The body’s aching a bit, but the brain’s not dead – well some have thought it dead for decades. Still, the cancer treatment gives me time to think and write about politics here at home as well as anywhere it strikes my fancy. Hope you find the results interesting.
Dearest Travellers – what is your itinerary? Beyond the wild exuberance of well-regulated Singapore, where are you going…and when?
Glad you’ve come to join the blogosphere Ian. Be well.
BCSL
Very happy to see you’ve started this up Ian.
I love it!
Hi, I like your blog and read it regularly. I read people referring to your background but when I look at your “about” section there is no information about you. Maybe I am missing something but I can only really see that your name is Ian. I would be interested to learn just a bit about you, and at a minimum what your name is. Unless of course that is not usually done on blogs, I’m newish at this and still learning. Thanks for your interesting and thoughtful postings.
Thanks for checking in and commenting Wendy. Like you, I don’t think these things should be secret. I guess I’m just used to writing for people who already know me, so I didn’t post much on this page.
I’m Ian Reid and I’ve worked in politics going on 30 years now, mostly in BC and at all three levels of government. I’d describe myself as a practical progressive, of the centre left. I like to think of myself as informed by but not bound by ideology. I worked for the NDP governments in the 1990s, ran the first Vision campaign in 2005 and worked as Carole James chief of staff until 2009. I am currently not working and recovering from a chronic form of cancer.
Hope you continue to visit my site.
Thank you Ian and take care. Maybe post this new short bio up at the top of the page to add to what you already have so it won’t just be up to chance that people scroll through the comments and find out about you. Fortitude….
Between the great photo of the cow hanging out in the ocean and the brilliant opposition research and writing, I’m becoming a regular. Thanks for sharing your insights.
Mira, I take that as a great compliment, especially the part about the cow.
Ian, do you have a public email for people to contact you outside of commenting on the blog?
Hang in Ian…cancer can be hell…but it can be beat.
Dandelion tea…made from the root. Check it out my friend – All the Best to You!
Hi Ian
Gloria Williams gave me your blogsite and I thoroughly enjoyed reading your comments.
Sorry to hear you have cancer. Let’s hope for a good recovery.t
All the very best.
Joan, lovely to hear from you. And I hope things are going well down there where it is summer now. If you’re ever back this way give me a call. It would be fantastic to see you.
Ian
Ian, I stumbled over your blog today. I had wondered what was happening with you in the midst of all this turmoil in BC NDP. I knew that you of all people would be able to offer the ultimate insider’s perspective on all of this. It’s all very distressing to watch from across the country.
I guess I try to be an eternal optimist (perhaps naively). I like to believe that if the federal Tories could take power after the fratricidal war to oust Stockwell Day, and if Mulroney was able to win the biggest landslide in Canadian history – a year after all the betrayals and backstabbing and two-faced hypocrisy he used to plot against Joe Clark and if the federal Liberals were able to win a few elections after all the Turner vs. Chretien vs. Martin wars and if Gordon Campbell was able to get elected after all that backstabbing around ditching Gordon Wilson in the early 90s – then hopefully the process of choosing a new BC NDP leader will be some sort of catharsis for the party and that things can still be righted and the party can recover.
I’m sorry to hear about your health situation. Send me an e-mail and maybe we can catch up next time I’m on the west coast.
Derek
PS: If it’s any consolation – at least you don’t have to live under Rob Ford!
xxxxx
I’ve little doubt you’ve already seen this Ian, but just in case you haven’t…this might interest you. I’m not trying to interfere, or busybody…just trying to send good thoughts and a possibility (I can only hope!) your way:
http://www.burzynskimovie.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59&Itemid=37
You’re the first person I thought of when I read this and watched the movie…now I’m keeping my fingers crossed. All the best to you and yours.
Dear Ian – We haven’t seen each other in many years but both Chris Chilton and Ron Johnson have shared news of you and Paul and your life adventures – the good and the difficult. I met Chris McLaren about a year ago and she introduced me to The Real Story which is fabulous. It was great to meet her since I now fish for salmon with my partner Jake on a gillnetter and his oldest friend Robert runs Kenn’s boat for him in Johnstone Strait in the Fall – the circles do bring us all together. Rob Cottingham posted your Vancouver Observer piece on FB which prompted me to write to you – you rage and rage and rage – please keep writing. Sending you and Paul healing wishes for your Toronto sojourn.
Hey Hilarie, it’s great to hear from you. And thanks for the healing wishes.
Ian
Enjoyed your analysis on the HST vote. Me? I felt that it wasn’t so much a vote to punish the Liberals, which the pro-HST folks stubbornly continue to insist was the case, but that people simply felt they couldn’t afford the tax.
Hi Ian
Your comments on BC Place Stadium roof financing can be verified from Pavco’s 2010-11 Annual Report. Yes, indeed, Pavco’s share of the cost of the renos is $150 million. But given the current Auditor General’s Office of BC “observations” regarding how the provincial government is ‘hiding’ debt and shuffling the pea around one can only imagine how Pavco’s debt is being absorbed through provincial government books.
I found it amazing that the socred-liberal minister in charge of tourism and Pavco used 70 years as his amortization period. Usually the amortization period is based on the life span of the roof and other modifications/renovations.
Economic impact studies conducted for or by the government require a fair degree of exaggeration to justify or sell their initiatives. The government tends to pump up the ‘benefit’ side of the equation even though the senior government, Canadian, recognizes that economic impacts are not benefits.
The problem with using impact studies to sell a project is that it is not a definitive assessment tool, however, how the current BC government uses these studies has more to do with selling than assessing.
The annual subsidy required for maintenance and operations as well as debt service costs will be greater than all the school board and health authority budget shortfalls in the province.
BC residents should get out their pom-poms and cheer their money away.
Thanks Karen
Thanks very much karen. I’ll check these out and I appreciate very much the prayers and good wishes.
Ian,
Twice now, while I’ve been at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, I’ve found that you had been there at the same time. And once, Jack Layton was a patient at the same time. So following your blog is extra-special for me.
This morning, I voted in the Ontario provincial election. Very few people around. One attendant asked the dreaded “How’re yeww?” and I said “That’s not a good question. I have breast cancer.” I know I shouldn’t have said that, but … I did … having just voted for a guy I don’t know, whose name starts with Z, whatever. And wow, I’m glad I said that. She in her official uniform, held her arms out, and hugged me tight and said, “Me, too.” She said that 5 of her friends had been diagnosed with cancer this past year alone. I had been especially thinking how stupid it is to vote, these days.
THEN …
Goblessus … I thought of Manitoba. Ian, h.i.h. do we explain that Big Media apparently can’t cope with the NDP bringing in their 4th back-to-back majority government … and this time, their biggest ever. Apparently it isn’t news worth reporting. Or Big Media thinks it’s better if other citizens don’t hear about this?
I very much admire your fortitude in your treatment journey, Ian, and my blessings are with you.
Hi Ian,
Looking forward to your upcoming commentaries.