Unlike Zoomer, I think in Victoria, the NDP need to be thrown out, they've taken the support of Victorians for granted and on important issues have abandoned us. I think Wilkinson is actually a decent leader despite his lack of charisma - but more importantly I think the Liberals will do more to advance the province and those who live here over the next four years. On ending 24/7 camping - Karen Bill had this to say on Twitter: "The increase of violence, theft, and crime is devastating neighbourhoods around the province, including Beacon Hill Park. I believe that everyone deserves to live in a safe community and will take steps to immediately address these issues if elected. [/size]#bcpoli[/size][/size] [/size]@bcliberals" [/size][/size]. Add to it a commitment to get rid of the EHT (and replace it either with changes to income tax or sales taxes) - and I'm fairly sold about where my vote should go. The EHT clobbered small and medium sized businesses - as an example our MSP bill for our family went from $1800 a year, to $30,000 a year. Big Wheel Burger - looking at an EHT bill of $40k. So for me, unless Horgan can convince me otherwise, my vote would be wasted with either the NDPs or the Greens.
A Karen on Twitter comment is irrelevant - especially when 99% of people would agree with it and state the same thing, AND because the homeless/crime situation has been decades in the making under which time BC has overwhelmingly been under Socred/Liberal leadership. Seriously.. after three years in power this is all the NDP’s fault, and we should bring back the LIBERALS to fix this?! I’ve been to Vancouver and there is this interesting area called the Downtown Eastside that has been there for decades with zero improvement.
Maybe if Lisa followed Horgan’s advice and banned overnight camping in parks you’d be able to visit there in relative peace.
As for Wilkinson being a decent leader - I’ll disagree, he doesn’t have his party ready for the election, it’s not clear what they stand for, nor has he made the case that his party can make life better for all British Columbians - not to mention he was part of the past Liberal government that failed to deliver. He’s so out of touch he said renting was a fun and wacky time, a rite of passage; he had to apologize for characterizing domestic violence as ‘a tough marriage’ and he’s failed to reign in the homophobia and transphobia by a few in his caucus.
As for the EHT, I’ll agree with you there, make it part of general taxation, it has been onerous even with the NDP reducing small business tax by 20% and together with the federal government combined they have spent billions bailing out small, medium and large scale businesses and subsidizing their employees. Funny how businesses forget all this during the good times as they call for their taxes to be reduced and the minimum wage rolled back or frozen.
So if we can’t get a true progressive conservative alternative (small p and c), how about a new political party that goes 3D beyond the traditional left/right 2D bs.
A party that isn’t bound by ideology or special interest groups, that understands there are no easy answers, that we must constantly test new approaches and be guided by evidence to find long lasting solutions.
A party that views homeless strategy success as one where in the long term there are actually far fewer supportive housing units, very few shelters (and the ones that exist are government run), and no food banks. To get there we will likely need more supportive units short term (ultimately these can be converted to market units), but we need strategies that focus on early intervention, do not create long term dependency, and take away individual incentive, responsibility and accountability.
We need a party that will commit to being hard on crime while also addressing the root causes. This means providing funding to municipalities to establish teams that will tackle the small stuff such as undercover units to identify, prosecute or sue prolific graffiti artists for damages. This means establishing video surveillance and police presence in areas where crime is spiking - seriously, why does in takes weeks of windows being smashed at South Park before it becomes an issue? This means zero tolerance for property crime - why is this acceptable? Again, more bait bikes.
It also means more and better addiction treatment, but working desperately to reduce overall drug use. Man, I could go on, and on, and on.. but overtime is coming up in the game, lol.
But does this sound like the Liberals, NDP or Green Party?! NO! NONE OF THEM. Which is why we need a new party. Awaiting Juno, are you with me!? I’ll start a Go Fund Me, we just need $100,000 to start. I’ll even support you as our first leader!
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