Final periods for old-time shinny on natural ice, climate scientists say

By PNG, Vancouver SunMarch 4, 2012
 A team of Canadian climate scientists is predicting the widespread disappearance of outdoor hockey rinks across the country in the next 50 years due to global warming — with some regions of the sport’s  spiritual birthplace likely to witness an even earlier eclipse of old-time shinny on natural ice. “The ability to skate and play hockey outdoors is a critical component of Canadian identity and culture,” three researchers from Montreal’s McGill and Concordia universities write in the latest issue of the U.K.-based scholarly journal Environmental Research Letters.(more)

Matthews said he and his fellow researchers “knew this would be an issue that would resonate with Canadians,” and called it a “fortuitous coincidence” that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a well-known “hockey enthusiast.”  Matthews expressed hope that the grim outlook for outdoor hockey rinks might “push the Conservative government to take action” to curb Canada’s contribution to global carbon dioxide emissions, widely seen by scientists as a key driver of climate change.

Huguette Allen and the Okanagan-Shuswap: First on the Honour Roll!

LUMBY – It's official - The Okanagan Shuswap is the 5th greenest riding across Canada and the riding that progressed the most between 2006 and 2008! According to the Green Party of Canada's website, 7,184 more votes were cast for the Green Party of Canada in 2008 than in 2006. This is the largest gain for the Green Party throughout Canada.

Only one other candidate achieved a comparable gain, the average gain between 2006 and 2008 being 2,600 votes. The second highest on the Honour Roll is Mike Nagy in Guelph Ontario who grew his vote support by 7,078. However as Allen points out: "Mike ran an 11 week campaign, being in one of the ridings that was already in by-elections when the elections were called. It's hard to tell how much this played into the results for they also had a great team and a fantastic campaign strategy."

Getting 17.3% of the votes also means that for the first time in this riding, the Green Party will be starting out with money in the bank next time around. Like all parties that get at least 10% of the votes, they will be receiving back 60% of their election expenses. Over forty green party candidates got at least 10% of the votes in 2008 compared to only 8 in 2006, including the nearby ridings of Kelowna-Lake country, Okanagan-Coquihala and Kootenay-Columbia.

For more information:
http://greenparty.ca/en/node/8388

Huguette Allen
www.OkShuswapGreens.ca

Council to meet with firefighters

107.5 KISSFM Pete McIntyre:

Vernon city council meets tonight with its firefighters, to outline the plan for fire service integration over the next ten years.But not everyone thinks the meeting should be held. The event at the Best Western Vernon Lodge will include members of the Landing volunteer fire department, along with professional and volunteer fire fighters from the Vernon firehall. Mayor Wayne Lippert says the one hour event is open to the city council candidates, and the local media, but not the general public. Councillor Barry Beardsell feels the meeting is 'phony' and should have been postponed until after the elections. "It's tying this firefighting situation right into the election and that's wrong. And also, to have a meeting that the media can be there, without the public, that's how it was designed, that is atrocious."However, Beardsell is pleased Councillor Jack Gilroy has stepped out of the issue due to a concerns that his son is a paid firefighter.Gilroy says he's not in a conflict of interest, but will remove himself to help the process.

-----------------------

This was the media invite that went out. As you can see the Council Candidates were not invited. I did receive an invitation as I suspect other Council Candidates from the Firefighters Local executive by Telephone on Monday night.

Our Inclusion as participants (despite the Press Release) seem to be confirmed by Mayor Lippert's comments to KISSFM news Director Pete McIntyre above.

Mayes focus of questions

Morning Star Published: October 10, 2008

A proposed commercial development for the west end of Salmon Arm, very much in the spotlight for civic politics, has also been highlighted in the federal election campaign. At an election campaign forum in Sorrento on Sept. 24, incumbent MP Colin Mayes was asked about the SmartCentres development proposed for the vicinity of the former Petty’s Meats property. Blind Bay resident Don Cavers asked Mayes at the all-candidates meeting if he’d been involved in getting the SmartCentres lands out of the Agricultural Land Reserve. Cavers later said he is interested in the issue both from an environmental perspective and a community perspective. “It’s going to impact fisheries in terms of being a federal issue. More particularly, it’s a local issue and it relates to when he was in municipal politics...”

