According to an Ipsos-Reid poll released today, “44% of decided British Columbians say they would support the New Democratic Party if an election were held tomorrow, while only 37% would support the B.C. Liberals.” Support for the Green Party is also waning, having dropped 9 points to 11%, from a May 2002 high of 20%.
The results are the continuation of a downward trend for the provincial Liberals, who have been slipping in the polls since September 2003 when they had 45 per cent support and the NDP was at 31 per cent, said Kyle Braid, an Ipsos-Reid spokesman.
Norman Ruff, a University of Victoria political scientist, told Canadian Press, “In my book, 45 per cent is the magic number. Forty-five per cent means a majority government.” Traditionally in B.C., the political party that receives 45 per cent of the vote wins 50 per cent of the available seats, he said.
The numbers reflect voter anger with the Campbell government’s attack on working British Columbians, and also indicates a desire by voters to support a positive alternative, said Carole James, leader of the NDP.
Want your say? Take a minute to ‘vote’ in the informal poll below …

This weekend marks both the Liberal anniversary — it was three years ago that the B.C. Liberals swept into office with the largest majority in provincial history — and the one-year countdown to the next election, May 17, 2005.
By any measure, the last three years have been marked by turbulence, a dramatic downturn in the economy, and chaos in government. Tens of thousands of jobs have been cut, hospitals and courthouses across the province have been closed, delivery of health care services has become increasingly privatized, B.C. Rail and B.C. Hydro have been sold off, and children, the poor and the disabled have found themselves under almost constant attack from, perhaps, the most right-wing government on the continent.
In the process, the Lie-beral government has battled with major segments of the population, including teachers, students, seniors, nurses, doctors, health care support workers, lawyers, judges and public sector unions. Strikes and other labour disputes have forced the cancellation of thousands of surgeries and medical procedures, ferries and transit services.
As a result, the government has lost public support from almost the moment they were elected. At present, the B.C. Liberals and the New Democrats are locked in a dead heat in popularity numbers, setting the stage for a political dogfight. Over the course of the next year, VanRamblings will continue to chronicle the litany of government abuses to which the Lie-berals have subjected British Columbians.

B.C.’s Health Minister, Colin Hansen, performs major surgery on HEU contract

A reader wrote into VanRamblings recently singing the praises of the IWA. In his commentary, this VanRamblings reader suggested that a resolution to the HEU-government impasse was readily apparent: adopt the non-confrontational IWA employer relations model.
Further, said (misguided, naïve or, perhaps, just meanspirited) reader went on to say that the union movement in British Columbia, as a whole, would do well to consider adoption of the IWA model as the right and proper model for future employee-employer contract “negotiations”.
In today’s Vancouver Sun, Victoria-based, and generally conservative-oriented freelance writer Paul Willcocks (and regular Vancouver Sun contributing writer on Saturdays) while suggesting …

“health sector wages and benefits in B.C. were badly managed by the (previous New Democratic government), and do need to be reduced. But most British Columbians believe that (negotiation of a new HEU contract) must be done with compassion and respect for people’s basic rights.”

also takes IWA boss, and putative federal Liberal candidate in New Westminster-Coquitlam Dave Haggard, to task for his “critical role in helping the government contract out thousands of health sector jobs at much lower wages and benefits, setting the stage for this week’s events.”
And that’s not all, writes Willcocks. As The Vancouver Sun online is available only by subscription, VanRamblings has made Paul Willcocks’ column available here, or by clicking on the link below.

Continue reading Race To The Bottom: Haggard’s Helping Hand For Liberals’ Plans →

The idea that workers should celebrate on the 1st of May was first raised at a Federated Trades and Labour Unions’ of Canada and the United States meeting in 1884.
The Congress decided that over the next 2 years, they would encourage their members to become involved in struggles for the 8-hour day that would culminate in widespread action on May 1, 1886.
This initial struggle culminated in The Haymarket Massacre in Chicago.
The American workers involved in the 1886 struggles sent delegates to an international Labour conference (the inaugural meeting of the Second International) that was held in Paris on July 14, 1889. The Congress decided to make May 1st ‘a day of international Labour demonstrations.’
Victorian workers held a May Day meeting as a result of this call in 1890.
Although Canada and the United States have avoided acknowledging May Day, and the spirit of rebellion that makes up its history (in North America, Labour Day is celebrated on the first Monday of September), in 2004 — as a consequence of the regressive actions of the provincial Liberal government — the B.C. Federation of Labour and the Vancouver and District Labour Council has called for a march and rally this May 1st.
The May Day celebrations in Vancouver will feature a rally and a 90-minute concert with Shari Ulrich, Bill Henderson and Roy Forbes (UHF). The rally and concert, Voices for Justice, will start at 1:00 p.m. in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street. During the concert and rally, the B.C. Fed will collect donations in support of the struggle by B.C’s women’s centres to restore government funding. Organizers have asked participants to assemble in front of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (corner of Georgia and Hamilton Streets) at 11:00 a.m. to join a march to the concert.