Winter's here, time to crank up the Air Conditioner, what!

In my first car, that came with an air conditioner, the instruction manual said that I should turn on the ac to defrost the windshield for a couple of minutes. Yeah sure.

Those are the kind of instructions that came with my Canon F1 in 1972, brass body, where it said to do a double exposure rewind a half revolution then advance a half revolution. The Canon camera predecessor to the F1 said that I had to rewind on revolution and then advance one revolution.... the result of not following the instruction turned out to be a triple exposure...... and everybody who has seen it still marvel and my creativity.

Call me slow, but after three cold winters where once my Astro Van was warmed up, I and my passengers, were being shell shocked with water dropping through from overhead...and I don't have a convertible Astro Van. It wasn't till this winter than I started to wonder why my AC unit had settings from Cold to Hot on the dash and adding to that I was curious as to the amount of water that is always being dumped beneath the vehicle from the AC unit in the summer.

The Astro Van, what with all of its doors, sliding and rear doors, the possibility of water coming into the van, happens, almost on a daily basis because of where I live. This year, like previous winter years I was finding ICE on the inside of my windshield. I seemed to spend more time prepping the inside of my windshield before starting off to work than the outside where the windshield was encrusted with ICE.

The answer... TURN ON THE AIR CONDITIONER, set at HOT. Within a minute hot air is warming the inside of the van, and once the motor is hot, switch the AC off and go for motor block coolant to heat the inside of the vehicle and defrost the windshield.

The Air Conditioner works at pulling the moisture out of van whether its summer or winter, spring or fall.



And that white gizmo to the right of the Air Conditioner... my alarm. Everyone knows that its a motion sensor. But inside a vehicle rather than mounted on a nearby building (garage, house, carport)? I found that having the sensor mounted on a building caught more raccoons that people, and I lost a good deal of sleep over it too when the the alarm went off inside my house. Its a wireless system, works great.

Think about this, how many good neighbours do you have that would get up out of their beds to challenge someone breaking into your car to stop the thieves while you were sound asleep in your bed? None. right? And the thieves know that.

Having he motion sensor on the Inside of the vehicle leaves it up to the thief to try and second guess if the owner will call the police, and doing it silently as the B & E is going on.

POI for Dummies

source: POI Factory

Speed Camera loading for Dummies

Tue, 12/09/2008 - 3:55pm

ramcruzer

How many would like to know how to set speed alerts to only alert if you are going to fast!!!!

Well I have searched on this site and read all the threads and even the help section in the poi loader and it was not clear to me on how this works. I have been watching and reading all this stuff and I see there are a lot of us that can’t understand a lot of this lingo.
So I started to play with all the info from this site and my GPS and have figured it out,, some of you might already know this, but it is hard to ask a question on how to do this stuff on these web sites (it’s easier to talk on the phone or in person to get information).

So here it is as per my findings on how to set the speed alerts to only alert you if you are going faster than the posted speed.

1rst you need to go into the speed camera cvs file and add the @ sign before the speed in all the line (this is on the threads here and in the help section on the poi loader), this will take some time but it is worth it. I only did this for my state at this time.

Example: speed camera @65mph
By doing this it will also turn the grey bar to red and won’t stop alerting till you slow down.

Next on the same file increase the speed by 7 to 10 mph I have mine set at 10mph above the posted speed. (AZ cameras will flash at 11mph over).
Example: 65 + 8 =73mph
Speed camera @73 mph

What this will do is alert you only if the difference is greater than 7 mph. So you can cruise at 65 to 66 mph with out an alert just the icon will appear.

Now when you load this file after you made all the changes go into the poi loader and when you come to speed camera file select the distance at the bottom and enter 0 not the 1985 change to 0.

I hope this will make it easier to understand on how this file will work. I was getting tiered of every mile and a half of beep, beep, beep, caution approaching speed camera.

AZ has or will have over a 100 + speed cameras and I drive all over the valley and it gets annoying at times to have the alert always sounding. Now I set the cruise control and I still see the Icon but no beeping unless I am going to fast then it lets me know.

‹ Chicago area red light cameras San Diego redlight camera's multipying? ›

4-Garmin Nuvi 760>>>> Owner: Sunrise Mechanical A/C & Heating,, Peoria, Arizona


SNIP

SNIP

Tue, 12/16/2008 - 9:00pm
Felix Krull's picture

Felix Krull
general maintainerpoi contributoractive user
An Excel formula to automate changing the camera data

I've worked up an Excel formula that will insert the @ sign in the right place and let you specify an adjustment value to the speed limit as ramcruzer described in his original post. I've also written up a few steps to help you use it in the red light camera file. Hopefully, it won't be too hard to follow, even if you don't use Excel very often.

