Christy's been listening to some Kendrick

Everybody enjoy your $15 mcdicks meals and $8 coffees.

As much as I dislike the NDP, I actually have to agree with you on this point

The Liberals did ignore the housing market when they should have stepped in with calming measures. They also haven't done as much as I thought they should have when it comes to reducing the BC debt. In addition, they didn't end the practice of raiding ICBC and BC Hydro coffers that the NDP started, which has resulted in hiked rates on what is essentially a monopolized government service. Education and Health care have also taken a pretty big hit in funding over the years, all without really seeing the benefits to all of those savings anywhere else.

This Green-NDP alliance will at least give them an opportunity to reflect on some of their oversights on these important issues. Clark's dropping popularity is also something they need to rectify, selecting a new leader is critical for them to move forward.


Now realistically, if the Liberals had held on somehow or entered a power sharing deal with the Greens, disdain would have continued to grow and they would have been totally out in the next election. A majority NDP government for a full 4 year term would be a complete nightmare.

At least in this scenario, with the public so strongly divided, the NDP-Green alliance won't hold up long against intense scrutiny. The two parties will reach an impasse where they can no longer sacrifice their party values, and the agreement will likely fall apart on a critical confidence vote. My prediction is when this coalition falls apart in about a years time, the Liberals are going to walk out of it with a very strong majority, and hopefully some tweaks to the party platform that work better for residents of BC.

If the NDP and the Greens are willing to behave like sensible adults in a work environment, and focus on working on stuff where they share common grounds while postponing / delaying the items that they disagree on, I honestly don't see why they can't last more than 3 years as Weaver has suggested. There is a LOT of work to be done, and they share enough common ground that can at least negotiate (and hopefully compromise) on to make the government last.

Even if they can't work well together, it would be political suicide for at least either the NDP or the Greens (or perhaps both) to end the minority government in anything less than 2+ years. Voters tend to punish political parties that end parliament too early, and all parties involved know this. I suspect Weaver understand this concept quite well, and for Horgan, he has far more to lose than Weaver/Greens do, so he'd be stupid to not try hard and make this work.

Again that's your choice. You can just rent if you like. No one is pointing a gun to your head forcing you to buy. If you did read my post I clearly stated hie had 3 kids and a wife who only works part time. Maybe instead of having 3 kids and then decide to buy, have no kids first? Kids do cost a lot of money. May hold off having kids first?

Owing a house/apartment/townhomes is not a right is a privilege. If people want to own then they need to sacrifice something to get there. There are no free rides. I live with parents to save. Yea there are still sacrifices I have to make.

Take a min and think how many jobs/jobs sector/industry the directly or indirectly relying on the real estate market. That pops and how many people is going to lose their job. Sure the market is crush but how many people actually have a job to afford a place after? How many people actually save enough to jump into the market to buy?

This was my situation 13 years ago when my wife wanted a house, I gave her a choice. We could start a family and stay where we were or we could move and wait on starting a family until we were making more money. She chose the kid, down the rode once we were both making more money she got the house as well.

We chose to only have 1 kid for the same reason, kids are expensive!! Full time daycare from 1 to 10 wasn't cheap, we both work full time and always have. It's all about choices and timing, sometimes you have defer things you want until the time is right. I'd really love a new truck right now, I could afford it but it makes more financial sense to save up a bit more and either pay for it all at once or put most of the money down and take a small loan paying it off quick.

I'm all about living within my means. I have friends that all they care about is, can I make the minimum monthly payment? That's not me, I'm all about as little debt as possible. If it takes me years to save for something so be it.

I feel badly for those under 30 today. You definitely have to be more strategic about your life choices. The problem is that parenting and the education system haven't caught up with the times.

Anyway, I'm kind of eager to see how this government plays out. My prediction is that this lasts 18 months and that Christy Clark remains the Liberal Party leader and mounts a comeback.

Yeah because with the price of real estate going sky high rent is becoming more and more affordable here. And then you can get renovicted at any time, that is reassuring. I don't even have kids, I couldn't imagine that burden on top of all the other costs.

Sorry but living with parents while saving your money is about as free of a ride as you can get, so excuse me if I don't take your hardships as serious as someone who didn't get that luxury.

Would you say your situation 13 years ago is anywhere near comparable to what's going on now though? Say if you guys were just starting out now, would what you have even be an option with today's prices?

Looking at what places are going for now I'd be in a townhouse and not a house.

Sounds to me like this coalition is headed off the rails.
I think weaver bet on the wrong horse here and will get punished if there's another election.

Mike Smyth: Weaver says NDP-Green alliance could be in trouble | The Province

Personally, I don't see it as the coalition headed off the rails. As soon as the MLA numbers were finalized, all major media analysis has pointed this Speaker of the House issue as an expected thorn in the process.

For Horgan, Weaver, or any of their party members involved to think that they could lure a Liberals MLA into acting as the speaker, I'd say they are more than a bit naive. And with the way things are headed, if the minority government does get toppled, any reasonable follower of the provincial political news can easily and sensibly come up with a number of legitimate reasons as to why the votes in a re-election would swing one way or another.

If it does come down to yet another election in the near future, I'd suspect Horgan is going to try his best to smear the Liberals as the culprit. If they public buys his story, they will punish the Libs during the vote.

From the results of the election, what is crystal clear is that voters in this province are sick of Crusty and the Libs. The intensity of that disgust, however, is more difficult to gauge.

