Like the school yard bullies that they have no idea they emulate, the left/NDP just call people names hoping something will stick. We, the citizens are over it and want a more pragmatic, open and honorable government. Rustad and the Conservatives all the way.
Yes, I do look forward to having a governing party that will actively worsen things like affordability, rather than pretending to fix things. The "pragmatic, open, and honourable" approach I'm sure will provide comfort to the many who will suddenly realize that ending the carbon tax didn't magically reduce their grocery bills to pre-pandemic levels.
What creates more actual harm? Running massive deficits or espousing nutty conspiracy theories?
For example, in AB Danielle Smith flirted with the chem trail conspiracy last week but I expect that to have zero impact on my life. So interesting that she thinks that but if she is going to run a tighter ship than Nenshi, I guess I’ll put up with chem trail comments.
I have seen some compelling evidence (photos before AI photos were a thing) showing that there is indeed something being sprayed in our skies. The better term is geoengineering I believe. It's attempted weather control at it's heart, but some of the compounds used are pretty toxic. (There's a few pilot whistle blower blogs I saw years ago with photos of the actual tanks on planes and they're mounted near the back of the plane.)
I fly often enough and have been to enough remote areas in my province to know that there are some areas where low flying planes aren't a thing - commercial air traffic is up above the level where clouds occur. But those periodic low-flying aircraft that just happen to leave a cloud behind them in a criss-cross pattern somehow still show up in those places. I think rather than just blanketly calling it a conspiracy theory, it's worth asking the question "what if someone was trying to alter the weather?" There's been outright discussion of it by Bill Gates and others, so I'm not sure it's as crazy an idea as it sounded like thirty years ago.
That being said - I agree with you, I'm not voting based on comments like that, but instead on policy. And I know Nenshi's policy in Calgary was horrible so I'd expect nothing more from him on the provincial stage.
The grand policies that worked a decade ago are starting to fail. BC does not contribute very much to climate change, although everyone swears it is real. The example of site C illustrates shows that it can be costly however. Eby on the other hand gets about $1,000 per capita of population from gas production so LNG approvals have been straight forward. Everyone smeared any candidate in the last federal election that supported immigration limits as racist but the correlation of high immigration rates to housing problems is becoming clear. Similarly safe consumption of drugs is running out its popularity.
No matter how many press clips you air, personal experience trumps them. If you look at your electricity bills, you can't find accomodation or there are drug dealers in your park it does not matter.
People are allowed to say dumb things on Twitter. I thought it weird for this article to rehash so many dumb tweets of just one party. I’m sure we could all scour Twitter for dumb things Eby’s team has said on Twitter, but I’m personally more concerned about the damage they’ve caused in real life. I didn’t have an opinion of Eby the person before the campaign, but he’s done himself no favours in the last few weeks. I’d like to see him gone.
Rustad (and Rob Shaw) are missing an opportunity to call out Eby on a serious charge of anti-Semitic racism with regards to how he dealt with the Jewish then-MLA Selina Robinson. Truly despicable. I won't write anymore about it because I will start swearing.
Concur. Especially in light of this weekend’s Oct 7 terrorist mob protests where we got to watch and listen to such chants as “Death to Canada. Death to the United States. And Death to Israel” on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Appalling.
The tricky bit is that I know these mob marching people. They are actually BC NDP voter base. And I mean I LITERALLY know many of these people - they are primarily white, middle class, middle aged, serving on Local Boards & Union Councils. PAC Volunteers & Anti-Racism Advocacy Groups. They’re the ones hiding behind keffiyehs and chanting “Death to Canada” and “We are all Hamas and we are all Hezbollah”. I know them and I know how they vote and I’m aghast.
And it’s not only the NDP voter base. The rot of antisemitism is metastasized throughout the party of MLAs. It’s Nikki, and Janet, and Carole, and Jennifer. And it’s David Eby our Premier, who looked on with indifference as this cancer spread. He led our province to this.
I don’t think Eby is an antisemite but he acted in a most spineless and unprincipled cowardly way by not supporting then cabinet minister Selina Robinson. It was all about votes and there is a far higher number of Muslim votes here in BC than Jewish ones.
Quite the campaign had already started to oust the only Jewish member of his cabinet before she even made her unfortunate comment. A campaign largely started by Samidoun, banned as a terrorist organization in countries in Europe such as Germany.