What it does: If a camera description contains the characters "MPH", the "@" sign will be inserted in front of the speed limit, the speed limit will have 5 mph added to it, and the result placed in a new cell. (Step 4 tells you how to use a different value than 5 mph if you want to change it. If you're OK with 5 mph, you can skip step 4.) If there is no "MPH" in the description, the contents will be copied unchanged to a new cell. The steps below assume as an example that there are 100 rows of speed camera data in the spreadsheet.

1. Open Speed-Cameras.csv
2. Insert a column between columns C and D. This should become the new, blank column D.
3. Copy the formula below and paste it into cell D1.
4. Look in the formula for the characters "&RIGHT". Immediately to the left of that is "+5". This part of the formula adds 5 mph to whatever the speed limit value is. If you want to use a different adjustment, change it here. (In other words, use "+7" for a 7 mph adjustment, "+0" for no adjustment, etc.).
5. Copy the formula in D1 and paste it into the remaining cells in column D that have data in the corresponding cell in column C. In other words, if there are 100 cameras in the file, copy D1 and paste it into cells D2-D100.
6. Next select all the non-blank cells in column D (D1-D100). Copy the selection. Leave the cells selected; don't click anywhere else on the spreadsheet until you do the next step.
7. On Excel's "Edit" menu, click "Paste Special". In the dialog box that comes up, choose the "Values" button and click "OK".
8. Delete Column C. Your new data will now become Column C.
9. Save the file as a CSV.

Here's the formula. Make sure you copy and paste it with no changes, spaces or line breaks. It should be one long line wherever it appears in your spreadsheet.

=IF(ISERR(FIND("MPH",C1)),C1,(LEFT(C1,FIND("MPH",C1)-4)&"@"&MID(C1,(FIND("MPH",C1))-3,2)+5&RIGHT(C1,LEN(C1)-FIND("MPH",C1)+2)))

I wrote this in Excel 2003 but it should work in Excel 2002 ("Office XP") and up. I hope you find it useful.

Couldn't be clearer, except to Metro Vancouver gangsters and the police

Canadian Firearms Program

Q. What are the different classes of firearms?

There are three classes of firearms: non-restricted, restricted and prohibited.

SNIP.........SNIP.........

Prohibited firearms include:

handguns with a barrel length of 105 mm (about 4.14 inches) or less and handguns that discharge .25 or .32 calibre ammunition, except for a few specific ones used in International Shooting Union competitions;

rifles and shotguns that have been altered by sawing or other means so that their barrel length is less than 457 mm (about 18 inches) or their overall length is less than 660 mm (about 26 inches);

full automatics;
converted automatics, namely full automatics that have been altered so that they fire only one projectile when the trigger is squeezed; and
firearms prohibited by Criminal Code Regulations





Here in Metro Vancouver, under the gun of the Solicitor General of British Columbia office, he spends more time having the police lay on a heavy media exposure dose of how many illegal guns that have been confiscated than dealing with the perps who were in possession at the time of the offence, which is supposedly covered by the Criminal Code of Canada.

Once the guns are found, hidden in motor vehicles especially, the perp gets his one day in court until trial time whereby if he's given the option of posting bail he is then released back into the "custody" of the public to continue on with his nefarious doings as if nothing happened.




Mark Tonner, Vancouver Police Department, has his own opinions which aren't necessarily those of the city's police department or board. In today's Vancouver Province, his bi-weekly headline is:

Gun-toting gangsters need decades in jail

Set 10-year terms and seize assets -- with no exceptions

"I listen to the radio each morning on the way to work, just to hear who's been shot overnight. It's more than a sad sign. Government people are chasing microphones to propose solutions to gang violence, but a real fix is further out of reach than most realize.

To put an end to the carnage, these characters have to start being locked up for decades. Forget agonizing over whether or not they should be let out on bail before trial. Anyone still wrestling with that is missing the point altogether..............."


I agree, but I'd go one step further, if perps carrying guns are known to the police then there should be an automatic "Monopoly" decision made, Go Directly to Jail for ten years. No bail, no time off for good behaviour, no double counting to time spent in jail while waiting for trial if found guilty.... TEN YEARS!

