Election BC 2009

Re: May 12th provincial election:

British Columbians in general – Vancouverites in particular - have one of those rare opportunities to effect the direction of their society. In a true Democracy Aristotle saw a need to: “remove gross economic injustices resulting from the blindness and greed of the ruling classes.” He left the fundamental message: “that the strength of the state has less to do with political machinery than with the moral sense of the society…”. Please, if you give it some thought, I believe you will see the pertinence to today’s British Columbia.
During the past few years under the Gordon Campbell autocracy a program of “social genocide” has been implemented (oligarchy at best as, realistically, there is no “team” with the current Liberal’ MLA structure). The “development” we have come to suffer under has whittled away at the social morality of BC. This “development” saw the destruction of “community” during the mid 80’s with Mr. Campbell as Mayor of Vancouver. Those same money/developer/supporter ties to him carried into the greater realm of provincial politics. Interior “communities” are crumbling as did the Vancouver ones 20 years earlier. The standard of living of thousands of middle-class, lower middle-class and poor citizens has steadily declined. The traditional mainstay resources have been sold to private and off-shore interests.
The price for “development” has fallen upon the common citizenry as a plague. The non-government mega-projects embarked upon have come at a great price. Environmentally, socially, economically – the burden has been carried by the many - the benefits have been to the few,. Locally, the Cambie street chaos and the False Creek “village” have and will continue to decimate the economies of present and future families and businesses – irreparably scarring the social flesh and the geography of our city. When the two week Olympic circus is over, the Canada Line, structurally unsound rinks and “compromise” construction projects will have proven to be nothing more than superfluous, underused and expensive monoliths. Such elite minority-beneficial projects – like the “circus” and “games” created by and for the egotistical Caesars of the Roman Empire – will be ugly reminders of a tyranny paid for by British Columbians.
The cuts to healthcare – the privatizing of hospital cleaning and dietary staff alone – have caused hundreds to die and thousands to suffer. True, the “budget balancing” was achieved – with the government successfully eliminating many of the biggest “users” of the system: the elderly and chronically ill – and with a bonus to Mr. Campbell’s supporters of driving living-wage middle-class workers into the ranks of the lower middle-class and the poor.
Examples of his abuse of the “public trough” can even be seen in the recent “raises” given to executives of government “corporations”. Mr. Campbell justified giving them out by noting that Ontario’s execs receive similar pay… but Mr. Campbell keeps silent on keeping the minimum wage on a par with Newfoundland!.
This note is just a small downplaying reminder of how things are – and you may be surprised to find out that I am not a 100% NDP supporter. But until STV electoral reform is passed I must select the NDP over the more thoughtful Green candidates. True, their leader is a disappointing variable, but the NDP will work as a “team” to overcome that – implementing a collective democratic rule. If you select an NDP candidate: accountable Riding representation will be put into effect again – as opposed to selecting a politically impotent Liberal candidate – a candidate destined, if elected, to be a submissive “yes” nod in the Gordon Campbell personal camp.

This note is authored exclusively by Bill Ritchie, a private citizen – and distributed as a reflective message during a rare window of opportunity – an opportunity for the citizens to exercise their right to have some semblance of input into who will rule over them with social-minded morality… or tyranny.
(392-2416 Main Street, Vancouver, BC V5T 3E2 – bill@wetwizardbooks.com)