Fair Voting British Columbia | Think Democracy Forum

Hey all,

Fair Voting British Columbia is becoming active in the political world once again, my friends. We are slowly retooling the organization and putting lots of time and effort into making FVBC a major player on the British Columbia political scene. For those who don’t already know, I was elected to the Board of Directors of FVBC in September at our annual AGM in Vancouver. We now have a fresh new Board with fresh new ideas to bring to the table. It is really an exciting time to be living in BC, I’ll tell you that.

We have a Facebook Page created now which you can access here. Our website is always active and running, and we have a brand new Twitter account: @fairvotingbc. You can also join us on our collaborative pbwiki (you will have to create an account and request access) if you are willing to be actively involved in the organization. We have also launched a WordPress blog.

We have set up a committee of sorts comprising of our new President Anthony Hodgson, newly elected Director Jim DeLaHunt, and myself to focus primarily on reform opportunities within the city of Vancouver. We have teamed up with our friends over at Think City and will be co-sponsoring the Think Democracy Forum this December 4th at the SFU Harbour Centre in Downtown Vancouver.

(Click for larger image)

This is going to be a really fun and interactive discussion about various issues facing our municipal system. Everything from electoral reform to campaign financing to holding Mayor Robertson to his promise to hold a plebiscite in 2011 re: switching to a neighbourhood ward system. There is something for everyone! Space is limited, so please RSVP the guys over at Think City so we can hold a space for you!

If you have any more questions, feel free to comment or email me.

Its Movember in Canada!

Hello everyone,

Just a quick post here, nothing too long because I am just getting over a sickly weekend. I wanted to draw attention to a wonderfully fun event going on all month during November, and at is – MOvember!

It is a campaign to raise awareness and dollars to fight prostate cancer in men. Everyone (man, or woman – no one is discriminating here) is encouraged to grow a moustache and take collections via their website.

If anyone of you can visit my personal Mo Space and drop a few coin into the digital Paypal slot, that would make a world of difference to people all over the world who deal with prostate cancer either personally, through a friend, or through a loved one.

Thanks everyone, and I will have more posts coming in the near future!

Gratitude Week Update

Just a quick update for you all, mainly so I can take advantage of the HST information-seekers that inevitably come to my page here.

The Gratitude Week to End Homelessness is just TWO weeks away now! It seems like this has been going on forever and a day, and we are finally at the crucial last days before we launch head-long into our action-packed week!

On October 12th, join us for our kick off event at our dedicated project: the Pender Hotel at 31 W. Pender Street (right near the Chinatown Gate at Abbott and Pender) for our inaugural event for the week. Afterwards, everyone is invited to the Vancouver Art Gallery to partake in the festivities and information booths to learn more about homelessness on the Downtown Eastside, and in Greater Vancouver.

On the morning of Wednesday October 14th you are invited to join the Student Street Collection to collect funds, and more importantly to raise awareness of the events surrounding Gratitude Week so we can get everyone doing something on that day. It can be as little as walking through the Art Gallery square and dropping a dollar into one of the collection bins we will have set up. Everyone can do something – Give a Dollar, Give a Damn.

It is also important to know that each and every possible dollar raised will go into the project we have dedicated ourselves to: the Pender Hotel. To see pictures of the hotel, visit our Facebook page. Honestly, I saw the building’s inside for the first time that day, and it blew me away. The potential just radiates from the walls of this place.

It truly will give everyone something to be grateful for this autumn.

Improving our…

Im going to try a little different format to this post than usual.

In my first few weeks of classes at Capilano University, I have come in contact with a thing called ‘Moodle’. Its an online resource where I do all my homeworks, take some online quizzes, and more importantly can contribute to discussions with my classmates. We have been talking about everything from the HST to fall election talk, and more recently (as of about 3 min ago) a topic I posted regarding our public transit system.

Because it is a discussion, I ended off the post with a question, and so I wanted to reproduce it here and see how this approach can be adapted to a blog. Please feel free to read it through and post your comments to me afterwards.

