Category Archives: Politics

The Sleeping Giant Awakes: VanRamblings Resumes Posting

BC Politics, Politics, Vancouver, VanRamblings

A WINTRY DAY IN VANCOUVER

A wintry, December day in Vancouver (from the Safeway parking lot facing Kits library)

There has been this past two months, since VanRamblings last published, a great deal of interest to VanRamblings’ readers that has occurred near to our little secluded isle, due east of the Pacific Ocean.

For instance …

  • The election of a Vision Vancouver government to City Hall. We have not weighed in on the ascension of Gregor Robertson to the Mayor’s chair, nor evinced any particular opinion on the councillors who were elected. But in the days to come, we will opine about the star in the making that is Geoff Meggs, and just what a destructive dunce Suzanne Anton will be to the forces of the NPA as she plays Republican style politics with the notion of democratic decision-making in our City. We might have something of interest to say.

  • While we’re on the subject of municipal politics, mention should be made about the launch of citycaucus.com, a centre-right apologia for the do-nothing government of Sam Sullivan. But, heck, the site is readable, the page design terrific (Frances Bula, take note), the writing first rate (damn those right wingers for being able to write and design, so well), and much to the horror of VanRamblings, the site surprisingly manages to be even-handed on occasion, as witness this piece by citycaucus.com contributor, Eric Mang.

    We would be remiss in our duty, as well, if we didn’t point you to this story on the quick action taken by Mayor Gregor Robertson and Premier Campbell in creating 200 new homeless shelter beds, arising citycaucus.com points out from months of preparatory work by the previous, Sam Sullivan administration. Fair’s fair, after all … Vision shouldn’t get all the credit.

  • We at VanRamblings are ‘lists’ people. Top 10 lists of the best movies of the year, the best music, and books … we just eat this stuff up. VanRamblings fully intends to drive you to complete distraction in the days to come with our take on the upcoming Oscars, what we’ve admired and were moved by on film this year (Brideshead Revisited, Elegy, Frozen River … all released earlier this year), as well as our favourite music of the year (no surprise that Adele will be right up there … we simply love her début, 19).
  • The up-until-recently impeccably well-orchestrated Obama transition, somewhat undone in recent days by the apparent thuggery of Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich.
  • And, finally, as a topic we’ll raise briefly in this entry and explore at greater length another day, the whole issue of homelessness, why homeless persons choose to sleep on the street rather spend overnight in a shelter, and just how difficult it will be in the coming days, weeks and many, many months to address the issue of homelessness in a compassionate, yet effective manner. Of course, homelessness is not the only issue in respect of housing that requires addressing: VanRamblings will also explore the affordable housing crisis in our City.

As we say, there are a great many topics to tackle in the days to come, to write about and reflect on. Some topics to be explored by VanRamblings will be of a serious nature, others not quite so much.

We hope to see you returning to visit VanRamblings, often.

The Federal Tories: The Gang That Can’t Think Straight

Decision Canada, Politics

THE GANG THAT COULDN'T THINK STRAIGHT

No matter how much money the federal Tories have in their coffers heading into the federal election — expected to be called on Sunday — no matter that, over the course of the next six weeks, they’ll outspend the Liberals, the NDP and the Green parties combined, Stephen Harper’s Conservative can’t help themselves.

They just keep shooting themselves in the foot.

Writing in her column in the Toronto Star, Chantal Hebert says that …

The recent Conservative cuts to arts and culture have done what neither the pursuit of the unpopular Afghan war nor the demise of the Kyoto Protocol had accomplished: wake up a sleeping Quebec giant that is now gathering strength for a show of force in the upcoming election campaign …

On Tuesday, a 2,000-strong who’s who of Quebec’s art community gathered in Montreal to decry what has largely come across in the province’s media as an ideologically driven federal disengagement from the front of culture.

In no other province in Canada would the citizens express the ire that Quebeckers do over funding cuts to the arts — thank God that there’s one province in Canada that stands up for Canadian cultural identity.

The Conservatives probably feel that with a weak and inarticulate Stephane Dion leading the federal Liberal party, and a rudderless Bloc Quebecois, they’ll romp to election victory on October 14th. Don’t bet on it.

The Conservatives are so inept (not to mention, mean-spirited) that Harper won’t be able to help himself from putting his foot in his mouth during the 37-day election period. The Conservative party will, VanRamblings predicts, do everything in their power to snatch defeat from the jaws victory.

Hopefully, after October 14th, there will be a responsible and responsive federal government in Ottawa that will be committed to …

  • the creation of affordable housing
  • the development of a national transit strategy
  • the development of a national telecommunications strategy
  • restored funding of the arts, and a recommitment to the CBC
  • the implementation of national daycare
  • the re-establishment of the Canadian armed forces as peacekeepers
  • restoring the economy so that Canadian familes can be provided for

If the Conservatives are re-elected, they’ll be committed to none of those initiatives. What an anti-Canadian government the Tories proved to be.

Come October 14th, it’ll be time to throw the bums out. Good riddance.