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British Columbia NDP Majority Government 2024-(no later than) 2029

The BC NDP blew a $6B surplus and went into a $9B deficit within only a year.
That too. Eby and his followers (I assume like most parties the provincial NDP has at least two major sub-factions) have dug themselves some big holes.

A thing people ought to realize before it blows up in their faces is that when the provincial government trades the interests of provincial voters for other political entities claiming their own direct relationships with the federal government, the provincial government is effectively abdicating its responsibility and abandoning the consent necessary to justify its existence.
 
Conservatives just can't play nice with each other.
Conservatives are ideologically disinclined to pay for everything that everyone in the tent wants. LPC and NDP can always find agreement in spending more of someone else's money.

The gaps are where no-one agrees or even understands "what are you trying to conserve?"

In Canada particularly the "centrist" conservative doesn't seem to have much more ambition than to conserve whatever the last liberal government legislated. People unwilling to turn off a recent spending program that benefits them or overturn a narrowing of former liberties aren't conserving much of anything.

Brodie is expressing sentiments that the NDP establishment in particular, and of course everyone with money interests milking rents from the current legal/political tangle/regime, would like to squash right quick. So there'll be a lot of external pressure, much of which will be hidden from public view and very personally targeted. Expect fractures.
 
It is tremendous difficult to wean the public off of a perk/funding, etc. Previous Liberal governments (Chreatin, Martin) were actually good at cutting. They never announced that X was permanently going away, they just reduce or defund the program. If it blew up in their face, then they just push money back into the shell. The Conservatives, would announce the cut and do it and then have to wear the heat, with very little room to manoeuvre. When Harper took over, there was a huge number of empty program shells that took years to clean up.

If you want to form a government here in Canada now, you will need to be near the centre and work slowly and carefully to reduce it. The CPC is to quick with the knife. The Conservatives in BC are a total mess, who need a fresh face with good experience behind them, not to far right and willing to be a harsh disciplinarian with party members and keeping policy statements and promises within provincial matters and not allow the party to get baited by the NDP.

I have always said the Liberals are much better lairs than the Conservatives. A Liberal will tell people what they want to hear and then do something else. The Conservatives just are not that good at that.
 
It is tremendous difficult to wean the public off of a perk/funding, etc. Previous Liberal governments (Chreatin, Martin) were actually good at cutting. They never announced that X was permanently going away, they just reduce or defund the program. If it blew up in their face, then they just push money back into the shell. The Conservatives, would announce the cut and do it and then have to wear the heat, with very little room to manoeuvre. When Harper took over, there was a huge number of empty program shells that took years to clean up.

If you want to form a government here in Canada now, you will need to be near the centre and work slowly and carefully to reduce it. The CPC is to quick with the knife. The Conservatives in BC are a total mess, who need a fresh face with good experience behind them, not to far right and willing to be a harsh disciplinarian with party members and keeping policy statements and promises within provincial matters and not allow the party to get baited by the NDP.

I have always said the Liberals are much better lairs than the Conservatives. A Liberal will tell people what they want to hear and then do something else. The Conservatives just are not that good at that.

I don't think we have a party or politician that is willing to take social spending away from Canadians. Its a tried and true method to buy votes with it.
 
I don't think we have a party or politician that is willing to take social spending away from Canadians. Its a tried and true method to buy votes with it.
Eventually we will have to. Better to do gradual reductions and to put grandfather clauses on them, so younger people don't get them. It sucks, but if it leads to some tax reductions then it will be palatable.
 
Eventually we will have to. Better to do gradual reductions and to put grandfather clauses on them, so younger people don't get them. It sucks, but if it leads to some tax reductions then it will be palatable.

I fully disagree with that. I'm not interested in locking horns another generational debate, but I will firmly stand against the youth being asked to sacrifice any more.
 
I don't think we have a party or politician that is willing to take social spending away from Canadians. Its a tried and true method to buy votes with it.

