Columns: 2011 Year Of The Voter

UPDATED 09/03/11 – COMMENTS RECEIVED – By Glen Thompson. A federal election is upon us. It will be the first of many political contests this year. Right after the federal election, HST goes to referendum June 24th; this is likely to be followed by a provincial election in the fall. Before the year ends, Municipal and School board elections will take us to the polls for the 4th time in 7 months.

Editor’s Note: This column originally appeared on Chilliwack Today, Tuesday, March 8

In Chinese astrology, 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit. I’m a Rabbit. I may even run. This is my year. The thing is – which election do I run in? Everything from School Trustee to Prime Minister is up for grabs. In BC, 2011 is the Year of the Voter.

The federal election is likely to be sparked by the content of Stephen Harper’s next budget. Toronto-Danforth MP Jack Layton is ready, despite illness, to lead the NDP into the latest Stop Harper Campaign. The Tories seem confident that Stephen Harper, member for Calgary Southwest, has outgrown his negative image as a ruthless, neo-conservative.
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Perhaps minority government has softened his image, but the question is: how would he govern with a majority? Liberal seats in what the conservatives call ‘very ethnic ridings’ are being targeted in the hope that immigrant voters will lead Harper to a majority. If they win 2 Liberals from BC, Ujjal Dosanjh (Vancouver South) and Hedi Fry (Vancouver Centre) could hold the balance of power. Easterners may have to stay up late to see what happens in the west.

Locally, Tory heavyweight Chuck Strahl, member for Chilliwack and the Fraser Canyon, is looking as confident as ever. He expects his recent sewer infrastructure announcement in Sardis to launch him into another landslide victory. He is perhaps the most charming ex-logger in BC politics. The NDP’s Gwen O’Mahony promises to give Chuck a run for his money in the Fraser Canyon.
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In 2009 she ran provincially for the NDP and won 19 of 21 polls in the Hope – Boston Bar area. O’Mahony is just emerging as a political figure in Chilliwack and looks to be positioning herself well for the future. It remains to be seen if this race turns into a contest or if the voters will just hand Chucky another mandate.

The Harper/Campbell HST Referendum immediately follows the federal election. Should we have listened to the old Scotch clans’ admonition, “never trust a Campbell!”? I expect Vander Zalm will return from Arizona for another round of grass roots gun slinging.
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Vander Zalm with the premier’s blood still on his hands is politically powerful. Surprisingly, the HST campaign has not raised the profile of the provincial BC Conservative party whoever-they-are’s. Zalm will likely have the BC Conservative leader caught and shot at dawn, upon his return.
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Provincially, Christy Clark waits impatiently to quickly dispense with her party’s much touted fixed-date election act. She wants to fast forward the election to early fall, instead of the legislated date of May 2013. The act was put in place to prevent snap elections being called by a premier who wants to take advantage of a short lived rise in popularity. Christy Clark’s American style retail politics is new to BC. Her political marketing style was polished on the Christy Clark Talk Radio Show.
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It highlights the use of safe, patriotic phrasing such as ‘families first’ and focuses on pop-topics such as her proposal for a new statutory holiday. The pop-topics act as a distraction from her support for controversial issues; such as Fish Lake and Health Care cuts. Will anyone notice when Christy’s holiday is quietly deleted in cabinet by Randy Hawes and Kevin Falcon. She hopes that the HST dagger will be removed by the Vander Zalm referendum and the BC Liberals will somehow reconnect with voters.

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The most surprising proposal coming out of the Liberal leadership race was Christy Clark’s plan to tie health care funding to GDP. In the next economic downturn can we expect the sick and the elderly to suffer for our benefit? Are her handlers incapable of recognizing bad policy? In New Westminster the Liberals closed St. Mary’s hospital.
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The closure diverted patients to Royal Columbia where the emergency ward was so overcrowded recently that staff moved patients into the hospital’s Tim Horton’s when they out of room for patients in the hallways. Burnaby New Westminster MP Peter Julian will no doubt recount this incident when he speaks at an NDP fundraiser in Yarrow on March 15th.

In the last election of the year, Chilliwack Mayor Sharon Gaetz should win easily. Sylvia Dyck and John Henry Harter are likely to return on either political pole for the school board. Area E may be split into two electoral areas; Chilliwack River Valley and Cultus Lake-Columbia Valley.
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Dave Lamson is considering hanging it up as Area E director. I hope he reconsiders. Sasha Peters may take a run if Area E is split and pursue the Cultus Lake-Columbia Valley directorship. If he does the FVRD may want to limit the length of bylaws to 142 pages.

The Year of the Voter will be a long one.

Editor’s Note: We are pleased to welcome Glen Thompson as a regular columnists. He has been a contributor to Today as a letter writer and has commented on many issues regarding the environment and the issue of conflict grave. Glen is from Friends of The Chilliwack River Valley. For more information call 604-847-3732 or Click Here.

3 Comments

1. 

