BC Digital Divide Has New Computers to Donate

My volunteer non-profit organization, BC Digital Divide, came to a screeching halt a few months ago when we ran out of computers to donate and there was no sign of any new donations coming our way.

But yesterday we received a large donation of computers from a very generous software company. These computers aren't new, they're typically 3 - 5 years old, but they're all decent speed and are more than sufficient as starter systems.

So if you know anyone without a computer who would be hard pressed to purchase one on their own, then please do get them to apply for one from us.

What the NDP's Moratorium on Run-Of-River Power Projects Will Mean

One has to wonder if voters in the urban areas of BC realize what Carole James' moratorium on all power projects will mean to their fellow citizens in the province?

Is Political Correctness Now Firmly in Control of BC Politics?

First Ray Lam withdraws because the Liberals found some so-called "racy" photos on his Facebook page. I publicly stated on here and elsewhere that this was ridiculous for him to leave the race. Let the voters in his constituency decide if they want him as their MLA.

Then the NDP digs up something that Marc Dalton said 13 years ago. More to the point, nothing he said was hateful, he was just expressing his views of homosexuality at the time. Whether or not you or I agree with him is not the point. What is key is how many people in our province have so completely dismissed the concept of Free Speech. I can't decide whether to view them as more Pathetic or just Downright Scary.

Now there are cries for John van Dongen to withdraw because he has too many speeding tickets. It would be most interesting to look into the personal histories of those making such demands to see how incredibly perfect they are!

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And lest we forget, all the while this is going on, very little of substance is being discussed in the actual campaign. Is it any wonder why so many British Columbians have become incredibly cynical towards all politicians? Two words to leave you with: Go Canucks!

Good Synopsis of the BC Election Campaign

Listen to Bill Good, Vaughn Palmer, and Keith Baldrey discuss what has been happening with the BC Election Campaign by clicking here (at 7:30).

Pressing Election Question of the Day

Here's an e-mail I just sent to Jon McComb at CKNW:

Jon,

On your website right now is a poll question asking who won the debate.

In this New Age Kumbaya World that we now all co-habitate, is it really proper to keep score any more? In picking out winners & losers, might we not be damaging the psychological self-esteem of our political leaders?

And come to think of it, still calling them "leaders" really isn't appropriate either, is it? They're more like guides, showing us through the Forest of Life.

<>

Oh sorry, Jon, I don't know what got into me just a moment ago. I do recall walking past the Art Gallery on 4/20 and lingering there a bit longer than I should have. :-)

Looking forward to your show today!

Robert W.

BC Election: Leaders Debate

Watch it LIVE here

BC Election Facebook Group

CKNW has created a non-partisan Facebook group on which to discuss the upcoming BC Election. If you're a Facebook member, do check it out!

Outrageous Quote from a Senior NDP Advisor

On Bill Good's show on CKNW this morning Bill Tieleman said (paraphrasing), "Those businesses that are only paying the minimum wage and struggling to get by have no business staying in business."

If you've ever owned a business, you'll immediately realize how outrageous (and insulting) this is!

You can listen to the full discussion here.

A Sad Contrast

California: A drunk driver kills 3 people (including Angels pitcher, Nick Adenhart), and is facing up to 55 years in prison.

British Columbia: A gangster, Dennis Karbovanec, was convicted of murdering 3 people and is eligible for parole in 15 years.

Vaughn Palmer: New Blog

British Columbia has a new blogger and it's none other than the Vancouver Sun's, Vaughn Palmer. If you're interested in BC politics, do check it out!

NDP Election Propaganda

I was walking in front of VGH today and came across this "protest" rally. I put the "P" word in quotes because anyone who thinks that this was purely about the cause at hand is kiddin' themselves. This is pure NDP politics, pure & simple. The messages for the cameras was clear: These workers, mostly women, are being taken advantage of "by that horrible Gordon Campbell".


Will people fall it? As tens of thousands of people in the private sector are starting to lose their jobs because of the global recession, will people now start to feel sorry for public sector workers? I wonder.

The Repugnant Tip of the NDP Spear

British Columbia's election campaign seems to have gotten started in the minds of many. And from what I've seen already, some NDP supporters are determined to make it U-G-L-Y.

This morning, Kash Heed was interviewed on CKNW. After 30 years of being involved with policing, he has declared his candidacy for the provincial Liberal party. He's a very well spoken person and had some very interesting things to say.

