British Columbia’s ex-premier, Gordon Campbell, is reportedly going to become the High Commissioner to Great Britain. Not everyone is pleased.
BC Premier Gordon Campbell with an Olympic Volunteer at a Victory Ceremony on 2010-02-15
British Columbia’s ex-premier, Gordon Campbell, is reportedly going to become the High Commissioner to Great Britain. Not everyone is pleased.
BC Premier Gordon Campbell with an Olympic Volunteer at a Victory Ceremony on 2010-02-15
If the career diplomats in Ottawa are upset, then it must be a good call.
Career public teat lip-lockers haven’t a clue about what is right for Canada, just right for themsalves.
Gordo has his faults but he did a great job of Ottawa-Victoria relations after the disaster of the NDP Glenn Clarke era.
He’ll fit right in.
Good thing he gets a chauffeur, that boozed up ald f ck will kill somebody if he is driving.
Harper really disappoints me at times. How long would it take to re-form Reform???
El Gordo acted like Peerage (unaccountable party binging, vice regal edicts etc.), why not jut be one of these in-bred ponces? One less low rent aristocrat for the colony to put up with.
So ex-prems get ambassadorships now. I wonder if PMSH could entice Special Ed to quit sooner if he were to be promised ambassador to Ukraine. Um better not. Ukraine is too important to Canada to have someone with the reverse midas touch of Special Ed as its Canadian ambassador.
BC’s gain is UK’s loss
Fred
“…after the disaster of the NDP Glenn Clarke era.”
The village idiot could have done as well after the NDP in this province.
I guess Campbell’s run for chairman of the IPCC kind of crapped-out, although he left this tax-payer holding the bag regarding his stupid carbon tax.
Good call on the chauffeur – at least the citizens of the U.K. won’t be running for their lives come last call.
From the Province article: “He was schooled at an Ivy League college in the U.S.”
This is why I gave up reading the MSM and went to SDA.
In my opinion people have pretty short memories. When Campbell took over from the NDP the province was a wreck. He paid down the debt, cut taxes, created a working relationship with Alberta and started required basic infrastructure projects.
I did not like the Olympic fiasco since taxpayer money went into it. I didn’t like his embrace of the enviro fools and the associated taxes and costs that brought on. I did not like that he didn’t challenge the two bogy men of provincial politics the education and health cartels.
Campbell was never a personable individual which might be more the nub of his falling out of favour. The HST which makes complete sense is being rode by no-minds like VanderZalm and the NDP to their advantage. Yes, this is the same Bill who was willing to sign the Meech Lake Accord. The outright untruths the NDP are using in their anti-Hst campaign in unbelieveable. Right up there with their Federal campaign of telling voters that Harper was in secret talks with the USA military to take Canada over. Seriously they were telling people that!
If the Fraser Institute carries any weight with people them they should read their rating of provincial premiers. Gordo was #1.
I’m with Fred. If the Ottawa bureacrats are upset, it can’t be all bad.
Harper disappoints with this one.
Campbell should have been left out of the political realm.If he was that valuable to a private corporation,more power to him, but to see him belly up to the trough again,it’s enough to make a person cynical.
While the Conservatives may see Campbell as a Premier that didn’t rock the boat too much, we B.C.’ers see him as the guy who bought into the green doctrine,and built windmills all over the North,all subsidized by US.
And I won’t even mention the beloved,planet saving carbon tax.
9% popularity with British Columbians apparently translates into the right stuff for High Commissioner to Great Britain. Who knew.
Bet the UK distillers are happy!
dmorris: “While the Conservatives may see Campbell as a Premier that didn’t rock the boat too much, we B.C.’ers see him as the guy who bought into the green doctrine,and built windmills all over the North,all subsidized by US.”
Campbell embraced polluting China yet donned the mantle of ‘green’ self-righteousness. The carbon tax he brought in changed my vote. I see him as a globalist now.
Excuse my cynicism but I think this is Steven paying off Gord for his good service regarding the HST.