Road Pricing and Tolling:

Its not a sexy and exciting issue to discuss (at least not for everyone) – but pick up a news paper from anywhere across this country and you will no doubt see an article telling you how your city’s public transit system is struggling to make ends meet.

Translink is broke, and Chances are that this provincial Government isn’t going to pour the billions and billions of badly needed dollars into our public transit system any time soon. The Commissioners’ report laid out 4 ‘possible’ funding scenarios (and their implications and consequences) to Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, Chair of the Mayors Council on Regional Transportation. They are as follows (for those who wont read the report ):

1. Titled ‘Drastic Cuts‘

• reduces transit services (buses, trains, seabuses, security presence, etc.) as Translink will soon exhaust it’s cash reserves,
• uses existing funding sources and
• existing borrowing limit (of $2.8b)

2. Titled ‘Funding Stabilization’

• minimizes stated service cuts,
• buys time for further planning and funding efforts,
• needs $130m more a year over and above the Base Plan (Drastic Cuts)

3. Titled ‘Maintain and Upgrade‘

• strengthens (increases) existing services,
• lays groundwork for future expansions,
• needs $275m a year over Base Plan, plus a new ‘Vehicle Levy’,
• and borrowing capacity bumped up to $3.9b`

4. Titled ‘On Track to Sustainable Region‘

• dramatically expands rapid transit,
• needs $175m a year over option 3 ($175m + $275m = $450m/yr)
• borrows up to $6.5b

The obvious preference is for the final option. Reason would put us somewhere between 2 and 3. Reality has us at number 1.

So without carrying on for too much longer – what does anyone and everyone think about tolling highways and bridges, and implementing a city-driving charge like most other cities? Even better, what do we need to do to create a sustainable (key word) public transportation system that is still affordable to both the citizens using and not using the services?

And the CBC says: ‘Tories to introduce EI reforms’

Ta-da!

Who can blame Stephen Harper for buckling to his knees in the face of defeat? I mean, he is only human…. right? I mean that to be a serious question – he is human? Sometimes its hard to tell, what with all of his indifference towards others, compulsive need to control others, and the strange void that is the part of his brain that creates facial expressions… and emotion.

Today the CBC reported that officials in the Conservative Government have leaked possible plans to introduce Employment Insurance reforms in an attempt to woo NDP support in the early days of this upcoming Parliamentary session. The reforms would be introduced in two parts:

• extending benefits to workers who have worked for at least 7 of the last 10 years, but have collected little or no benefits. This will affect an estimated 180 000 Canadian workers, especially in the forestry and manufacturing sectors.

• extending maternity and paternity leave to the self-employed – a 2008 Conservative platform promise. It should also be noted, carefully, that the Tories estimated the cost of extending these benefits in their platform at $147 million in 2008.

The New Democrats have yet to make a firm commitment to supporting these reforms, due in large part to the fact that there has been no offical document or plan released by the Conservatives in regards to the reforms. These are just rumours. In fact, as I think about it more, I am inclined to believe that the whole thing is a giant posteuring move by the Conservatives to appear progressive and socially-aware during a tense and delicate political time. The Liberals have been put on to the backburner, and the NDP has taken the lead as the most important party in play here. The Bloc has been irreversibly alienated by the Tories since the Coalition issue last winter, and so they play little part in this, I would even suspect the Conservatives turn down the Bloc should they be the only ones to extend their confidence to the Government.

What will be interesting to see is what route the internal factions inside the NDP will take on this issue. The way I see it, they can go both ways and still not compromise the values and morals of the party base. They can be the ones to pull the plug on the Harper Gang and stand tall over the broken and hollow Conservative Government, or they can accept the reforms and make incremental successes in taking progressive consessions out of the Tories, naturally by putting the fear of their own defeat (even more terrifying than God) into their souls.

