Is Eby finally getting the message

on drug and street disorder backlash?

24-04-28 – Premier David Eby’s ideological steadfastness appears to be coming to bite him in the butt on drugs and attendant crime. Public backlash to decriminalization of drug possession is finally making him change direction, if ever so slightly.

The Safer Drug program is likely a large influence on the latest opinion poll leading up to the October provincial election. For the first time in his term as Premier the NDP sits in second place now behind the B.C. Conservatives. The latest Mainstreet poll shows the Conservatives at 39 per cent support, three per cent ahead of the NDP. The United/Liberals remain at 15 per cent and the Greens are at seven per cent.

It's a given that politcal polls go up and down like a yo-yo, but the latest one should give the premier a message, more than half of British Columbians are not buying what he's selling.

He has given an inches when perhaps it would have been more appropriate to give a yard when the government moved to address one part of the drug problem by outlawing use in public places. It’s still drug use causing social disruption. It remains to be seen how British Columbians react to the band-aid Eby is applying.

In the past Eby was a voice for civil liberties, and that has him preaching against institutionalization and mandatory treatment of addicts. He sees the safe supply concept as an answer but that is proving false, drug deaths are still rising and those safe drugs are being resold for the street market. He keeps repeating that it is saving lives, but he provides no evidence to back that up.

With his insistence on civil liberties, we incarcerate people for many crimes. Rob a bank and you can be sentenced to jail where historically that meant rehabilitation was part of the deal. Heck, even for killing someone you might have to spend time behind bars in today’s judicial system. However, using and selling drugs is illegal but our government wants to protect their “rights” against mandatory treatment and what is known as rehab. Their civil rights are not protected when they are beyond the point of helping themselves. 

Data centre elecricity use
leaves unanswered questions

The recent focus on electricity demands of cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence data centres around the world raises new concern about a rezoning last April for a data centre on East Wellington Road.

The bylaw rezoned the properties to I3 with data centre as a site specific permitted use. That could put a severe demand on our electricity supply on Vancouver Island.

Director of Planning and Development Jeremy Holm says the intention was to develop a data centre to serve businesses and organizations that store computer servers and associated components in off-site facilities. It did not go into specifics of the data to be processed.

A demolition permit was issued last October for the removal of an existing single family dwelling on the property. However, no development permit application has been made at this point, giving the city a second look at the impact of the project. We don’t have enough information on the full impact of this project.

The applicant will be required to comply with any BC Hydro standards to ensure that the data centre is appropriately sized to the electrical supply for the use.

That’s the big question as more and more data centres are cropping up to mine Bitcoin and train AI, they could double electricity demand by 2026, thanks in large part to cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence.

Demand for electricity increases naturally with growing populations but new needs such as electric vehicles put a further squeeze on demand. That raises the question about the environmental impact of creating sufficient electricity supply which in other jurisdictions around the world means increased fossil fuel use to create the electricity.

From what I can dig out, the city – council and staff – still don’t know what type of data will be processed here. City council is fortunate it has a second chance to get a lot more information about this proposal.

Why we have such a

major shortage of doctors

British Columbia has a major doctor shortage, why is that?

The Sooke News-Mirror had an informative report on the West Shore Primary Care Society which is recruiting foreign-trained doctors. Alyssa Andres, executive director of the society, said they are bringing in doctors from Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand and other countries. They have signed nine contracts for family doctors. It will be able to support approximately 11,250 patients in the community.

Now here comes the rub.

The immigration process is the biggest headache, and the red tape associated with trying to bring people to Canada, says Andres. They have to advertise for at least 30 days in three online publications to ensure no Canadian doctor would like to apply for the position.

Then they have to find an immigration expert, file a Labour Market Impact Assessment, pay $1,000 to Service Canada, and wait 10 weeks to verify the need for more doctors.

Then Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada moves in, and the doctor applies for a work permit. Once they are in Canada, they can apply for permanent residence.

Bringing these doctors to the community costs the society around $30,000 to $60,000, including all the related fees and legal and administrative costs.

Explain to me why we have a doctor shortage.

DEI – all about finding the

lowest common fenominator

24-04-15

DEI proponents – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – reacted in high dudgeon after I breached this subject last week.

First comes diversity, herd everyone into the tent, regardless of special interests, indoctrinate them with the entitlement expectation. Include race, ethnicity, gender, orientation, dependency, all in one big congregation.

Once you’ve done that you create equity, catering to every imaginable victimhood to line up for special benefits in order to reach the lowest common denominator.

When you have them all rounded up and the minorities are all turned into a combined majority, make sure they are endowed with limitless special rights and handouts.

It becomes the socialist Nirvana, where total dependency erases personal responsibility and initiative and political propaganda trumps free speech.

Many toss around labels like fascism at anyone who does not buy into their mantra. The dictionary defines fascism as total control by and dependence on those in charge, like government, making everyone a ward of George Orwell’s 1984 Big Brother.

Longer mortgage pay back

will be very costly in the long run

24-04-11

The extension of some mortgage amortizations to 30 years from 25 years deserve a closer look because of the actual cost of buying a home by paying for an additional five years.

