Your E-mails

High Tech – April 25, 2005

In a Vancouver Sun article published on February 28th, Carole James responded to concerns of technology industry leaders about NDP policies by saying "I think [the technology CEOs'] concerns come, perhaps, from a lack of information and lack of research." So it was with much anticipation that I read the NDP policy document.

Unfortunately, in the NDP's 73-page platform, there is virtually no mention of technology industries. Technology is a key part of our economy in B.C. It's a clean, well-paying, knowledge-intensive industry that has huge spin-offs for our communities and our education system. It's not even on the NDP radar screen.

In 2001, Gordon Campbell and the B.C. Liberals devoted two full pages of their platform to knowledge workers and connectivity. They put forward a vision for growing B.C.'s technology industries and they have delivered on their promises. That's why over 700 technology workers rallied in support of the Premier in Vancouver on April 12th.

Premier Campbell has proven that he recognizes the challenges facing the Tech community and he has addressed them. Central to this strategy was lowering taxes early in the mandate.

While on the one hand the NDP state they will not raise taxes, their policy slams the B.C. Liberal tax cuts by saying they favour large corporations. In fact, the tax cuts helped many small and medium-sized technology businesses to attract and retain world class employees.

The NDP statement and their grudging acceptance that tax cuts are popular clearly shows a lack of understanding of our industry and puts into question their desire to retain low rates. Their outdated "Us vs. Them" rhetoric was something Carole James has said she would avoid.

Premier Campbell has also delivered on his vision to invest heavily in research and universities. Adding 25,000 university spaces and funding organizations such as the Michael Smith Foundation further bolster our technology industries. Again, there is no vision and no plan in the NDP platform for higher education.

Technology industries are here today, but can be gone tomorrow. Tech companies, their workers, and capital are not fixed to the land like our natural resource industries. They are mobile and they will leave for greener pastures if the wrong government with the wrong policies is elected. The NDP platform's silence on the technology industry shows me that they haven't listened and they don't care. And worse yet, they would give technology companies no reason to stay.

Barry Jinks
Vancouver

STV – April 26, 2005

I have heard a fair amount about STV but I did not understand how votes transfer and nobody I have talked to yet has understood this.

Finally I visited www.bc-stv.ca and did some reading.

Finally I began to understand.

Without going into too much detail I think you could greatly improve people's general understanding of STV if it was made clear that voters only rank candidates they like. They don't have to rank anyone they don't like and their vote can never transfer to anyone they don't like. Even Christy Clark seemed to think her vote could transfer to the NDP! She had no concept of what the transfer was about.

Also people could probably get a pretty good feel for what the transfer is about if they understood that if their first ranked candidate is eliminated that their ENTIRE vote transfers to their second choice, if they have one.

Also, if their first ranked candidate wins with many more votes than are required to get a seat, that a FRACTION of their vote will transfer to their second choice to help that person get elected.

I have tried to inform people I know about this, as very very few seem to understand what this change is about.

Herb Peters
Richmond

Long-term care beds. Apparently this a sensitive issue for the Liberals. I have to tell you, it is a sensitive issue for me too. Five years ago, my 80-year-old widowed mother was diagnosed with early Alzheimer's Disease and she moved in with my family so we could better care for her. At that time, we were relieved to discover that there was a caring system in place for the next step in the future we inevitably faced. Timely placement into a long-term care bed was available for anyone who was deemed to be "at risk" or a danger in their own homes.

Over the last five years, however, as my mother's health declined, so too did the entire system of long-term care under Gordon Campbell and the Liberals. They closed long-term beds which has forced waiting lists for patients deemed to be at, or beyond, crisis stage. Currently in our community, the list has about 100 names on it, each with their own story. After getting on the list there is a minimum
six-month wait for the very first available bed anywhere. Last May, my mother's name was put on this list.

We are a working couple with an active 10-year-old child. These are some of the risks we took every time my mother had to be left alone; the possibility of complete incontinence, wandering, causing a fire, getting burnt by scalding water, eating or drinking something not designed for consumption, fear of not knowing where her family was or how long they would be. Home care was provided at a cost but was inadequate when 24-hour care, seven-day-a-week care was needed.

What advice were we given by the community RNs who could see that we, as her caregivers, were also now in crisis? "Bring her to the Emergency department and abandon her."

Abandon her? It has actually deteriorated to this heartbreaking point under the Liberals. Now seniors are being abandoned creating another crisis and clogging up emergency and acute care beds at a $1,000 a day. I truly believe there is plenty of money in the system if managed properly by a compassionate government.

Six long months later, the first available funded bed was offered to her in a run-down, dark, dingy, four-bed and mixed-gender room in a facility in Kelowna. We just couldn't do that to her, and as a family, we were forced to find a place for my mom in a private for-profit facility at $5,500 per month. Yes, you read that correctly, per month. Save your money, that is the current cost for private pay long-term care. It will take another year before she is eligible for a funded bed at this particular facility.

Where have our MLA's Sindi Hawkins (former Minister of Health Planning) and Rick Thorpe been during all of this? Oh there they are, trucking in a load of sand as a "prop" for a staged photo-op funded by our tax dollars, all to re-announce the new bridge. Isn't that ironically symbolic, their heads are stuck in the sand while health care implodes around them?

Gordon Campbell and the Liberals' aerial ads of our province remind me of just how above it all and out of touch with reality they really are. Their glossy election pamphlets boast "Our plan is working". Working for whom? Not me, certainly not my mother.

What kind of society do you want to live in? On May 17, you have an important decision to make.

Susanne Young
Kelowna

STV – April 27, 2005

I support STV because: 1) it is more proprotional than "winner take all," but unlike proportional representation, it allows the voters to choose the MLAs rather than the parties; and 2) STV reduces the need for strategic voting (imagine if Ralph Nader's votes went to Al Gore). People unsure about how STV works should check out the animations on the citizensassembly.bc.ca website.

Art Blundell
Nanaimo

Liberal Donations – April 28, 2005

Yikes, with TWO municipal donations to the Liberal Party uncovered, I wonder how many more we can expect to learn about. Sounds like we may need our own Gomery Inquiry here. Absolutely appalling, really. Do you suppose Gordon Campbell buys golf balls with our money too?

Michelle MCaughran
Vancouver