By gouging British Columbians with a tax that applies to anything and everything, including many of the “fees” that offset the “tax reductions”, Ottawa and Victoria have created a cash cow that even surpassed their expectations.
“Revenue neutral” it was not, nor was it ever intended to be. The HST was enacted to pay off the cost of the Olympics and other boondoggles both past and future, not to mention the cost of the raises Gord gave himself and his cronies.
Well, if Harper is going to reform politics and the silly service – he’d better start real soon.
You are looking at the face of a classic champagne socialist. I think BC should really look on the bright side here. We do not have to endure him being a media pundit or some kind of advertising exec for Jim Pattison now.
Politically this was really dumb on Harper’s part but all will be forgotten in 4 years anyway unless Campbell opens his mouth.
Gordon attended last year’s Bilderberg conference in Spain last June, promptly returned and left office, after delivering the HST.
Now he gets a plum position. Was this Harper’s decision or was Gordon chosen while sitting in Sitges, Spain to be the next High Commissioner?
There are plans and then there are “plans”.
Everything is falling into place as it ought.
All aboard the gravy train!
This appointment is perhaps a reward system from one politician to another based on the merits of having sold one’s soul for political success. Both politicians have claimed libertarian leanings earlier in their careers but eventually only attained “power” by squeezing the NDP further to the left. With the strength of the conservative base where it is, it can’t be very rewarding to be a Conservative with the power to grow government but not shrink it. Bill Bennett was the last conservative Premier of BC.
The HST might be a better tax but I am still going to vote yes to abolish the HST because I cannot stomach rewarding a government for flat out lying. And I especially don’t want to reward Premier Mom for her disgusting use of “non-partisan” ads to push her “fix” of the HST. I think this government needs a kick in the nards to get them back to paying attention to the governed because the only other option is electing Adrian “memo man” Dix and his socialist hordes in the next election.
I am with ct at 10:14. Campbell cleaned up the mess after 10 years of extreme socialist NDP. The BC Liberal party was ideologically closer to the federal Conservatives under Campbell. He cut personal taxes on day 1. He stopped all subsidies to corporations. He brought the province back under the supervision of adults.
Campbell is why BC’s economy is strong. The press never liked him and (along with the liberal half of the BC Liberals, like Cristy Clark et al.) used the sensible HST as the excuse to take him down. Brad Wall will get the same treatment eventually.
Campbell’s record speaks for itself and should not need defending. Canada has gained a great presence in the UK. I thank Gordon Campbell for raising up a whole province and wish him and his family all the best.
I know this is strong praise, but it seems many commenters here have bought into the “noise” from the MSM. As conservatives we, properly, are not averse to criticizing our own, but we must also know when to praise those conservative actions which lift all in our society.
It will agitate a few lefties here in BC, I see that as a good thing.
thereby decreasing the average IQ in both places
Rat, Adrian Dix would fit right in with the current government. Yeah sure Gordon Campbell may have started out with some conservative principles but over the years those were resondingly abandoned. The NDP is so desperate to distinguish themselves from the BC Liberals that they put out a press release extolling their differences the other day. If you read it you will see that other than a few bones thrown to some unions here and there their programs are the same.
Campbell started out pretty good then went off the deep end when he drank too much Suzuki kool-aid … he was better when he drank what the rest of us drink.
I don’t think this is the worst choice for the position by any means. Whoever we send there is likely to be totally ignored anyway, so this may be a humbling experience quite richly deserved.
As to the HST, I would tend to agree with the kick-in-the-nards approach even if the HST is being improved, but now it turns into a costly mess to go back to the old system. I figure it’s about a toss-up now, what I would really like to see is the elimination of the carbon tax which is wreaking havoc and is totally ridiculous. Get rid of the carbon tax, keep the 10% HST we are promised for 2014, and adjust the provincial tax rate if necessary. Cheaper gas and heating fuels will stimulate the economy. We have to get over ourselves here in B.C. when it comes to fictitious “human caused climate change” that has never been a real factor and which can be the foundation for economic collapse if we don’t smarten up. Meanwhile, Gordo can let us know how the globe is warming around Buckingham Palace.
