kelownabomberfan

Maybe Carolina will take Ladd back.

Seems my post on this has disappeared, for some reason. Anyway, I don't agree with your last sentence and never will.

Good question. I would ask my parents that. I know my nephew is enjoying his school right now save for one teacher who he claims is terrible. I know he may just have it in for the guy but when the teacher got sick and a sub was called in, the class immediately improved for those two weeks that the "bad" teacher was away, and my nephew said he learned more in those two weeks than in six months with the "bad" one. Apparently everyone knows this guy is a "bad" egg (according to my mom, who of course is actively involved in her grandkids education) but no one can do anything about him, as he has cleverly inserted himself inside the MTS apparatus, so is basically bullet-proof. I know Mark may say this isn't true, but I am just going off of what my mom, a retired teacher and former MTS member (not by choice) is telling me. Perhaps now with the Conservatives taking over the MTS's power may be curtailed a bit. I know the BCTF was ruling the roost here in BC under the NDP, who even gave the BCTF the power to discipline their own members. Guess how many were disciplined when a union was in charge of the discipline? Not many. Talk about a massive conflict of interest. Just ridiculous.

Both my parents were teachers, so I know from personal experience that its not an easy job. But that being said, there are a lot of teachers who give that extra effort, and some lazy ones who don't. What I don't like in the unionized model (and my parents didn't like it either) was that those lazy teachers are pretty impossible to dislodge. My mom always said one of the harder parts of the job was the parents, not the kids, as the parents can be total jerks sometimes. Mark - I think we' ve gone back and forth enough on this topic regarding the BCTF. I do throw up in my mouth a bit when you use verbiage like "BC has the fourth lowest paid teachers in Canada". That's just propaganda. If a lawyer is the fourth lowest paid lawyer in his firm, and still takes home $200K a year, vs another lawyer who makes $250K, that $200K lawyer is hard to feel sorry for. Canada as a whole has some of the highest paid teachers in the world. And I think that's awesome. It's a tough profession, and deserves to be rewarded. I also think that if BC is so bad off salary-wise for teachers, you would wonder why there are thousands of unemployed teachers here in BC right now. Teaching pays well, and so it's hard for me to feel sorry for anyone who says that its not enough. And inherent in your argument is the flawed assumption that if the BCTF hadn't been given the right to decide class size and composition, they would have received huge raises. I don't think the BCTF would have gotten those huge raises. But that's also assuming that the BCTF would be negotiating with a government that wasn't in a giant conflict of interest, and in the pocket of the unions. So it is hard to say what they would have gotten. In a perfect world, our government isn't in the pocket of any special interests, but I know that will never happen.

It can't be "It was a very good year" either.

and Trudeau said "don't you guys know that SMS's balance themselves!?"

No thanks. Enstrom for Eberle - done and done. And I mean done.

Mike Duffy should have taken over.

and Sportsnet is running ads with Frank Sinatra songs as background for the televised event. Yeesh.

I was thinking Joey Bishop myself.

Looks like if he doesn't make it as a football player he can always be a pet detective.

Greg Selinger was heard saying "how did they do that?"

one thing is for sure, this show will have the highest ratings of anything hockey related broadcast on TV during the 2016 playoff season.

and Glenn Frey.

woah woah woah....next you are going to tell me that Prince is dead...

Who's that little guy wearing number 7? Did O'Shea or Lapo bring one of his kids in to catch targets for the QB's?

I agree. I was scratching my head at the comparison myself, as its not really comparing apples to apples, and just smells of desperation. And as we all know:

There was no way for BC to keep up with Alberta's spending binge on their public service and we are so happy here in BC that our government was smart enough not to get sucked into that game. When the BCTF made the foolish decision to go on strike here last year (the only union that went on strike, every one else settled) the teachers were holding up signs saying "Alberta teachers make 20% more" to which they were greeted continuously with "then move there if its so much better". Seriously, why only compare BC wages to Alberta wages for teachers? What about BC compared to Quebec? Or Manitoba? Or better yet - don't compare at all, and just accept your extremely generous salary, benefits and pension plan, and don't complain. That's what taxpayers really want, in exchange for the cash that we pay into the education budget. Just do your job, and educate our kids. There is no salary increase that could match the huge largesse that the NDP gave to the BCTF in 1998. Giving unions the ability to decide how many teachers should be hired is the very definition of a conflict of interest. The NDP deliberately abused the trust of taxpayers by offering it, and the BCTF showed they have no integrity by accepting it. Which is one of the many reasons I don't trust the NDP, and I will never trust government unions.

what other parties do you want to give a pass? For what time periods? Just curious. You see bent on defending everyone else and trashing the PC's, so I am curious where you think people are being unfair here to your parties.

I know exactly how I arrive at my conclusions. It's actually incredibly simple, yet you are bringing in completely irrelevant commentary. Who cares what BC teachers are paid now, my point was about the horrible back-room deal the NDP did in 1998 with the BCTF. As for the BCTF being hated, you just have to do some googling. It's also extremely easy to figure that out. They are just so horribly selfish. If you want to take this to PM I can give you more evidence. http://www.langleytimes.com/news/267094281.html

one of Harper's biggest mistakes was cutting the GST. If he hadn't done that, the deficits would have been a lot lower. Meanwhile, the NDP in Manitoba raised their sales tax and still ran massive deficits. That's the difference, the NDP just spend and spend and spend, because they are beholden to their union masters.

New dumbs....

I saw that. Most of those people won't see their cars until 2019. If the Republicans get in power and cut the huge river of government cash that Tesla needs to survive, will those cars ever see the road? Does Tesla even break even on those models without huge government subsidies? What happens when those cars reach end of life, who bears the huge cost of recycling? I think I already know the answer to that question.

I only travel around 12 KM per day round trip. My current vehicle (gas) is 12 years old and has only 112,000 KM on it. I would switch to electric if they made a good SUV that had decent range, and the price wasn't so high. A few people in Kelowna, mostly the high-tech millionaires, drive Teslas, but they are more like status symbols than anything else - look at me, I won the lottery with my start-up and now I can drive around in a $100,000 electric car, because I care so much about the environment. I am seeing a few charging stations going up around town, including up at Mission Hill winery, but I have yet to see one car ever using them, anywhere.

I googled him and you are right, he's a Liberal. So therefore the media must ignore him.