Gordon Campbell made some interesting additions to his cabinet yesterday.
Mary Polak - I have been impressed with her for some years now. She is smart, funny, and does not pander. She is willing to defend what she believes is right with a lot of passion, but at the same time she is very open to hearing counter arguments to her ideas and changing her mind. If she had not been part of the Surrey School Board during the whole banning books things, I would pick her as the woman to be the first elected female premier in BC.
Blair Lekstrom - proof that Gordon Campbell can be taken at his word and MLAs do not have to vote with the government. Blair voted against the government on some key pieces of legislation over the years and he has now been invited to the big table. Campbell is unique as a BC premier in that he believes that slavish support of the leader is not required. This one fact alone makes him so much a better premier than any New Democrat has been.
Iain Black - I do not know much about him other than he was instrumental in the new car seat regs, one more BC Liberal back bencher that has managed to accomplish something that matters to him. This current government has allowed the back bench to follow their ideas and get them pushed through. Once again something new for BC.
We will see how this all plays out in the coming election.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Why is the NDP so old?
Given that my friends tend to almost all be political types, I get to have some insight into various political parties.
The Greens tend to be either younger anarchistic/libertarians or older hippies. I feel old at Green events. The fact that the party has so many young people certainly says the party is one that will be doing better and better all the time.
The BC Liberals are all over the place agewise and I feel typical age for a Liberal event, though the young guys in suits with hair gelled strike me as to smarmy to be true.
And then there is the NDP. I have the occasion to be at some NDP events of late. All I can say is that the rooms looked old. I felt like I was at the Les Pasmore seniors centre. I felt like I was one of the young people there. The hair was all grey!
20 years ago the NDP had a problem with getting more younger people join. Now it is 2008 and the party does not seem to have done anything. Will the NDP die out in BC because all the members will be dead?
The NDP is still in the control of the same generation of people that were involved in the waffle movement. There is something wrong with that.
The Greens tend to be either younger anarchistic/libertarians or older hippies. I feel old at Green events. The fact that the party has so many young people certainly says the party is one that will be doing better and better all the time.
The BC Liberals are all over the place agewise and I feel typical age for a Liberal event, though the young guys in suits with hair gelled strike me as to smarmy to be true.
And then there is the NDP. I have the occasion to be at some NDP events of late. All I can say is that the rooms looked old. I felt like I was at the Les Pasmore seniors centre. I felt like I was one of the young people there. The hair was all grey!
20 years ago the NDP had a problem with getting more younger people join. Now it is 2008 and the party does not seem to have done anything. Will the NDP die out in BC because all the members will be dead?
The NDP is still in the control of the same generation of people that were involved in the waffle movement. There is something wrong with that.
Latest BC Polling Numbers
Both Mustel and Ipsos have the BC Liberals around 48% and the NDP at around 32%. The Greens remain well established at about 16%.
The one interesting fact out of the latest Ipsos poll is the break down of how that support works out in the Lower Mainland - a huge Liberal lead - and the rest of the province.
Ipsos has the Liberals at 40% outside of the lower mainland and the NDP at 35%. This leaves one in four people outside of the lower mainland not wanting either party. While they did not state the Green support, it looks like it should be in the 20% range versus closer to 10% in the lower mainland.
What this could mean is that the Green support is regionalizing and concentrating. This sort of a shift means that there is a much higher chance that the Greens will be able to elect some MLAs in the next election.
In general the numbers for Ipsos and Mustel point to a huge Liberal win in 2009. The NDP remains in danger of losing the majority of the seats they hold at the moment. Certainly they do not look good from retaining Gregor Robinson's Vancouver seat in the up coming by-election.
While a lot of people are really pissed off about the carbon tax, I suspect the NDP's opposition is going to hurt the party as it looks like the crassest of political moves and makes Carole James look like the queen of cynical politics. The NDP certainly has made itself the brownest party in BC at this time.
The one interesting fact out of the latest Ipsos poll is the break down of how that support works out in the Lower Mainland - a huge Liberal lead - and the rest of the province.
Ipsos has the Liberals at 40% outside of the lower mainland and the NDP at 35%. This leaves one in four people outside of the lower mainland not wanting either party. While they did not state the Green support, it looks like it should be in the 20% range versus closer to 10% in the lower mainland.
What this could mean is that the Green support is regionalizing and concentrating. This sort of a shift means that there is a much higher chance that the Greens will be able to elect some MLAs in the next election.
In general the numbers for Ipsos and Mustel point to a huge Liberal win in 2009. The NDP remains in danger of losing the majority of the seats they hold at the moment. Certainly they do not look good from retaining Gregor Robinson's Vancouver seat in the up coming by-election.
While a lot of people are really pissed off about the carbon tax, I suspect the NDP's opposition is going to hurt the party as it looks like the crassest of political moves and makes Carole James look like the queen of cynical politics. The NDP certainly has made itself the brownest party in BC at this time.
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