I have been voting NDP especially provincially for years but I am so sickened by Eby’s caving to the mob that I can’t. It was the last straw for me after some disillusionment with Eby already. The Conservative candidate in my area is not a person I can vote for and they also have some dodgy policies.
This is an election that is not civil, not truthful and we deserve better than what is is.
This is amazing because it means cancel culture is dying a very public death in BC in many many ways and this day is long overdue. People know what is hurting them and they know that they need to care about actual policies and the "conspiracy theory" stuff - well, in a big enough group of people, no decisions are going to be made based on conspiracy theories.
Sometimes the words conspiracy theory are used to shut down conversation and debate - who knows whether some of the things we think of as conspiracy actually are or aren't. I mean - TV and governments across Canada promised the covid vaccine would stop transmission. I had read the actual trial study design documents - evaluating transmission was not considered in the actual study design. The vaccines were literally never evaluated for their ability to stop transmission and the test design didn't detect asymptomatic cases in the vaccinated as they only tested symptomatic individuals. This "vaccines stop transmission" was a blatant lie repeated over and over - and anyone who had read the trial designs and followed the release of data knew it. Just like it was known that the vaccines weren't creating the types of long term antibodies that are needed for lasting immunity (while recovering form infection already had published papers showing that the bone marrow manufactured cells that meant at least 2 to 5 years of natural immunity following recovery.)
So in short - I'm glad that it seems Rustad is currently covered in Teflon and the power of the NDP attack ads is dying a fiery death. And as for conspiracy theories? I don't really care as long as policies are being enacted in a thoughtful and evidence based way. Sometimes conspiracy theories aren't actually a theory. Sometimes the word is applied to try and stop conversations. (Though hopefully Rustad learns a lesson and decides to do a bit more research before making some of those rather silly comments again. The covid vaccine causing AIDS is among the more stupid comments out there IMO, but I think the prolonged lockdowns and ostracization that governments engaged in did push reasonable and rational people to engage deeper in illogical ideas. In Europe people were "allowed" to have normal lives following recovering and weren't forced to take a vaccine to have basic rights. In Canada we couldn't fly or cross the border even if we had proof of antibodies. There are tens of thousands of Canadians who have experienced being treated like second class citizens now - and that is going to change people's willingness to engage with conspiracy theories. It definitely changed mine.)
Scientific studies are designed to analyze specific aspects of the subject in question, therefore criticizing a study design for not including a topic is not helpful. The original COVID vaccine had an immediate purpose of preventing/lowering infections to prevent hospitalization/deaths rather than transmission (for which masks and distancing were mandated.) Further studies of COVID and vaccination were better targeted at transmissibility.
About conspiracy theories, I highly recommend a serious scientifically-minded book that covers both the real (eg. MK Ultra, Watergate) to the far-out (eg. flat Earth, chemtrails). It is Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational by Michael Shermer
Socialism simply never delivers what it promises. People will eventually come to realize it and, in a free, democratic country, reject it at the elections.
BC seems like a microcosm of the problems facing Canada. There are no leaders with a vision, no plans to deal with the increasing numbers of serious issues that needs to be addressed, and no one willing to admit that we're trying to do more than we can afford.
Hear hear! It does seem that an electorate which is unwilling or unable to critically examine the outcomes from policy proposals (and I say this applying the same standard to all three parties) will get the government it deserves.
Also, Rustad’s kids eating bugs comment was not entirely off the mark. We do have edible bug factories, their product is used in animal feed I think but in Europe it’s used in human products in a few countries and I believe it’s a sustainable growth goal for one of those UN agendas.
This kind of comment about bugs cannot and should not taken at face value. Everyone knows it's hyperbole, aka making an exaggerated claim from a kernel of truth.
Do we need to remind people that politicians use hyperbole ALL THE TIME to make a point?
Whether hyperbole is an acceptable form of political speech is another matter. We can decide if we should accept it or not as a society.
Find me a politician who's not used hyperbole before!
