tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400574.post5242428549717473512..comments2024-03-28T04:04:03.006-07:00Comments on Paying attention: Hawes, Clark and an MLA's jobUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400574.post-62676504103282649032011-10-21T14:04:40.991-07:002011-10-21T14:04:40.991-07:00It's a given that the next election will be ve...It's a given that the next election will be very difficult for the BC Liberals to win the next election for a host of reasons, the HST lie merely one, albeit the one which ignited the others. Suffice to say that they've been trying to stuff the worms back into the can ever since.<br /><br />Christy Clark was astute enough seizing the opportunity to become BC Liberal leader but apparently not enough to admit that the party was stunned and reeling on the ropes, that even a dog could have won as long as it wasn't a disgraced Campbellite, that her victory was essentially by default. Undaunted by a string of setbacks, from her narrow by-election win, rejection of the HST, reneging on her early election promise to being shooed out of the kitchen on the BC Hydro file, Christy has always maintained her majorette approach as if it was the thing that won her the leadership and therefore all that is required to march the BC Liberal parade to victory in 2013. The problem is that her approach is most inappropriate when it comes to the disturbing CLBC situation.<br /><br />Victims of BC Liberal policy of shutting down group homes for developmentally challenged adults, their families and caregivers, have been lobbying, pleading, to have these inhuman cost-cutting measures reversed; the NDP Opposition have been<br />consistently raising the issue in the legislature; the CLBC board is in tumult; the Minister was demoted. The government may be preoccupied with stuffing worms back into the can, but they cannot claim they don't know what's happening. It's only worse when they insist everything's just fine, go enjoy the parade.<br /><br />Until now the BC Liberal caucus, virtually none of whom supported Christy's leadership bid, have held their noses and endured her non-stop tub-thumping and grandstanding, as long as they have control of the files important to them. Now backbencher Randy Hawse's criticism of his own government about the CLBC debacle may have changed this strained relationship. At issue is real human suffering that crosses all class and partisan lines; it has the potential to go viral.. Christy's inconsiderate remarks about how the "game" is played was worse than careless.<br /><br />We armchair pundits can speculate what the BC Liberals will do about their shallow majorette with eighteen months to go before the next election. We might even have our moments or Schadenfreude at their troubles. But we should also try, however hard it is, to put ourselves into the shoes, the wheelchairs and gurneys of those being forced to move out of their group homes, where they've spent their lives with other people like themselves, their friends, and try to imagine ourselves little children once again, unable to understand more than fear and sadness at being moved in with strangers, suddenly the only one, different from all the rest. Imagine, if we can, what that must feel like. For them every waking minute of every day. Then maybe we can understand why this might be the death knell of the BC Liberals.Scotty on Denmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400574.post-74514159613831214612011-10-20T13:55:20.313-07:002011-10-20T13:55:20.313-07:00speaking of Kevin Kreuger and anything he says in ...speaking of Kevin Kreuger and anything he says in the house brings to mind the cartoon of Kevin standing somewhere as some strange noises were all around him. The caption says it was two folks playing racket ball in his head.Loyal to the end, so he collects a good wage for saying yes a lotDPLnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1400574.post-80940362576773478352011-10-20T09:48:38.178-07:002011-10-20T09:48:38.178-07:00Fair enough Paul, but we all know that this did no...Fair enough Paul, but we all know that this did not start with either Mr. Bloy or Ms. Clark.<br /><br />Therefore....<br /><br />I see the 'game' <a href="http://pacificgazette.blogspot.com/2011/10/lickspittles-cometh.html" rel="nofollow">quite differently,</a> especially given that Mr. Hawes has been a member of this government for its entire 10 years. <br /><br />More specifically, how is Mr. Simmons' motion simplistic, exactly, compared to Mr. Hawes' <a href="http://pacificgazette.blogspot.com/2011/10/another-lickspittle-cometh.html" rel="nofollow">(and now Mr. van Dongen's)</a> call for a 'review'?<br /><br />Seriously.<br /><br />Or, put another way, which would actually halt the government's current egregious practice of throwing the adult disabled out of group homes they have been in for years?<br /><br />______<br />And speaking of games, it was very nice of Ms. Clark to put a price on the heads of each one of our most vulnerable citizens (ie. which means that, according to Ms. Clark's number, each of them costs us approximately 0.0008% of what we must pay to refurbish BC Place per year)....I believe you have already <a href="http://willcocks.blogspot.com/2011/08/clbc-service-cuts-hurt-most-vulnerable.html" rel="nofollow">'reviewed'</a> the longterm trends on those numbers Paul - perhaps you could send them to Madam Premier, Mr. Hawes and Mr. van Dongen?<br /><br />.RossKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07677239332112652522noreply@blogger.com