Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Jack Will Be in da V-K House

Jack Layton, leader of the federal NDP is coming to join Vancouverites,
particularly those living in Vancouver-Kingway, who Don Davies has invited
to the town hall meet & greet, debate, discussion on the "Ottawa" situation.

Here's the details:

What: an evening of discussion, debate and information on
the recent events in Ottawa.

When: Wednesday 17th December 2008 at 6pm.

Where: Collingwood Neighbourhood House -
5288 Joyce Street, Vancouver

With: Special guest NDP leader Jack Layton

Light refreshments will be served. No need to RSVP – just turn up.

For more information, please contact my community office @ 604-775-6263.

E-mail Don @ davied@parl.gc.ca

Hope we can all battle the elements and make it. How often do we get
a chance to sit down with someone who might be leading our next
government and give "Ottawa" a heads up about what's important to us.

Hmmm, I think if memory serves me correctly, "our" last riding rep
left us all "high and dry" on that one. As an elected official, Emerson
was reported to have had a remarkable aversion to meeting with,
or listening to constituents.
Right out of the gate Don has him beat.
Rock on, Don.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Where's Waldo (Emerson) Now: Where Else, With Gordon Campbell

If there are any lingering doubts in your mind that there is little
difference between Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals and the federal
Conservatives, those should be laid to rest for good.

It's not bad enough we were plagued with Emerson from the time he
walked across the floor and with the little he did for us in the
riding he misappropriated electorally, now he's getting crowned
GC's "Minister of Everything." BC taxpayers are set to be forking
out unknown thousands for Emerson's @$$ at board tables all over
the place. Here are just a few gigs he's been appointed to by GC
recently:

- senior adviser to a Vancouver law firm
- CEO of B.C. Transmission Corp.
- member of the board at Finning
- chairman of the province's newly formed economic advisory council

My guess, is Emerson's first order of business is to ensure that BC's
governmental infrastructure (think every piece of information that the
BC government has on every citizen in the province) is signed away
by January 2009. In a deal that's been secretively getting carried out,
Gordon Campbell and his government are set to sign a multi-million dollar,
multi-year contract with HP-EDS (operating in BC as EDS Advanced Solutions) that will remove BC's privacy rights forever. This deal will shovel millions of BC taxpayer dollars into a subsidiary of a transnational corporation of disrepute for how they've managed their UK contracts.

Read more about this here.

The return of the Minister of Everything
Patrick Brethour
B.C. premier's newest adviser is, as always, ready to think big
Globe & Mail. On-line 12/12/08 06:00 AM

Don Davies Invites Us to Visit with Him @ Collingwood

Dear Friends,

I’d like to invite you to join me for an evening of discussion, debate and information on the recent events in Ottawa.

When: Wednesday 17th December 2008 at 6pm

Where: Collingwood Neighbourhood House
5288 Joyce Street, Vancouver

Light refreshments will be served.

No need to RSVP – just turn up.

For more information, please contact:

My community office on 604-775-6263
Email me @ davied@parl.gc.ca.

I hope to see you there!

Best Wishes

Don

Don Davies MP
Vancouver Kingsway

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Emerson & Campbell: Birds of a Feather...

Emerson to chair B.C. economic advisory council
CBC News. December 10, 2008.

Excerpts:

Former federal cabinet minister David Emerson will head a B.C. economic advisory council tasked with finding ways to stimulate the provincial economy.

Premier Gordon Campbell made the announcement Wednesday, saying the nine-member council will begin work immediately and report directly to cabinet.

The council will focus on economic issues related to energy, natural resources, forestry, the environment and the Asia-Pacific market area.

Last month, the B.C. government appointed Emerson as CEO and board chair of the BC Transmission Corporation, a Crown company that works with BC Hydro to supply electricity across the province.
****************
- Enough patronage to Campbell & neoConservative insiders.
- Enough "summits" enough studies, enough research.
- Enough self-interested, arrogant wind bags full of hot, fetid air
and sucking up time, space and taxpayer money.

BC NEEDS ETHICAL, INTELLIGENT ACTION & Good Government, something neither of these Flocking Birds seem to know Anything About.

