Sunday, January 27, 2013

This Day In Snookland...Did The Wizards Get Kneecapped...


...By Those Dastardly Teachers And The School Boards?


In response to a post from yesterday in which we raised the possibility that the (not)Premier's silly 10 year 'Peace In Your Kid's Grade 2 to Grade 12 Time!' plan was nothing more than an attempt to spike-spin the BCTF/BCSPEA (teachers & schoolboards) 'framework agreement' announcement, a reader raised the possibility that this may have actually gone the other way around.

This interesting suggestion is based on something that popped up on Janet Steffenhagen's VSun proBlog last week which goes like this:

...The tentative (framework) deal was reached Dec. 6 but was kept under wraps until my story. If it’s approved, negotiations would open Feb. 4 with proposals exchanged by March 1....


Which, if you think about it, means that the announcement of the 'agreement' this weekend could have all been a set-up perpetrated by those dastardly teachers and the duplicitous school boards designed to whack the (not)Premier and the Wizards for their '10 year plan' sillyness.

Except for three things...

First....It would appear that the plan, for awhile at least, was to announce the framework thingy this weekend at BCSPEA's big pow-wow.

Second...News of the framework thingy was 'leaked' to Ms. Steffenhagen.

Third...There was, apparently, at least a whiff of the agreement up on the school board association's website on Dec 20th (I say 'apparently' because the link provided by Ms. Steffenhagen looks to be broken).

So, given those three things, I don't think it is not unreasonable in the least to conclude that the Wizards of Snooklandia (and their sniffers/moles amongst the boards - there are four gov. reps on the board of the  BCSPEA) knew this was coming at least a month ago.

Thus....

It is still my opinion that the dopey 10 year plan thing was rushed to the proMedia table by the Wizards the week before the BCSPEA's big pow-wow in an attempt to spike the framework agreement story.

But I am happy to stand corrected by those with real inside information on the situation.


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Please note....As NVG points out in the comments....Grade two through Grade twelve is actually...Eleven years...What's that you ask....They don't teach simple math to the academic tourists that pass through the Sorbonne?


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13 comments:

North Van's Grumps said...

RossK

Christy can't count?

Is this why the BC Liberals can't keep the bookkeeping straight?

From the end of Grade 2 to the End of the 12 is Ten, however.... From the beginning of Grade 2 to the End of Grade 12 is:


2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

That's a Eleven Year plan.

RossK said...

And just in case anybody thinks I'm making this stuff up...Here is the academic tourist's 'statement' on the Grade 2 through Grade 12 = '10' years straight from Potemkin....

"The goal of a 10-year agreement is simple and ambitious - give Grade 2 students a chance to go their entire school career without a disruption," said Clark.

Ron S. said...

She must have been distracted with catching farts in a jar and squeezing beer cans with her boobs.

Dana said...

Me, I'm looking forward to seeing her face when she discovers the 3 to 4 billion dollar hole she's blowing in the provincial economy by killing off the film industry.

Grant G said...

Part I


Ross..The framework was ratified yesterday, they voted....

As for the silly assumption that the teachers knee-capped the BC Liberal Government..

The vote was scheduled for this weekend well before Clark`s announcement..

And...

http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/10/18/BC-Teachers-Labour-Peace/

Meaning this, Stephanhegan talks about an agreement in principle was established December 6th..

However, if a deal was established December 6th, that means TALKS would have started between the 2 sides months earlier.

From a Tyee article(Dated October 18/2012)..

"Clark told the press that she asked McRae and his team to work on improving teacher bargaining shortly after a deal was reached with the teachers in June. At least two press conferences have been announced by the government since September concerning a "special announcement," only to be later cancelled before yesterday's announcement. "....And more..

"This isn't the first time government has promised to improve relations with teachers. When George Abbott was first appointed education minister in 2010 he promised to improve relations with teachers. That soon soured when teacher collective bargaining negotiations started in 2011.

Lambert was unable to attend or listen in on the government's press conference as the BCTF executive was meeting yesterday, and says she heard about Clark's 10-year contract dream through Twitter. It gave her pause about the sincerity of government's efforts this time around."

So follow the timeline...Christy Clark throws out a flyer on October 18th/2012..About the same time the BCTF starts bargaining with the employer..

Christy Clarks press releases her 10 deal just days before BCTF and employer are set to ratify..Interesting no?

Need more?

Way way back in time, February 20th/2012

You like OP-EDs Ross..

Grant G said...

Part II

A MR. Bob Plecas, former Social Credit right wing politician was giving the floundering in the polls Christy Clark some advice on how to win the upcoming election., the story ran in the Vancouver Sun...I blogged about it..