At the forum, Mayes stated he wasn’t mayor when the property came out of the ALR. Cavers said he wasn’t impressed with how Mayes answered the question. “He really took an attack position to it, that I had questioned his integrity.” Asked in an interview following the forum about the issue, Mayes reiterated that he was not mayor when the land was removed from the ALR. “What happened was, we had a submission to take that out, Bob Holtby actually made the submission on behalf of a group. Council decided to approve that and the ALR said no. I was off of council and council appealed to the ALR – the new council, this one – and asked that they reconsider and they came up and had a look at the properties, they did reconsider and took it out. So I was not there when it was taken out.”

However, Mayes’ recollection does not fit with city documentation. The land was removed from the ALR in July 2005, and Mayes finished his term as mayor in the fall of 2005. The current council was sworn in in December 2005. In an earlier letter to the Agricultural Land Commission on Oct. 18, 2004, Mayes expressed his disappointment with the first ruling: “With reference to your letter of October 5, 2004, advising of the Commission’s refusal in its decision recorded as Resolution #418/2004 with respect to the subject application for exclusion, I would appreciate if you would pass on to the Commission my disappointment in that decision. “It would appear the Commission did not recognize any of the issues identified in the District of Salmon Arm report which accompanied the application, in particular, the lack of availability of large tracts of commercial land and the Municipality’s vested interest in improving this important gateway entrance west of the town centre as well as resolving major transportation issues with the Ministry of Transportation.”

Expert says Cadman tape not altered: court record

OTTAWA --Updated Fri. Oct. 10 2008 8:13 PM ET The Canadian Press

A tape recording at the centre of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's $3.5-million defamation suit against the Liberal party was not altered as the prime minister has claimed, a court-ordered analysis of the tape by Harper's own audio expert has found. The key portion of the recorded interview of Harper by a B.C. journalist contains no splices, edits or alterations, says the finding by a U.S. forensic audio expert. The analysis was filed in Ontario Superior Court on Friday by lawyers for the Liberal party, despite attempts by Harper's lawyer to keep the opinion out of the court file until at least next week.

Harper sued the Liberals in the midst of a raging controversy earlier this year over claims in a book by B.C. author Tom Zytaruk that Conservatives offered late MP Chuck Cadman a $1-million life insurance policy in return for help defeating the minority Liberal government in 2005. The prime minister claims Zytaruk doctored the tape of an interview he conducted with Harper after Cadman died, and denies he told Zytaruk he was unaware of the "details" of the insurance policy offer. Harper insists he only confirmed the party had offered Cadman "financial considerations" in return for rejoining the Tories and voting against the Liberals in a Commons confidence vote.

But former FBI agent Bruce Koenig, the sound expert Harper hired to prove his allegations, submitted a report dated Friday to Harper's lawyer, which also had to be sent to the Liberal lawyer, Chris Paliare, saying the contentious portion of the interview was uninterrupted. Koenig said the first part of Zytaruk's interview with Harper, where the two had apparently discussed other aspects of Harper's relationship with Cadman, had been erased and over-recorded with the portion dealing with the insurance policy. But that segment had not been altered, Koenig found.

He reported that it "contains neither physical nor electronic splices, edits or alterations, except for the over-recording start that erased and replaced the end of the first part of the designated interview."

Canada's Afghan mission could cost up to $18.1B

CBC NEWS Oct,9

The mission in Afghanistan could reach a total cost of $18.1 billion or $1,500 per Canadian household by 2011, a government report estimates. Canada has spent $7.7 billion to $10.5 billion on costs related to its Afghan mission in the past six years, and may spend $13.9 billion to $18.1 billion by the end of the 2010-11 budget year, according to The Fiscal Impact of the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan tabled by parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page on Thursday. However, a lack of government consistency and transparency has made the figures difficult to estimate, and they likely understate the full costs of the mission, the report says.

The mission began in 2002, and Canada currently has about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan's volatile Kandahar province. So far, 98 Canadians, including one diplomat, have died in the conflict. The release of the report was agreed upon by all leaders of Canada's major political parties in September, despite concerns that the results could sway the outcome of the Oct. 14 election.Prime Minister Stephen Harper had previously estimated that the total cost so far would be less than $8 billion.