I, for one, would much prefer to hold off an election until the Liberals can open up a clear majority over the Government, and we will no longer need to achieve progress by resorting to this perverse, yet democratic, coersion that Canadian politics inevitably boils down to.

I thirst for a Canada and a Government I can be proud in. Right now, with our country at dead-last in the UN’s Action on Climate Change scale, with the outrageous failures in our dealing with Canadian citizens outside our borders, we have very little to be proud of. With our unexplainable absence in the dealing with of homelessness, we have very little to brag about.

Canada’s heart has stalled for the last decade. We desperately need a change, but we simply can’t afford the change we need right now.

New Democrats; push for bipartisanship this session – save Canada another useless and risky election. Chances are we will have another Tory Minority. That translates into another ‘mandate’ buzz-word crazed 2 months by Harper and Flarherty.

No one wants that…

By the way, check me out at one of my new thought-storages on the Canadian internet at KnowYourVote.ca.

Great News for Those of Us Caught in the Middle…

Michael Ignatieff today spoke at a Sudbury Liberal Caucus meeting and told his listeners that the Liberal Party has decided to take a step back from the Government and allow Stephern Harper’s defeat this fall when Parliament returns to session.

In a fascinating turn of events, the NDP has offered an olive branch to the Conservatives to help save Canada an election this October. The NDP asks that the Tory Government to do a number of things to earn the support of the New Democrats; protect pensions, enhance the EI, banned exorbident credit card and bank fees, and halt the Nortel takeover by foreigners.

This is wonderful news for those of us who stand firmly against the Conservative Regime, need to have Government resolve certain issues, but don’t want to waste another election in the fall and risk boosting the Tory seat count due to election-irritation.

It is bad news because it makes Michael Ignatieff, the only viable alternative to Harper in place for the foreseeable future, looks like a wet noodle. The Liberals have been undermined and made to look like a bunch of doofuses who couldnt commit to ending a Government if they were the Government. The NDP’s extension is temporary at best, and therefore not a long term solution for ridding Ottawa of a few Tory chairs, and more importantly, the Big Chair, you know, the one next to the Finance Minister….

But there is a lot of good news as well. These reforms, while not being the big picture, is at least contributing to the bigger picture. With this we can finally blow the dust off of the progressive bills just itching to be voted through the House. We can also avoid an election long enough to recoup from the last one, financially and physically. And it should be said also that a similar situation nearly 50 years ago yielded the Canadian Healthcare System under Mike Pearson’s Liberal Minority Government and Tommy Douglas’ NDP Opposition. Lets hope we have the same successes with this initiative.

The news stories:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/09/01/ignatieff-liberals090109.html

British Columbian Legislature FINALLY Sitting!

Well, for those of you like myself who use what little free time you have to watch CPAC and news programming, you will be happy to know that you can now tune into channel 115 (if living in the lower mainland and your TV goes that high up) and immerse yourselves in the wondrous and polarized debate that is British Columbian politics. Today was just the 27th* day of this year that the Legislature has sat.

The Speech From the Throne was given today by the Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia Steven Point. I haven’t watched the video myself unfortunately, I was working all day, but I have provided a link to the transcript of the speech above. I also have yet to read the transcript, and so I will leave room at the end of this post for my thoughts after I take a look at it later on tonight.
Enjoy your quasi-democratic session, British Columbia.

Nanos Research: Harper has Overstayed Welcome…

A brand spankin’ new Nanos poll came out this morning showing that a clear majority of Canadians all across the country feel as though Mr. Harper has ‘had his chance and it is time for a change.‘ 58.5% of Canadians feel this way, while a good number (31.9%) feel he has done a good enough job and deserves to be elected again. (I have hosted the .pdf on this blog, download the full report)

While this is entirely unsurprising to myself – and I am sure many others – what does interest me is what is in the rest of the document.

