Canadian Politics

[kelownabomberfan]

4 minutes ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

Excuse me if I don't put much stock in your justification for ideological hatred.   This is the phenomenon that is destroying political discourse in the US.

How did I know that this would be your response.  Look, you can blame NDP losing on "ideological hatred" and put your head in the sand, if that makes you feel better, or you can go out in the world and find out why the NDP isn't very popular.  Taxing and spending is not a popular method to stay elected.  At some point you have to pay the piper.  But the real scary part of the NDP isn't even the taxing or the spending, it's this new environmentalist faction that is just killing you guys.

[iso_55]

31 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

I think if Notley is interested in political survival, she should drop the NDP moniker and do a center-left alliance with the Alberta Liberal Party of some kind.  I realize that this is easier than it sounds, but I'm not the only one saying this.  After watching Notley getting booed by members of her own party at the convention two weeks ago when she started talking about building more pipelines, I realized that the NDP is really struggling with its identity right now.  The old guard of labour unions and trades is still there, but they are being under-mined by a young, more militant faction of environmentalists, who don't seem to care about jobs or the economy.

Case in point - I tuned in on CPAC to the convention and watched Daniel Blaikie make an impassioned plea for union jobs in the Aerospace sector in Winnipeg.  He came across as passionate and legitimately concerned about Winnipeg aerospace workers.  He wanted the NDP to adopt a policy to protect workers from some unfair legislation.  He seemed to be making great head-way, until another delegate from Quebec, some young woman, stood up and implored the party to vote down the resolution that Blaikie was asking for, because these workers worked on airplanes, and airplanes use "fossil fuel".  So there you go, if you are in an industry that uses "fossil fuel", there are people in the NDP who honestly believe that you shouldn't be working in it.   This faction, lead by Steve Lewis and his brain-damaged son Avi (along with Avi's wife Naomi Klein) are growing stronger every day, and continue to push the Leap Manifesto.  That means that Notley is screwed.  Her own party hates her province and wants all oil industry jobs killed, as well as all future pipeline projects.  If she truly wants to stand up for Albertans, she has to walk away from her own schizophrenic party and fight the good fight via a different party that still believes in jobs and the economy, not insane fairy land concepts that the NDP Leapers want to see.

I saw the same thing when I watched the convention on CPAC. The NDP is full of left wing enviromaniacs. Notley will never break away. She has one foot in the grave now. The other will come in 3 years.

[Fatty Liver]

5 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

How did I know that this would be your response.  Look, you can blame NDP losing on "ideological hatred" and put your head in the sand, if that makes you feel better, or you can go out in the world and find out why the NDP isn't very popular.  Taxing and spending is not a popular method to stay elected.  At some point you have to pay the piper.  But the real scary part of the NDP isn't even the taxing or the spending, it's this new environmentalist faction that is just killing you guys.

I was not commenting on the NDP situation in MB., I understand why they lost, they earned defeat through a record of bad governance established over time.   Re-read the thread.  I was referring specifically to Rachel Notley's situation in  AB, and that no matter what she does from day one, she has virtually no chance of winning the next election. 

[kelownabomberfan]

47 minutes ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

 

Politically correct answer: Well those are really the results of the feds handling reserves.

Politically incorrect answer: Well those are really the results of having reserves.

Well said.

[kelownabomberfan]

15 minutes ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

I was not commenting on the NDP situation in MB., I understand why they lost, they earned defeat through a record of bad governance established over time.   Re-read the thread.  I was referring specifically to Rachel Notley's situation in  AB, and that no matter what she does from day one, she has virtually no chance of winning the next election. 

I can agree with this, though as I said she may want to distance herself from the NDP, which may help her.  I do think though that if she governed more for the center and could show some real results she has a chance to look like a hero to the people of Alberta.  Campaigning for more pipelines help.  It's too bad she gave in on that carbon tax garbage, that will probably bite her.

[johnzo]

Recreational dope will be decriminalized and regulated nationwide in about a year, following up on a Liberal campaign promise.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/20/canada-legislation-decriminalize-recreational-cannabis-weed-marijuana

Announced by the feds on 4/20.  Well played, Mr. Trudeau.

[Brandon Blue&Gold]

11 hours ago, Jacquie said:

How exactly are the PCs going to address all that and still tighten the belt?

 

Some of those things are a bit misleading as well.