The figures released Thursday are incremental costs — that is, they do not include costs such as salaries that would be incurred by Canada's military anyway, even if it were not in Afghanistan. The cost of military operations, veterans benefits and foreign aid related to the mission were all part of the estimate. However, Page said certain costs weren't included due to the difficulty of estimating them reliably, and this suggests the figures "may likely understate the costs" of the mission. Such additional costs include danger pay and the need to replace equipment sooner if it is deployed in war rather than peacetime.

Centre touches federal campaign

By Martha Wickett - Salmon Arm Observer Published: October 07, 2008

The SmartCentres proposal for the west end of town, very much in the spotlight for civic politics, has also been highlighted in the federal election campaign. At an election campaign forum in Sorrento on Sept. 24, incumbent MP Colin Mayes was asked about the SmartCentres development proposed for the vicinity of the former Petty’s Meats property. Blind Bay resident Don Cavers asked Mayes at the all-candidates meeting if he’d been involved in getting the SmartCentres lands out of the Agricultural Land Reserve. Cavers later told the Observer he is interested in the issue both from an environmental perspective and a community perspective. “It’s going to impact fisheries in terms of being a federal issue. More particularly, it’s a local issue and it relates to when he was in municipal politics...”

At the forum, Mayes stated he wasn’t mayor when the property came out of the ALR. Cavers said he wasn’t impressed with how Mayes answered the question. “He really took an attack position to it, that I had questioned his integrity.” Asked in an interview with the Observer following the forum about the issue, Mayes reiterated that he was not mayor when the land was removed from the ALR. “What happened was, we had a submission to take that out, Bob Holtby actually made the submission on behalf of a group. Council decided to approve that and the ALR said no. I was off of council and council appealed to the ALR – the new council, this one – and asked that they reconsider and they came up and had a look at the properties, they did reconsider and took it out. So I was not there when it was taken out.”

However, Mayes’ recollection does not fit with city documentation. The land was removed from the ALR in July 2005, and Mayes finished his term as mayor in the fall of 2005. The current council was sworn in in December 2005. In an earlier letter to the Agricultural Land Commission on Oct. 18, 2004, Mayes expressed his disappointment with the first ruling: “With reference to your letter of October 5, 2004, advising of the Commission’s refusal in its decision recorded as Resolution #418/2004 with respect to the subject application for exclusion, I would appreciate if you would pass on to the Commission my disappointment in that decision.“It would appear the Commission did not recognize any of the issues identified in the District of Salmon Arm report which accompanied the application, in particular, the lack of availability of large tracts of commercial land and the Municipality’s vested interest in improving this important gateway entrance west of the town centre as well as resolving major transportation issues with the Ministry of Transportation.”

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Raw footage at Sorrento debate denying ALR Exclusion You-Tube with this link:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=NgcrSWW1bLA

Drama Ensues Over Candidate Meet and Greet

Starlee Speers- Vernon105.7 SunFM

The Okanagan College Students Union is upset an Okanagan-Shuswap candidate crashed a Meet and Greet at the Salmon Arm Campus on Monday. Federation Rep Sean Rossouw says Huguette Allen never RSVP'd but showed up anyway and expected to be accommodated. "By coming unannounced and interrupting she discouraged students from the elections process." The Students Union says Allen demonstrated absurd behaviour and discouraged students from becoming involved. When pressed however on how Allen's behaviour discouraged students from becoming involved Rossouw admitted most students were unaware of the situation. Huguette Allan says she's been to enough meet and greets to know you introduce yourself and the party and answer questions. She says she also confirmed her attendance to the Meet and Greet twice by phone. "When I arrived everyone was surprised and said 'you made it, you made it.' I said of course I made it, I would have never have not come and talk to students." The Green Party had been invited to attend the event Tuesday with the 'smaller parties instead of Monday because the students union didn't consider them a major or official party. Darren Seymour of the Canadian Action party says he never got an invite. "No one should be excluded, we all should have priority because we have important messages." Seymour says there's no excuse for the lack of invitation because candidates contact info is available with Elections Canada.The Students Union tells us Tuesday's event with the smaller parties was cancelled because nobody confirmed.

Got some GST with that Carbon Tax?

