(Aired on September 21, 2010)
There probably isn't one person who sees this editorial who is surprised MLA Terry Lake's name is near the top of the list of targets for the anti-HST recall campaign. As the chair of the legislative committee who made the unpopular decision of going to a referendum on the HST, and an MLA who didn't have a big margin of victory last year, that shouldn't be surprising.
Lake's future is hardly in doubt, even though his committee copped out and took the easy way out of the HST controversy by going to a referendum a year away. It was a cop-out because by next September, the fuss over the HST will be gone, and we will have spent millions of dollars on nothing. All because the Liberal members of Lake's committee used the excuse that the referendum was a way to listen to the people instead of having the guts to debate the issue in the legislature and take a vote. This way, they blame the anti-HST forces for causing us to spend all that taxpayers money instead of simply saving it by voting on it instead. And if you're going to have a referendum, have it sooner rather than later so we can have a vote while the issue is still a hot topic.
What I can't figure out, though, is why Bill Vander Zalm and the anti-HST forces are turning the whole recall process into a clown show by making it into some kind of Survivor game. That's about as tactless as Lake's committee's decision on the referendum. If Chris Delaney and VanderZalm are serious about this issue, and they've put a lot of work into it so far, why would they cheapen the whole thing by this charade? Maybe they're simply giving up. They don't even have a proponent to run a recall campaign in Kevin Krueger's riding. Maybe it's all over and the anti-HST folks are just going through the motions. I can't think of anything else given the stupidity of their latest move. This is a serious thing. Treat it that way, or walk away.
Showing posts with label Kevin Krueger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kevin Krueger. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Krueger's Arts Tenure a Disaster
(Aired on August 30, 2010)
Kevin Krueger's run as Minister of Arts and Culture hasn't had much of a positive run so far. In fact, you could safely say it's been an unmitigated disaster. When Krueger took over the portfolio, I thought that, based on his previous commitment to arts and cultural activities that we would have an advocate to promote the arts and improve their lot in life.
Arts, as you know, often is the first cut when governments decide to slash. They mistakenly think cutting the arts won't be noticed and doesn't do a whole lot of harm. As we know, they've been proved wrong. Government has cut gaming money to arts groups, cut regular grant programs and generally left the arts community in shambles. So much so that the head of the B.C. Arts Council has resigned in protest. And Krueger has been strangely silent. He seldom returns our phone calls, he seldom has anything concrete to say, except to spout the Liberal line that the Liberals have put more money into the arts than the NDP did. Kevin has to stop spouting that line. It's old. And what the NDP did years ago has no real bearing on what the government is doing now.
A vibrant arts community is important to the health of any city, town or village. And funding has to be maintained in order for those communities to survive. When communities don't have a consistent source of funding, and know what they're getting year to year, they can't move forward. They can't put on productions, hire staff, because they don't know if they will have the funds to do so. While education and health are absolutely critical, and health particularly is in dire straits, government can't ignore other things that help us maintain a healthy lifestyle, and arts and culture play a major role in a healthy community.
Kevin and the Liberals are strangely silent on what will become an issue, for sure, in the next election. And while the Liberals generally feel that Kamloops-South Thompson is a safe Liberal riding, many of those in Krueger's riding are people who appreciate what arts and culture do in a city like Kamloops, and they may not forget that in May of 2013.
Kevin Krueger's run as Minister of Arts and Culture hasn't had much of a positive run so far. In fact, you could safely say it's been an unmitigated disaster. When Krueger took over the portfolio, I thought that, based on his previous commitment to arts and cultural activities that we would have an advocate to promote the arts and improve their lot in life.
Arts, as you know, often is the first cut when governments decide to slash. They mistakenly think cutting the arts won't be noticed and doesn't do a whole lot of harm. As we know, they've been proved wrong. Government has cut gaming money to arts groups, cut regular grant programs and generally left the arts community in shambles. So much so that the head of the B.C. Arts Council has resigned in protest. And Krueger has been strangely silent. He seldom returns our phone calls, he seldom has anything concrete to say, except to spout the Liberal line that the Liberals have put more money into the arts than the NDP did. Kevin has to stop spouting that line. It's old. And what the NDP did years ago has no real bearing on what the government is doing now.
