This is a wonderful rant by Corky Evans, the New Democrat MLA for Nelson-Creston in response to the Budget delivered by the BC “Liberal” government earlier in the month. It’s quite a performance, including being admonished at one point by the Chair of the Finance Committee for remarks made with a disrespectful “tone” about the high-handed manner of the Campbell government and for suggesting that the Finance Minister Colin Hansen is a stooge of some kind for party strategists.
A couple of days ago the BC Libs posted a video (embedding, comments and ratings have all been disabled) of Gordon Campbell speaking to the Vancouver Board of Trade about the budget that they described as “support[ing] infrastructure projects to create thousands of jobs and build opportunities in every region of the province while providing stability and confidence for British Columbians by investing in health, education and social services.”
It’s understood that Evans won’t be running in the upcoming provincial election. What a shame. The NDP could really use someone like this as leader.
Red Tory v.3.0.3 
thanks for posting Red, Cory gave a dynamite speech – speaking truth to bullcrap.
Actual thanks go to 99th Dimension for originally posting it on his channel, but you’re welcome.
Yeah, you don’t see feisty speeches like this enough. The NDP opposition has been fairly timid here for the most part and the legislature has been shut down several times… pathetic really.
Well, that got the blood moving a bit. Could the Campbell government be any less responsive or responsible on so many issues.
I blame CanWest, in large part, for leaving so many of us in the dark with their partisan cheerleading horseshit. Fuckers. I’m not particularly optimistic about Prem Watsa being a saviour, but one can hope.
Oops, it looks like I’ve gone off on a CanWest rant again. Sorry about that.
spek, re “I blame CanWest, in large part, for leaving so many of us in the dark with their partisan cheerleading horseshit.”
spek, are you implying that what I read, hear or see in the corporate media is a tad removed from the truth? Say it ain’t so!!!
All things considered, the Campbell government has held it together pretty well. I have never been a big booster of the BC Libs, but they have delivered a lot of positive projects to my old home town, brought a degree of fiscal discipline (Olympics notwithstanding) to B.C. and diversified our economy through targeted investments.
A lot of people here would love to vote NDP, because their ideas are not horrible. However the level of talent on their front bench leaves Joe-Citizen wanting for more. These guys are a bunch of second rate clowns. Carol James is not a serious leader, and will probably be decimated in the upcoming election.
Imagine that!
Yes, the coverage of provincial politics here is piss-poor these days.
Most of the worthwhile information comes from alternative papers and the Tyee.
Ted — Quite so. The NDP has been hopeless and, as much as I dislike the arrogance of the BC Libs, they haven’t been terrible — albeit, they were riding a pretty hot economy. Anyway, they’ve certainly been an improvement over the disastrous Dipper governments that preceded them. And yes… James is going to get a sound drubbing in the upcoming election.
“…albeit, they were riding a pretty hot economy.”
Also, factor in the sale of B.C. Rail and substantial equalization payments for a few years. The NDP government that preceded, I submit, was not as disastrous as commonly believed. Very few people were aware of the large budget surpluses the NDP had in their last two years, for instance. (about 1.5 billion if I remember) We had better services then, too. Fast ferries – $450 million! – is going to be dwarfed by the Olympics hangover I predict, even accounting for inflation. Olympic security by itself is going to cost twice that.
I tend to agree, though, Carol James will lose. Unless she finds a microphone.
As someone who moved to B.C. in 2001, the constant refrain about the horrible NDP years has always been a bit of a mystery to me. All the economic stats from those years look pretty good, and other than the fast ferries (total costs about even with the overrun on the convention centre), nobody really has anything concrete to point to when I ask what was so bad in those years.
Declan,
The NDP were not so terrible. Except that Premier Clark had a deck built on his house. Stairs up to it too. About 16×20″ I’d guess. A huge scandal! !Funny how Canwest and cameras were there that night with the cops. Funny that. Camera lights shining all over the deck getting a good shot of Glenn in his kitchen. For this deck (and the stairs up to it) he was charged with giving some shady character the licence needed to open a casino (I think, I could have my details wrong).