We’ll use an $800,000 mortgage as an example, with a five-year term at five per cent interest.

On a 25-year amortization the monthly payments would be $4,653, for 300 months. You’d pay principle and interest of $1,400,000 over that stretch.

Converting to a 30-year amortization, at the same interest rate, would have a monthly payment of $4,270, lower by $383 per month. Over the 360 months, that would amount to principle and interest of $1,570,000. That is an extra $135,000 in interest and principle for that same $800,000 mortgage over the extended repayment.

Problems piling up for Eby

heading into election period

“If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all” could well be the old country tune from the days of Hee Haw ringing in Premier David Eby’s ears.

Just what you don’t need half a year from an election is scandal, but that’s what is dogging him these days on more than one front. People are asking questions and are looking for answers.

The Safer Drug program has blossomed into a major pain for the government. And just when they needed it the least, they’ve had to begin an investigation into the distribution of climate change/carbon tax funds.

The Safer Drugs program has turned into a headache of migraine proportions with the revelations that the program simply is not working. The supposed safe drugs are winding up in the hands of drug dealers who are reselling them on our streets.

Their own legislation legalizing possession of limited amounts of drugs is backfiring, not allowing the government to control open use. They’re in court now over limiting drug use in some locations – near playgrounds, school yards and the like. Homelessness and street crime are part and parcel of the bigger issue.

At the same time health care workers are speaking up about drug use and weapons possession by patients in hospitals. Again, the legalization gives patients the right to use and health care staff have been instructed not to intervene. That last thing you need is a patient high on drugs with a weapon in his/her hands. It puts nurses and other patients at risk.

Health Minister Adrian Dix has called a task for to examine the hospital drug use issue.

The latest reports now raise questions about governent-funded housing where staff claim they have had to resort to wearing gas masks at work due to fentanyl smoke in the buildings.

The philosophy of wide open rights to almost anything goes back to Eby’s earlier career defending human rights from every direction. Now that the shoe is on the other foot he’s learning it’s not that easy to adapt. Mandatory involuntary institutional drug treatment, which he sort of promised during his leadership campaign, didn’t survive after he became premier. He did a 180-degree about turn, and now he may have to consider doing another 180 in the opposite direction.

The rights of the minority are taking over the safety of the majority.

The carbon tax funds issue at this point is more smoke than fire. It remains to be seen what the inquiry will turn up, but the haze hovering on the skyline is more than enough for now. Any time kickback accusations enter the dialogue there’s reason to duck for cover.

When the truth

gets sacrificed

It’s sad when the truth can get you in trouble, lest you hurt someone’s feelings. Ask Post Secondary Education Minister Selina Robinson who stepped into it when she stated fact that pre-1948 Palestine was “a crappy piece of land.” She got raked over the coals, left and right, mostly left, and had to apologize for hurting feelings.

In a B’nai Brith panel discussion, Robinson commented on young people’s lack of knowledge of the Holocaust, saying 18 to 34-year-olds have no idea about the Holocaust. They don’t understand that Israel was offered to the Jews.

It had nothing on it, there were several hundred thousand people, it didn’t produce an economy, it couldn’t grow things, it didn’t have anything on it. That is a statement of fact, some may not like it, but fact should not fall victim to hurt feelings.

Mosques and Islamic associations now want Robinson fired. They say no NDP MLA or candidate for the next election is welcome in their sacred spaces until Premier David Eby takes action against Robinson. And that, my friends, is extortion.

Beware the Boogeyman,

injecting hate into politics

I have a love-hate relationship with politics. I love it while despising a lot of aspects of what is really a game played to select how and by whom we are governed. We’re told that we must accept that black is white and white is black.

American politics has operated this way for decades, vilify your opponents through fear based on misrepresentation. In other words, lie like a mattress. The Americans go to the polls this November and it’s getting messy to the point of involving their judiciary in influencing the dialogue. That behaviour is beginning to rub off on our politics north of the border.

Our federal election is not for another 20 months or so, but it’s becoming clear that we’re in for an American-style campaigning in both this year’s provincial and next year’s federal elections. Prime Minister Trudeau and Mini-Me NDP leader Jagmeet Singh are trumpeting how we are in mortal danger if Donald Trump returns to the White House next January.

They are auditioning the mantra that Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is a mini-Trump. It’s the fear smear, first fear of Trump and then equating Poilievre to Trump and by extension, comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler. They accuse Conservative MPs of using “MAGA tactics” likening them to Trump’s Make-America-Great-Again mantra.

It’s difficult to comprehend how that slogan could be turned into a negative ­– who would not want to Make America Great Again? Or Canada? Canadians are frustrated at the price of goods, falling behind through inflation, housing shortages, failing health care, rising crime and more. These are great election talking points that the Conservatives are plugging into.

Political strategists believe they can take a message about making the country great again and twist them into something to be perceived as negative. It could be a misjudgment of the pulse of the electorate.

The fear campaign sounds like a recognition that voters may turn in that direction. That’s what it’s all about, what voters perceive as best for their interests. Making our country great again certainly sounds appealing, voters might just buy into that and reject the boogeyman theory.