I’m disappointed, Rob Shaw. After singing your praises on your fair and unbiased reporting in general and in your last “The Line” piece, this piece started off with a comparison of Rustad to the villain in a horror movie, and proceeded to cite all manner of negative NDP allegations made toward and about Rustad. Eby, on the other hand, really seemed to escape much negativity from you at all - general or specific. Rustad isn’t my favourite person, but he isn’t the villain being portrayed by the NDP and, by virtue of the numerous quotes and allegations used in this article, by you. Eby’s fast and loose blowing of the surplus and taking us into a big deficit and credit downgrade, destroyed health care, housing, a huge drug addict and homelessness situation, is not something to tout; hence, he attacks the character of his opponent. What sort of “character” gets us in the mess we’re in and is so smug and arrogant he’s nearly a Trudeau clone by pretending he can now magically fix what he and his government broke - as though some other party has been in charge with a majority for the past 7 years. The answer is the “character” of Eby. In my time in this province, the Liberals have been bad, and the NDP worse. I’ll try B.C. Conservatives this time, thanks - foolish comments, comments out of context, and bonehead comments included.
Eby's comments on gun owners alone is enough to make me not vote for him. But there's also crime, healthcare, fiscal mismanagement, drug policies, and antisemitism.
Free speech means the freedom to spew lies and other bullshit. We either have or or we don't. There is no middle ground.
The wokesters at the provincials and feredal levels would LOVE to not have it. It's too inconvenient for them as it exposes their own lies, ironically, thanks to free speech.
Scott Adams says that any form of government cannot survive true free speech. The more I look around, the more I believe that to be true.
The problem I've got with this election is that all of the options are pretty unappealing. The NDP has done its usual NDP thing of gradually abandoning efforts at moderate governance in favor of increasingly ideological policies, and meanwhile the left wing policies they initiated at the start of their time in power are manifesting their predictable and predicted negative effects (insisting on setting wage levels on all public infrastructure projects at a floor of union rates will drive up costs and blow budgets? Who could've seen that coming?!!) David Eby's apparently an unprincipled opportunist, so it's completely plausible that he'd radically shift approach to retain power. However, as an unprincipled opportunist, why would I trust him to commit to that approach if re-elected?
John Rustad and the Conservatives keep saying stupid things and pitching stupid policies that often rival the shortcomings of the NDP and make me question whether they've got the judgement to be trusted in government. Rustad's proposal to deal with a housing crisis in BC is to provide a tax credit on rent and mortgage payments. Not only would this be an expensive commitment in an overstrained budget, but it's a guaranteed way to simply increase demand in a supply-constrained market. A fine way to spend a lot of money AND make housing affordability WORSE! I'm not particularly thrilled at the prospect of trading left wing incompetence for right wing incompetence.
The BC Greens? They're hopeless, electorally and in terms of anything resembling a realistic policy.
Right now, I'm looking for reasons to vote for one of these parties and it's like they're both encouraging me to just spoil my ballot or write in "Ryan Reynolds."
Voting is easier when you don’t believe campaign promises. Weird how Eby’s playing the attack game, though. An incumbent who can’t run on his own record is not worth reelecting imo
If I'm supposed to discount or ignore promises and policies made by the leaders and parties during the campaign, what am I supposed to base my vote on? Tribal loyalty? Thanks, but no thanks.
Which Eby is the real one? The one whose policies have ruined healthcare and public safety? Or the one who’s flip flopped and is adopting Rustad’s policies? This is an election for Eby or no Eby. I’m voting for no Eby. He’s turned out to be a nasty person.
They indicate basic direction. Rustad doesn’t know how bad our finances might be, so I fully expect him to adjust accordingly. Eby absolutely knows how bad things are, which is why he’s campaigning negatively. Also, I see the policy failures first-hand in my city. That tells me everything I need to know!
Have you read their policy statements. Absolute mess with super high costs at a time that after the NDP/Eby government, we just can't do. Rustad all the way for me.
Like the school yard bullies that they have no idea they emulate, the left/NDP just call people names hoping something will stick. We, the citizens are over it and want a more pragmatic, open and honorable government. Rustad and the Conservatives all the way.
Yes, I do look forward to having a governing party that will actively worsen things like affordability, rather than pretending to fix things. The "pragmatic, open, and honourable" approach I'm sure will provide comfort to the many who will suddenly realize that ending the carbon tax didn't magically reduce their grocery bills to pre-pandemic levels.