The wait times info the PCs referenced is specifically about ER wait times, not all medical wait times. They were also using information from a survey of about 160 hospitals - some provinces/territories weren't included. Also, as has already been discussed, if people would stop going to ERs for non-emergencies the wait times would be a lot lower. 

That is too many kids in care. The problem is the numbers don't tell us whether the kids are better off in care or with their parent(s). It really is a damned if you do, damned if you don't thing when it comes to kids in care (that's true regardless of what political party is in power).

Child poverty is not just a provincial responsibility. The feds have a lot to do with it too (ie the rampant poverty on too many reserves). All levels of government (regardless of political ideology) need to do more. Having guaranteed income levels would do a lot to reduce the numbers since the children of working poor families make up a big percentage of kids living in poverty. 

Standardized testing is a political tool and not a true indication of what is going on in schools.

I think you will find that the lack of care home beds is pretty much a Canada-wide issue. I seem to recall our Alberta posters commenting on the PCs there totally ignoring the need. 

What type of medical services are you referring to? That is such a broad statement.

He could be referring to a lack of doctors, nurses and services in general outside Winnipeg.  Specifically rural areas.  I'm in Westman and my brother in law is a nurse in a small town in Westman.  They are down to one doctor in their hospital (who is leaving shortly) and have two doctors hired but don't start until late 2016.  There are also numerous towns in just my area alone that have lost ER services and don't even have doctors for their town hospitals leading to partial shutdowns of those facilities.  People now have to come to Brandon for all their medical needs (including emergencies)  which can mean a drive of several hours for some people.  Hell even I had to have my tonsil surgery done in Portage la Prairie and my wisdom teeth extracted in Winnipeg since Brandon couldn't fit me in.  My dad had to wait 3 years for hernia surgery here in Brandon so even Brandon has issues.  At least I was able to get my wrist surgery done here so it's not all bad I guess, although my doctor was looking like he's pushing 70 years old lol.

This isn't a new problem of course and it doesn't mean the PCs will do anything to solve it.  But the NDP had 16 years to make improvements and I've seen nothing done out here. 

[rebusrankin]

The above post was what I was referring too. It was mentioned several times in the campaign.

[IC Khari]

Sixteen or is it seventeen (99?) years is too long for any government to be in power IMO. Common sense dictates change has to occur once in awhile to give someone else a chance to clean up messes or try something different when the inevitable staleness sets in, and see if it works. There's a reason the US system has term in their governing model. I think it's time to do that here. Not saying someone can't do a good job after this long, but more than likely there is a danger of some of the issues we've seen with the recently defeated government taking place with more frequency. 

Edited April 21, 2016 by IC Khari

[IC Khari]

... Also thought I'd add that there are kids who are graduating high school and could themselves vote very soon who have known nothing in their entire life here in Manitoba but an NDP government in leadership. I dunno something about that just doesn't say democracy to me, change is good. Third world nations controlled by dictatorships last that long, not Western democratic jurisdictions. Just my opinion ...

Edited April 21, 2016 by IC Khari

[Dragon37]

Neither the PCs nor the NDP deserve to govern. Pallister was intentionally short on details because he knows that he couldn't promise what he did and get away with it because you can't. They promised cuts and income losing things and nothing that would actually bring in money. 

What I suspect will happen, like it happened under the conservatives federally, they will cut a ton of the lower wage jobs and leave the executive nice and fat. They will also create a pile more high paying government positions or cabinet positions. 

Of course they will privatize or contract out a bunch of stuff that will fatten wallets and take more money out of the hands of government. 

No doubt we would have been no better off with the NDP. 

It was a lose, lose night. I should have declined my vote.

[Fatty Liver]

24 minutes ago, IC Khari said:

... Also thought I'd add that there are kids who are graduating high school and could themselves vote very soon who have known nothing in their entire life here in Manitoba but an NDP government in leadership. I dunno something about that just doesn't say democracy to me, change is good. Third world nations controlled by dictatorships last that long, not Western democratic jurisdictions. Just my opinion ...

To put it in perspective, the PC reign lasted 43 years in AB.

[Mark H.]

About the ongoing BCTF discussion: the reason the teacher's union got control over class size and composition is because they gave up salary increases to get it. Methinks they'll just take the money going forward. 

[The Unknown Poster]

3 hours ago, Dragon37 said:

Neither the PCs nor the NDP deserve to govern. Pallister was intentionally short on details because he knows that he couldn't promise what he did and get away with it because you can't. They promised cuts and income losing things and nothing that would actually bring in money. 