Pay me now or pay me later

Political promises are little more than

a grand shell game

Good politics does not guarantee good governance. Dangling the shiny object in front of voters can spell political success but that usually wears off under the bright light of reality.

With about 22 month before the next federal election, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has the shiny object, his promise to “axe the tax”, to eliminate the carbon tax which is at the heart of a lot of our country’s challenges. It brings in a lot of revenue to the wild spending of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, but it’s a real burden to many sectors of the economy. It is constructed so that massive increases are already built in, costing more each year.

The promise to eliminate the tax could be a winner because it’s something taxpayers and voters can buy into. Not too many people voluntarily hand over their hard-earned income. As far as election goodies go, this one on the surface looks like a winner.

It’s after the election when the sheen wears off that we have to worry about. Governance is generally based on income and outcome. You can’t simply get rid of a revenue source without replacing it – and the carbon tax is a big one. You have to replace it with other revenue, generally known as a tax. With this one, increases are already built in.

Former Premier Gordon Campbell made British Columbia the first jurisdiction to adopt a carbon tax, trying to convince us was that is was “revenue neutral.” The first numbers tossed around made it appear that our income taxes would be reduced to match the carbon tax revenue. Campbell tried to convince us that would be the case, we’d break even, and save the planet at the same time.

B.C. Liberals grudgingly conceded later that the carbon tax revenue was much greater than projected, therefore costings all of us more than the supposed income tax savings. They didn’t further reduce our income taxes to make up for the windfall. As an aside, if any program is revenue neutral, then why bother? It’s simply putting a new label on an old package.

The promise to axe the carbon tax will likely earn a lot of votes, but to make it work will require some fancy maneuvering. If elected, Poilievre will have to initiate new revenue sources or cut government spending, hopefully the latter, or a combination of both.

There’s a catch though for British Columbians. A prime minister can eliminate a federal tax, but in B.C. it was brought in by the provincial government. On top of that, the B.C. NDP diverted the carbon tax into general revenue rather than leaving it earmarked for so-called climate action.

Like the old shell game, put an object under one shell and move a whole bunch of them around and see if you can guess under which one it is hidden. As much as we may love the shiny bauble, we need to hear which shell it is under. The problem is that usually reality doesn’t set in until after an election.

As the old Fram oil filter commercials used to warn us, “Pay be now or pay me later.”

WEF should scare the

living crap out of us 

The World Economic Forum sounds so important and powerful. It’s a place where the ultra rich, better-than-thou elitists gather regularly to impact our lives and our future. And impactful they are even though none were ever elected to this august body. Their only qualification is their power through their personal wealth.

They gather to lecture the rest of the world about the dangers of climate change and how we all have to reduce our carbon dioxide production, to the extent of simply breathing. They boast about how they are creating a new world order, a Nirvana, heaven on earth. It’s not about getting rid of fossil fuels and controlling the amount of carbon dioxide, which will be impossible to achieve, it’s about control of every aspect of our lives, with them on the throne.

Our own prime minister and deputy prime minister are real fans of this world agenda.

The devotees go to this exclusive shindig in private and charter jets that spew more CO2 per second than any human might in a lifetime.

They lecture how we should all get rid of our fossil fueled transportation, yet when they arrive in Davos, Switzerland for their wine and dine they all take Bentleys, Rolls Royces and Lamborghinis, their limos while there. Not a Tesla in sight.

Most of us have known the WEF exists, but it’s a distant elitist group than doesn’t affect us directly, or so we are lulled into believing. They’ve convinced a huge portion of the world about climate change and how we must adapt and make changes, even in the light of their extravagances. Yes, we’re impacted.

Recently farmers have become a target, arguing that methane in cow flatulence is a threat to the climate, not to mention the pollution from fossil fuel tractors. All over Europe farms and agriculture are being targeted.

They are already playing that game in Canada with the carbon tax scam foisted on famers. It never improves the climate, it only threatens survival.

One new target got little mention after the most recent Forum, and that was the biggest single food crop in the world. Rice feeds more people than any other staple, and now some in the WEF are preaching its elimination. The way they explain it, rice is grown in flooded fields, using up a lot of water which we should conserve. That’s a no-no. But the rice harvesting process takes only the yield, the actual rice, leaving the plants and stems to decompose in the water. And guess what, that produces methane which escapes from the water into the atmosphere.

Controlling the world food supply naturally means there won’t be enough to go around. However, the brains in the WEF preach that planet earth cannot sustain our population, therefore we’ll have to reduce the number of inconvenient people in the world. Not them of course, just us peasants. To the political left it's a redistribution of wealth, but it's only distributed to the rich, not equally to all of us.

At the latest forum, Scammer in Chief Al Gore left everyone with their tongues hanging out. He intoned there’s money to be made from this New World Order, lots of it, and he invited them all to get on board.

From every breath we take, to livestock, frain fields and rice paddies, we’re doomed. Just how many tons of cow farts and rice farts are exuded by Gore in a single trip as jets around the world sipping champagne and dining on caviar while pretending to save the world?