You twits the data is the registry!!

Sheesh what part of killing the Long Gun Registry (LGR) does the NDP not get? Bill C-19 will stop the collection of registry data for non-restricted and cause the LGR data collected to be destroyed. The data is the LGR, so keeping the data is in essence keeping the LGR. Getting rid of the LGR is not just politics for the CPC and it's supporters, but it is righting a moral wrong. The LGR and bill C-68 (Firearm Act) are seen as a form of punishment for law abiding citizens and does little to fight the real issues of violent crime.
So to have the NDP and it's members pretend that they didn't realize the Conservatives would destroy the data is almost comical and they would have to be stunningly stupid to not have foreseen such an event and I don't think Nathan Cullen is stupid. In which case his sudden "bout of conscious" in regards to possible voting against C-19 is pure political manouvering likely connected to his bid for the leadership of the NDP.
Bill C-19 is now in committee, which is controlled by the Conservatives, which means they can bring forward witnesses the last committee run by the liberals blocked from testifying. This means much of the hidden truth about the LGR failure will be recorded for future historians to ponder.

Good luck Jack

I am no fan of Jack Layton, I despise his politics, his party platform and the way he portrays himself in the media. That being said, I wish him well in his fight against cancer, it's a crappy disease that has taken my sister, my sister inlaw and almost my Dad.
This is not how I wanted Jack to leave the political scene, there is no joy in him leaving this way. I hope you recover and we can trounce you the political battlefield, in the meantime I wish good health to you and your family, it will be a hard road regardless of the outcome.

Iggy in wonderland

I feel like I am living in Alice’s wonderland, we have the Liberal party attempting to bring down the current government on “Ethics” and “trust”. Now to be fair, Iggy had zero to do with the previous Liberal governments, in fact he wasn’t around for most of them. So I can understand why he does not get the irony, but can the people working for him really be dumb enough to think we have forgotten about the Liberal scandals and hidden costs games?
Don’t they expect the Conservatives to bring up, Adscam, gun registry costs, APEC, shawnigate among others every time the Liberals say ethics, trusts?

Perhaps they expected the NDP to save their butts yet again, which might have happened had the CPC polling numbers been lower. You can bet there are some serious discussion going on in the Liberal and NDP war rooms about how much an election is going to cost and where are they going to get the money or credit for it.

Meanwhile Elizabeth May will be working on a clever plot to piss off what little support she has left within her own party. The Bloc will wish this wasn’t happening but likely have the least to worry about, although I wish they did have something to be afraid of.

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?