Canadian taxpayers Federation: Sept 23
Natural gas bills started arriving at homes in September with a new charge -- the Campbell government’s carbon tax. Well, everyone knew it was coming. To be fair, some of the blow will be cushioned by provincial rebates and lower income taxes. But not so the federal portion. The federal portion you ask? As many senior citizens and families are discovering across the province, the GST is applied to the carbon tax even though it is not a good or a service. Since the GST’s inception, the federal government has been taxing taxes. For example, Canadians pay GST on the full pump price of gasoline, including all taxes. The law states the GST is payable on everything unless it has been excluded by legislation. So guess what? Our politicians never exclude taxes. We pay GST not only on the carbon tax but indeed all taxes on gasoline and natural gas. Just how much are we paying on natural gas?

All natural gas that is either sold or delivered in B.C. passes through two companies: Pacific Northern Gas (PNG) and Terasen Gas. PNG serves about 40,000 customers in B.C.'s north. It sells or delivers about 13 million gigajoules of natural gas per year and expects its natural gas sales to be relatively flat. Terasen Gas serves about 900,000 customers in B.C.'s south. It sold or delivered about 221 million gigajoules of natural gas in 2007 and expects that to go up considerably in 2008, to 240 million gigajoules. Why might they expect natural gas demand to go up? According to Dr. Don Easterbrook, a geologist at Western Washington University who has researched global climate change for the past 48 years, the 0.78 degree Celsius temperature drop of the winter of 2007-08 wiped out virtually all the global warming experienced this century and was the single largest temperature change - in any direction - ever recorded.

For Terasen Gas, at least, this means bigger sales. It also means bigger carbon tax and GST revenue for governments. PNG's gas customers will pay a total of about $8.2 million dollars in carbon tax between July 2008 and July 2009, and about $410,000 in GST. Terasen Gas customers will pay a total of about $149 million in carbon tax between July 2008 and July 2009 and about $7.5 million in GST. Even if natural gas sales stayed flat, the carbon tax will triple by 2012. As it goes up, so will the amount of GST gas customers fork over to the federal government. By the time the carbon tax reaches $30 per tonne in 2012, the federal government will probably be collecting at least $24 million in GST. If winters are indeed getting colder, as many scientists think, GST revenue could get even higher as families and senior citizens on fixed incomes struggle to heat their homes.

Governments might argue that the carbon tax and the GST we pay on it is a small price to save mother earth. But when the wheels fall off the global warming bandwagon – as they surely will in the next few years -- how likely is it that the carbon tax will disappear? When the federal government added 1.5 cents per litre to federal gas tax in 1995, it was a temporary deficit elimination measure. We haven't had a federal deficit for 10 years but we still pay the deficit elimination tax. Once governments get hooked on these taxes, it's very difficult to ever get them unhooked. The carbon tax will not be revenue neutral to families, may or may not be revenue neutral for the provincial government, but will certainly prove a cash cow for the federal government.

Feds making a fortune off our carbon tax

Michael Smyth, The Province Published: Sunday, October 05, 2008

Stephen Harper may trash Gordon Campbell's carbon tax during his campaign stops in B.C., but here's something you won't hear the prime minister admit in open company: His government is making a killing on the thing! The carbon-tax-hating Tories are raking in $30-million from Campbell's carbon caper by charging GST on top of the carbon tax. (Check your last bill from Terasen Gas for proof.)

A tax on a tax. It doesn't get more Canadian than that, eh?

The Campbell government estimates the carbon tax will bring in $1.8 billion over three years. That means the feds will collect an additional $92 million by charging GST on the carbon tax. Some businesses will be able to recover the GST on their tax returns, but individual consumers will not. Universities, hospitals, charities and non-profit organizations will also get hit with the double-whammy. The bottom line: The Harper government will reap more than $30 million in profit during the first three years of the B.C. carbon tax -- all while Harper's Tories are campaigning against it, according to accounting firm BDO Dunwoody in a recent analysis.

But wait a second: Isn't Campbell's carbon tax supposed to be "revenue neutral?" Aren't you supposed to get back every single cent in offsetting income-tax reductions? B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen admits his "revenue neutral" numbers don't include the GST flowing out of your wallet to Ottawa -- something Victoria apparently tried to fight behind the scenes.

Bob Spiers, a retiree from Vernon, wrote a letter to Hansen about the double tax-grab and received this interesting reply last week: "The British Columbia government did ask the federal government to give the province back the net GST collected on the carbon tax so that it could be returned to British Columbians," Hansen wrote."Minister [Jim] Flaherty, the federal minister of finance, responded that . . . the federal government will not be returning the GST collected on the carbon tax." You see, you carbon-tax bashers? It's all Ottawa's fault!