What creates more actual harm? Running massive deficits or espousing nutty conspiracy theories?
For example, in AB Danielle Smith flirted with the chem trail conspiracy last week but I expect that to have zero impact on my life. So interesting that she thinks that but if she is going to run a tighter ship than Nenshi, I guess I’ll put up with chem trail comments.
The question no one seems to ask Danielle is where the water is going to come from. https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/how-much-time-do-we-have-contamination-in-prairie-groundwater-identified-1.6847525
I have seen some compelling evidence (photos before AI photos were a thing) showing that there is indeed something being sprayed in our skies. The better term is geoengineering I believe. It's attempted weather control at it's heart, but some of the compounds used are pretty toxic. (There's a few pilot whistle blower blogs I saw years ago with photos of the actual tanks on planes and they're mounted near the back of the plane.)
I fly often enough and have been to enough remote areas in my province to know that there are some areas where low flying planes aren't a thing - commercial air traffic is up above the level where clouds occur. But those periodic low-flying aircraft that just happen to leave a cloud behind them in a criss-cross pattern somehow still show up in those places. I think rather than just blanketly calling it a conspiracy theory, it's worth asking the question "what if someone was trying to alter the weather?" There's been outright discussion of it by Bill Gates and others, so I'm not sure it's as crazy an idea as it sounded like thirty years ago.
That being said - I agree with you, I'm not voting based on comments like that, but instead on policy. And I know Nenshi's policy in Calgary was horrible so I'd expect nothing more from him on the provincial stage.
I’m an airline pilot and a lot of us cut our teeth flying around spreading chemtrails. Got to get your hours somehow.
roflmao!!!!!!
The people calling them out for having nutty ideas overlook their own nutty ideas.
The grand policies that worked a decade ago are starting to fail. BC does not contribute very much to climate change, although everyone swears it is real. The example of site C illustrates shows that it can be costly however. Eby on the other hand gets about $1,000 per capita of population from gas production so LNG approvals have been straight forward. Everyone smeared any candidate in the last federal election that supported immigration limits as racist but the correlation of high immigration rates to housing problems is becoming clear. Similarly safe consumption of drugs is running out its popularity.
No matter how many press clips you air, personal experience trumps them. If you look at your electricity bills, you can't find accomodation or there are drug dealers in your park it does not matter.
People are allowed to say dumb things on Twitter. I thought it weird for this article to rehash so many dumb tweets of just one party. I’m sure we could all scour Twitter for dumb things Eby’s team has said on Twitter, but I’m personally more concerned about the damage they’ve caused in real life. I didn’t have an opinion of Eby the person before the campaign, but he’s done himself no favours in the last few weeks. I’d like to see him gone.
Rustad (and Rob Shaw) are missing an opportunity to call out Eby on a serious charge of anti-Semitic racism with regards to how he dealt with the Jewish then-MLA Selina Robinson. Truly despicable. I won't write anymore about it because I will start swearing.
I will absolutely mention this if any NDPers come to my door canvassing.
Concur. Especially in light of this weekend’s Oct 7 terrorist mob protests where we got to watch and listen to such chants as “Death to Canada. Death to the United States. And Death to Israel” on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Appalling.
The tricky bit is that I know these mob marching people. They are actually BC NDP voter base. And I mean I LITERALLY know many of these people - they are primarily white, middle class, middle aged, serving on Local Boards & Union Councils. PAC Volunteers & Anti-Racism Advocacy Groups. They’re the ones hiding behind keffiyehs and chanting “Death to Canada” and “We are all Hamas and we are all Hezbollah”. I know them and I know how they vote and I’m aghast.
And it’s not only the NDP voter base. The rot of antisemitism is metastasized throughout the party of MLAs. It’s Nikki, and Janet, and Carole, and Jennifer. And it’s David Eby our Premier, who looked on with indifference as this cancer spread. He led our province to this.
https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/full-text-selina-robinson-resignation-letter-to-bc-ndp-caucus
I don’t think Eby is an antisemite but he acted in a most spineless and unprincipled cowardly way by not supporting then cabinet minister Selina Robinson. It was all about votes and there is a far higher number of Muslim votes here in BC than Jewish ones.
Quite the campaign had already started to oust the only Jewish member of his cabinet before she even made her unfortunate comment. A campaign largely started by Samidoun, banned as a terrorist organization in countries in Europe such as Germany.
