Whiny corporate shills and the Corporate Vote

People generally acknowledge that BC politics is messed up, but this push to regain the corporate municipal vote [pdf] here really takes puts the ass in asylum.

The claim is that businesses are being unfairly taxed without representation, ergo businesses ought to have a vote at the municipal level.

Never mind that every business owner and employee that actually lives in the city they operate in already has a vote.

Never mind that the only other place in the world that shills like this is the business district of London, England.

Never mind that the guy who wrote that trite in the Vancouver Sun is “known for showing up at Burnaby council meetings wearing his scoutmaster uniform.”

Just remember that democracy is, in it’s most pure form, a system of people governing themselves. In Canada, at least, corporations are not people.

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5 thoughts on “Whiny corporate shills and the Corporate Vote”

  1. Chrystal Ocean says:

    Very, very scary.

    Reply
  2. John Walker says:

    This is scary. I hope if I ever own a business, I avoid the sense if entitlement that so often seems to come with it.

    Reply
  3. Alessa says:

    This is a little off topic, but my husband and I want to move to B.C. (Nanaimo) because of it’s beautiful landscape, serene lifestyle, and, partially, because the people are more secular-minded than those residing in Ontario, according to statistics. But many of your posts speak ill of B.C. and the western part of Canada.

    Is B.C. really that bad for Atheists? Is B.C. politics truly “messed up”?

    Reply
    1. Ian says:

      My posts probably bias the view because I tend to only post when frustrated and angry. I tend to not post about how I wake up to this out my window or how it’s 15 C in freaking January and February and how the grass is literally still green everywhere (really ironic that we’re hosting the Winter Olympics in a few days). I also don’t post about how I can catch an express bus within minutes every morning, transfer seamlessly to a SkyTrain and commute 20 km of city in an hour. I also don’t give enough credit to Mayor Gregor Robertson of Vancouver who has made a lot of effort to make it the greenest city in the world.

      On the religion side, I haven’t posted yet, but the Anglican church is closing up shop fast on Vancouver Island and are likely closing half of their churches just on the island due to low attendance. No one in Vancouver (or the island) really goes to church, except for Christian immigrants.

      Interior BC is as evangelically religious as bible-belt Alberta. Creationist MP Stockwell Day represents a big chunk of BC’s Bible Belt.

      The politics are messed up, in that they are completely unique compared to the rest of Canada. Here the Liberals are conservative and the NDP advocated cancelling the Carbon Tax in the past election. Meanwhile, Vancouver city has political parties and members at large (and a Park’s Board) and as I said above, BC has had, and is again considering, giving corporations the municipal vote. But all-in-all, BC has generally more progressive politicians than Alberta, and they are a lot more secular here these days (I imagine the SoCreds a couple decades back weren’t so good).

      As Rick Mercer said: ” British Columbia, that’s one sexy looking province.”

      BC’s great for atheists, and we have a large and growing movement with CFI, Skeptics in the Pub (in Vancouver and Victoria) and the BC Humanists. You’ll love it here.

      Reply
  4. Alessa says:

    Thanks, Ian.

    I completely understand about writing when you’re frustrated and angry. Anyone who judged me based on my literary work — and nothing else — would think I were miserable. I just wanted to make sure.

    Thanks for keeping us updated on the activity in the west!

    Reply

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