Sure enough though, the call seems to have gone out to the thugs on the Radical Left. One fellow called up, had nothing particularly important to ask but simply wanted to insert the term "child eater" into the minds of the public. In case you're not aware, this is reference to a YouTube ad published a while back by COPE 378, a public sector union. It was a failed attempt at humour and a good nominee for Stupidest Election Ploy ever.

Yet this same union is not backing down. They're now running a series of other ads on 'NW that refers back to the original YouTube one. These people are so filled with H-A-T-E (I use the term accurately) that nothing will stop them from backing down. They remind me of that strange guy who is an univited friend of a friend at a party. He isn't funny, isn't polite, but simply resembles an obnoxious boor. Eventually he's asked to leave (by Carole James at some point, I'd assume) but then he even turns on her.

I was never in favour of the gag law and cite COPE 378 as a [not so] third party that needs to have their voice heard. Only then will the public understand how incredibly vile one key part of the NDP hierarchy truly is.

Alternative Health Care Approaches

On one of my favourite blogs, this discussion is raging about health care. Since Canada was cited so much, I decided to chime in with my 2 cents:

Like with all things, one's views on health care depends a lot on one's political views.

I, for one, have TONS of evidence of ENORMOUS problems with the Canadian health care system. Its very nature breeds inefficiency. Yet once one gets past the [often] long waits then the actual care by the nurses & doctors et al is supposed to be superb.

SOME PERSONAL STORIES ...

I pay $52 per month for health care here in British Columbia. If I didn't make sufficient income then this fee would be waived. I'm in good health so haven't had to use the medical system for years. But if I did get sick then I'd have to try to find a personal GP, which is exceedingly difficult these days. Another option would be to walk into a local clinic which operates with a pool of doctors in rotation. My third option would be to walk into the Emergency of any local hospital. In the latter two cases you're guaranteed a multi-hour wait (note: 4 - 10 hrs isn't unheard of) almost all the time. Even with a personal GP you usually still have to wait.

My mom's in the hospital right now. Thankfully there was a bed available for her. If there wasn't then she'd be on a waiting list for who knows how long.

A good friend of mine, John, had some major heart problems for years. When it got so severe he went to his GP simply to get an appointment for a heart specialist. Then he waited and waited and waited. His wife morbidly joked that only time would tell whether she would sit in on an appointment with the specialist or with a funeral director. Eventually John did get into the specialist after 8 months. By that point things were so serious that he was immediately scheduled for surgery. And all that wait was simply to get a pacemaker installed. He's now doing better.

The father of a close friend of mine has been suffering with different types of cancer for a few years. While waiting for surgery for his stomach cancer, he started getting blurry vision. Only at the insistence of his daughter screaming at the medical officials to give him an MRI was one done. It turned out he had a brain tumor. Thankfully space was available within a week to have an operation to remove it. All went well. But if there had been many others in line then he would have had to wait & wait & wait.


SOME INTERESTING FACTS ...

Because of the crazy rules preventing one from paying for private medical care here in Canada, it's actually easier to take one's dog in for an MRI than to get one for a human.

The powers at be refuse to share the costs of one's medical treatment with the patients. I've advocated for years that a bill should be presented to each patient, albeit with the costs waived. But the hospitals have no real cost controls per say so they don't actually know what it costs to treat each patient. Let's be clear: if costs are not closely monitored then inefficiencies and corruption are certain to result.

I have heard before, but don't have this confirmed, that there are more MRIs in the City of Philadelphia than in the entire country of Canada.


SUMMARY

Things are slowly changing for the positive here in Canada with more of a mixture of private and public health care. The fact is that competition improves things, no matter how much the public sector health care unions are in denial of this fact. In my province currently between 40 - 50% of all taxes go towards health care. This number keeps on increasing. The fear is that one day it will consume 70% or even 80% of the budget.

I have no specific advice for my American friends but the notion that health care is peachy keen here in Canada is a myth that only the likes of Michael Moore and other Obamunists will buy into.

Gorgeous Vancouver

By the early afternoon the cobwebs in my head were preventing me from thinking clearly. So Danny & I went on a bike ride around False Creek and downtown to Stanley Park. On days like this, I love living in this city!

Many of the photos shown herein were taken by him:

Seniors Being Evicted Blame Gov't

Hat tip to my friend, V, for directing me to this story. It's about 10 sets of seniors on Vancouver Island who have been living in a waterfront trailer park but will be evicted next year.