I am not sick of Christy Clark or the Liberal party. I do not have confidence in John Horgan or any NDP MLA to lead our province. I also don't use childish names to describe people in public office. :smug:

Yes, it is difficult to the gauge level of frustration our citizens have with our provincial government. However, the use of childish names and innuendo makes it pretty easy to figure out which side people are on.

I make no effort in trying to hide my hatred towards "Christy Clark". In my eyes, she has been a disaster to our province, and her "leadership" is one of the primary reasons for our runaway home prices. Just as Adambomb has no confidence in Horgan or the NDP to lead our province, I have no confidence in any of the Liberals -- and especially not Christy Clark -- to lead our province again because she has already proven herself to be a failure.

Coining nicknames to name public figures may or may not be indicative of which side people or on. Pretending to be civil doesn't actually make someone intelligent either, esp when the said person has failed or refused to recognize how the votes have shifted massively from a Liberal majority to some sort of minority government.

Home prices are still relatively affordable in other parts of the province. The employment opportunities are also abundant in those parts of BC and have the potential to increase with a Liberal government.

Those who feel the Liberals have been a disaster for BC tend to only live in Southern BC and have no regard for the needs of any other citizens outside Metro Vancouver.

Examples:
Citizens against the Site C dam, but have never set foot in Fort St. John. Citizens against the LNG pipeline, but have never set foot in Kitimat.

Please tell me more about how Christy has been a disaster without solely focusing on the issues that affect Metro Vancouver. :considered:

Just leverage your real estate "investments" and you'll figure it out.

I think that question would be better answered by BC voters as a whole, and the election results already speak for themselves on that one.

But if you want a concrete example of why Clark is a disaster for the entire province instead of just Metro Vancouver, you need to look no further than her current refusal to step down as premier. When Weaver announced that the Greens would support the NDP to form a minority government, the right thing for Clark to do for the entire province would have been to concede and step down. Instead, she is unnecessarily dragging things on, and delaying the proper function of our provincial government.

You mean cars? :troll:

I feel like you don't fully understand what is happening.

She is following the exact proper protocol in this situation, it has been commented on several times by political scientists that she is following exactly what a honorable premier in a minority government ethically should do.

If she wanted to string this out, she could delay it well into September, but she went ahead with a June 22 date and has basically said after her throne speech there will be a confidence vote where she expects to be defeated, and the government in waiting will be sworn in. That will change her role to be leader of the opposition, and likely a new leader will be elected after the dust has settled.

Ditto on the speaker. It is the duty of the government to appoint one, not the opposition. In this case, she expects to be defeated and become the opposition, so they will not be volunteering somebody to be the speaker. This is normal protocol, and not "playing games" as Weaver and Horgan were quoted this week saying. People suggesting that either think the public is so ignorant they won't know this, or they don't understand it themselves.

BC population - 4.631 Million
Metro Vancouver - 2.463 Million
Fort St. John Population - 18k
Kitimat Population - 8k


So yeah you can excuse my slight disregard for issues outside of metro

Lol.

Fort St. John has that many people?

Damn................


How much for a house there? :troll::troll::troll:

Those areas of the province are over-represented in the legislature due to population.

Any leader of a political party who ignores the concerns of these areas does so at his/her own peril.

Another way of looking at it is if you strangle the economy in those areas, people will leave and seek opportunities here in Metro Vancouver. Considering the craziness in the rental market and the strain on our existing infrastructure, do people here who already complain about high housing costs want to compete with more people for housing and jobs?

I am not at all suggesting whether Christy is following protocol (or not). Instead, I'm saying she is not doing the proper, prudent, and pragmatic thing. Given the current situation, the Liberals have no chance of forming the next functional government. So in my view, anything short of forfeiting premiership is wasting the province's time even if/when she is following formal protocol.

As suggested in a previous post of mine, NDP and the Greens would be quite naive to think that a Liberals MLA would be willing to step forward to become the Speaker of the House. Not only is it the duty of the government -- and not the opposition -- to appoint one as MrPhreak has pointed out, for a Liberal MLA to take up the position given the current seats distribution is the equivalent of committing political suicide. So I do not blame the Libs for not stepping up to take the Speaker position -- it is not their responsibility.

I have seen it suggested by quite a few people that Clark should resign, and normally if you lose the election, that is generally what happens.

In this case, with all political bias aside, there are some pretty good reasons why that isn't happening.

First, they still technically won the most seats of any party, and that in itself entails a duty for them to do their due diligence in serving the people that voted for them. In this case, delivering a throne speech and testing the house is very reasonable.

Second, if Clark resigns, she has to give up her seat in the house, and with every seat in the house being critical to winning confidence votes, it is not in her parties interest, nor the people who voted for her, to weaken her parties influence in the house. Very likely at some point, one of the NDP or Green party people will be late, or sick, or on vacation.... and they will be able to bring the minority government down. By not resigning, she will become the leader of the opposition, and it will put the liberals in a stronger position.

Finally, this entire coalition is pretty fragile, and despite what Horgan and Weaver are saying, we may not even see it come together at all. The NDP have even issued a letter to their supporters that they should donate money in case of a sudden snap election in the next few months. What this comes down to is the Liberals need a leader ready to go in case of a snap election, or in case the Green-NDP thing falls apart even before the confidence vote. It is better if they can let the dust settle, and then try to pick a new leader afterwards.

Ugh... the Liberals needing a "leader" in case of a snap election... I cringe at the thought of her leading another Liberals election campaign, or worse yet, heading the provincial government for another term... FailFish

Surely if the Liberals replace her with someone else, they'd have a better chance at winning? IMO, there is a lot more negativity and animosity towards Christy Clark than there is towards the Libs.