   Mike Archer

   March 9, 2011 at 12:52 pm

   Myrtle Macdonald Says:
   March 8th, 2011 at 11:49 pm

   Glen Thompson has drawn our attention to political change in BC at all levels.

   I’d like to add that I am distressed because none of our politicians seem to be focusing on the real problems, such as:

   1. The expensive bureaucracy in BC. There are far too many levels of hierarchy, and very few supervisors with recent experience in the field. Supervision by peers is much more effective.

   2. Much too much travel by car. Decentralization and dividing up of huge administration units could solve this problem. Administrators were more effective when meetings were local rather than far away. They had more time to listen to the grassroots.

   3. Far too many long distance transport trucks. The Transport Ministry’s “Strategic Review of Transit in the Fraser Valley” ignored the high costs of widening and maintaining highways ruined by thousands of trucks. Their estimates of cost for passenger trains cum trams on the interurban route are utterly ridiculous. We own the passenger right of way line. It is used daily for freight from across Canada and the USA, via Sumas to and from China at Annacis Island. The Leewood Proposal is excellent and practical and was prepared by experienced British experts.

   4. Neglect of farmers. They could have public transit on the Interurban line. They need innovative help in order to provide fruit and vegetables for the 100 mile diet: refrigerated storage sheds and rail cars, canning and freezing, vineyards, farmers’ markets promoting local and Okanagan produce. Fruit need not be trucked from Mexico and California. There are refrigerator rail cars that could bring it from California. ALR protection is good but too many farmers can only make a living by growing cedar hedges, while consumers have tasteless strawberries to eat.

   5. Government beholden to large corporations such as those who build sky trains and other expensive short-distance transit, serving only the north part of Metro Vancouver. They are strangely blind and deaf to needs of all communities south of the Fraser River.

   6. Thousands of students, professors and staff of five universities able to get to campus only by car. The Interurban is within walking distance of all of them.
   A shuttle bus up King road could serve Abbotsford UFV campus and the Airport.

   7. Air quality seriously neglected. Pollution is funneled up the Fraser Valley from Vancouver and Seattle. There are too few facilities to test air quality. They are outdated and some will not open until September 2011. The incidence of respiratory, cardiac, arthritic and mental health diseases is alarmingly high.

   8. The skewing of programs and transit in favor of Vancouver. It is cruelly unjust to delay providing for the needs of the whole province because there is not a large enough population. Everyone must be treated with equity and justice. It is government greed that is behind the people uprisings in northern Africa and the middle east. As the middle class becomes poor and neglected in Canada, unrest will multiply.

   9. Alternate energy sources. The harnessing of solar, wind, geothermal and wave power must be promoted. Private hydro station building should be stopped. Why? Because they are polluting and destructive of fisheries.

   10. Escalation of garbage. It is urgent to require everyone who uses plastics, paper and building supplies to cooperate with non-polluting reduction, composting and recycling within their own community. They must not transport it outside.

   11. Destruction of forests and desertification. At one time Africa and the Middle East were covered with forests. People used up the trees for fuel. They still do. So were the Downs of England. Now is the time to reforest all the mountains where the forest was stripped. Industries should be set up to use trees destroyed by pine beetles. Reforestation brings back rain, birds and self-sustaining wild life. That will also prevent soil erosion and flooding, such as has happened in Australia.

   12. Excessive waste of pulp wood on advertising. Most sales are cry wolf. Use of paper for advertising could be more effective cut back by 75% or more. Who needs or even reads a whole page or more for hearing aids, automobiles, department stores, drug marts or real estate?

   We must become good stewards of the earth for the sake of everyone in BC and to help the starving billions in Africa and Asia who could help themselves if they knew how. Until our politicians address these problems how can we know who to vote for???

   Myrtle Macdonald

   Reply
2. 

   Mike Archer

   March 9, 2011 at 12:52 pm

   # Scott Lawrence Says:
   March 8th, 2011 at 12:40 pm

   Great read, Glen, thank you. I had no idea Ms. Clark plans to link health care spending to GDP. Thank you for opening my eyes. That said, I DO hope we get another statutory holiday; why should Albert, Saskatchewan, and Ontario have all the fun?

   Reply
3. 

   Mike Archer

   March 11, 2011 at 10:26 am

   # Dick Harrington Says:
   March 9th, 2011 at 12:31 pm

   Glen,
   An excellent synopsis of the political scene in the area. As a thirty-five year “letter writer” from Ontario and as a recent immigrant to Chilliwack, I recognize a good piece when I see it.
   You did forget to mention one small pertinent piece of information. Gwen o’Mahony has been knocking on doors since last August; having done 90% of the far-flung areas of this riding from Pemberton, to Lillooet, to Cache creek and down to Dewdney, Deroche, Chehalis and Aagassiz, as well as selected parts of Chilliwack and the response has been powerful- with many people looking for a change.
   I now predict that she just may pull off a shocker in this upcoming Federal campaign.

   Reply