W.A.C. Bennett's gift to the people of British Columbia keeps on giving:
In a textbook example of online marketing gone wrong, BC Ferries launched a social media contest to name its newest ferries — only to be barraged with joke names mocking the corporation’s overpaid management, high fares and lack of competition.
“Coastal Extortion,” “HMS Cantafford” and “The Queen of Poor Management” joined the hundreds of names being suggested for a trio of new “Intermediate Class” car ferries.
As of Wednesday night, not a single person had posted a legitimate ferry name to Twitter. On Facebook, meanwhile, only a handful of souls resisted the urge to slam the marine monopoly, such as a Langley man who suggested “Island Paradise” or “Island Relaxation.”
In Ontario only the cable companies are this hated.
The only private ferry service to the Island is the Blackball Line from Washington State which serves Victoria to the Olympic Peninsula at Port Angeles. They enjoy the best of both worlds as they run efficiently with half the crew and need only match BC Ferry rates for business which are high. This company was the original ferry service company to the Island which, while on strike, was nationalized by WAC Bennett.
In BC, Federal safety regulations mandate large crews and being BC, that means lots of unionized "workers" making it a "happy work place" all around. The BC Liberals thought that they could avoid some flak by creating an arms length Crown Corp arrangement which hasn't fooled anyone as to who's responsible.
Rates have increased such that the traditional busy money-making routes which subsidized the losers enjoy less business ensuring a vicious circle of escalating rates and declining passengers.
The smaller Islands have money losing service that the resident refugees from industrial civilization feel entitled to while they do what they can to kill economic activity wherever and whenever it raises its ugly head thus making a bad system worse.
Posted by: John Chittick | Friday, May 22, 2015 at 12:02 AM