Vote Campbell's Liberals/neoCons Out on May 12th 2009.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Emerson De-Lurks: Look out for BC's Water & Power

For those of you wondering where David Emerson was lurking:

NEWS RELEASE: For Immediate Release
2008EMPR0068-001807

Nov. 25, 2008
Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources

DAVID EMERSON TO CHAIR B.C. TRANSMISSION CORPORATION

VICTORIA – Former federal cabinet minister David Emerson will serve as the new executive chair of the British Columbia Transmission Corporation, presiding over the board of directors and assuming the responsibilities of the chief executive officer, Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Minister Richard Neufeld announced today.

“This new structure will allow for a smooth transition in the BC Transmission Corporation’s corporate leadership,” said Neufeld. “David Emerson’s successful experience in both corporate sector and government makes him well-suited to lead the company.

BCTC Board & Executive

An electrifying connection
Posted by Sean Holman, Public Eye Online at 01:44 PM.

"I am looking forward to working closely with BC Hydro in further developing our province's potential in opening up new opportunities for investment and family supporting jobs in clean energy." That[is]what former federal cabinet minister David Emerson said last week, upon being appointed the new executive chair of the British Columbia Transmission Corp. And that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the former Canfor Corp. president and chief executive officer. After all, BC Hydro Corp.'s senior corporate affairs vice-president Susan Yurkovich worked with Mr. Emerson when she was an executive at the forest company. And, according to The Vancouver Sun's Jeff Lee, Ms. Yurkovich also helped run Mr. Emerson's successful 2004 election campaign in Vancouver-Kingsway. Fancy that!

**************************************
Looks like they've got it all worked out, eh?

Wonder what folks at Save Our Rivers and Citizens for Public Power
have to say about how the corporate elites are lining things up?

Save Our Rivers: Protecting BC's River & Public Power

We as a population in BC face a historic challenge. All through time our rivers have flowed freely. Our provincial government is quietly giving away rights to our public rivers for private power production to some of the world's biggest corporations

BC Citizens for Public Power (BCCPP) is a grassroots, advocacy organization established to give voice to British Columbians' demand that the province's power generation system remain in public hands.

**************
Cosy Business Ties Exposed by Health Budget Turmoil
Purchase quit as chair of Fraser Health Authority BC's Health Authorities:
Who gets hired (and fired).
By Will McMartin. Published: January 31, 2007. TheTyee.ca

Excerpt:

Susan Yurkovich, one of [Gary] Collins's dearest political pals, was also an early government appointee to the Vancouver Coastal board alongside Purchase and Johnstone. Yurkovich worked as a staffer with Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative government in the early 1990s before joining Canfor Corp., where she worked closely with CEO David Emerson.

Emerson and Yurkovich both left the forest company after its 2004 merger with Slocan Forest Products. Emerson won election to the House of Commons as a Liberal in Vancouver-Kingsway in 2004, and was re-elected with that party in 2006 (defecting days later to Stephen Harper's Conservative government). Yurkovich was a senior strategist with Campbell's B.C. Liberals prior to and during the 2005 general election.

According to Sean Holman's Public Eye website, Yurkovich and Mike McDonald, a former political aide to Gordon Campbell (and husband of Campbell's deputy minister, Jessica McDonald), were in the pre-election 2005-06 budget lock-up for stakeholders, registered as representatives of McDonald's firm, Rosedeer Strategies Inc. McDonald declined to answer Holman's query as to the purpose of his and Yurkovich's unusual presence in the lock-up, but others suggested that the pair's task was to ensure that stakeholders received -- and later reiterated for the news media -- the political "spin" desired by the B.C. Liberals. A few weeks later, Yurkovich was re-appointed to Vancouver Coastal's board of directors.

During the election campaign, the Vancouver Sun newspaper identified Yurkovich as a member of an inner circle of B.C. Liberal political strategists. After the election, she got another order-in-council appointment, this one extending her term on the health authority board to 2008.

More work for Yurkovich

In addition to her service on the Vancouver Coastal board, the re-elected Campbell government evidently needed Yurkovich's talents for a greater task. The B.C. Liberals were unhappy with B.C. Hydro's public-relations strategy for development of the proposed Site C dam, and decided that Yurkovich had the corporate-communication skills evidently required by the province's largest Crown corporation.

In June 2006, Yurkovich was named B.C. Hydro's senior vice-president for corporate affairs.