Monday, May 28, 2012

Where are the BC Conservatives coming from?

Lately we have been hearing more and more about the policies of the BC Conservatives and I am not impressed

1) BC should not sell off the liquor distribution branch if it means higher prices for consumers.   Where do I even begin with this?  

First off I was not expecting the BC Conservatives to be in favour of state ownership of business.   Really why does the government need to own the liquor distribution branch?   His position seems to a left wing one.

Second, I fail to see how he can think selling off the liquor distribution branch would raise prices for the consumer.   It is the current system that causes us to have higher liquor prices than we would otherwise have, allowing there to be an open market would reduce the price.

Third, this sounds like an attempt to convince people to vote for the BC Conservatives because they will give us cheaper beer.

Fourth, the BC Conservatives state in their policy document in article 2 on page three that they believe in a smaller government and lower taxes.  Owning BC Hydro or liquor stores would seem to run counter to that though in their policy document they want to retain public ownership.

2) CFJC TV in Kamloops has a report that John Cummins says the Treaty process is too expensive and that aboriginal title would only include village sites.   He also talks about special rights granted to First Nations to hunt and fish.   I am concerned that someone has has been an MP since 1993 and now leads a political party could be fundamentally uniformed of basic constitutional law in Canada.

No one is granting First Nations in Canada jack shit.   All the negotiations are three way and First Nations come to the table with strong existing rights to the land.   As to his thought that aboriginal title would only be to village sites, he is sadly mistaken.   Even a very narrow reading of aboriginal title means about 15,000,000 hectares of BC of owned by First Nations.

I also have a problem with him deciding that when it comes to Indians the idea of the government being able infringe property rights is OK with him.  The BC Conservatives state in article 9 they want to strengthen private property rights.  He seems to be taking a very socialist approach to property rights when it comes to some people and not others.

Finally, the BC Conservatives speak of what to protect the rights and freedoms of people in BC, aboriginal rights are part of that.

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I look at those two policy statements and I try to reconcile then with this from their policy document:

1.1.6. A belief in: 
• protection of the rights and freedoms of individual British Columbians.  
• a competitive free enterprise system as the basis for prosperity and growth.

The policy statements seem to be completely counter to these statements.

3 comments:

Ian said...

I wouldn't call it so much a "socialist" view of property rights as a racist one.

Bernard said...

I take what you are saying, I am just rather annoyed at his double standard on the issue and did not want to use the R word

David Bratzer said...

For public health reasons, the BC government needs to retain the ability to set the minimum price of alcohol (regardless of whether the liquor distribution branch is privatized).

Setting a minimum price (which is different from a tax) is one of the more effective ways to control the harms of alcohol.