I have been voting NDP especially provincially for years but I am so sickened by Eby’s caving to the mob that I can’t. It was the last straw for me after some disillusionment with Eby already. The Conservative candidate in my area is not a person I can vote for and they also have some dodgy policies.
This is an election that is not civil, not truthful and we deserve better than what is is.
This is amazing because it means cancel culture is dying a very public death in BC in many many ways and this day is long overdue. People know what is hurting them and they know that they need to care about actual policies and the "conspiracy theory" stuff - well, in a big enough group of people, no decisions are going to be made based on conspiracy theories.
Sometimes the words conspiracy theory are used to shut down conversation and debate - who knows whether some of the things we think of as conspiracy actually are or aren't. I mean - TV and governments across Canada promised the covid vaccine would stop transmission. I had read the actual trial study design documents - evaluating transmission was not considered in the actual study design. The vaccines were literally never evaluated for their ability to stop transmission and the test design didn't detect asymptomatic cases in the vaccinated as they only tested symptomatic individuals. This "vaccines stop transmission" was a blatant lie repeated over and over - and anyone who had read the trial designs and followed the release of data knew it. Just like it was known that the vaccines weren't creating the types of long term antibodies that are needed for lasting immunity (while recovering form infection already had published papers showing that the bone marrow manufactured cells that meant at least 2 to 5 years of natural immunity following recovery.)
So in short - I'm glad that it seems Rustad is currently covered in Teflon and the power of the NDP attack ads is dying a fiery death. And as for conspiracy theories? I don't really care as long as policies are being enacted in a thoughtful and evidence based way. Sometimes conspiracy theories aren't actually a theory. Sometimes the word is applied to try and stop conversations. (Though hopefully Rustad learns a lesson and decides to do a bit more research before making some of those rather silly comments again. The covid vaccine causing AIDS is among the more stupid comments out there IMO, but I think the prolonged lockdowns and ostracization that governments engaged in did push reasonable and rational people to engage deeper in illogical ideas. In Europe people were "allowed" to have normal lives following recovering and weren't forced to take a vaccine to have basic rights. In Canada we couldn't fly or cross the border even if we had proof of antibodies. There are tens of thousands of Canadians who have experienced being treated like second class citizens now - and that is going to change people's willingness to engage with conspiracy theories. It definitely changed mine.)
Scientific studies are designed to analyze specific aspects of the subject in question, therefore criticizing a study design for not including a topic is not helpful. The original COVID vaccine had an immediate purpose of preventing/lowering infections to prevent hospitalization/deaths rather than transmission (for which masks and distancing were mandated.) Further studies of COVID and vaccination were better targeted at transmissibility.
About conspiracy theories, I highly recommend a serious scientifically-minded book that covers both the real (eg. MK Ultra, Watergate) to the far-out (eg. flat Earth, chemtrails). It is Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational by Michael Shermer
Socialism simply never delivers what it promises. People will eventually come to realize it and, in a free, democratic country, reject it at the elections.
BC seems like a microcosm of the problems facing Canada. There are no leaders with a vision, no plans to deal with the increasing numbers of serious issues that needs to be addressed, and no one willing to admit that we're trying to do more than we can afford.
Hear hear! It does seem that an electorate which is unwilling or unable to critically examine the outcomes from policy proposals (and I say this applying the same standard to all three parties) will get the government it deserves.
Also, Rustad’s kids eating bugs comment was not entirely off the mark. We do have edible bug factories, their product is used in animal feed I think but in Europe it’s used in human products in a few countries and I believe it’s a sustainable growth goal for one of those UN agendas.
This kind of comment about bugs cannot and should not taken at face value. Everyone knows it's hyperbole, aka making an exaggerated claim from a kernel of truth.
Do we need to remind people that politicians use hyperbole ALL THE TIME to make a point?
Whether hyperbole is an acceptable form of political speech is another matter. We can decide if we should accept it or not as a society.
Find me a politician who's not used hyperbole before!