Meanwhile, federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's call for a national carbon tax raises the spectre of yet another layer of carbon taxation in B.C. Seeing that turnabout is fair play, Spiers asked Hansen if the B.C. government would charge the provincial sales tax on top of a federal carbon tax if Dion wins the Oct. 14 election. "That is a decision the government would have to make," Hansen replied. Talk about a double standard!

Revenue neutral? In your tax-free dreams. msmyth@theprovince.com

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Don Quixote Note: The e-mail from Finance Minister Hansen and other e-mails and postings along the same lines.

Candidates collect Lumby applause

By Jennifer Smith - Vernon Morning Star Published: October 02, 2008

Huguette Allen found a receptive audience among her hometown crowd at Lumby’s forum Tuesday. The approximately 100 people responded warmly to the Green Party candidate, along with Canadian Action Party candidate Darren Seymour (also a Lumby resident) and NDP’s Alice Brown. These Okanagan-Shuswap candidates managed to strike the right note during the Lumby Chamber of Commerce forum Tuesday at the White Valley Community Centre. The forum featured five of the six candidates – independent Gordie Campbell was not in attendance. Donning an emerald-coloured shirt and displaying the Vision Green book, Allen won the crowd with her environmental consciousness and concern for the local economy. She even turned a debate about bills C51 and C52 (impacting therapeutic items such as natural health products) into one about overall food regulations. Specifically meat regulations. “This has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with the big farmout,” said Allen. “What about the chicken and meat that we can’t buy from our farmers?”

Brown garnered some laughs when she told the crowd to lock up their garlic because soon it too will be illegal to grow. “It’s local control that we have to take back,” said Brown. “When you can go and buy a turkey without the government coming in and telling you it’s illegal.”

Sporting a T-shirt reading “9-11 was an inside job,” Seymour managed to win the crowd over on the issue of health care. With long wait times for surgeries and doctor and nurse shortages, people tend to lay the blame on the government, but Seymour pointed out that the responsibility falls on all. “It’s not always just the government, it’s also personal responsibility. These are preventable diseases,” said Seymour, encouraging everyone to educate themselves and make better choices so they can reduce the healthcare burden.

As a few hot-aired words were shared at the forum, gas was also a popular topic. Liberal Janna Francis defended her party’s carbon tax, pointing to a future with a Green Shift – which includes investing $70 billion over 10 years into sewer and water lines to protect the environment. “The beauty of it is, you’re not going to be taxed, the polluters are,” said Francis, proudly wearing a Liberal shade.

Meanwhile, Conservative Colin Mayes says “no” to the carbon tax. “They’re going to tax polluters but it doesn’t stop polluters, it’s just going to tax them,” said Mayes, conservatively dressed in suit and tie. “We need to turn the corner.” Mayes was also questioned on the Security and Prosperity Partnership between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Mayes said the SPP does not exist but that trade agreements are being worked on between those three countries.

Anyone but Harper: activists

By Monisha Martins - Maple Ridge News Published: October 02, 2008

An international activist group is targeting Conservatives MPs in an ad campaign to stop the party from forming a majority government after the federal election. Avaaz.org is an online community with the tagline “The World In Action” that promotes activism on issues like climate change, poverty, human rights and global conflicts. Avaaz means “voice” in Hindi, Urdu and many Middle Eastern and eastern European languages. It launched its first batch of Canadian election ads criticizing Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s record on climate change last week, although they’ve yet to run in print, television or online. The ads target three Conservative MPs including environment minister John Baird, Peter MacKay and Randy Kamp – the incumbent MP in Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge-Mission. The ads urge voters to casts their ballot for the Green Party’s Elizabeth May against MacKay in Nova Scotia; Liberal David Pratt in Baird’s riding of Ottawa and NDP candidate Mike Bocking to defeat Kamp.

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The 2 proposed ads can be found here.

A Response from the B.C. minister of Finance re GST being charged on the B.C. Carbon Tax. (And also the position of the Gov. of Canada.)

I am responding to your emails of July 11 and August 30 to the Honourable Gordon Campbell, Premier, regarding your concerns about the application of the federal goods and services tax (GST) to the carbon tax. Please accept my apology for the delay in response.