What I suspect will happen, like it happened under the conservatives federally, they will cut a ton of the lower wage jobs and leave the executive nice and fat. They will also create a pile more high paying government positions or cabinet positions. 

Of course they will privatize or contract out a bunch of stuff that will fatten wallets and take more money out of the hands of government. 

No doubt we would have been no better off with the NDP. 

It was a lose, lose night. I should have declined my vote.

Well unfortunately someone has to govern.  And it was either the party that wrecked Manitoba over a 16 year reign or the party that hasn't been in power.  I can't say PC's don't deserve a shot.  The election  was yesterday.  Give them a term or two and see what happens.

[iso_55]

3 hours ago, IC Khari said:

... Also thought I'd add that there are kids who are graduating high school and could themselves vote very soon who have known nothing in their entire life here in Manitoba but an NDP government in leadership. I dunno something about that just doesn't say democracy to me, change is good. Third world nations controlled by dictatorships last that long, not Western democratic jurisdictions. Just my opinion ...

You should live in Alberta. Forty years of Social Credit & 44 years of PC government before the NDP.

[Jacquie]

6 hours ago, IC Khari said:

... Also thought I'd add that there are kids who are graduating high school and could themselves vote very soon who have known nothing in their entire life here in Manitoba but an NDP government in leadership. I dunno something about that just doesn't say democracy to me, change is good. Third world nations controlled by dictatorships last that long, not Western democratic jurisdictions. Just my opinion ...

And there were kids who graduated high school knowing nothing for most of their lives but an PC government in leadership when Filmon was in. 

Out of curiosity, did you vote against the PCs after their third term with Filmon?

[Jacquie]

2 hours ago, iso_55 said:

You should live in Alberta. Forty years of Social Credit & 44 years of PC government before the NDP.

Even worse than the length each were in power was how much of it was spent with virtually no opposition. 

When I lived in Calgary back in the 1980s there was a candidate who died a little before the campaign started and he still won. After one election the PCs had to appoint members of their own caucus to act as the opposition. It was beyond stupid.

[IC Khari]

3 hours ago, Jacquie said:

And there were kids who graduated high school knowing nothing for most of their lives but an PC government in leadership when Filmon was in. 

Out of curiosity, did you vote against the PCs after their third term with Filmon?

Yep, I did. I also just voted the same party I voted for in 99 out. It's called democracy. 

[sweep the leg]

10 hours ago, Dragon37 said:

 

What I suspect will happen, like it happened under the conservatives federally, they will cut a ton of the lower wage jobs and leave the executive nice and fat. They will also create a pile more high paying government positions or cabinet positions. 

 

They're cutting cabinet positions. My wife works for the province under Children and Youth Opportunities. She's keeping her job, but it's being moved and that department is disappearing. Not officially, but it's about a 99% certainty.

[bigg jay]

4 minutes ago, sweep the leg said:

They're cutting cabinet positions. My wife works for the province under Children and Youth Opportunities. She's keeping her job, but it's being moved and that department is disappearing. Not officially, but it's about a 99% certainty.

Yep, my wife's department is being merged with another one as well.  The names of some departments will be changing as well (like shortening Tourism, Culture, Heritage, Sport and Consumer Protection into something not so ridiculously long!)

[GCn20]

Lots of misinformation about the Manitoba Civil Service and CFS problems in this thread. The jist of it is correct on many points but let me clarify some details. My wife is a front line civil servant and is an incredibly overworked and underpaid person.

The no-layoff clause is not extended to every civil servant under the master agreement. Besides the components that did not negotiate a no layoff clause those components that did still have many employees not covered by the clause. The clause only extends to those hired before a certain time (about 3 years ago). All others do not have the layoff clause.

When the NDP took over power, they started forming a network of incredible bureaucracy designed to establish the need for more management. In 1999 there was one manager for every 11 frontline workers on average. In 2016 there is 1 for every 5. Amounts of paperwork, and redundancy in reporting systems led to front line service working at an incredibly reduced efficiency rate solely due to unnecessary bureaucracy. All in the name of unnecessary management creating the necessity of their positions. It began a spiral effect that took front line workers away from dealing with the public to dealing with management instead.

