Tuesday, August 1, 2017

BC Liberal leadership bid

My name is Neil Thomson and I was born in White Rock, British Columbia and have called this province my home since. I had the privilege of being raised on a farm and then due to my father’s passing my family left the farm. Again another privilege came my way, we bought home on Kalamalka Lake in Vernon, so summers were spent swimming and winters skiing at Silver Star.  As a young man, I lived in Revelstoke, Dawson Creek, Logan Lake and then moved to Kamloops in 1984 and raised my family.



Over the past years, the Liberal Party leadership has taken a rational middle of the road approach, much of which I find accord with. My self-imposed mandate will be to stay the course with the rational middle. I will drive enhanced accountability measures by the appointment of an independent nonpartisan Accountability Officer who will be tasked with the objective assessment of government policy outcomes and provided with a communication channel to the public. I will bring focus to institutional reforms across government, including but not limited to, medical system reforms and education system reforms.  Specific to Education there will be a focus on an increased velocity in the distribution of knowledge, so as to facilitate the province's prominence in the conversion of latent technology to marketable products and services - this will be funded as an infrastructure investment and costed against the longer term substantiated tax revenue increases the policy will generate. Institutional reforms will be focused on breaking the present inertia our institutions are experiencing that is preventing them from responding to demands; efforts will be directed toward long term financial sustainability, more adroit response to change, greater absorptive capacity, and better and more productive working environments for the people employed. I will promote policy that generates family centred funding, gives priority to families having time together and supports them interfacing with society in a manner that is optimal for their specific needs.  I will seek to move the provincial growth to the top performing region in the G20 by aggressive use of region specific simulative policies that seed entrepreneurialism and build the economy from the ground up. One accepts that there is a trend taking people to urban centres, one can never accept that many of our rural communities are but mere shadows of their former selves – so focus will be brought to rural revitalization through improved utilization of crown land, high capacity internet infrastructure for remote areas and the productive cooperation of the First Nation Peoples.  Finally, an aggressive environmental policy that is rationalized to realistic time lines, realistic assessment of risk versus reward, considers honestly where provincial policy can effect difference and is founded on science.

"Jurisdictions that facilitate the conversion of new knowledge into usable products and services are the jurisdictions that will prosper."

I am advocating substantive change in the structure of many of our institutions, I am advocating this change because I know our potential and I can see what is holding us back. People fear change, they will speak against it out of fear. People want security and so in the “change process” efforts to assure people garner an enhanced circumstance will be sought, or at least, their livelihoods will be maintained.

I am eager to bring a generalized state of prosperity to the Province, to seed the economy from the ground up and to effect a more equitable circumstance absent redistributionist action – let people keep what they’ve earned.

To prevail in this race I will need a lot of help, with funds and political expertise. The established players in the leadership race hold a small amount functional advantage, as they are incumbent actors. I believe I can prevail by presenting a clear vision to British Columbians and letting them see the kinds of reforms that will make it happen. I hold a deep and abiding passion for the betterment of my province, forged by a love for the place where I've spent my life at work and play. There truly is no better place on earth, no place with more natural wealth, no place with stronger people, no place with more compassionate people; all that is needed is the right direction.

If what you've read makes sense to you and you have expertise or funding you can offer to the cause, please call or reply by return email. One understands the nature of the undertaking and the dynamics of the process - it is a big commitment and one I am happy to make. I know I can do it and I am confident if provisioned with the right support I can win. I am eager to turn British Columbia away from economic stagnation, to get in front of the money that will be running from the province under the present leadership - AND, most importantly, I am eager to make British Columbia the most prosperous jurisdiction in the G20. 

Free Enterprise with a heart
Make BC the best jurisdiction in the G20
Generosity Works 

Thank You
Neil E. Thomson
250-819-6950
nthomson20@gmail.com




No comments: