A8 January 16, 2013 The Richmond News
Opinion T H E
a Canwest newspaper
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EDITORIAL OPINION
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N E W S
Hands-free isn’t enough
T
he Mount Seymour Parkway crash that sent a 70year-old pedestrian to hospital this week was doubtless unintentional, small consolation though that may be. Former Apple chairman Steve Jobs talked a lot about inventing tomorrow, and for the generation who increasingly treat smartphones like a physical appendage, his words have a haunting ring of prophecy. Many drivers seem to feel an irresistible need to text, update and tweet while at the wheel, rationalizing that the traffic light is red and this will only take a second. It is illegal to use a hand-held electronic device while driving in British Columbia, but that law may not go far enough. According to a study from Monash University in Australia, using a mobile phone while driving raises the risk of a crash by 400 per cent, whether hands-free or not. Reaction time slows, the car’s speed and lateral position become unsteady, and the driver’s visual search patterns are impaired. Just like an open can of beer is legally required to be out of reach of drivers in this province, cellphones and iPods should probably be in the trunk before you get behind the wheel. The birds will still be angry and your Second Life avatar will still be alive when your first-life avatar reaches his destination. Tomorrow may have been invented, but the way people drive here is enough to make you long for yesterday.
CHOICE WORDS
Rethink priorities, Harper
The Editor, Let me get this straight: Harper’s puppets in Parliament plan to spend $870,000 on a 200th birthday gig for Sir John A. Macdonald, who certainly won’t attend the soirée, seeing as he has been dead since June 1891. On the other hand, this same group of narrowly elected people are planning the closure of the Vancouver Coast Guard Base to save somewhere around $700,000. I guess it shows that the Harperites have more interest in a long dead politician, than in the West Coast Mariners whose lives will be put at risk by this asinine decision. I have a suggestion for this bunch — why not suspend the operation of the Ice-breakers in Eastern Canada and the Arctic, using the same logic, since very few boats will be on the water in the winter, and it would be a great way to save some more bucks. That way, our PM could probably hire a few more “flacks” to add to his already inflated staff. After all, his “image” is more important than the death of a few seafaring citizens! While on the subject, how is it that none of our local Conservative MPs have had the guts to question this decision, but instead continue to peddle the “talking points” established by the self-same PR types in the office of the Prime Minister? Terrence Murphy Richmond
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Time running out for B.C. Liberals With the election campaign getting closer, every day becomes precious to both major parties. And because the B.C. Liberals are the ones fighting to climb out of a big hole, any day that isn’t doing precisely that becomes a lost one. So things like the needless controversy by the B.C. Liberals to not re-appoint John Doyle as the province’s auditor-general become an even bigger problem for them, as the affair has used up valuable time in the news cycle. Given the B.C. Liberals’ uncanny ability to cause self-inflicted wounds, the odds are good more will occur over the next few weeks, thus making that boulder they’re trying to push up that hill seem even bigger. The Doyle matter also raises the question about who, exactly, is running the show on the government side. Again, with so little time left to the campaign kick-off, you’d think the B.C. Liberals would realize the need for a cohesive, strategic approach in governing. In the Doyle affair, the premier’s office insisted she gave no direction to her members on the committee weighing Doyle’s future, which seems strange given the obvious political downside flowing from such a decision. That suggests the backbenchers who sit on the committee overseeing
Keith Baldrey IN THE HOUSE
the appointment have the unchecked power to plunge their side into controversy practically on the eve of an election, hardly proof a central strategy actually exists. More shoals undoubtedly lie ahead for the B.C. Liberals, not the least of which is the February budget, which will be a tough sell to a skeptical public, still smarting from the dishonest budget numbers carried into the last election campaign by the B.C. Liberals. As we draw closer to the campaign, about the only sign of some kind of strategy coming from government are those relentless television and radio ads, which brag that B.C. stands alone almost in the entire world when it comes to having a strong economy. This ad campaign’s message is essentially the B.C. Liberals’ central message in the upcoming campaign. Twinned to it, however, is another one: the NDP can’t be trusted to form government, and party leader Adrian Dix is the most untrustworthy of them all. And so with each passing day, look for signs of nervousness coming from the NDP camp. Dix is popular (or at least more
popular than Clark) yet he is also relatively unknown and therefore not defined in the public mind. In fact, Dix’s image and public opinion about him may be the single biggest variable in the months ahead. The public’s negative feelings about the B.C. Liberals and Clark have been entrenched for more than a year, while Dix is fertile ground. So expect a relentlessly negative and personal campaign by the B.C. Liberals (and their allies in the corporate community) in the weeks ahead. The campaign may well smack of desperation, which wouldn’t be surprising given the gap between the two parties. The challenge for the NDP may well be to simply hang on and hope the next few months pass quickly, with more hiccups and missteps on their opponents’ than on their own side. So far Dix has shown discipline, and his challenge will be to keep his own team in check. Every week that passes where the focus is on B.C. Liberals’ mistakes is another reason for a sigh of relief on the NDP side. Every week that sees the B.C. Liberals trouble-free may well shift the spotlight on the NDPs. The official campaign starts in mid-April, but the real campaign has already begun. Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC.