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The spring session of the B.C. legislature ended Thursday with the Liberal government failing to pass its own bill to require more frequent reporting of political donations.

The Election Amendment Act, which was introduced Monday, died on the order paper as MLAs left town to prepare for the May9 election campaign.

It was the only piece of government legislation that failed to pass after a session dominated by questions about Liberal fundraising tactics.

Premier Christy Clark had promised the bill in response to persistent criticism of her partys cash-for-access dinners in which donors pay thousands to dine with her and her ministers.

Government house leader Mike de Jong said Thursday that the Liberals had hoped to pass the bill, but were unwilling to use a closure motion to end debate and force a vote.

It was our intention, but we werent going to impose closure, thats for sure, he said, adding: I think, generally speaking, these issues, these statutes, bills deserve to be debated.

Besides, he said the Liberals already practise what the bill would have required by releasing lists of donors every few weeks. Every party can do this if they wish to. We are.

Opponents, however, said the Liberals never had any intention of passing their bill or any of the private members bills to ban corporate and union donations.

Thats how committed they are to election finance reform, said NDP Leader John Horgan.

They were so committed that they left it until the last minute to table a bill that was dead on arrival and theyre not even going to bother to pass it. So that speaks volumes.

Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver called the Liberal bill a cynical ploy to give the appearance of taking action, while doing nothing.

It was a ploy designed solely to try to get British Columbians to believe that theyre taking steps to deal with big money, he said. Its a talking point, but there was no intention that this was ever going to pass. Frankly, the bill doesnt do anything, anyway.

Horgan said he expects fundraising to be a major issue during the campaign because voters have serious concerns about the influence of big money on provincial politics.

They see donors to the B.C. Liberal Party getting government contracts, he said. They have a problem with that. The B.C. Liberals have been doing deals with the same people that have been giving them money for the past 16 years.

But de Jong said the public is more interested in jobs and the economy than the fundraising debate that dominated the legislative session.

Actually, the economy, job prospects, thats all people are talking about, he said.

Its easy over here to become preoccupied with the discussion that takes place back and forth.

lkines@timescolonist.com

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BC Liberals fail to pass their political donations bill - Times Colonist

More and more liberal Americans are embracing socialism. Unfortunately, it seems many of them arent aware of the realities that citizens in countries like Venezuela face. Filmmaker Ami Horowitz spoke with Americans who call socialism great. Then, he traveled to Venezuela to speak with men and women actually living in the horrific environment that socialist policies have created.

In this video, we meet Venezuelan citizens who struggle to find enough food each day and live in the middle of spiking crime and violence. As one woman told him, Most of the time we are starvingwe cannot find food, we cannot find milkwe cannot find basic things like sugar.

Another woman, who was pregnant, described standing in line all night for food to come away with only a can of milk. Other people described the extreme dichotomy between rich and poor in the country, talking about those in government have all the power and money. The video also showcases an epidemic of violence. The country has less than one-tenth the population of the United States but three times the murder rate.

Near the end of the video, Horowitz asks the Venezuelans what they would say to Americans who want to bring socialism to the United States. The responses were telling, as they warned people not to invite chaos and hunger into their lives.

They would have to live what we are living so they can see for themselves that nothing is good, so they see this is a nightmare for us, a terror, said one woman.

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WATCH: Liberals Love Socialism But These Venezuelans Should ... - National Review

The Ontario government's plan to dramatically cut hydro rates did little to boost support for the Liberals ahead of next year's provincial election, a new poll suggests.

The Mainstreet research poll, commissioned by Postmediaand released Wednesday, suggeststhe Ontario Provincial Conservative party remain in the lead despite the announcement, though more respondents saythey are undecided about who they would vote for if an election were held today.

Earlier this month, Premier Kathleen Wynne unveiled a plan that would slash residential and small business hydro bills by an average of 17 per cent andsee billions in costs lifted off customers in the short term.It meant that some $28 billion in costs would be refinanced, with futureratepayersshouldering the interest.

The move came as the Liberalgovernment was found to be trailing the PCs by some 14 per cent in a range of polls, and nearly even with the NDP.

According to the poll, which captured the views of 2,531 Ontarians on March 11-12, the move was received by 41 per cent of respondents as a political one. Even so, 47 per cent of those polled approved of the hydro plan, with 35 per cent disapproving.

For comparison purposes only, a random sample of this size would yield a margin of error of plus or minus 1.95 per cent.The poll was conducted by interactive voice response and included landline and cell lineresponses.

"Right now, it looks like Wynne has succeeded in expanding the number of Ontarians who might vote for her," Mainstreet Research executive vice-president David Valentin said. "But that doesn't mean they will."