Currently there is no incentive to stop carrying prohibited weapons; losing ones freedom to go where they please isn't on their radar, but the moment it becomes a reality, the possibility of innocent bystanders being slaughtered in Metro Vancouver will not rise beyond the two that were executed just because they happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in a Surrey apartment.

Cathedral Lake Lodge

Click on the photo and it will fill your monitor's screen


Cathedral Lake Lodge


"They" said that you wouldn't even have to stand on your tiptoes to see Mount Baker from Scout Mountain, however, I found that with the use of Google Earth in my computer I did manage to plant a pole on top of the American focal point.

Ho, Ho, Ho

Thank yee to all those who deliver the news!

Its 6:54 in the morning, another heavy dose of snow has been dropped on the North Shore of Vancouver, and still my newspaper is delivered, on time.

Merry Christmas

UPDATE:

As much as I looked forward to rustling and bustling from within my own home on Christmas Eve, it was the BC Hydro blackout that "closed" us down for 12 long hours that made it worth the while.

Instead of reading something from Vinyl Cafe, we focussed more on getting to bed and thinking of what to do with the Turkey. As we heated up the inside of our home with natural gas appliances (thank goodness we don't depend upon BC Hydro for everything when it comes to the convience of a healthy lifestyle, away from chopping wood to feed the fireplaces and kitchen stoves, we had to take the added precaution of burying our meat and poultry products in the snow banks.

Snow banks, ones we've never seen at such a depth since we were children, and maybe, just maybe it wasn't that the snow was deep but really it was because we were short!

Power came on an hour later than promised, but its far better than last year's four straight days of outage. Touch wood!

Vancouver Sun has the database on Salaries, but what of names, what of titles

"Some agencies refused to provide salary data, except on paper
Chad Skelton, Vancouver Sun"



From Hansard, Premier Gordon Campbell was kind enough to list off all of his public servants working out of his Office. That information, and others "Order in Council" were copied to Bill Tielman's Blog.

To use the Vancouver Sun's Public Sector Salaries database properly, one (the public) needs a bit of substance to start the ball rolling, like the names and job descriptions which basically remain the same.

*********************************************************************
Using Michael Morton, Press Secretary to the Premier as an example three names came up and by clicking on "DETAILS":

Title Not Available
Agency B.C. Government
Sector B.C. Government
Remuneration $79,326
Expenses Not Available
Year 2007-2008 Fiscal Year

Where this individual ranks...

out of the 5,452 high earners at B.C. Government 3,772
out of the 5,452 high earners at B.C. Government 3,772
out of the 33,834 high earners in the public service 26,448

Top earner overall at...

B.C. Government HAYDEN, DANA L, Deputy Minister and Vice Chair, Forestry Roundtable, $340,423
B.C. Government HAYDEN, DANA L, Deputy Minister and Vice Chair, Forestry Roundtable, $340,423
Entire public service Salvail-Lopez, Adrienne, Vice Chair, B.C. Securities Commission, $851,269.

Notes about this data

The B.C. government was one of the few agencies that refused to provide remuneration data for its staff in electronic database format. The data included here was taken from a PDF document available on the Ministry of Finance's website. For that reason, expenses and titles are not available for most staff members. You can look-up the titles of individual B.C. government staff members at http://www.dir.gov.bc.ca/.

Bloggers and webmasters:

You can link directly to this page by using this permalink.

You can also link directly to a list of all highly paid staff at B.C. Government by using this permalink or a list of everyone in the B.C. Government sector by using this permalink.

**********************************************************************************
Why is Dana Hayden listed twice for the same amount of monies.... I don't know, unless of course its because she is a "DM on strategic policy" in the Premier's Office and is paid twice.....

One other minor detail, if you were to do a search on eg. Candice Hughes under the search condition of All, she doesn't show up, however restricting the search to BC Government (twice) in two separate database fields then her salary for a Clerk 5 does show up, but only because of the Vancouver Sun WebMaster's Note above of there being more than one source that the newspaper did its search on.