Some facts:

• None own the land that their mobile homes sit on.
• Each has been paying about $3,400 per year in rent, which works out to $283.33 per month.

Of course I have sympathy for each individual senior. But to try to paint the new land owners or the government as villains is beyond ridiculousness and unfair. I think most anyone in Canada would appreciate being able to live on waterfront property for less than $300 per month. But when did renting property give one the right to live there forever?

Furthermore, saving on rent for so long, what did these people do with all the money they were saving on rent? Was it invested wisely or spent otherwise? Are the tax dollars of those seniors who skimped on luxuries and vacations all of their lives supposed to bail out those who did not?

I realize that in asking these tough questions, I probably come across as an uncaring bastard. Not so. In my work with BCDD I've come across many seniors like this. For various reasons, they've spent most of their savings all their lives and are practically impoverished by the time they reached retirement. Some may have been swindled, some may have had other unfortunate incidents occur but one has to wonder if many just never thought ahead beyond the "fun years". Now that they're in the predicament they're in, to what degree is the government (which means you & me) supposed to bail them out?

Vancouver Sun: Two Biting Letters to the Editor

Click on this image to view the full-size image:


I especially was impressed with the letter from England. If what it takes to get our politicians to take action is person after person who believes in Free Speech to put their money where the beliefs are then I wholeheartedly support them. The key is to let both the media and the B.C. Attorney General know.

A Tale of Two Cities

The following was just submitted to the Vancouver Sun:

I was back home in Vancouver but one day when I was vividly (and sadly) reminded that my month long vacation in Honolulu was over. I'm not referring to the dramatic change in weather, but rather the drastic "climate" change on the streets.

First, let's look at an overview of the two cities:

Honolulu
Population: 377,000
Area: 272 sq. km

Vancouver
Population: 612,000
Area: 115 sq. km

Metro Honolulu
Population: 910,000
Area: 5,509 sq. km

Metro Vancouver
Population: 2,117,000
Area: 2,877 sq. km

One fact that's not well illustrated in these statistics is that there are over 4 Million tourists visiting Honolulu every year, most of them packed into the relatively small area of Waikiki (think English Bay to the Burrard Street Bridge, Davie to the waterfront). Such a large number of visitors can expose a community to major problems.

Both communities are plagued with homelessness and drug addiction. A friend of mine in Honolulu, a retired police captain, described just how rampant crystal meth addiction is there. So make no mistake, Honolulu has definite problems just like Vancouver does.

But there is one big difference, one critically important difference that my 76 year-old mother and I immediately noticed. There are no street people harassing tourists and locals alike! None. Zero. Nada. Returning home to Vancouver and walking along the so-called upscale South Granville area, I was brought back to the reality of having to weave my way through the gauntlet of sad looking souls asking if I could spare some change; 2 or 3 per block seems to be the norm. It did not escape my attention that most of these folks were young men in their 20's and most of their ilk has been engaged in this "profession" for several years.

Back in Hawaii, these same sort of people are there, pushing the shopping carts around, but they do not harass those around them. I suspect that if they did there would be some immediate consequences. Does that last word still exist in Canadian dictionaries?

Here in Vancouver we seem to have a constant barrage of politicians and others telling us that "this is a way of life for a growing city", that we "should feel grateful for what we have and sorry for those asking us for money", and the all purpose pass-the-buck excuse, "there's nothing we can do, you need to complain to the federal government".

The federal politicians (and that means ALL of them) must indeed accept some of the responsibility for the general lack of civility on the streets of Canadian cities. To fully realize just how lax the Canadian Justice System has become, let's look at a case recently in the news in Hawaii. A criminal named Rudy Bernardino was sentenced to 20 years in prison for operating a methamphetamine laboratory out of his apartment. Please reread the last sentence. He received TWENTY years for manufacturing crystal meth (aka poison). Does anyone think an identical crime in Vancouver would get him even 6 months?

As a mere tourist, I don't know all that the Hawaii police and the District Attorney are doing to combat crime but it clearly must be a lot more than is being done here. I would strongly recommend that the Vancouver Sun send a reporter or two over to Honolulu for a few weeks to do a series of special reports, comparing the differences between there and here. I'm sure it would be an eye-opener for all British Columbians!

Image from the Past

Here's a shot of me working at the Quintette Coal Mine near Tumbler Ridge, BC in the summer of 1985.