It shows that when Canadians respond to the question: ‘What is your overall impression of a minority Government situation?‘ more often than not, 53.9% of Canadians tend to view minority Governments in a positive light (18.5% ‘positive’, 35.4% ’somewhat positive’), while just 37.3 view minority Parliaments in a negative light (15.9% ‘negative’, 21.% ’somewhat negative’). Over half of those who view minority Governments as a positive said so because they feel it is good for parties to have to work together, and on the other side nearly 59.8% feel minorities are ‘inefficient‘.

Us British Columbians, interestingly enough, were the least supportive of minority Governments with a net-score of just +5.6%, while at the same time reflecting the national average when it came to cheering for Harper’s departure (57% below).

Perhaps, when looked at through my Red-tinged glasses, this gives credence to the assertion that Canada is finally ready to put the Harper team back across on the Opposition benches. With a stronger Liberal leader like Michael Ignatieff at the helm of Canada’s Party, we obviously now have the viable alternative to Stephen Harper that we did not have in Stephane Dion. An egotistical, elitist, political opportunist no doubt he is, but lets be honest – he is no Harper. From what I gather from this Nanos poll is that British Columbians, and indeed all Canadians for that matter, favour a progressive approach to Canadian politics that we have so missed in the last years. At this time and date, those favourings translate into a Liberal minority.

This Tory Government has had its fair share of mishaps and ideologically-guided ‘abrasions’ with the Canadian public. They have repeatedly failed to protect the rights of Canadians abroad – even going as far as to say that Canada doesn’t have the slightest responsibility to ensure the protection of Canadian citizens outside our borders.

Im no fan of Government waste, but I am firmly in favour of an election (only if we return the Liberals to power, of course) come this fall. I am tired of the regressive regime we have guiding this country, and I am desperate for much needed, currently neglected, social reforms to be put in place, and a return to responsible and honest governance.

Lets all hope Ignatieff drops a non-confidence motion and we can return a much needed Liberal minority.

Politwitter.ca and the CKA Network

Social media has taken a wonderfully exciting turn in this last year, especially in just the last few months. With President Barack Obama in the United States and the way social media contributed to his successful nomination and subsequent election, social networks like Twitter and Facebook have taken on a whole new authority in the lives of many millions of citizens worldwide. Even more impressive are the numerous applications and websites that have sprung up, integrating social networks and adding whole new flavours to the dish.

One such website is PoliTwitter.ca. If any of you have not already been plugged into PoliTwitter.ca or the Canada Kicks Ass (CKA) Network, I really encourage you to join up and see what the fuss is about. PoliTwitter is a comprehensive repository for following any and every MP or MLA in Canada, and finding out what they have to say in an easy, sleek, and navigable evironment. It has proven itself to be the first and the greatest resource for keeping our politicians accountable to the public. It is accessable and fun to use.

The CKA Network is turning out to be quite a force online. Parliament2.ca has been developed to allow Canadians to get involved in prioritizing our national issues and discussing them in the productive way. One can endorse or oppose an issue, raise a talking point, contribute to a discussion board, even upload a document or file for other’s considerations. It has a counterpart that is Whitehouse2.com, using the same concepts but tailored to the American issues and debate (don’t tell anyone that the Americans came up with it first, shhh!)

This is just a quick note to bring attention to some great things happening in the blogosphere and the Canadian twitterverse. I hope that I can bring some support to good, homegrown websites like PoliTwitter.ca and help to keep them relevant and most importantly FREE OF CHARGE!

Everyone go out and explore these wonderful learning and interacting tools!

Letter from Colin Hansen re: HST + My Response

In keeping with the tradition I laid out before in my other posts, I am going to share the reply I received from Colin Hansen to the same email I sent Gordon Campbell regarding the HST. I have no other comments, really, just the email and my reply which I have attached to the bottom of the post.

Dear Mr. Miller,

Thank you for your email regarding the proposed 12 per cent harmonized sales tax (HST) in British Columbia. I appreciate your concerns. Allow me to explain why the government has decided to take this important step.