********************************************************************************

Lee Denny, Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Office $ N/A

Joy Illington, Deputy Cabinet Secretary, Office of the Premier $113,084

Ken Dobell, Deputy Minister to the Premier and Cabinet Secretary $ N/A
Brenda Eaton, DM to the Premier, Corporate Planning and Restructuring $ N/A
Andrew Wilkinson, Deputy Minister, Intergovernmental Relations

Kerri Brkich, Administrative Coordinator

Martyn Brown, Chief of Staff, (Deputy Minister status) $188,190

Primrose Carson, Director of Internal Liaison

Antoinette De Wit, Managing Director,Correspondence $80,798
Candice Hughes, Clerk 5 $46,180

Beth James, Director of Corporate Projects

Michelle Lemay, Director of Administration

Eric Mang, Senior Coordinator,Issues Management

Judith McCallum, Scheduling Coordinator

Michael McDonald, Director of Outreach and Special Projects

Hazel Mitchell, Executive Assistant to Deputy Chief of Staff,Coordinator

Michael Morton, Press Secretary to the Premier

Andrew Orr, Director of Communications

Neil Sweeney, Deputy Chief of Staff,Issues Management

Lisa Tees, Clerk 4 or is it Lisa Tees Public Affairs Bureau as a Public Affairs Officer


Here's what the Premier listed off and was duly recorded in Hansard:

The deputy chief of staff, executive assistant to the Premier is Lara Dauphinee.
The press secretary to the Premier is Michael Morton.
The deputy chief of staff, policy coordination and issues management is Jay Schlosar.
The director of policy coordination and issues management is Jeff Hanman.
The executive assistant to the chief of staff, manager of human resources is Melissa Safarik.
The director of communications is Dale Steeves. $84,390T
he manager, media monitoring is Rishi Sharma.
The senior coordinator, website and direct media is Nicole Chalmers.
The producer, audiovisual media is Tara Foslien.
The executive receptionist and greetings coordinator is Martina Bell.
The correspondence branch includes the managing director, Antoinette De Wit;
Chantal Barbier, the correspondence officer;
Danna McGaw, another correspondence officer;
Bernadette Whitmore, correspondence officer;
Lindsey Affleck, correspondence coordinator;
Jen Coakley, a correspondence clerk;
Carrie Oberg, a correspondence clerk;
Danielle Riley, a research and records correspondence clerk.
Martina Bell is the greetings coordinator.
Bob Alexander is a file clerk and courier.
In the scheduling branch Judy McCallum is the executive scheduling coordinator.
Tamara Davidson is a scheduling clerk.
...the cabinet offices in Vancouver, Katherine Bergen is events and project coordinator
Tara Shirley is administrative coordinator
Gail Roberts is executive receptionist and administrative support.

In the deputy minister's office (but still under the Premier Office) Jessica McDonald, who I introduced earlier, is the Deputy Minister to the Premier and the cabinet secretary.

Angela Koutougos is the executive administrative coordinator to Jessica McDonald.
Dana Hayden, who I introduced earlier, is deputy minister of strategic policy.
Deborah Laverty is the administrative assistant coordinator to Dana Hayden.
Kim Henderson is assistant deputy minister, corporate initiatives.
Rueben Bronee is the project director, public services initiative.
Elizabeth MacMillan assistant deputy minister, cabinet operations, deputy cabinet secretary
Amber Rossner is the executive administrative coordinator
Michelle Leamy is the director, executive operations
Sandy Wharf director of corporate priorities and performance management. $92,732

In cabinet operations Elizabeth MacMillan is the assistant deputy minister, cabinet operations and deputy cabinet minister.
Charlotte Powell is a cabinet committee director.
Hilary Woodward is a cabinet committee director.
Scott Bariillo is a cabinet analyst.
Kursti Calder is a cabinet analyst.
Jamie Campbell is a cabinet analyst.
Jean Hanna is a cabinet analyst
Sharon Horner is a cabinet analyst.
Debbie Tsukayama is the manager of cabinet operations.
Sohee Ahn is a senior legislative adviser.
Danielle Kavadas is an assistant legislative officer.
Nora Cedar is the OIC coordinator.
Jaime Gill is the office manager.
Mary Fairholm is the cabinet committee assistant.
Mae Williams is administrative support.
Sheila Stevenson is the documents processing coordinator.

In the deputy ministers policy secretariat Lauri Choi is acting secretariat coordinator.
In climate change Graham Whitmarsh is the chief adviser, carbon trading.
Warren Bell is a special adviser.
Laura Cornish is a research officer.
In natural resources and the economy Kathy Chopik is a chief adviser,
Lawrence Alexander is a special adviser,
Simon Coley is a special adviser,
Charles Porter is a special adviser.