A vibrant arts community is important to the health of any city, town or village. And funding has to be maintained in order for those communities to survive. When communities don't have a consistent source of funding, and know what they're getting year to year, they can't move forward. They can't put on productions, hire staff, because they don't know if they will have the funds to do so. While education and health are absolutely critical, and health particularly is in dire straits, government can't ignore other things that help us maintain a healthy lifestyle, and arts and culture play a major role in a healthy community.
Kevin and the Liberals are strangely silent on what will become an issue, for sure, in the next election. And while the Liberals generally feel that Kamloops-South Thompson is a safe Liberal riding, many of those in Krueger's riding are people who appreciate what arts and culture do in a city like Kamloops, and they may not forget that in May of 2013.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Removing Trucks from 5A Misguided
(Aired on May 6, 2010)
When I first saw the story in Kamloops This Week, I looked at my calendar to make sure it wasn't April Fools. It wasn't.
MLA Kevin Krueger, reacting to an accident on Highway 5A, the old Merritt Highway, suggested it was time to ban large trucks from the highway. He is quoted as saying that the truckers have outgrown the old route. Typical that the government would react this way when the problem is really the government itself. Trucks speed down that road, they take the sharp turns too quickly. It can indeed be a dangerous route. But the answer is not to ban truckers from the road. The road has handled big trucks for a lot of years. My guess is truck traffic isn't nearly as heavy as before the Coke was built in the 80's. The answer, Mr. Krueger, is to put some government money into policing the situation.
I agree with Paul Landry of the Trucking Association that the problem is a few bad truckers. Years ago, truckers by and large were a pretty good group of drivers. Nowadays it just isn't the case. But if the government put some money into highway patrols that could monitor the truck traffic, could money the safety of the vehicles, could make sure drivers had proper licences and were properly trained, we would go a long way towards solving the problem.
What's the sense of taking stupid, dangerous drivers and moving them from one highway to another. Moving them to the Coquihalla does nothing to solve the problem. They're just as dangerous, and if you look at the stats, there are certainly plenty of truck accidents on the Coke. So why not make the effort to solve the real problem, which is the truckers and not the road? The road is narrow, it has sharp turns, but if you drive it properly, it's safe.
I don't want to suggest that our government is ignorant of reality, but the problem would be better solved in putting some money toward education, training and enforcement, as opposed to the cheaper solution of simply planting a "no fly" zone on a highway.
When I first saw the story in Kamloops This Week, I looked at my calendar to make sure it wasn't April Fools. It wasn't.
MLA Kevin Krueger, reacting to an accident on Highway 5A, the old Merritt Highway, suggested it was time to ban large trucks from the highway. He is quoted as saying that the truckers have outgrown the old route. Typical that the government would react this way when the problem is really the government itself. Trucks speed down that road, they take the sharp turns too quickly. It can indeed be a dangerous route. But the answer is not to ban truckers from the road. The road has handled big trucks for a lot of years. My guess is truck traffic isn't nearly as heavy as before the Coke was built in the 80's. The answer, Mr. Krueger, is to put some government money into policing the situation.
I agree with Paul Landry of the Trucking Association that the problem is a few bad truckers. Years ago, truckers by and large were a pretty good group of drivers. Nowadays it just isn't the case. But if the government put some money into highway patrols that could monitor the truck traffic, could money the safety of the vehicles, could make sure drivers had proper licences and were properly trained, we would go a long way towards solving the problem.
What's the sense of taking stupid, dangerous drivers and moving them from one highway to another. Moving them to the Coquihalla does nothing to solve the problem. They're just as dangerous, and if you look at the stats, there are certainly plenty of truck accidents on the Coke. So why not make the effort to solve the real problem, which is the truckers and not the road? The road is narrow, it has sharp turns, but if you drive it properly, it's safe.
I don't want to suggest that our government is ignorant of reality, but the problem would be better solved in putting some money toward education, training and enforcement, as opposed to the cheaper solution of simply planting a "no fly" zone on a highway.
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