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2012/02/season-of-which-sandwich-that-is.html

Here are the juicy bits, P:l;ecas`s words, not mine..

Today, Premier Christy Clark faces three problems.

1. The Campbell legacy will not go away. While it was the perceived deceit over the harmonized sales tax that brought him down, he was rap-idly losing conservative support by moving the party to the left, supporting the carbon tax and first nations settlements. The tax fiasco proved the last straw for conservative anti-tax voters...

Clark's biggest challenge does not lie on the left, it lies on her right.
She is a well-known federal Liberal, and the federal Conservatives are wary of her. There is great suspicion in Ottawa about her loyalties, and also among Conservatives in B.C....

Can Clark rebuild the centre-right coalition?...


1. She is a great communicator. 2. The spotlight has not shone on Cummins, and some of his views, on homosexuality and first nations, appear under close scrutiny to be too extreme right-wing.

2)Dix has past issues and strong ideologies that are also not representative of the majority of British Columbians, and these also have not been widely discussed...

What are Clark's options? 1. Continue down the path she is on. That is a sure path to opposition.

2. Go to Cummins and form a coalition. With the egos involved, that is unlikely...

1. The Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. Demand Alberta share the revenue from the pipeline between the oilsands and Kitimat as a condition for B.C.'s support. As proposed, Alberta would gain all the benefits, while B.C. takes all the risk...

. Legislate a two-year tax freeze on the province and municipalities. The NDP can announce targeted tax increases all it wants.


3. Legislate to end the teachers' dispute. Stand on the side of students and parents, let the NDP stand with the teachers' union.


4. Legislate the end to the current public sector pension plan for MLAs and staff, and create a new plan, based on a private-sector model, for new hires and newly elected.


5. Terminate all bonuses for senior executives in the entire public sector. This analysis points a clear direction for Clark to remain in power. Move to the right; provide voters with a choice, through aggressive, controversial policy and legislative action - basically, attracting Conservatives back to the centre-right."

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I tote Bobby Plecas to shreds in my post..

But you will notice how closely the LIBERALS and Christy Clark followed his advice..

The Enbridge issue..

The attack Adrian over memo-gate and his tenure with Glen Clark, and the biggy..

Create a US VERSUS THEM FIGHT WITH TEACHERS...

The link to Bobby Plecas`s original dead tree version is dead, bit most of it was captured in my post..Which is linked above(a great post it was, worth the read)


The bigger story is...Bobby Plecas, BC Liberal strategy maker..

Busted their sorry asses again..

Sorry for the longish post..


Good Day1345

Scotty on Denman said...

Surest way to turn people off of political engagement is to polarize the heck out of issues and an effective way to do that is to provoke with absurdity. Hence BC Liberal attacks on the most giving, caring workers in society: nurses and teachers. How can these people be evil as the BC Liberals accuse? They're not but if someone has the temerity to challenge the ridiculous assertion, chances are they'll become somewhat more polarized than they might have been otherwise. All it takes for neo-rightists to succeed is for good voters to abandon their majority by moving away from such hostile, polar engagement...and forgetting to vote informed by real, uncontrived issues. Polarization, on the other hand, never needed to make sense 'cause that's not its purpose.

Grant G said...

Ross...I put the pieces together..

Let`s just call it..

The Bob Plecas Papers..


http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2013/01/christy-clarks-not-so-secret-election.html

Grant G said...

I found another link to Bob Plecas`s winning election strategy..

Read it, you will find that Clark is following Bob Plecas`s advice almost to the letter.


http://fnbc.info/winning-game-plan-clark

Anonymous said...

Hello
First 150 million forestry giveaway and now this in 2013.?

http://blogs.theprovince.com/2013/01/27/ben-parfitt-sneaky-liberals-are-planning-a-b-c-forest-giveaway/

RossK said...

Thanks for the input everyone.

Apologies for being absent from the discussion - tied up this evening with geek junk...will try to get back up to speed later.

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Anonymous said...

and then things just went weird...

Wendy Stueck has an interview with the BCTF's Susan Lambert in The Globe and Mail - Published Sunday, Jan. 27 2013, 11:06 PM EST.

Lambert: "Our first glimpse of this proposal [CC's Hail Mary pass] was Wednesday evening."

Lambert: "It was troublesome for us to receive this document given the timing – because government knew that both parties [the BCTF and BCPSEA] had come to this agreement and both parties were going through ratification process this weekend."

You can get to see what is on a dead link by putting said url into Google's search and viewing its cache.

The BCPSEA did issue a [.PDF] bargaining update on December 7, 2012 with a cryptic comment.

RossK said...

Thanks very much Anon--

I think the fact that there are gov. reps on the BCSPEA board pretty much nails it.

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