Businesses in British Columbia currently pay an estimated $1.9 billion annually in PST on their business purchases, the cost of which is built into the price of their goods and services. This embedded PST makes our goods and services more expensive, both for B.C. consumers and in our export markets and reduces our competitiveness. As such, the PST on business inputs represents a serious drag on competitiveness, investment, productivity and job creation.

British Columbia has to sell its goods and services to the rest of the world to prosper and grow. To do so successfully we must compete with companies from more than 130 countries and five Canadian provinces which have shifted to a value-added tax like the HST which removes embedded taxes from their prices. Unless B.C. moves to an HST, all of these jurisdictions will have a competitive advantage over B.C. business.

Since 2001, the government has taken significant steps to improve the B.C. tax system. We have worked hard to reduce taxes for individuals and to improve the competitiveness of B.C. business through the reductions in personal and corporate income taxes and the elimination of corporate capital taxes.

Over the last few years, both federal Liberal and Federal Conservative governments have been urging provinces to harmonize their sales taxes with the HST to enhance the competitiveness of the national economy. In late May, in light of Ontario’s decision to move ahead with harmonization on July 1, 2010, we revisited the idea of harmonizing our tax system. It was only with the Ontario announcement that B.C. was given the flexibility to create a made-in-B.C. solution, one with a 12 per cent HST rate, the lowest in Canada. Given our need to remain competitive and the new flexibility to set our own lower HST rate we decided we had to act.

With a single HST tax rate, one substantially harmonized tax base, and one set of administrative rules instead of the duplication that currently exists with the PST, compliance costs for British Columbia businesses are expected to fall by about $150 million annually. When fully phased-in, British Columbia will also save about $30 million annually in administrative costs due to the fact that the federal government will administer the HST at no cost to the province. In addition to these benefits, British Columbia will also receive one-time funding of $1.6 billion from the federal government which will help maintain vital public services such as healthcare and education.

Governments are often accused of doing things because they are politically popular. I can assure you that proposing to harmonize the PST with the GST is not one of them. Nevertheless, we strongly believe it is the most important change we can make to ensure a strong and growing economy. Although there will be adjustments required by British Columbians in the short term, it is a decision which will pay dividends to all British Columbians over the long term.

Thank you for writing.

Sincerely,

Colin Hansen Minister of Finance and Deputy Premier

And my reply:

Mr Hansen,

I appreciate your email and your explanation. It is very similar to the email I received from the Boss.

I fully understand the benefits and reasons for this harmonization. Would the HST not put undue and unsupportable pressure on those on this side of the wealth gap, I would be very supportive.

The fact remains; all the added taxes to be shifted from business and Govt budgets to household budgets are simply going to help ease the screwups and overruns from the many projects your Govt has initiated, not to mention the fiasco that is the Olympics.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stoptheHST

I encourage you to see the petition, created by myself and signed by over 1 700 at the time of my writing. We are not partisans, simply concerned and BROKE citizens. Include extra provisions to ensure small business competitiveness for those businesses who do not currently charge PST. Exempt restaurants from this increase.

Tear up the restrictive, Ottawa-dictated terms of this HST and draw up some favourable to British Columbians. While you are at it, how about consulting us on any measure that decreases our ability to house and feed our families?

Good luck in your political career, Mr. Hansen.

Russell

In regards to the petition, we have had a fantastic result there. Nearly 1 800 as I go to bed tonight, and we are growing at crazy rates: nearly 200 a day! Please forward that around to friends and family members. I have been writing to local papers to highlight the fact that this is really a grassroots movement and not just another BC NDP agitation as the media is making it out to be.

Make sure that you write letters to the editors of your local papers, and if you feel inclined, add this petition URL to the end of them. If we keep directing people to the BC NDP, this will just become another fart in the party vs party game. If we can present a substantial number of non-partisan, non-agendad signatures to the Legislature or to Mr. Campbell and Mr. Hansen, we can really make some waves!

Keep up the great work everyone!