BC Election News: The Latest and Greatest

The latest in BC election news is hot as a pancake. The election campaign continues!

Of course, in this post-recession age, one of the biggest issues is the economy. Needless to say, the parties have several differences in their approach to BC's political economy, as well as labour relations.

B.C. election: How an NDP government would deal with labour: Walkom  

“What we have to develop is a climate of respect,” she says. “I don’t think the union movement is expecting miracles. But people are really hungry for a change in approach.

“It may sound like a platitude. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. But it makes a difference.”

The Real Issue: Election to decide which party sets B.C.’s economic course for decades 

The reversion to provincial sales tax (PST) means the province’s industries and businesses are returned to a complex tax regime that makes B.C. a less attractive place to invest. Reforms may be imperative.

A decision is needed on whether to continue the carbon tax, and whether to increase it if it remains. If the tax goes up, the government must decide whether to make a commensurate cut to personal and corporate income taxes — as the Campbell government did when the tax was introduced in 2008 — or to channel the extra money into general revenue or perhaps debt reduction.

Taxpayer-supported debt is projected to grow from $38 billion in the 2012-13 fiscal year to $46 billion in three years — and consume a growing portion of the province’s gross domestic product in the process.

B.C. election: Christy Clark's position on pipelines is as clear as tar 

I was hoping that Clark would explain how they would ever decide if the conditions had been met. If these conditions had any real credibility, she would have rejected the pipelines already based on the opposition from First Nations alone. Over 130 Nations have now signed the historic Save The Fraser Declaration opposing tar sands pipelines through their territory.

Not surprisingly, I didn't get a response.

Clark attacks Dix on Kinder Morgan position at leaders' debate

Don't just take BC Projections' word for it, there are various metrics and ways to predict the winner:

How a free-market prediction tool is seeing the B.C. election

UBC’s prediction markets launched in February, and have been tracking the parties’ fortunes over the past eight weeks. Nearly 120 traders have signed up and invested more than $12,000. So what do these traders predict?

The markets consistently predict an NDP win, with the odds of an upset at one in 10 or less. More interesting is how our traders predict the distribution of seats in the legislature. According to them, the NDP can count on 58 or 59 of the 85 seats, and the B.C. Liberals on 19 or 20. Two independent candidates are also expected to be re-elected.

BC Election: Social Media Standings #bcpoli

In an analysis of overall sentiment expressed in social media, all leaders fare well, although as Sysomos spokesperson Phoenix Lam points out, the grey area in the bars in the charts below, while they may be counted as favourable,  could be totally neutral – such as retweets of news stories.

To rank as unfavourable or favourable, the social media mention has to be something explicit that the analysis will recognize – such as ‘i love Christy Clark,’ or ‘I hate Christy Clark.’ This analysis, which counts the neutral rankings as favourable, turns up an 88 per cent favourable ranking for Clark on social media in the first week of the election.

BC Election 2013 Wildcard: How 'bout those Canucks? 

There are few teams anywhere as popular as the Vancouver Canucks. True, the strike-shortened 2013 NHL season has been a desultory and unsatisfying affair thus far. The Canucks won their weak division but rarely looked inspired in doing so, suffering numerous injuries and slouching their way through low-scoring victories over opponents that were, if not entirely hapless, possessed of very little hap. Christy Clark and the Liberals would not get much bump from this year's Vancouver squad.

Once you scratch the surface of numbers and polls, you can get down to the nitty-gritty of what's at stake in this election:

B.C. Election: Compare B.C. party platforms on 32 election issues 

Our platform comparison tool lets voters make side-by-side assessments of key statements on issues from democratic reform to taxation to health care, quoted from platform documents. Users can also “like” policy statements and see which party’s vision has the most support.

B.C. election leaders’ debate live: Christy Clark needs to shine to catch up to leading NDP

BC Election 2013: Multicultural Vote Courted By Politicians

With a reference to the "quick wins" to be had with an apology for historic wrongs, such as the Chinese head tax, the memo engulfed the premier's office in scandal. Clark's deputy chief of staff and the Liberal multiculturalism minister were forced to step down.

The issue cast a shadow over the Times of India Film Awards.

Just after that, the New Democrats were criticized for using hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to help organize political activities in multicultural communities. The majority of the NDP Members Constituency Office Centralized Fund was paid to Yiu, for work a draft report by the provincial auditor general's office deemed partisan.