BC Politics always bizarre

Never a dull day here. Our Premier Gordon Campbell staggering under a 9% approval rating, tried to sell himself on TV and giving a 15% tax break, shortly afterwards the knives were out and so was he.
Good news for the Loyal Opposition? Not so much really, the Premier who just left was their only hope of getting in with their own lackluster leader Carole James. In fact there was a symbiotic relationship between the two. Gordon’s only hope was that the voters would hold their noses and vote for him, knowing she would be a disaster. Carole’s only hope was that the voters might think she could not be possibly worse than Gordon. Once Gordon left, she was on borrowed time and it just ran out with her own caucus in revolt.

I don’t follow local politics closely enough to tell you who will be successful in replacing both of them, but I can tell you this. Politics has never been dull here.

1871 First general election in province of British Columbia for Legislative Assembly.
1874 Chinese and native Indians disenfranchised
1878 School teachers prohibited from voting or campaigning
1895 Japanese disenfranchised
1899 Provincial civil servants disenfranchised
1907 Hindus disenfranchised
1917 Franchise extended to women
1924 Both Premier (John Oliver) and Leader of the Opposition (William John Bowser) defeated in general election.
1931 Doukhobors disenfranchised
1945 Members of prohibited groups, if otherwise qualified, allowed to vote if they served in either World War (SBC 1945 c.26).
1949 Indians and Japanese prohibition removed
1977 Liquor sales allowed on election day
http://www.elections.bc.ca/index.php/resource-centre/electoral-history-of-bc/

Colourful Premiers we had aplenty


De Cosmos, Amor 1872-74
De Cosmos' attempt to alter the terms of union in order to obtain monetary guarantees from the federal government to complete a dry dock at Esquimalt that eventually led to accusations of impropriety, and ended his provincial political career. He speculated heavily in land and in Texada Island Iron mines, which brought further criticism, as he was a public official. Thus he ended his tenure as Premier on February 11, 1874.

W.A.C. (Wacky) Bennett 1952-1972
He was a capitalist that nationalized the Provincial electric utilities and railway, some of the smartest moves made by a politician in this Province.
· Quotes "Just say that I smiled and I smiled and I smiled!" -- signature riposte when asked to respond to criticism from opposition party or media
· "The finest sound in the land is the ringing of cash registers."
· "The Socialist Hordes are at the gates of British Columbia!"
· "I couldn't give it away, so we decided to build it and run it." - On the British Columbia Railway.
· "We are a young country; we must build on the solid rock of sound economic policies and balanced budgets. But, we must be prepared, as a nation, to step from the solid rock onto new ground. The path of ease, the path of tradition alone, is not the path of a greater Canada." - Addressing the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in 1962.
· "I'm plugged into God" - On the reason for his political successes
· "It's the smell of money." - To residents complaining of the smell of a local pulp mill
· "They couldn't run a peanut stand." - On the New Democratic Party
· "You may not be my friend, but I'll be your friend, even if I'm the last friend you ever have." - On his frequent application of "my friend" to everyone, including political opponents.
· "The answer is 'No'." - How Wacky Bennett would emphasize his stubborn opposition
The above borrowed from Wiki

The voters here can also be quite vengeful, they wiped out the Social Credit party and mopped the floor with the NDP. They might decide to punish the current Liberals for the HST that they imposed on us, after promising not to. Which lead to a successful referendum run by another colourful ex-premier called Bill Vanderzalm.

Oh did I mention we had our own navy made up of 2 submarines?

Pooped out!

Sorry for the lack of posts, two sick kids and sick wife, who reacted rather badly to the antibiotics she got. Things are getting better, the kids are less cranky and so is the wife, so time to come out of cover.

This is Zeus when he was a young kitten snoozing after a hard day of playing with his brother Jake who belongs to a friend of ours. If we could go back in time, we would have gotten one of Zeus’s siblings to keep him company. Lesson learned. Somehow I don’t think he would appreciate another kitten in the house at this stage in his life, the kids are bad enough, although he does have them well trained by now.

“Light Infantry”

If someone tells you light Infantry is the way to go, just look at this picture.


Via Castle Arrgghh!!!

Northern Korean defenses explained

If you have ever wondered about the Northern Korean defenses, then you will want to make yourself comfortable, get a cup of your favorite and read the following link. Likely you will then know as much as do half the “experts” on the subject.

ARGGHHH!!!

Canadian police car chase

It's that time of the year again.......

Simon's Cat: Beyond the Fence

In Russia, rat eats cats

Zeus spits on these cats, unworthy they are of being called cats. Zeus would kill and bring us this rat as an offering.

At the hovercraft base where I worked, we have a cat named Victor, he would line up his nightly kills on the patio and await our attention, if we did not come out and inspect his work, he would fling their bloody bodies against the glass doors till we did.

Another day, another firefight

Us armchair types can talk all we want, but the end of the day it is the job of the Infantry to take ground. It’s up to the politicians in Afghanistan and the West to hold it for the long term. It’s called “will to win”. the soldiers have it, do the politicians?

When they came for the gun owners I did nothing

UN General Assembly Votes To Allow Gays To Be Executed Without Cause (it's not like us gun owners didn't try to warn you about them) Don’t care because you are not gay or a gun owner? Don’t worry you are on somebody’s list

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people were once again subject to the whims of homophobia and religious and cultural extremism this week, thanks to a United Nations vote that removed “sexual orientation” from a resolution that protects people from arbitrary executions. In other words, the UN General Assembly this week voted to allow LGBT people to be executed without cause.

via thenewcivilrightsmovement.com

Images of total war

To put things into perspective for the generation that thinks Iraq and Afghanistan is all out warfare. The images shown in this rare film will show you what total war means. So when I hear statements like “We can never win” I know it is pure bunk. Neither Iraq or Afghanistan has tasted what total warfare means, the closest perhaps when the Soviets fought in Afghanistan, even then it pales in comparison to what the Soviets could have unleashed if they wanted to. Canada committed approx 2500 troops to Afghanistan out of a population of 33 million. In WWII we put 1 million people in uniform out of 11 million.
Watch this film taken of the battlefield from an airship on BBC and reflect on what happened there and what is happening today.

Thank you to Doug from Tanknet