Olympics are VERY popular in Canada

The Angus Reid poll shows us that a very clear and large majority of people in Canada support the Olympic games. This includes BC.

This is a poll being taken during the time when focus on problems and complaints has been the highest.

Unless something crazy happens, the level of support will go way up in the next couple of days. It will be nationwide major news when the first Canadian wins a medal on home soil.

I am exciting, I am waiting for the opening ceremonies. My niece and sister in law were stand in athletes in the dress rehearsals.

Go Canada Go!

Minema Eesti Minema!

No One Will Remember the Costs Once the Torch is Lit

My column from today's 24 Hours in Vancouver:

Today is the last day anyone is going to care about any Olympic problems, costs or protests. Tomorrow the torch will be lit in BC Place and all the negativity will be forgotten.

I know there are many people out there hoping to grab global media attention with the games, but it is a waste of time. I love the winter games and I also follow politics off all stripes around the world, but I can not remember what the protests were about in Salt Lake City in 2002 or Turin in 2006. Frankly I can not remember the protesters at all.

The protest movement in Italy is much more organized and militant that anything in BC. Even with their better organization they made no impact on the media last time.

It is a shame that people have started to use the celebration of the Olympics to push their political point of view. There is a self righteousness and martyr complex to most of the protesters, they act as if they know better than all of the rest of us.

One aspect I find most patronizing is the cultural appropriation of the First Nations by the protesters. The four First Nations, in which traditional territories the games are being held, are partners in the games. It seems for the protesters that support of aboriginal people is only OK if the First Nations have the “right” political view.

The decision was made years ago to hold the Olympics in BC, it is supported by the federal Liberals and Conservatives and the provincial Liberals and NDP. The people protesting the games are not willing to accept that the games are supported by most people.

The costs have been an issue and the protesters have pointed out how they would have spent the money. This ignores that the games are comparatively inexpensive. The government costs of the 2010 games will be cheaper than the 2006, 2002 or 1998 winter games. In fact, were it not for the dramatic increase in the security costs, the Vancouver games could have been the cheapest Olympic games since Calgary. No one will remember the costs once the torch is lit.

That said, the NDP has done a good job of questioning the details of the costs.

All the protesters are doing is adding an unneeded negativity in the run up to the games which will be forgotten tomorrow. If there is going to be any negative image of the Olympic games, it will be because Vancouver will likely be socked in with rain as it is most Februaries.

New Ekos Federal Poll

I have not been saying much on the polls out there as I find that the data has not had much interesting to say. The latest Ekos poll does have something interesting arising, 2.8% of Canadians are opting for 'Other' for who they would vote for. 2.8% of Canadians opted for this choice.

In BC 3.7% opted for other and 4.3% on Alberta. These are numbers high enough to relevant and to me indicates a rising unhappiness with all of the parties. I suspect that the majority of these people are blue collar conservative types, the back bone of Reform. I base that on the fact that more men than women are opting for other and more people with high school or less education are opting for other.

On the left one could see the Greens as being the none of the above for the centre and left. Though in BC their numbers are remaining strong, 15% in the latest survey.

In Ontario the NDP is only marginally ahead of the Greens in the poll.

Ekos also asked about second choices, the Liberals are the strongest second choice for the NDP and Conservatives. Meanwhile the majority of the Conservatives said there was no possible second choice.

Interestingly, Green voters are more likely to choose a party on the centre to centre right than the left as a second choice. CPC got 9.7% of second choices, the Liberals 26.1% and the NDP 25.7%.

Bloc second choices are all over the map.

The older someone is, the more likely they do not have a second choice. The prairies have the highest levels of no second choice which is not surprising as the Conservatives are dominant in the region. 54% of Albertans have no second choice.

I am not changing my seat projection at the moment because I do not see this data as being different enough to allow me to make any significant changes.

On timing of the next election, it is the Conservative supporters that are most opposed to an election before 2012. Undecided people were most likely to choose 2012 for the election. New Democrats were most in favour of an election in the near future but only slightly more than their supporters not wanting an election before 2012.

Throne Speech on Environmental Assessment

From today's throne speech in BC

The government will work with other provinces and the federal government to establish one process for one project. There is no time to waste and Canadian taxpayers cannot afford the extra costs, the uncertainties and the lost jobs that are the products of the current system.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Act must be amended to create a unified federal‑provincial review process that does away with redundancy and unnecessary costs.

Multiple governmental reviews replicate work, add cost, increase uncertainty, delay decisions, reduce investment and ultimately cost jobs.

We will redouble our efforts to conclude equivalency agreements with Ottawa to ensure environmental reviews are cost effective, timely and thorough.

Currently, over $3 billion in provincially‑approved projects are stranded in the mire of federal process and delay.

This is unacceptable.

Time is money. Duplication is waste. Tax dollars are limited.

We cannot afford to hold investment and jobs hostage. Byzantine bureaucratic practices have no place in the 21st Century.

The government will fully respect and adhere to First Nations' rights to consultation and accommodation.

That essential ingredient will be complemented with a new unified process for environmental assessment and permitting in British Columbia.

The "One Project, One Process" approach will create a single framework that is timely, diligent and science-based.

This is an issue that has concerned me for years, it is not rational to have a federal and provincial environmental assessment process. All that having two processes is to ensure that a lot more money is wasted. Delays in projects that are going go ahead is a loss in government revenues. Doing the process twice means governments are spending money needed for social services and protecting the environment on redundant reviews.

The federal government needs to get out of the environmental assessment process. The environment with respect to lands and resources is the responsibility of the provincial government. If federal issues are impacted, they can offer input on those through the BC process.

Having seen the federal and provincial processes in action, the big advantage one gets from the provincial process is that it sets out parameters under which a project might go ahead and then sets up a long term monitoring process. The federal process does not offer this.

The environmental assessment processes have been used as tools by people opposed to any development as a way to delay projects. As a society we have not had any buy in to the idea that resource development should not occur. It is unreasonable to use the environmental assessment process as a way to cause roadblocks for projects just for the sake of creating roadblocks.

Rural BC has natural resources, without their development the majority of small rural towns will become ghost towns.