It is the Federal Government of Canada that determines the GST base - i.e. the goods, services, taxes and fees to which the GST applies.

Generally, the federal GST applies to a broad range of goods and services and is calculated on the final price charged for the good or service – including any federal, provincial or municipal taxes, levies or charges, with the exception of general provincial sales taxes and land transfer taxes.

Provincial sales taxes (PST) are percentage-based taxes calculated on the selling price of goods. British Columbia did not have the option of structuring the carbon tax as a provincial sales tax to avoid the GST because a carbon tax, by definition and design, is intended to tax the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions which result from the use of fossil fuels and therefore must be on a measurement basis (e.g. per litre of gasoline, per tonne of coal, etc).

A percentage-based tax on the price of the fuel would result in the amount of tax depending on the price of the fuel, rather than on the CO2e emissions the carbon tax is designed to tax. For example, if there were a ten percent provincial “carbon” sales tax, a person would pay ten cents in tax for each litre of gas purchased when gas is $1/L, and 20 cents when gas is $2/L. As a litre of gasoline contains the same amount of CO2e regardless of its price, this type of tax would not effectively target CO2e emissions.

Imposing a percentage based carbon tax could also result in the CO2e emissions associated with different types of fossil fuels being taxed differently because the market prices of those fuels do not reflect the associated emissions.

As it is up to the federal government to decide how to apply the GST, any questions about why the GST applies to a particular item, such as the carbon tax, should be directed to the federal Minister of Finance at:

The Honourable James M. Flaherty
Minister of Finance
Department of Finance Canada
140 O'Connor Street
Ottawa ON K1A 0G5

Or you may wish to contact Minister Flaherty by email at: jflaherty@fin.gc.ca. Alternatively, you may wish to contact your federal Member of Parliament.

The British Columbia government did ask the federal government to give the province back the net GST collected on the carbon tax so that it could be returned to British Columbians through provincial tax reductions. Minister Flaherty, the federal Minister of Finance, responded that British Columbia’s carbon tax will be included in the GST base and that the federal government will not be returning the GST collected on the carbon tax to British Columbia.

Ministry Flaherty indicated that the carbon tax will be included in the GST base because, to simplify understanding and compliance, it is a general rule that federal, provincial and municipal taxes, levies and charges are included in the value on which the GST applies. The reasons Minister Flaherty gave for his decision not to return the GST paid on the carbon tax are that giving British Columbia the money could result in similar requests by other provinces and that the GST revenues are used to fund a number of important programs and services for Canadians.

With respect to you asking if the PST would apply to a federal carbon tax, that is a decision the government would have to make. However, the PST does not apply to federal excise taxes on gasoline, diesel or other motor fuels and does not apply to fuels used for residential heating.

Thank you for writing.

Sincerely,
Colin Hansen
Minister of Finance

cc: Honourable Gordon Campbell, Premier
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Don Quixote Note: I receive this e-mail at 3.09 PM Today. I have also asked for the Gov. of Canada's position by e-mailing PM Harper and Finance Minister Flaherty. No answer yet but Mr. Flarety has obviously replied no to the Provincial Request to return the GST to the Province.

Contrast Flaherty's answer with the answer I got from our local M.P. Colin Mayes
09/26
Thank-you for the email. Our Party does not have a position on this but I can tell your that I do not believe in tax on tax of any kind. If a bill comes forward I will vote in favour of dropping the tax on the B.C. carbon tax. I will also after elected request that the Minister of Finance support this position.
I do not believe in any carbon tax, but if Provincial Government impliments a carbon tax I do not think a government that does not believe in a carbon tax should collect tax on something they do not believe in. This is my opinion only.

Colin Mayes

Getting that too familiar feeling

By Martha Wickett - Salmon Arm Observer Published: September 30, 2008

Just when the painful memories of many federal elections were starting to fade, came another blow to the collective self-esteem. It was that 'B.C. doesn't count' feeling all over again. That feeling British Columbians get when the federal election results are decided in Quebec and Ontario before the polls in B.C. are even closed. Kind of like being a 50-year-old guy in a polyester suit at a nightclub for 20-somethings. Irrelevant. Invisible. This time the feeling was closer to home. It was the 'Salmon Arm doesn't count' feeling. And it's all about all-candidates forums. Armstrong has one. Sorrento has one. Spallumcheen has one. Vernon has one. Enderby has one. Even Lumby has one. But not Salmon Arm.

