andrews@ubc-cs.UUCP (Jamie Andrews) (10/16/85)
Subtitle (for can.politics readers): Son Of Intellectual Sleaze
Warning: heavy ad hominem follows
I am not even a net.politics reader, but I have seen Rick McGeer's ravings
on other people's accounts and I can keep SILENT NO LONGER!!
In article <10652@ucbvax.ARPA> mcgeer@ucbvax.UUCP (Rick McGeer) writes:
> ... I lived in British Columbia most of my life, including the
>three years it was under the NDP: BC still hasn't fully recovered from the
>ravages of the Barrett government....
A short course in 70's BC politics. BC was run for many years under a man
named Wacky Bennett. His party was Social Credit (the Socreds for short), a
party founded by one Bible Bill Eberhart. (This is just to give you some idea
of what BC politics is like.) In 1972 the BC voters got fed up with Wacky
and elected an NDP (New Democratic Party) government. These people were pretty
darn incompetent I must admit, not due to their socialism but due to the fact
that none of them had ever seen a government office before.
In 1975, the Socreds got their act together again under the leadership of
Wacky's son Bill. They got what amounted to a coalition government in the
election, due to the defection of many senior people from the middle-of-the-
road Liberal party. Chief among these was a university professor named Pat
McGeer, who during his ten years of university management with Bill Bennett
has presided over the immense loss of prestige and professors from BC's
universities. McGeer and the other Socreds have kept in government lo these
many years, by hounding the brainless BC electorate with the memory of the
failures of the NDP.
Perhaps our own Rick McGeer could comment on his relationship with this
highly-respected politician whom the university students have always greeted
with the warm phrase "Stick it in your ear, McGeer." Certainly his laughable
comments sound very familiar indeed.
> ... I know socialism is dangerous, just as
>an East European knows it's dangerous....
Anyone who thinks the NDP are like East European communists is not
sufficiently in touch with reality to make any coherent comments on the
subject, especially if he has such immense CONFLICT OF INTEREST.
--Jamie.acton@ubc-cs.UUCP (Donald Acton) (10/16/85)
>In article <10652@ucbvax.ARPA> mcgeer@ucbvax.UUCP (Rick McGeer) writes: > ... I lived in British Columbia most of my life, including the >three years it was under the NDP: BC still hasn't fully recovered from the >ravages of the Barrett government.... The NDP (socialists) have been out of power now for over ten years and I find it hard to believe that any of their policies are responsible for the current economic conditions in BC. If any of the NDP's policies are responsible, then the fault lies with the ruling Social Credit Party for failing to modify or eliminate those policies over the past ten years. But what about the glory years in the late 70's and early 80's when the BC economy was booming and everything looked great? Surely those years must have been the result of the previous NDP rule if the problems of today are still their fault. I tend to think not. I subscribe to the theory that at least part of BC's problems are due to the economic conditions of the world as a whole and are not exactly under our control. Unfortunately our problems in BC were exacerbated by a Liberal government under Pierre Trudeau who didn't care about what happened in western Canada. Come to think of it since the NDP are just 'Liberals in a hurry' maybe you are right and we still haven't recovered from NDP rule. :-) Donald Acton
jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (10/17/85)
Jamie's comments on the Socred/NDP relationship in BC was interesting.
In Ontario, we've got a similar situation wherein the Liberal/NDP 'sort
of coalition' is the 1st non-Tory government since before I was born. It'll
be amazing if they *don't* trip over their own feet. In that sense the
B.C. NDP's have probably taken a bum rap. But then, the point of running
a party in an election is to say to the electorate 'we are ready to
govern'. If you aren't then you should not form a government. Oh, most
mistakes are actually less important than the media would have you believe,
just as the current Tory nepotism probably won't in and of itself hurt
the country, but it would be refreshing to find such an honest self
evaluation of ones abilities.
Cheers! -- Jim O.
--
James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto
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