BC Political Discussion: Election 2020 and Beyond

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by djmk

10 years and everything will be different. Todays demographic pressures were inevitable and were not properly planned out 20 years ago.

Quite the contrary, countries like Canada looked at the inevitable demographic pressures of countries like Japan 20 years ago and sought to go a different direction. It's technically not the federal government's fault that municipal and provincial governments have dropped the ball on providing housing.

[logicbomb]

Originally Posted by chowhou

Quite the contrary, countries like Canada looked at the inevitable demographic pressures of countries like Japan 20 years ago and sought to go a different direction. It's technically not the federal government's fault that municipal and provincial governments have dropped the ball on providing housing.

The government continues to add more people in to surpress wages. We added 1.2 mil people without investing in any infrastructure. Hospitals are the same. Schools also the same. Roads are more congested all forms of public transportation really 🞵🞵🞵🞵.

I like densification but there needs to be a coordinated effort to build communities and nodes and then adding more housing before you even fathem adding more people. Funding, and a lot of it....would have to be figured out at the federal level.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by logicbomb

I like densification but there needs to be a coordinated effort to build communities and nodes and then adding more housing before you even fathem adding more people.

Except that's literally not how anything works. Hardly any developer will build on spec, there needs to be investors/buyers before things get off the ground, good luck getting a loan for your multi-hundred-million dollar development without that. Without more people, you don't have more buyers (aside from those investor buyers everyone loves to hate).

We could build things with public money, however since the 1980s and the rise of neoliberalism/supply side economics, we don't really do that anymore to a large scale. Any investment is usually subject to a business case that needs to prove it's worth, and without more people that becomes significantly more challenging to prove. Even if we did suddenly reverse course on this, we've spent the last couple decades in Canadian politics being concerned with balanced budgets above all else, going on a spending spree would either place our budgets into large deficits or require a significant rise in taxes, and you're probably going to want that business case to justify either of those to the public.

[djmk]

Originally Posted by chowhou

Quite the contrary, countries like Canada looked at the inevitable demographic pressures of countries like Japan 20 years ago and sought to go a different direction. It's technically not the federal government's fault that municipal and provincial governments have dropped the ball on providing housing.

30% of Canada are baby boomers. And already some of them are in their late 70s. Currently there are only three workers for every retiree. It used to be 7.

And the strain on our hospitals.... and I see it already with my own parents. Gong show. I am very pessimistic about GenXs near future.

Even immigration targets of a million a year won't cut it.

[MIPS]

Originally Posted by logicbomb

I'm no longer voting.

Effective as of this post and until you decide to reconsider, you waive your ability to be taken seriously when complaining about politics from whichever party is in control.
Likewise you are not allowed to complain about why one person got in while someone else didn't.

I have zero respect for people who refuse to or deliberately spoil their vote due to how it risks destabilizing the entire election process. It invites external influence skewing the results, like as we saw in the last US pre-COVID election cycle. Canada is not immune to this.

[Migrant_Coconut]

It's kind of a foregone conclusion though - barring a major scandal or a sudden pivot left from the ex-Libs, Eby gets the Central Kootenays and most of the Island and Metro Van (and therefore another term).

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Effective as of this post and until you decide to reconsider, you waive your ability to be taken seriously when complaining about politics from whichever party is in control.
Likewise you are not allowed to complain about why one person got in while someone else didn't.

I have zero respect for people who refuse to or deliberately spoil their vote due to how it risks destabilizing the entire election process. It invites external influence skewing the results, like as we saw in the last US pre-COVID election cycle. Canada is not immune to this.

I hope you put your money where your mouth is and vote federally, provincially, municipally, and depending on your living situation your strata too!

[GMD]

Originally Posted by chowhou

Quite the contrary, countries like Canada looked at the inevitable demographic pressures of countries like Japan 20 years ago and sought to go a different direction. It's technically not the federal government's fault that municipal and provincial governments have dropped the ball on providing housing.

Well, population increase averaged about 300k/year for a long time. Once Trudeau got in, it ramped up steadily to over 500k year by the time Covid hit. Even that was causing some strains to cope with, in my opinion. But the 1.2 million increase in the past 12 months is so far beyond what has ever happened before, that I think it is expecting a lot to expect housing or municipal governments to keep up. Ideally housing construction can ramp up, and population increase can come back down at least as far as 500k/year, and then the housing crisis might stabilize.

[Tvisforme]

Originally Posted by chowhou

I hope you put your money where your mouth is and vote federally, provincially, municipally, and depending on your living situation your strata too!