The local chapter of the Council of Canadians and the Shuswap Environmental Action Society set up a time and a venue for a Salmon Arm forum – Oct. 5, 2 p.m. at the Gathering Place – and all the candidates except Colin Mayes said they could attend. Unfortunately, organizers decided to cancel the forum altogether. E-mails show that organizers asked Mayes' campaign manager if there was another date that would work for him. They were told there was only one date open, and two other parties were ahead of them with a request for the spot. Now, granted, the election was called on Sunday, Sept. 7 and the organizers made their request two weeks later, Sept. 21. However, it's not unusual for groups to take time to figure out who's organizing what. And, during the same period, the local chamber of commerce was also looking into organizing a forum. Salmon Arm is Colin Mayes' home town. It also happens to be the second-largest centre in his riding. So what could be more important than attending a forum here during an election campaign?

Across the country, other Conservative candidates have chosen not to attend debates, such as in Richmond, South Surrey and Ottawa, but Mayes says there's no conspiracy of silence. He also said the organizers – who have been critical of Conservative policies – have not influenced his decision, pointing out that the same group organized a forum last election that he attended. Mayes says that back in June, he was booked for three days in October to take a group of ambassadors from Ottawa on a tour of the Okanagan Valley. He says people forget that he's still the Member of Parliament and he must continue to carry out his duties as such. He says when he makes commitments he stands by them.That's all well and good, but what about his commitment to the people of Salmon Arm? Mayes didn't say which countries these ambassadors are from, but wouldn't this be a great opportunity to demonstrate just how committed Canadians are to democracy?

How about, 'Sorry, ambassadors, an election was called after I agreed to give you a tour. I must take a few hours away from you so I can give the people of my hometown an opportunity to hear me debate the issues with other federal candidates. In Canada, we believe open, honest debate is key to keeping democracy alive.'But, instead, no debate. Good thing we're from B.C. Thanks to lots of experience being ignored by the federal government, this 'we don't count' feeling doesn't come as a shock.

Local M.P. replies to GST on Carbon Tax Question.

09/26
Thank-you for the email. Our Party does not have a position on this but I can tell your that I do not believe in tax on tax of any kind. If a bill comes forward I will vote in favour of dropping the tax on the B.C. carbon tax. I will also after elected request that the Minister of Finance support this position.
I do not believe in any carbon tax, but if Provincial Government impliments a carbon tax I do not think a government that does not believe in a carbon tax should collect tax on something they do not believe in. This is my opinion only.

Colin Mayes

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I have sent this to all the Federal Party leaders and all the Local Candidates. The only federal Party Leader that replied was Elizabeth May of the Greens. Among the local clients that have replied and taken the pledge are Huguette Allen - GREEN, Alice Brown -NDP and Darren Seymour of the CAP Party.

Only missing one locally is Janna Francis of the Liberals.

This is the e-mail sent to the Local Candidates: Sept 7.

The Federal Govt. presently applies the GST to the recently passed B.C. Carbon Tax.
The Federal Liberal party will introduce a Federal Carbon Tax if they become government.

Question:
Will you pledge to vote for the elimination of the GST on the B.C. Carbon Tax. YES or NO
Will you pledge to vote that the GST NOT be applied to any Federal Carbon Tax YES or NO

I intend to publish this e-mail on my website http://vernonblog.blogspot.com/

I will update the readers of that blog each week of the answers or lack of answers to this simple question. The cost to the Provincial taxpayers is $30 million for the GST on the B.C. Carbon Tax. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Harper speech plagiarized; Tory staffer resigns.

CTV.ca News Staff

A campaign worker for the Conservatives has resigned, after the Liberals showed a 2003 speech by Stephen Harper that plagiarized sections of an address by then-Australian prime minister John Howard. "In 2003, I worked in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition. I was tasked with -- and wrote -- a speech for the then Leader of the Opposition," Owen Lippert said in a press release issued Tuesday. "Pressed for time, I was overzealous in copying segments of another world leader's speech. Neither my superiors in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition nor the Leader of the Opposition was aware that I had done so." Lippert, who also became a senior policy advisor for the Canadian International Development Agency in 2008, apologized to "all involved." Just hours before Lippert's resignation, Liberal candidate Bob Rae accused Harper of plagiarizing almost half of Howard's speech, when Harper was opposition leader of the Canadian Alliance At a press conference, Rae showed video of Harper giving a speech in Parliament on March 20, 2003 -- the first day U.S. forces began bombing Baghdad. The video is contrasted with a speech two days earlier from Howard, in which he gives a strikingly similar address.Much of Harper's address matches Howard's virtually word-for-word.