Early in their tenure as government, the NDP introduced very strict guidelines that would affect CFS to this day. Instead of working with the parents of children at risk, children were seized at an astronomical rate. We are all aware of the children in care numbers. To deal with this....you guessed it...more bureaucracy and management, less front line time spent on the actual clients of CFS.

In around 2011, after taking a beating by the press and opposition about the size of the civil service, the NDP made the wise decision to put an unofficial hiring freeze in effect on non-essential positions to allow for the aging civil service to get retirement of civil servants to create a smaller civil service. Unfortunately, most of this protraction came at the expense of the front line workers. You see....management decides what's essential and non essential to their departments and in true NDP fashion replacing front line workers took a back seat to replacing management. This is when government records will show that the size of management truly started to spiral out of control in comparison with front line workers.

This created a double edged sword. Managers needed to justify their jobs with less staff and they created more bureaucracy to do so. An already stretched thin front line service was asked to answer the bell of the increased bureaucracy and take on a huge workload to keep front line services working. When there is only so much time in the day to get the work done and not enough to get it done what happens? You guessed it....overtime. Let's pay them double but burn them out. Therefore, as most NDP supporters will proudly point out....the civil service hasn't actually increased in number in the past several years. What they won't tell you is that overtime costs in the civil service have expanded by nearly 400% over that time frame. Why? Because instead of doing some strategic hiring of casual employees in times of need, the NDP thought this would look bad on them politically and more importantly the MGEU does not get their money from casual hires.

I can guarantee that not only will Pallister open up the books and find massive redundancy and an overstock of management, but he will find tremendous and needless spending on overtime. Some smart management of the civil service and he easily find the tens of millions of dollars necessary to help us reduce our staggering debt....AND he is able to do so without even laying off one front line worker while dramatically improving the civil service efficiency and thus overall effectiveness. This is where the fat will be cut. Hey dippers...other than ideologically....where is the boogeyman in that?

I would imagine the MGEU will be squealing like a pig as management is protracted vs. the front line and therefore the NDP will be squealing about it. However, to the rest of Manitobans and the civil servants working the front line it will be relief that has been a long time coming.

If the NDP ever want to show they are a party of the people they need to cut ties with the unions. Their management of our province would become infinitely better.

Edited April 21, 2016 by gcn11

[The Unknown Poster]

CFS has had a poor history dating back way before the NDP though.  I know there are wonderful CFS workers. But there are many terrible ones too and the power they wield can be very painful.

On the other issue, I work for a company that replaced their CEO and undertook a massive audit like the one you described above.  And it was the management level that was targeted and a huge amount of money spent on buy out packages to reduce the management work force.  Many departments were merged or remaining managers given larger departments.  The upper executive was streamlined and an entire layer eliminated (the President position). 

I imagine the PC's will do this.  Im curious if it will be business as usual within the context of auditing and finding savings of if there will be investigation into potential unscrupulous behavior...

[GCn20]

1 minute ago, The Unknown Poster said:

CFS has had a poor history dating back way before the NDP though.  I know there are wonderful CFS workers. But there are many terrible ones too and the power they wield can be very painful.

On the other issue, I work for a company that replaced their CEO and undertook a massive audit like the one you described above.  And it was the management level that was targeted and a huge amount of money spent on buy out packages to reduce the management work force.  Many departments were merged or remaining managers given larger departments.  The upper executive was streamlined and an entire layer eliminated (the President position). 

I imagine the PC's will do this.  Im curious if it will be business as usual within the context of auditing and finding savings of if there will be investigation into potential unscrupulous behavior...

I am fairly sure that it will start with a audit and savings venture and end in investigation.

[kelownabomberfan]

13 minutes ago, gcn11 said:

 

When the NDP took over power, they started forming a network of incredible bureaucracy designed to establish the need for more management. In 1999 there was one manager for every 11 frontline workers on average. In 2016 there is 1 for every 5. Amounts of paperwork, and redundancy in reporting systems led to front line service working at an incredibly reduced efficiency rate solely due to unnecessary bureaucracy. All in the name of unnecessary management creating the necessity of their positions. It began a spiral effect that took front line workers away from dealing with the public to dealing with management instead.

 

From what I hear, this is what is going on in Alberta right now.

[GCn20]

2 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

From what I hear, this is what is going on in Alberta right now.

Its the NDP way. Big government and big government control. Cow tow to CUPE and all it's affiliates. Pallister was not joking when he said CUPE controlled our province under the NDP. They really did.

Edited April 21, 2016 by gcn11