To be honest, I don't really disagree with the basic principle they're espousing. The fundamental requirement for a democracy to work is that we believe in it and that we all participate. There are certainly valid reasons for not voting in a particular election; illness, family emergencies, and the like can make it challenging in specific situations despite one's best intentions. However, willfully refusing to participate in the democratic process is entirely different.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by Tvisforme

To be honest, I don't really disagree with the basic principle they're espousing. The fundamental requirement for a democracy to work is that we believe in it and that we all participate. There are certainly valid reasons for not voting in a particular election; illness, family emergencies, and the like can make it challenging in specific situations despite one's best intentions. However, willfully refusing to participate in the democratic process is entirely different.

Just doing a hypocrisy check! To some extent I agree with the fundamental principle too, but I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss people who choose to participate less. Not to toot my own horn but I've voted in every federal election, every provincial election, every municipal election, and every university student election I've ever had the ability to vote in. However, there's always more I could have done (I've had the opportunity to campaign for my preferred candidates multiple times but I've chosen not to and I kick myself over one election lost by a couple hundred votes I could have made a difference in) and I hope that people who are doing more than me don't think less of me for not doing what they're doing!

[madog222]

The latest survey conducted by Research Co. and Glacier Media shows that not much has changed at the top. Almost half of decided voters (48 per cent) would cast a ballot for the governing BC New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate in their constituency if an election were held today, up four points since February.

This leaves two parties fighting for second place: BC United at 20 per cent (down 16 points) and the BC Conservatives (19 per cent, up 17 points). The BC Green Party is now fourth with 12 per cent (down four points).

To fully understand the situation, we need to look at the entire electorate. In February, only 10 per cent of all respondents to our survey were undecided. This month, the proportion has increased to 18 per cent. Practically one in five voters simply do not know where to go, with a governing party that has had a premier for less than a year, an official Opposition party whose name could be perplexing and a third party that may be benefiting from the popularity of its federal namesake.

From Mario Canseco https://biv.com/article/2023/09/bc-unite...tied-among-decided-voters-bcs-no-2-party

[whatnext]

Former Premier John Horgan to be Canada's next ambassador to Germany:

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/11/01/john-horgan-canada-ambassador-germany/

[jollyburger]

How long does Selina Robinson survive? I doubt she lasts the week since this will hurt a huge NDP base in key ridings (Surrey)

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/02/05/bc-ndp-protest-selina-robinson-resignation/

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

How long does Selina Robinson survive? I doubt she lasts the week since this will hurt a huge NDP base in key ridings (Surrey)

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/02/05/bc-ndp-protest-selina-robinson-resignation/

I don't think there are as many Muslims in BC as you think, and I've never really considered them to be a core BCNDP base. If anything, the Jewish and Hindu populations in BC which add up to slightly less than the Muslim population probably don't feel too bad about Selina Robinson right now.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by chowhou

I don't think there are as many Muslims in BC as you think, and I've never really considered them to be a core BCNDP base. If anything, the Jewish and Hindu populations in BC which add up to slightly less than the Muslim population probably don't feel too bad about Selina Robinson right now.

Yeah I was just thinking that the NDP base probably has more wider support for the Palestinian side. Maybe not.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Yeah I was just thinking that the NDP base probably has more wider support for the Palestinian side. Maybe not.

Sorry, I jumped to conclusions and thought you meant Surrey = brown = Muslim. Not that Surrey was a key riding. Oops. I don't know why I thought that.

Ultimately, the average NDP voter who is invested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is deeply offended by what Selina Robinson said probably isn't voting for the BC Cons or BCU anytime soon.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by chowhou

Sorry, I jumped to conclusions and thought you meant Surrey = brown = Muslim. Not that Surrey was a key riding. Oops. I don't know why I thought that.

Ultimately, the average NDP voter who is invested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and is deeply offended by what Selina Robinson said probably isn't voting for the BC Cons or BCU anytime soon.

I suppose it is possible some Sikh voters might see their struggle for a homeland in India more akin to Palestinian's struggles.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by whatnext

I suppose it is possible some Sikh voters might see their struggle for a homeland in India more akin to Palestinian's struggles.

Or alternatively, some Sikh voters might see their struggle for a homeland in India more akin to Israel's struggles.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by chowhou

Or alternatively, some Sikh voters might see their struggle for a homeland in India more akin to Israel's struggles.

Considering half of Khalistan is currently in Muslim Pakistan

[whatnext]

Sounds like Eby might be getting ready to throw Robinson overboard:

B.C. premier to hold solo news conference after cancelling Coquitlam housing announcement
By Charlie Carey

Posted February 5, 2024 11:34 am. Last Updated February 5, 2024 12:20 pm.
The premier of B.C. is slated to appear before news reporters by himself Monday afternoon after he cancelled a scheduled housing announcement in Coquitlam just 30 minutes before it was supposed to begin.

The move to appear by himself comes amid ongoing controversy involving his Post-Secondary Education Minister Selina Robinson and growing calls for her resignation, along with some urging her removal from caucus.....

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/02/05/bc-premier-david-eby-ndp-controversy/