One blog rader has been posting
links to the Starnet raid back in 1999 which was tied to illegal gambling and child pornography connected to the Hells Angels. That was before I started the blog but since we are looking forward to another election in BC it would be wise to take a walk down memory lane and examine just what really did happen so we can see
what caused the current mess we are now in. It certainly is
one big George Lucas saga.
Having been born and raised in British Columbia, I have seen the tides of dramatic polarized politics sweep from one extreme to the other over and over again. Everyone has been involved in a scandal of some sort. Bill Vandersalm's scandal was dramatized by the media and I really don't think it was a big deal. The same with the Fast Ferries scandal. It would have been a great idea if it worked. Sometimes businesses fail. That's life in the real world. It wasn't a scandal like BC Rail or
Campbell heights was.
So
let's look at the Starnet Raid back in the summer of 1999. Despite the dramaic alegations in the media,
after the raid was concluded it was back to business as usual. CBC reported that Vancouver-based Internet company Starnet Communications says it faces no criminal charges and is co-operating with authorities after a police raid.
The company specializes in Internet gambling and pornography.
In a release, Starnet says
it has never been associated with child pornography. RCMP Constable Peter Thiessen confirmed investigators left Starnet offices the day before and said, "They spent the better part of three days going through the business. And as a result of that search the investigation is continuing, but no charges have been laid."
As I said previously,
the Orange Number 5 was indeed run by the Hells Angels but I am not aware of any under age patrons working there. Although we do know one patron who worked there ended up dead on the Pickton Farm. It's a seedy industry there is no question about that.
All I'm saying is
look at what happened to the BC government's taxes, budget deficits, and corporate corruption since the fall of Glen Clark and the rise of the real scoundrel Gordon Campbell. That act killed the province's fiscal responsibility forever by
creating the ultimate BC Hydro fraud. BC Rail was nothing in comparison.
Recently CBC reported that "an Ontario mother struggling to pay her hydro bill took Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to task in an impassioned plea that captured the plight of many Ontarians overwhelmed by high electricity rates.
Global reported her stating: “Something is wrong now Mr. Trudeau. My heat and hydro now cost me more than my mortgage,” said Kathy Katula, of Buckhorn, Ont., to a round of applause. “I now not only work 75 hours a week, I stay and work 15 hours a day just so I don’t lose my home.”
This is where BC is heading because of what Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals did many years ago. They set the ball in motion for ballooning deficits where there had been surpless paying dividends to the government reducing taxes and balancing the budget. After their dirty deal that practice was destroyed forever and the fiscal cliff rapidly approaches as a result.
The BC Hydro fraud was very similar to BC Rail and Campbell Heights. It represented the firesale of public assets to insiders who return kickbacks to the political party in the form of political contributions. Only this one was much worse and has gone by virtually unnoticed by the mainstream media despite the fact that the scandal rivals Enron and is similar to what caused the same problem in Ontario. It all started with the partial privatization of public power.
The Campbell Government knew privatizing BC Hydro would be a hard sell so they pulled a senator Palpatine and did something much worse. They privatized the power brokers that sold power to the public company at above market rates. They have been burning tax dollars ever since at an unprecedented rate and have at the same time created a ballooning deficit that will soon push us over the fiscal cliff.
I'm not talking about Terson Gas. That's running fine. I'm talking about
the power brokers that sell power to BC Hydro at above market rates. I support a free market. I am not a corporate communist. I believe in free enterprise. Corporate monopolies destroy the free market and enslave consumers and taxpayers alike. If we had state run power then much of those profits that communist China is now earning would go to our budget. It would help reduce taxes and balance the budget. That is not a communist plot to overtake the free world. What they are doing now is.
When you privatize a public company their mandate is to make a profit. Not so they can pay dividends to the shareholders but so they can put it in their own pocket at get rich at the taxpayers expense. When you privatize the power brokers that sell power to BC Hydro AND then give them a monopoly on the market there is no competition. They can charge whatever they want and that is exactly what they do.
They charge the public company above market rates for their power just because they can and so they do. As a result this ballooning deficit we have already talked about is growing at a frightening rate. Someone has to fix this fraud before it consumes all of us.
When Ujjal Dosanjh took over the NDP after the fall of Glen Clark,
the BC NDP balanced the budget and had a $1.2 billion surplus. After the fall of Glen Clark and the rise of Gordon Campbell, that has never happened since.
Christy Clark's dishonest fudge it budgets have become criminal yet the public keep buying that dirty deal because they are afraid the sky will fall if they elect a NDP government. Alberta did and the sky has not fallen.
No political party is perfect especially the NDP. I do think the BC NDP could fix the BC Hydro problem if they leave Terson Gas alone and bring the power brokers that sell power to BC Hydro back into the public company. That is what we need to do so we dont end up like Ontario is now. Yet if the BC NDP embrace lethal injection sites and prescription heron, they will push us right over the other fiscal cliff. It is a double edge sword and a narrow ledge we must cross but it's doable. In fact if we don't the consequences are indeed fatal for future fiscal responsibility. Personally, I think right now Bruce Ralston is the man for the job.
Mike Harris is the one who screwed up Ontario Power just like Gordon Campbell did to BC Hydro. When it comes to privatization, the Liberals never learn. Their decision to hand over new generating capacity in the province to
private firms led to higher electricity rates.
As the New York Times recently declared, Welcome
to the Wild, Wild West.
