posts amount to little more than cut and paste repetitions (with a few remarks you seem to think are witty) of what others have written.
You contribute nothing positive and seem more interested in starting lame internet fights - over NOTHING!
I don't think you are a Public Affairs Bureau troll though - no one would PAY you to play such childish games.
"For concerned citizen, 12.40 PDT - you are right on - for Anonymouse 9.38 PDT - I resent having to pay your salary - please get a "life" for your self - if you sound like a sheep, bleet like a sheep, and follow like a sheep, then the "shoe" fits - if you haven't a mind of your own, God Bless - Joey"
So how does Joey know Anonymoous 9.38 PD is being paid by you? If this person was, his own contribution to an alleged salary to an alleged PAB peson would far less than 1/2 of 1 cent.
About the same amount that would be contributed to any one PAB person that exists within an NDP government, such as those working
within when Bill was in the Premier's Office.
Anonymous 5:36 - "It is a means of digital conversation, has nothing inherent to do with democracy itself other than a conveyance of free expression even expeding that free expression which is beyond the accpeted limitation of a few opinion contributors (i.e. right wing observance in a left wing environment)"
Really? Tell that to the 136,000 members of Bill's FB group, many of whom have gotten themselves off the couch and have been collecting signatures for the Initiative Petition.
"Really? Tell that to the 136,000 members of Bill's FB group, many of whom have gotten themselves off the couch and have been collecting signatures for the Initiative Petition."
Compare that to alot more who went out and collected signatures and have no idea that Bill Tieleman's blog actually exists.
plus compare that to the thousands of volunteers who worked the last provincial election for the NDP who also did not know that Bill's blog exists.
Remember, the most widely recognised person on the petition effort is not Bill Tieleman, but rather Bill VanderZalm followed by Chris Delaney.
It will be interesting to see what happens if Chris Delany's BC Conservatives get to speed to be competitive with Bill Tieleman's NDP.
Then what?
R"eally? Tell that to the 136,000 members of Bill's FB group, many of whom have gotten themselves off the couch and have been collecting signatures for the Initiative Petition."
So why aren't the majority of those 136,000 Facebook people signing up for the NDP and volunteering within our party?
They could move on to help the NDP win the next election.
Missing an opporutnity here.
You know you're doing something right Bill when the PABlum Brigade comes out to play - unfortunately we have to pay for their mis-representations. Also unfortunately they probably aren't getting the $6.00 training wage, though judging from their "work" that would be an over payment!
Sure seems to be alot of paranoia over these PAB people.
But carry on, even though the subject of Blair Lekstrom is done. He's resigned and is now sitting as an Independent.
Nothing new to comment on regarding that.
Even the references to the Blair Witch Project is a bit silly.
But this a hobby, and such as it is, entertainment for a few.
I think Koot, that these PAB Trolls are getting paid by the hits they get to their posting. That's why I choose to ignore them
The poster above that suggested Day could be right. My thoughts on Barnett may be wrong. She doesn't have the political savvy to realize what is happening. I'm also getting reports every day that she doesn't answer phones or return e-mails. Sad when you think about it. She "wants to do whats best for her Constituents but doesn't even acknowledge that they exist. Watch for a piece on her at my place, probably by the weekend.
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