Thursday, April 23, 2009

On How Carole James Could Look Less Stupid

After a disastrous 1st week of campaigning, the B.C. NDP must surely be thinking of a way out of the hole they've dug themselves into on the environment. Luckily, DeSmog Blog has found a possible route:

Metro Vancouver mayors have let it be known that they would like the revenue from the carbon tax to pay for regional transit. That's a perfect solution for the NDP. Rather than maintaining their opposition to the tax - and continuing to sow outrage among erstwhile environmental supporters -NDP leader Carole James could acknowledge the merit of the mayors' request and agree to leave the tax in place, redirecting its proceeds to transit options.

One perfectly legitimate criticism of the B.C. carbon tax is that sending the monies into general revenues doesn't do the environment a helluva lotta good. Seconding the mayor's proposal would suggest that the NDP is actually out to improve the province's green policy, not just score cheap political points.

Oh wait, its an election. Scoring cheap political points is the order of the day.

6 comments:

Robert McClelland said...

Disastrous?

LP: 44%
NDP: 42%

bigcitylib said...

Robbins who?

Gene Rayburn said...

"Margin of error on leader and party Q#1 (.5%)--based on ROBBINS 'secret' formula."

Secret formula? Come on!

Jeff said...

Ipsos, April 22: Lib 46, NDP 35
Mustel, April 14: Lib 52, NDP 35
Angus Reid, March 24: 43, NDP 37

As for Robbins, I find the accompanying analysis very interesting reading. And when even the folks on Rabble don't take them seriously...

http://rabble.ca/babble/western-provinces/latest-bc-poll-results

Reality Bites said...

Robbins once ventured on to rabble to make some rather incoherent threats to someone (well, me, actually) for saying some unflattering things about his polls. Unfortunately that thread seems to have vanished into depths of their site redesign. However it is quoted extensively here, including

I say you don't have the gonads to do it, because cowards like you who will never amount to anything, sit around and send out meaningless blogs. The right and proper thing for you to do and (think seriously about this) you know its true, is to rid the earth of yourself, because (and look at what you are writing) you are truly a waste of good skin that might otherwise be made available to another, or perhaps a jacket for a more worthy citizen.Suffice it to say that as Ezra Levant is to journalism, Robbins is to polling.

Reality Bites said...

More fun with Robbins, from when he was the pollster for the BC Reform Party:

Question #3

Currently, the population of women in Canada exceeds 50%. However, women currently hold only one-fifth or 20% of the federal seats in the House of Commons in Ottawa. Same-sex marriage has been made legal in Ontario and British Columbia to accommodate same-sex couples. As a measure of social progress, which of the following goals of social progress is most important to you?
a) Seeing more women elected as Members of Parliament in the federal House of Commons;
b) Legalizing same-sex marriage across Canada;
c) I don’t care for either of these goals of social progress

a) 54% b) 12% c) 33%


Our third question reveals that only 12% support legalizing same-sex marriages and that it is not a priority to Western Canadians

http://www.reformbc.net/news2003/rp09aug03.htm