Along with the fast ferries, which are still docked a coupled of blocks away from me. (Who pays for the moorage?) The idea behind them besides upgrading our ageing ferry fleet, was to train people in Vancouver the skills needed to build in aluminum. A pretty good skill set to have apparently. Eventually we would have gotten better at it and subsequent boats would be turned out more quickly and we’d all make money and jobs would spin off and ship building in Vancouver would come alive again.
Carol would be fine as a Prem. The problem is that we are used to the slimey ways of Gordo the Soup Nazi, with his trusty Hardbody by his side. Everyone knows a story or more about him, all of them true, all of them reasons never to vote for him again if gathered together. We know he’s untrusworthy, rather vile and cruel. Does anyone know exactly what he did with the $1billion from the sale of BCRail? Assume nothing. He was an asshole when he was mayor and he’s a bigger asshole now.
Geo
I met Corky back in 2003 when he spoke at my girlfriend’s graduation from art school in Nelson. He was a charming man who actually listened when you spoke and responded unlike a politician. The thing that most impressed me was his speech; he came without one and was able to keep the audience with what he said. It’s nice to see someone in politics that knows there stuff well enough to be able to speak on the fly and not rely on handlers, writers and pr to manage their image.
Saying that, Im not to thrilled about the NDP alternatives for the Kootenays. Does anyone know who will be running for the NDP there? Please don’t say Michelle Mungall.
Well I can answer myself. She is. That is truly unfortunate that Corky is going to be replaced by a burgeoning career politician.
Well at least this time I wont have to worry about dealing with her at the food bank like I did in Nelson “You dont really look poor” sounds awesome when your hungry and some hippie is complaining because they didnt get organic milk. Ugh, no more thoughts about the Koots from me.
Nelson… nice place. I seriously thought about going to school there back in the day. Probably should have. The art school here in Victoria sucked for the most part.
I once called the local Food Bank here to find out when they were open when I was having a really bad month, money-wise. They were complete snots and made it sound like a terrible imposition on their time. Never did get directions and the thing is only open for a couple of weeks out of the month. But I’m not sure when. Frankly, I’d rather starve…
Nelson is great place to visit. Far far too isolated for me though and the winter hit that home with a bullet.
KSA was okay, they had some financial oddities happen that resulted in them getting absorbed by Selkirk College.
I’ve never been a fan of the right but Nelson was where I learned to be equally as wary of the left. Some of the bylaws created by the then city council (in which Corky’s replacement was a member of) came across more like laws to control just to ensure you do the right thing. Not to mention questionable purchases, a mayoral expense account that topped $350k a two years in a row and a conflict of interest that resulted in the mayor having to sit out of all council meetings for the last 9 months of his term ( he owned most of downtown). Though its nice to see that populism gone wrong isn’t merely the domain of the right.
If you are going that way I’d recommend the smaller towns like Kaslo, Silverton or New Denver. All three are very beautiful places, far friendlier and could do far more with getting the tourists. New Denver even has a television society where they chose their own channels for their satellite reception. Way more interesting to me at least.
Oh yeah you were probably lucky you didn’t eat the food from the food bank. After much cajoling and demonstrating I was dead poor, I got a pack of salsa, some Campbell’s Chunky Soup cans and a months supply of soy jerky. I donate to food banks now (and did before that) but now I ask them what they want, not just dump off hippie food because of some sort of cosmic karma resolution.
I guess I’m lamenting that the NDP is losing another fine person to have them replaced with the fluff that really deters me from supporting them now. Then again they’ve got the “facts”.
Anyone who, as an adult, maintains the name “Corky”…..dweeb!
and referring to yourself repeatedly as “maverick” is moreso.
Seeing as his name is Conrad, I don’t see your beef – jerky.
Gene — Hippie food. Heh.
BTW, that “facts” link doesn’t work.
sorry I’ll just print it out
http://michellemungall.blogspot.com/2009/02/interesting-fact.html
Ive still got some family up in them there woods. Hopefully they don’t get on the energy and enthusiasm bandwagon again.
Sigh, I just miss when there was a bit more substance to politicians.
it is more a coincidence than a fact. I share a birthday with William Shatner but I fail to see any meaning in it (other than it’s cool to have a drink to Kirk on my birthday).
Interesting fact! LOL
Man, that’s a desperate stretch.