Gordon Campbell learned from the Gary Doer playbook. Give him credit, he’s a smart pol.
where is his right hand?
No wonder she’s so red.
…
Jeepers, he’s creepy.
The poor quality of the photo is entirely my fault.
The opinions regarding Gordo on this thread are all over the map.
The carbon tax based on bovine feces is the number one issue for me as far as forming an opinion on his term in office. He turned out to be just another shade of progressive.
Ken, There is one important redeeming quality in Campbell’s carbon tax. It was properly and honestly placed on the consumer. The NDP and every other government would tax compasnies only, thereby hiding the tax from you and I even though we would be paying the full shot through higher prices.
What a lot of sniveling about how bad Gord Campbell was. Well then, just remember back to the good old days of Bill Vander Zalm.
So as far as BC’s carbon tax goes, I only want to know one thing. How many in BC yipped and yapped for green energy and global warming and then snarled about the carbon tax? Rick is right. Campbell didn’t hide it; it was right out there for all to see. That’s called honesty in politics.
Why show him with an “Olympic volunteer”? Why not Lara Dauphinee?
I guess you carpet baggers haven’t heard about the ERP initiative have you? Look it up sometime. Look up the carbon neutral schemes and all the other garbage. You might want to research the carbon tax regime too. Yeah it’s honest. As honest as the Virk brothers.
I guess “Da Vinci’s Inquest” must be popular in Britain. Maybe the Brits don’t realize that it’s a fictional account of Campbell’s life — not a documentary.
Any coincidence that the CBC ran a re-run of Da Vinci’s Inquest last night? For the first time in years.
Whoops, I messed up on the above post — “Da Vinci’s Inquest” was actually based on the life of Chief Coroner Larry Campbell, not Gordon Campbell. And Nicholas Campbell starred in it.
My gawd, Canada has been taken over by Scots immigrants, specifically members of the Campbell clan!
😉
rick, either way it is a tax based on a fraudulent premise. He is Vaclav Havel by any means.
Sorry, Campbell used up his credibility in Term2, when he drank the Green KoolAid and turned into ‘just another shade of progressive’.
He had it right in Term1 when he went after the unions, that’s what got the economy rolling, putting them in their place.
Beyond that, he was awful, turned into a greentard, and a liar on any number of issues, including the HST. Whatever you may want to say about how good in theory the HST is, the Fibs used up their credibility, flipflopping and changing the tune and reasons from month to month. First it was revenue neutral, then it wasn’t, then they promsied it was never discussed pre-election, then FOI documents showed otherwise.
Its a tax grab, from a party that enforced tax cutting…..hypocrites, all of them!
For that they deserve to be tossed from office (yikes, is that Adrian Dix hiding in the weeds, re-writing memos?)
I could care less one way or the other about Campbell; this is an entirely run-of-the-mill political hack appointment.
However, as one who (during a long and interesting military career) worked both with and for the anointed ones of our cherished foreign service, anything that puts them in their place and hobbles their own insufferable high-mindedness is fine by me.
Welcome to Grosvenor Square, High Commissioner Campbell!
What’s with the “Campbell” name and cushy job postings?
Seems there was one back a few years ago in LA. How’s she doing?
Emissary salary: $192,000
Annual pension: $100,000
My taxes: Endless
Just another dipper finding his way to a new well to drain.
Forget about the salary; compared to the perks associated with the job, the pay is meaningless.
I have been to London on gov’t business, have attended at the offices of the High Commission, and was privileged enough to have been invited to a couple of receptions at the home of the HC.
Guys…the life-style enjoyed by the office-holder of that post is generally available only to billionaires.
As much as I cherish my personal scruples and morals, I can honestly say that I would kiss anyone’s a$$, in full public view, to gain that post.
I don’t think that much of Gordo anymore, but I can’t blame him for accepting the position.
nuff said.