In service planning and reporting Corrie Campbell is the director of service planning and reporting.

Suzanne Moreau is a service planning adviser.
In social development Tom Lee is the executive director
Raymond Fieltsch is a special adviser
Greg Perrins is a research officer

In the intergovernmental relations secretariat Virginia Greene is deputy minister
Pierrette Maranda is assistant deputy minister
Patti Dunn is senior executive assistant
Julie Turner is executive coordinator
Don Haney is executive director, economic policy in Asia-Pacific initiatives
Cathy Stigant is executive director, social policy and operations support
Garry Curtis is senior adviser, strategic services
Teresa Coburn is acting administrative assistant
Paul Craven is director, federalism and constitutional policy
Conor Donaldson is a research officer
Bryant Fairley is the director of United States relations
Deborah Quinn is executive administrative assistant, international
Grant Smith is a policy analyst. Sukumar Periwal is director of international relations
Claudia Fabbri is manager, international relations
Jessie Lloyd is a policy analyst, international relations
Vincent Portal is director, francophone affairs program

In the office of protocol Marc-André Ouellette is the director and chief of protocol
Kristine Madsen is the acting executive coordinator
Helen Carr is protocol and events officer
Mark Collins, protocol and events officer
Karen Felker, protocol and events officer
Manjit Khaira, protocol and events officer
Lucy Lobmeier, protocol and events officer
Brian Rowbottom, protocol and events officer
Daphne Armstrong, manager, special projects
Jenny Dellabough, protocol and events officer
Genevieve Elliott, protocol and events officer.

FOI regarding ICBC Training facility "layoffs"

According to a news report, the BC Liberals were so bad at processing FOI that it was taking up to 74 days to review each request before doing anything, at all.

It doesn't come as any surprise that after the President left ICBC for a remote BC location to generate windpower, to add to BC Hydro's grid, the Vancouver Sun, and other news media outlets finally got a reply to their FOI on ICBC Repair scandal rip off that hit the newstands many months ago in the Spring.

ICBC severances: $825,000 for chop shop employees

The Repair-scandal is being treated by the Minister responsible as one that he can't comment on, but offers up the excuse that the three former employees were entitled to a serverance pay based on "law" even though the reason they were dismissed was because of another "law".

Is it any wonder at all as to why the trio of misfits who joined forces to be charged by the RCMP with Breach of Trust (BC Rail) will someday themselves, be enjoying a handsome severance pay even if they are found to have broken another law.

As the Vancouver Sun wrote of Mike Farnworth (NDP):


Unbelievable!!!!

Sometimes, you just have to write about reality

The bathtub plug, out of the drain, threaded at the bottom





















Or, if you prefer, rightside up as a side elevation.











My bathtub started to not drain properly, so I went on the internet and discovered that I could find more dirt on politicians that I can on finding an easy method of removing a singular bathtub plug. Yes, a bathtub plug, which is not to be confused by the layperson as being the same as a bathtub drain. BIG DIFFERENCE!!!

The "plug", in this case is no where near as to what the BC Liberals are doing everytime they pay advertiseres to write about how they have been spending our tax dollars on promoting themselves. Its an absolute "No" on finding a "plug" that shows, and tells a method like a "How does it work" scenario that should be available on the internet.

I can only speak for my own home, which is in its infancy (2001) when compared to our old home (1924) on the same property. By BC Building code laws only new products may be used for toilets (ensuite/bathroom), bathtubs (bathroom), sinks (kitchen), and basins (bathroom). The old tub's stopper was a rubber plug thingy, which was great because with the more volume of water contained in the bathtub, the greater the pressure of the water on the plug.

The knurled part on top is for pulling up and twisting, it has nothing to do with the removal of the plug from the drain. The object in removing the plug is to twist in a counter clockwise position while its almost down, and plugging the drain. Too much force will unscrew the knurled part, too little pressure, and nothing happens. However once the plug is unscrewed, with the knurled part in tact (with a little help from a pair of visegrips) it then becomes a simple matter of getting down to the nitty-gritty work of cleaning that which lies beneath the bathtub plug.

Forget about a liquid drain cleaner, the blockage is typically within the first two inches of the bottom of the bathtub, besides, usng a toxic drain cleaner only adds to the pollution that is killing our planet.