I’m disappointed, Rob Shaw. After singing your praises on your fair and unbiased reporting in general and in your last “The Line” piece, this piece started off with a comparison of Rustad to the villain in a horror movie, and proceeded to cite all manner of negative NDP allegations made toward and about Rustad. Eby, on the other hand, really seemed to escape much negativity from you at all - general or specific. Rustad isn’t my favourite person, but he isn’t the villain being portrayed by the NDP and, by virtue of the numerous quotes and allegations used in this article, by you. Eby’s fast and loose blowing of the surplus and taking us into a big deficit and credit downgrade, destroyed health care, housing, a huge drug addict and homelessness situation, is not something to tout; hence, he attacks the character of his opponent. What sort of “character” gets us in the mess we’re in and is so smug and arrogant he’s nearly a Trudeau clone by pretending he can now magically fix what he and his government broke - as though some other party has been in charge with a majority for the past 7 years. The answer is the “character” of Eby. In my time in this province, the Liberals have been bad, and the NDP worse. I’ll try B.C. Conservatives this time, thanks - foolish comments, comments out of context, and bonehead comments included.
Eby's comments on gun owners alone is enough to make me not vote for him. But there's also crime, healthcare, fiscal mismanagement, drug policies, and antisemitism.
Free speech means the freedom to spew lies and other bullshit. We either have or or we don't. There is no middle ground.
The wokesters at the provincials and feredal levels would LOVE to not have it. It's too inconvenient for them as it exposes their own lies, ironically, thanks to free speech.
Scott Adams says that any form of government cannot survive true free speech. The more I look around, the more I believe that to be true.
Not Democratic Party , and the Greens with their fanaticism ruining everything. Time after time after time. Everywhere. So why are you surprised.
The problem I've got with this election is that all of the options are pretty unappealing. The NDP has done its usual NDP thing of gradually abandoning efforts at moderate governance in favor of increasingly ideological policies, and meanwhile the left wing policies they initiated at the start of their time in power are manifesting their predictable and predicted negative effects (insisting on setting wage levels on all public infrastructure projects at a floor of union rates will drive up costs and blow budgets? Who could've seen that coming?!!) David Eby's apparently an unprincipled opportunist, so it's completely plausible that he'd radically shift approach to retain power. However, as an unprincipled opportunist, why would I trust him to commit to that approach if re-elected?
John Rustad and the Conservatives keep saying stupid things and pitching stupid policies that often rival the shortcomings of the NDP and make me question whether they've got the judgement to be trusted in government. Rustad's proposal to deal with a housing crisis in BC is to provide a tax credit on rent and mortgage payments. Not only would this be an expensive commitment in an overstrained budget, but it's a guaranteed way to simply increase demand in a supply-constrained market. A fine way to spend a lot of money AND make housing affordability WORSE! I'm not particularly thrilled at the prospect of trading left wing incompetence for right wing incompetence.
The BC Greens? They're hopeless, electorally and in terms of anything resembling a realistic policy.
Right now, I'm looking for reasons to vote for one of these parties and it's like they're both encouraging me to just spoil my ballot or write in "Ryan Reynolds."
Voting is easier when you don’t believe campaign promises. Weird how Eby’s playing the attack game, though. An incumbent who can’t run on his own record is not worth reelecting imo
If I'm supposed to discount or ignore promises and policies made by the leaders and parties during the campaign, what am I supposed to base my vote on? Tribal loyalty? Thanks, but no thanks.
Which Eby is the real one? The one whose policies have ruined healthcare and public safety? Or the one who’s flip flopped and is adopting Rustad’s policies? This is an election for Eby or no Eby. I’m voting for no Eby. He’s turned out to be a nasty person.
Indeed!
They indicate basic direction. Rustad doesn’t know how bad our finances might be, so I fully expect him to adjust accordingly. Eby absolutely knows how bad things are, which is why he’s campaigning negatively. Also, I see the policy failures first-hand in my city. That tells me everything I need to know!
Which provincial government is that?
Not this one, for sure!
Sad. The only provincial government actually doing something on the housing file is losing.
Yeah, if I was living in BC I'd vote for the Greens just to keep either side from having majority power.
Have you read their policy statements. Absolute mess with super high costs at a time that after the NDP/Eby government, we just can't do. Rustad all the way for me.
Your statement is underinformed: they have indicated how they'll cut costs elsewhere. Did you honestly even try?
Here, I'll spare you the effort: https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/features/2024/british-columbia-party-platforms/#intro