Monday, April 15, 2013

BC Election News - Apr 15th edition

Lots of going-ons in the BC Poli world today....

1) Standing Nomination period over

At 4:30pm today, Elections BC closed the door on nominees filing directly with them.  Starting tomorrow until Apr 29th (Day 10 of 40th General Election), candidates can file with the local District Electoral Officer

For Cariboo-Chilcotin - Donna Barnett (BCL), Charlie Wyse (NDP) and Gary Young (Ind) have filed directly with Elections BC

For Cariboo-North - Only Coralee Oakes (BCL) has filed directly with Elections BC.

No word on a BC Greens candidate for Cariboo-Chilcotin (no Green candidate in Cariboo-North in order to support Bob Simpson's chances at re-election).  As well, no word on BC Conservative candidates in Cariboo-North and Cariboo-Chilcotin.

Finally - I'm a little surprised that Bob Simpson nor Duncan Barnett have yet to file their nomination papers.  One would think that you would get that small detail out of the way in order to focus 110% on meeting the voters for the entire 28 day campaign

View the full Standing Nomination Candidate List from Elections BC here

2) BC NDP release their Forestry Platform

Earlier today - the BC NDP released their $310 million Forestry plan.  View that plan here.  One part of the plan I have a problem with is the establishment of a Jobs Protection Commissioner.  This was tried in 1996 under the former NDP Government of Glen Clark and that government still lost 25,000 forestry jobs.  One aspect of this plan I agree with, in principle, is working with industry to lessen log exports.  Of course, reasoned minded people would say that we should use our own resources to export products to other countries and not raw product.  A local story on this item can be viewed here while Global BC has a story on this item here

3) BC Liberals release their fully-costed platform

Earlier today - the BC Liberals released their full platform which you can view here.  Elements of the plan include:


Holding the line and then cutting taxes to spur private sector job creation, starting with small business, reduce red tape, secure opportunities in Asia;

controlling spending by placing a cap on government expenditures against the rate of nominal GDP and launching a core review of all government ministries;

freeze the carbon tax and all personal income taxes;

dedicate at least 50 per cent of all future surplus revenues to debt reduction; and,

dedicate all revenues from Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and proposed Kitimat Clean Refinery royalty revenues to debt reduction until provincial debt is eliminated, including paying down BC Ferries debt.


View a CBC story on this below:



4) Local campaign offices open

Charlie Wyse opens his 100 Mile office last Saturday - read here

Earlier this evening before a standing room only crowd - BC Liberal candidate for Cariboo-Chilcotin Donna Barnett addressed her supporters by asking them to campaign cleanly and debate the issues and not personalities.  She also stated that she wants everyone to know that she supports New Prosperity and Charlie Wyse and the BC NDP do not and Mr. Wyse and his boss, Adrian Dix, will kill mines like New Prosperity, if given the opportunity

The 40th BC General Election will start tomorrow after Christy Clark pays a formal visit to Her Honour, the Lieutenant-Governor and request that the BC Legislature be dissolved and as per constituional practice, Her Honour will dissolve the Legislature and the 28 day election campaign will officially start

I ask everyone, regardless of which political party or candidate you personally support, get involved as it is healthy for our provincial democracy but also allows each of us to take a small part in shaping our provincial future

SBF

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