My theory on why to write about a bathtub and its plug is simple, most people who have access to a computer, typically have access to a bathtub, and some day they will want to know how to make it work, and oh, one other minor detail, the overflow that supposedly is designed to prevent the water from running over the top and not cause major damage throughout the house, is in fact NOT capable of doing exactly that. The hole in the wall of the tup is more than large enough but the piece of chrome that covers the hole isn't.

Gold medal for venue construction workers? What?

".....You know, Canada is the only country that's ever hosted an Olympics that hasn't won a gold medal when they were hosting. In 2010, the Olympics are coming back to Canada. Canadians are winning gold, and there's going to be lots of British Columbians amongst those gold-medal winners." - Premier Gordon Campbell

"The government couldn't say how many of the medals were given away or how much they cost, but one thing's for sure: They were draped around the necks of the recipients by the Big Kahuna himself." - Michael Smyth, The ProvincePublished: Friday, November 21, 2008

Is it my imagination, or Gordon Campbell's spin doctors have convinced me that there isn't about to be a Provincial election in 2009, afterall he did say there wouldn't be a Fall Session for 2008, and there is one, five days in breadth.

The Chinese government blew it when they had a beautiful, unblemished child singing their National anthem during the Summer Olympics opening ceremonies, and then, when it was found out she was lip syncing, well all hell broke loose.

Last week, Mike Farnworth, NDP MLA, stood up in the Legislature and drew from his breast pocket a symbol that goes a long way to proving that Premier Gordon Campbell is no better than the Chinese. The IOC, via VANOC, went to great lengths to impose the law when it came to copyright infringement on their trademarked five rings, including their medals. Local businesses were told to change their names, and their logos, but when it came to awarding gold medals to venue workers for a job well done, the BC Liberal Leader reproduced knock-offs of the medals as if he were handing out carrots and didn't have the balls to admit that he had crossed the line, especially when he took the unprecedent step to put his own name, and title, on the gold medal.

Mr. Premier, its 2008, not June of 2009. The provincial election hasn't happened and yet you've made the assumption that you will be the Premier in 2009.

Arrogant, you betcha!

Note to Premier Campbell: "Booster" was a downer; "Pumps" may be too

In todays newspaper its being reported that the NDP are ahead of the BC Liberals in the polls by five points, and its all because of the government's own doing, for having introduced the Carbon Tax and pay hikes for their executive.

I have a suggestion for the government (if they want to stay in power), please, Please, don't do another one of those photo shoots where its only the BC Liberal MLA's that get to hand deliver Booster car seats to their constituents.

From a CBC News file still residing on the internet:

"....ministry officials acknowledged that only Liberal MLAs were given the chance to distribute the booster seats and to get their pictures taken for local papers, though they insist it wasn't meant to be political."

Fact is, after checking the website for the BC Government, even after their having been villified by the press, and the public on this issue, they still leave the impression that not everyone has equal access to the Booster car seat program when only 2,000 have been shared out across the province amongst low income families. In Metro Vancouver alone, there must be at least the same number.

On page A11, the Vancouver Sun headline is "B.C. to start paying for kids' insulin pumps", and even before I can say "Give me another shot of a Hawaiian brewed Jack Daniels, bartender, officer" I'm stopped in my tracks because of yet another photo op, which is surely going to be taken the wrong way by the public, again. Sure, its the moment that is being orchestrated ... celebrated.... but it only shows the BC Liberals doing another one of their one minute high five's act without breaking into a sweat with their "'blue-la' hoop challenge as part of World Diabetes Day".

......."Government will fund insulin pumps for eligible children with type 1 diabetes, announced Premier Gordon Campbell and Health Services Minister George Abbott."

Now this promise is far different than the one on the Booster seats which was restricted to only 2,000. How different in actual numbers is not clear.

Are we getting close to a Provincial election?

In a Letter to the Editor in the Vancouver Sun, the writer indicated that as they attended an advanced voting station, an election official ...in a big, booming voice for all to hear .... told the voter to remove her lapel pin which was in support of her candidate (I'm guessing here, since voting is still done by secret ballot).

The point is, as much as the BC Liberals want to show they are the ones who are doing something for the province, on an hourly basis... just look at the Press Releases.... I have to ask, where the heck is that Elections BC official to say Mr. Premier, you are not permitted to shovel our Taxpayer's monies off of the back of our hybrid truck!