Mayes a no show

Web posted on Monday, 29 September 2008 CHBC VIDEO

It's not an all candidates debate when one of the candidates won't be there.

Federal Leaders debate who is Number 2 !

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Dion to regroup and hire new Rainmaker ? (Where is the new Keith Davey when you need him ?)

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Keith Davey, politician (b at Toronto 21 Apr 1926)
Following the Liberal Party's near defeat in 1972, Davey was summoned by PM Trudeau to guide the party's electoral fortunes and was rewarded by a successful election in 1974. Although the Liberals were defeated in 1979, Davey returned the Liberals to power in 1980 as their national campaign cochairman and was brought back in midcampaign to try to revitalize John Turner's flagging campaign in 1984. The experience was not a happy one, and in 1986 Davey took his doubts about Turner's leadership to the public in a book, The Rainmaker.

How to shift the Okanagan Shuswap from a dependent underdeveloped economy to an autonomous developed economy.

I have been talking of rebuilding a local economy in the Okanagan Shuswap for many months now, and am finding that many are curious to know more about the kind of jobs this would give, and the kind of economy it would create.

You might have heard the Conservatives candidate, Colin Mayes, talk of an inland port last year. This of course would serve the global economy by encouraging more global imports of finished goods and more exports of our raw resources, clearly not to our advantage in the long-term. Instead I am proposing a vision of our economy that will protect our raw natural resources for future generations, give us more varied jobs, and keep our money within our own jurisdiction. It will give us autonomy over our economy while building safer, better communities.

Super Mini Ports - Every Community a Production Centre.

The local economic platform I am speaking of serves the local economy by making every community a production centre with its own Mini-port.

Let us look at what every community needs: food, furniture, housing, clothing, books, transportation, computers and more. Each community could not produce all of this but each community could produce some of these goods, and all communities together could produce a lot of these goods. But the key is regulations and transportation. In order to make this happen I would immediately work at:

1) Reversing the Meat Inspection Regulations and the federal Canadian Food Safety Agency regulations that are designed for multinationals and have now proven to not even work for that. Instead, we would pass food safety regulations that address small family farms and help local farms to sell safe food within their communities first, and within their region next.
2) Getting the trains back on track: overhaul our rail system for both passenger and freight. It will mean shifting cargo containers off highways and onto freight trains, driving the development of freight distribution nodes (off-loading containers onto local trucks) along new “green corridors.”
Make trucks greener by adding generators to avoid the need to idle to maintain air conditioning and refrigeration, while ensuring the right fit of trucking in a more efficient, rail-based intermodal system.

3) Implementing Accelerated Capital Cost Allowances and other incentives for trucking companies so they can purchase hybrid trucks. Make all trucks sold in Canada subject to scale-based rebates for the purchase of efficient vehicles and fees for the purchase of non-efficient vehicles.
4) Fast tracking community forests in all communities able to sustain them and provide model for secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy so that innovative and profitable businesses take root. Businesses such as: hardwood flooring, turn-key condos, furniture, and more. Community forests are recognized for protecting water in their communities by ensuring sustainable forestry practices.
5) Providing educational and green touristic ventures. Healthy forests, family farms, and excellent transportation make green touristic adventures possible and interesting, bringing profit to rural communities. Art and culture workers also benefit.

How much will all this cost? A lot less than continuing to subsidize the global economy. This is within our grasp.

Huguette Allen, Green Party Candidate, Okanagan-Shuswap.

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Don Quixote Note: This is an idea from a local Federal candidate that is worthy of examination and it is posted on this blog for the readers to debate. Any of the local candidates that post a comment will naturally get their comment posted immediately and prominently. If any of those other candidates wish to e-mail me with an idea that they feel is worthy of debate and examination I will naturally post those ideas also. Email at pancho.sanchez@shaw.ca