The Secrets Of Vancouver BC, Canada

Seattle Flights Just Got Even Cheaper

Vancouver Airport decided to raise the fees on travelers by 33% (again).

“Every penny of (airport improvement fees) collected goes toward building a better airport for British Columbia,” said Larry Berg, Vancouver Airport Authority president and CEO.

That’s great… but considering that I have saved an average of $200 per flight (Hawaii savings for two = $850/or free hotel) by taking the (enjoyable) trip to Washington, plus the savings on duty-free beer, hopefully they will learn that there is a limit to overcharging people.

I am in business… I travel every month to the US and Asia. The additional fees (and higher airfares in general) to have the privilege of flying out of YVR, comes right off my bottom line. The savings I get by spending and additional 45 minutes to go to Bellingham, means I can also fill my SUV, and have a dinner or two and still be ahead.

Plus, I don’t have to put up with those grumpy old Air Canada stewardesses.

I’m not the only one. The border-crossing folks tell me that they are seeing a huge increase in people from Vancouver driving to Belllngham to fly.

Meanwhile, Premier Christy Clark lauded the “next century” improvements at YVR as helping to build on her government’s B.C. Jobs Plan.

“This level of investment demonstrates YVR’s confidence in British Columbia, our economic strategy and the thousands of British Columbians working at the airport,” she said in a statement

Investment? When did YVR ever end making investments. At least they aren’t making you fork over $10 at security like they did through the 90′s.

Watch the layoffs start there by summer. The YVR airport is about to find out how the Lauffer curve works.

photo credit: caribb

Good News: Canadians Can Keep Borrowing

According to the Toronto Star, we can keep taking on more debt.

True to their Keynesian economics beliefs, even though several prominent economists, as well as the Finance Minister and Bank of Canada governor are ringing the alarm bells,  we shouldn’t worry about debt.

We are ONLY at 153% household debt to income – even though the US crash happened at 160% (as did the UK)… there’s nothing to worry about here.

We have homes that are of value. TD Bank’s chief economist Craig Alexander noties that comparing a fixed statistic, which is debt, to a flow of income that is repeated annually, is a bit like comparing apples and orange groves. He also says that while Canadians may have high levels of debt, they have something to show for it — namely valuable assets like homes.

So keep spending, and adding on to that home equity line of credit. Home prices never will go down in Canada.

Nothing can go wrong, can it (?).

photo credit: _Dinkel_

Gotcha – Newt Gingrich Says It All

CNN gets exposed, along with the media in general for carrying the left’s water.

Taking the media to task, finally. Newt Gingrich says it all:

“I think the destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office.  And I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that.”

5481 Reasons Why We’ve Seen Our Last Riot

They are hopefully going to charge the last of the rioters before the next Stanley Cup finals start. The police have been going through the pictures and video and are making an airtight case against each person. That is, if they can charge them before the statute of limitations comes into play.

If you are worried about another riot, you can thank Facebook and YouTube for making it so that only an idiot would try it again. With camera’s in everyone’s hands, we now have complete surveillance of all events.

What’s odd is that our newspapers are finally turning over their pictures (on a website that doesn’t really work). Not that they have done so willingly… first a couple of court cases, which they lost, now they’ve posted all for “innocent” people to go through to see if they are in any.

“The Sun and The Province are posting every photo online (5481 of them) so readers can see whether their images are included in the massive police file assembled for the riot investigation.”

Give me a break. The reality is that the social media sites have much more incriminating shots and statements that the newspapers have. Search Google for Vancouver rioters and you’ll find 81,700 images. They could have saved a lot of legal expense using this. There also are very incriminating images there. Or, does this not count?

Which kind of raises the question: is there any privacy left? I am kind of in favor of hanging looters and rioters, so it’s not an easy answer.

The issue won’t be going away anytime soon.

Send Us Your Drunks

From the what the “rewarding bad behavior” file:

Raise the Booze Tax and Then Give It Away Free…

The program is run by Vancouver Coastal Health near the Downtown Eastside. The building is managed by the Portland Housing Society, who also operates the safe injection site on Hastings Street.

Started in July, Eastside Illicit Drinkers Group for Education has landed $52,000 in a research grant, with aims to gather clinical evidence across B.C. on the benefits of alcohol maintenance programs.

Within the next year they hope to produce research in order to help land a partner in the health care sector to fund a Downtown Eastside drinker’s lounge stocked with vodka, sherry and high-alcohol beer.

Advocates say at a cost of about $350 per month per drinker, alcohol maintenance programs can reduce policing costs and medical fees associated to frequent emergency room visits for illicit booze drinkers. Read more:

Meanwhile, as they provide free crack pipes, needles, and now booze, the count of homeless addicts continues to rise. It’s no wonder as they are doing everything possible to make getting wasted as comfortable as possible.

Why not move the free drug/alcohol program outside of the city to some remote area, and remove all incentive on Hasting street. Round up all addicts by promising the free stuff. The cost of caring for our homeless would drop dramatically, and we’d reclaim our city. They could then focus on helping these addicts without the distraction that the city provides.

The idea that the homeless addicts have a right to Vancouver’s most valuable land is absurd.

We’d then be able to open up this area to redevelopment, allowing for residents that contribute positively to the city’s tax base.

Problem solved.

photo credit: rageforst

The Question Becomes Why Divorce?

Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

Gay marriages in Canada are problematic to foreigners, as when they try to divorce they run into a few snags. The first is if their home country doesn’t recognize the legality of same-sex marriage, they cannot divorce there. (Which begs the question – why divorce, if you are not married?)

Canada doesn’t allow divorces here to non-residents. Which makes sense.

But, to make the most of the controversy, why not add to the gay marriage law an addendum to allow gays to divorce here. We may have hit on a tourism stimulus. After the fighting is over, gays that have been married in Canada would need to return here to untie the knot.

Think of the possibilities.

photo: Macleans

Buyer’s Remorse – The Left Is Throwing In The Towel…

Long-time supporter, Taylor Marsh gives up on Obama.

HotAir: “a simply jaw dropping editorial tirade this weekend from Taylor Marsh. (Actually Michelle Marshall). For those not familiar, she was arguably one of Obama’s most hard core supporters. A devotee of Gloria Steinam, to say that she embodies the modern progressive movement would be a bit of an understatement to say the least.

All of this is what makes her New Years declaration more shocking. Titled, “The Party’s Over,” she takes not only Barack Obama, but Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic establishment to task while pretty much running up the white flag for liberalism.

It’s a great read from the left’s perspective…

Best comment: Sums it all up.

Karl K:

You lefties just KILL me. How does it feel to be totally snookered by Obama? Of course, had you exercised an ounce of critical thinking before you all swooned over him, you wouldn’t have be so soundly and thoroughly snookered.

So why will Obama go down as a WORSE president that Jimmy Carter? Simple. He is an incompetent lazy hypocritical petulant charlatan.
That’s right, Obama is a charlatan, with neither the temperament, attitude, or intellect — yes, I said intellect — to be president. Because in the end, Obama is simply not that bright. More »