It is the basis of the universal franchise. Governing parties under threat of replacement expanded their base of support by promising access to education, health plans and pensions.
 
It is the basis of the universal franchise. Governing parties under threat of replacement expanded their base of support by promising access to education, health plans and pensions.

Oh I understand the why. I just wish Canadians were ambitious enough to not need so many hand outs, and not simple enough to fall for them as vote bait.
 
I fully disagree with that. I'm not interested in locking horns another generational debate, but I will firmly stand against the youth being asked to sacrifice any more.
Unless we find some massive new tax revenue base, I am not sure how sustainable the current situation is.
 

Unless we find some massive new tax revenue base, I am not sure how sustainable the current situation is.

Make more money.
Sell more stuff.

 
Right wing parties (not centre-right like the Socreds prior to 1991, BC Liberals post 1991) have been always been a weird collection of fruits and nuts. You usually see the same names in each iteration, whether it’s BC Reform after Jack Weisgerber and Richard Neufeld left, BC Unity (NOT to be confused with BC United), what was left of the Socreds after they imploded (a website in some guy’s basement) the B.C. Conservatives before Rustad took over, or a half dozen other parties that sprang up and died. Those parties did not have the serious backers and donors, nor did they have the Howe Street crowd. And there were usually the same fruits and nuts in each iteration.

It seems the B.C. Conservatives found a perfect storm and came close to defeating the NDP, though it is the first time a single free-enterprise party on the ballot did not defeat them. Now their bat-shittery is coming home to roost. Whether a more viable Liberal/Conservative free-enterprise coalition can rise from the ashes remains to be seen.
 

"For B.C.’s economy, worse seems almost certainly on the way. There may be new press releases as businesses simply start “quiet quitting” B.C. without any fanfare, but rather march their investment dollars to provinces and countries where property rights and the investment climate can be relied on. This won’t just be real estate deals either, but also investments in mines, pipelines, factories and any other type of physical infrastructure."

Potash and pipelines....
 
Plan C

Ship from Prince Rupert in 12,500 tonne barges to the Drift River Oil Terminal on Cook Inlet. A four day round trip would suggest a fleet of 40 barges required with a sailing frequency of 10 a day or one every 2 to 3 hours. Valdez would be an alternate trans-shipment point.

1,000,000 barrels a day could also be delivered to Rupert by 800 to 1000 railcars a days or 5 to 10 trains with 100 to 120 cars.

The barges and tugs are there....

....

AI Overview
It is difficult to provide an exact, real-time number of unpiloted oil barges in the Inside Passage as the exact figure is not publicly available and traffic varies, but data from the mid-2010s offers insight into the frequency of these voyages.

Pilotage Waivers: The Pacific Pilotage Authority (PPA) grants pilotage waivers to approximately 250 barges (carrying various cargo, including fuel) for the compulsory pilotage waters of the Inside Passage. These waivers allow the tug companies to use their own certified mariners instead of a local Canadian pilot.

Transit Frequency: In 2011-2012, two companies alone were responsible for about 370 transits per year through the BC portion of the Inside Passage with American tanker barges without Canadian pilots.

Fuel Deliveries: American tanker barges, typically 10,000 tons and transporting diesel, heating oil, aviation gas, and gasoline, make dozens of round trips annually from Anacortes, Washington, to supply ports in both the US and Canada (including Alaska).

These barges are part of an articulated tug-barge (ATB) system, meaning a tug is fitted into a notch at the stern of the non-self-propelled barge to push it. The tug is crewed, but the barge itself is non-self-propelled and thus "unpiloted" in the sense that it doesn't have an independent crew or engine.

Anacortes might even be better....

Rail to Rupert
Barge to Anacortes with WCS
Barge from Anacortes with refined products.

And all working within the 12,500 tonne limit.

Notley considered buying 7000 railcars and ended up leasing 4000. That would allow for a 2 to 5 day turnaround from the Bruderheim Oil Rail Terminal to Prince Rupert.
 
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