Demonstrators unhappy with the price of electricity protest at Queen's Park on Wednesday, November 23, 2016. (Mike Crawley/CBC)

"Everywhere I go I hear from people worried aboutthe price that they are asked to pay for hydro and the impact that it has on their household budgets," Wynne said, making the announcement at Queen's Park almost exactly two weeks ago.

The Liberals don't appear to have garnered any new support following Wynne's announcement, the poll shows. In fact, it notes they dropped two percentage points within the margin of error.

"Anger over hydro prices doesn't just work like a light switch. You can't just turn it on and off," said Valentin. "I think if people begin to see a real tangible change in their hydro bills come September, then maybe we'll start to see more traction."

But with the number of undecided voters up among every demographic in the province, the numbers do indicate they've managed to "knock voters away from the opposition parties for now."

The largest jump in undecided voters came from southwestern Ontario, while the GTA's undecided rate was largelyunchanged, it found. And among all those surveyed, the PCs posted a 10-point lead.

However, all bets were off on the issue of Ontario's hydro plan alone, the poll found, with PC leader Patrick Brown's lead disappearing altogether when respondents were asked who had the best plan for the province.

"When asked which provincial leader has the best Hydro plan, the results point to a three-way race," Valentin said.

"ButI think the question is not how many people are going to base their vote just on who has teh best hydro plan but has the premier been able to change the ballot question to not focus on hydro at all. If she can focus Ontarians on her plan for free tuition for low-income students in September or on upcoming job reform... she'll be doing a lot better."

The PCs have so far presented no plan for cutting hydro rates.

And earlier this month, Ontario's New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath released a plan to reduce rates by as much as 30 per cent for some households. The cornerstone of her plan was buying back shares of Hydro One sold by the government to private investors.

And earlier this month, Ontario's New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath released a plan to reduce rates by as much as 30 per cent for some households. The cornerstone of her plan was buying back shares of Hydro One sold by the government to private investors. (CBC)

That plan appears to have resonated with voters, the poll found.

Horwath's score on the question of hydro alone was four percentage points higher than her score overall on voting intentions.

On Wednesday, Horwath issued what she called a challenge to Wynne:To table the details of her plan at the legislature for debate Monday.

"Show the people of Ontario what your $40 billion dollar borrowing deal really means... People deserve to see it in black and white."

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Ontario Liberals' hydro rate cut plan did little to spark voter support, new poll suggests - CBC.ca

Donald Trump / Getty

BY: Alex Griswold March 15, 2017 12:49 pm

A group of anti-Trump liberals and Democratic operatives were tricked into paying thousands of dollars fordocuments that made explosive claims aboutPresident Donald Trump, butturned out to be forgeries.

Buzzfeed learned of the documents' existence when the operatives tried to sell them on the story. Supposedly, the documents showed$1.6 billion being transferred fromExxonMobil to a Chinese mining companyand then finally to the Trump Organization during the 2016 election. The purported transfers would have taken placeat the same time eventual Exxon Mobil CEO and Secretary of StateRex Tillerson was meeting with Vladimir Putin in Russia.

None of it was true.Anti-Trump activistBrett Kimberlin fronted the $9,000 for the documentswhich wereprovided by an alleged Italian scam artist,and passed them along to Democratic operatives. Kimberlin, now a liberal blogger, was convictedof a 1978 Indiana bombing spreethat eventually led a maimed victim to commit suicide.

But the documents were "rife with spelling and grammatical errors," Buzzfeed noted, at odd with what one would expect from a $340 billion multinational company like Exxon. Among the more blatant errors,the documents falsely identified the president of the Chinese company as its CEO and misspelled his name. The bank statements that came with the documents also contained clear errors, such as getting the fullname of ExxonMobil incorrect.

In addition to Buzzfeed, the groups of Democratic operatives shopped the documents toThe New York Times,The Washington Post, and Bloomberg, all of whom passed. The story was eventually picked up in February by theliberal blog Down With Tyranny,citing "pretty heavy duty, well-sourced rumors."

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Anti-Donald Trump Liberals Tricked Into Paying $9000 For Fake Documents - Washington Free Beacon

FiveThirtyEight

Liberals Would Be Foolish To Primary Joe Manchin FiveThirtyEight Some liberal activists want to challenge Sen. Joe Manchin in West Virginia's 2018 Democratic primary. They complain that he's too conservative and that he voted to confirm most of President Trump's Cabinet officials. Manchin is probably safe ... and more »

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Liberals Would Be Foolish To Primary Joe Manchin - FiveThirtyEight