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As most of you know, Ben Stewart, the BC Liberal candidate who recently won the riding of Westside-Kelowna by several thousand votes has stepped down so that Premier Christy Clark could have a safe Liberal riding to run in a by-election.

Adrian Dix

After that news broke Adrian Dix issued the following statement;

“We are looking forward to running a strong campaign with an Okanagan candidate against the Premier in Westside-Kelowna…I will put every effort into supporting our candidate and making the case for strong, local representation in this by-election.”

Yes, the fact is Premier Christy Clark is parachuting into the riding of Westside-Kelowna and yes, it is a long way from where she lives. It is also true that Clark will not really be an effective MLA for the riding of Westside-Kelowna because she will be more focused on being the Premier of BC than she will be on representing the riding in which she is sure to get elected.

However, there is NO upside for the BC NDP to run a “strong campaign” in the by-election. What is the purpose in the BC NDP spending thousands of dollars on a by-election in which they are guaranteed to have their collective asses handed back to them? What is the win?

Yesterday the federal government announced new policy on Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs).

Just what is the record of Christy Clark and the BC Liberals on this important issue?

On Friday, Christy Clark tried to brush off criticisms regarding the BC Liberals’ failures on temporary foreign workers in the province.

CLARK SAYS: “People have to have confidence that the temporary foreign worker program is not allowing foreign workers to displace BC workers.” (CKNW, April 22)

REALITY CHECK: Despite being told five years ago by a mining task force that a training program was needed for underground mining, no action was taken. In 2011, the number of permits issued under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program in BC was 46,378, a 66 per cent increase from 2005. British Columbia has 24.3 per cent of Canada’s TFWs but 13 per cent of Canada’s population.

CLARK SAYS: “it is a federal program. I mean, they decide how they let in temporary foreign workers, those applications are made to the federal government, and they adjudicate that…” 

REALITY CHECK: Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said that although under the Constitution, BC shares jurisdiction with Canada on immigration to the province, BC does not participate in foreign worker selection in cooperation with Ottawa as other provinces such as Quebec does.

• “The Premier … misspoke herself when she implied or alluded to the constitutional fact that British Columbia is impotent when it comes to foreign worker selection. That is patently false… [BC has] abdicated responsibility to the federal level…” (Richard Kurland, CKNW, April 22)

In their 2013 budget, the BC Liberals cut skills training by $15 million next year.

The BC NDP will take practical steps to improve opportunities for British Columbians by investing $80 million in skills training over the next three years. That’s change for the better.

From our frequent contributor, William Perry of Victoria comes the following missive.

As anside, if you are interested in contributing a guest post to The Left Coast, send us an email. You can find our email addie under the “About” heading on our homepage. We will consider any and all submissions. Of course “consider” does not necessarily mean post.

From William Perry;

The latest Conservative plan is to invest many billions in building new prisons with the objective to deter violent criminals and cope with what Day claims is a rise in unreported crimes. 

This approach has not worked in the United States and I believe it is the wrong direction to take. 

As a former cop, I see reforming the criminal justice system makes more sense, because the government initiatives have not worked and they continue to receive funding not because of their success, but rather because of their failure. Each imprisoned generation, under our system of priorities, begets an even larger imprisoned generation. The problem is not that there aren’t enough people in prison. It is that there are far too many people in prison. 

Common sense would lead to the expansion of parole services, not a ban on parole. But Tories are more interested in getting votes by sounding tough than actually solving problems. 

We don’t need more prisons, longer sentences, three strikes laws and bans on parole. We need funding for schools, jobs and rehabilitation for those re-entering society. And by funding, I mean real funding, not funding at the current rates, which has led to non-functional schools, declining wages and failed rehabilitation. Safety in our communities can only result from a focus on real services to communities, something we have not seen in many years. 

Not a single Conservative plan reflects any imaginative thinking that is likely to actually increase our safety. Throw-away-the-key laws and a 100-1 ratio of funding on prisons vs. people will not lead to safety, but to more parents in prison, more community destruction, more crime and more incarceration.

Let’s build schools, not prisons. 

William Perry

Victoria, BC”…

Late this afternoon I received an email news alert from the CBC that said the federal Liberals and the NDP insiders are actually talking about a merger of some sorts. Apparently senior insiders with the federal Liberals and New Democrats have been holding secret talks about merging their parties to form a new entity to take on the Harper Conservatives.

It is funny or amusing to hear this news. The centre-left politicos are now talking about doing what the right-wing political parties of Canada (the Progressive Conservatives and the Reform Party…go ahead and correct me on the name of the Reform Party group) did just before they seized the reins of power with Harper holding the keys to 24 Sussex Drive.

Just for the record, I want it to be know that the names the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) or the Democratic Liberal Party (DLP) are my suggestions and I will not charge my usual name creation fee. I’m just saying.

Also, it might just be coincidence but it strikes me as odd that I am currently reading Warren Kinsella’s book, The War Room. Apparently Kinsella is involved in the merger talks.