MIllennium but the tip of the iceberg for BC Liberals

So you think $100 million is too much to secretly be given to Millennium, on top of the already loaned $193 million which started the project off for the Athletes Village. Well think about this:

The more I read about the $100 million in-camera deal struck between Vancouver City council and Millennium, the more I ask myself about the BC Liberals Executive Council, which is still holding fast to the claim that the 2010 Winter Olympics will cost no more than $600 million.

From day 1, Gordon Campbell has thrown a veil of secrecy over all financial deals that various government departments are kicking into the Olympics, without the public having a clear understanding of just what he has spent, continues to spend.

In a CBC News report dated September 14, 2006 the acting provincial auditor general, Arn van Iersel said that the tally for the Olympics is closer to $1.5 billion than the budgeted $600 million. Cabinet minister responsible for the Olympics, Colin Hansen, said that he was confident that the BC Liberals would stay on target, in direct costs, and there's the political rub... "direct costs".

Where the acting auditor general included the $600 million cost of upgrading the Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler, thereby doubling the cost of the Olympics, he also included security and running the Olympic secretariat which altogether quadruples the budget.

As taxpayers, municipal, provincial (several taxes and more each day) and federally, we are the ones responsible for paying the Olympic bill, and are entitled to the right of having Full Disclosure made to us without the mumbo-jumbo talk of "direct" and "indirect costs", as if that makes a difference to what we pay.

If Gordon Campbell can't see the political fallout that awaits him in his endeavor to secure a third term as Premier of the province of British Columbia, then the coming Fall Session agenda, brought on by worldwide economic forces, surely will, where he and the BC Liberals will have to come clean on just how many Millennium size projects he has squirreled away in his cookie jar.

The BC Liberals have turned their New Era promise of being an Open and Transparent government into an Executive Council entity that may easily be compared to the City of Vancouver's own in-camera council sessions.

One off-topic example of proof is no further away that the much delayed BC Rail trial for David Basi, Robert Virk, and Aneal Basi where the BC Liberals have stalled the process of releasing all Cabinet documents related to the corruption charges against the three, for nearly five years!

Why?

*********************************************

Update:

"Memo to next mayor: Leave the real estate game to the moguls
Miro Cernetig, Vancouver SunPublished: Monday, November 10, 2008"

Is BC Liberal's Stink bidding CNR to gain access to BC Rail's coal fields?

Its 7:03am, and I guess by now everyone has read the latest edition of the Vancouver Sun section on Issues & Ideas A13 (Friday, November 7, 2008) written by Canwest writer Kieth Woolhouse: "The stink bid path to profit - Abnormally low offers on stocks with rebound potential can get you in at the bottom of wild markets", if you haven't then here's the link, and you might be asking yourself why bother.

...... well one of the reasons you might want to check out the article, is that one of the suggested Stink bids ("a successful stink bid is like turning back the hands of time and buying a stock in 2008 at a price it sold for in 2004, or even further back than that) includes CNR. this is the same CNR which "paid" one billion dollars to the provincial governing BC Liberals which included a 900 year stranglehold on our wholly owned rail system, which is not even five years old but is already destined to be but one glowing example (because of coal deposits in north eastern BC being needed by China to break the back on the Carbon Tax benefits to locals) of what to buy into, now.

Wow!!!!!

It occurred to me that if a political entity such as the BC Liberals were high on the receiving end of CNR donations for being such goooooood boys in the run up to provincial election times, what would the BC Liberals be investing in on behalf of British Columbians, and would they be doing a Stink bid on one of their benefactors during these volatile economic times.... and yes they just might be ....... because according to BCIMC (page 10 of 77), we, that's the "Royal we" like in Crown, do hold over Five million shares (5,722,081) with an Unaudited value as of March 31, 2008 of $241,787,971.37.

On that same BCIMC website we also hold 43 shares of China Citic Bank-H with a Market Value of $23.30 for the same period which since the March 31, 2008 now looks like this.

In the past, BC Governments had used the Pension funds of their public employees to bankroll special projects by injecting funds into depressed companies, especially the forest industry, but like all other pension funds there has safeguards been put in place to ensure that pension remain on a sound fianancial basis, but of BCIMC, and its role that it plays as a hand maiden to the Executive Council in Victoria for its political gains.

We've all seen the work that Sean Holman on Public Eye Online has done by FOI searches and pointing us to Elections BC listing contributions made to provincial political parties, but has anyone done a thorough search of what BCIMC is doing?