While getting refunds of every cent they pay, business people enthusiastically support you and I paying HST. They aim to relieve themselves of income taxes too. While working people, even those on the brink of poverty, pay income tax, large corporations arrange business affairs to avoid or evade taxation of
Continue readingAuthor: Norman Farrell
Blogging regularly since April 2009 on public affairs with focus on BC politics, journalism, the environment and ethical matters in the public arena.
Northern Insight: Oxymoronic
Ethical asbestos. Ethical torture. Ethical bribery. Ethical oil.
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Go away, we have something to hide
Benjamin Alldritt, North Shore News reporter invited by the North Vancouver-Lonsdale Liberal Association to “A North Shore Evening with Premier Christy Clark”, gets disinvited by one of Clark’s minions: “I’m sure you can understand that we don’t want comments made in front of a private audience made public,” said Garfinkel,
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Questions for SFU and Wilf Hurd
April 5, I sent an email to Wilf Hurd, Simon Fraser University’s Director, Government Relations, (Contact info), posing three questions: Have you issued a public statement responding to Jonathan Fowlie’s report in the Vancouver Sun stating you caused SFU to pay more than $2,000 spent in BC Liberal Party Fundraisers.?
Continue readingNorthern Insight: See what happens when you split the vote
On today’s Trailing Edge from the Ledge, BC Liberal press officer Sean Leslie disclosed strategy to be followed after the party’s candidate, federal Conservative wonk Laurie Throness, fails to win the once friendly riding of Chilliwack-Hope. “If the NDP actually pulls a win out there because the Conservatives and the
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Hochstein threatens Clark and Cummins
It is no surprise that a handful of self-interested BC business folks are confounded by the rejection and disintegration of their proxy government. It startles me though when a representative of the unelected elite feels sufficiently powerful to issue a public warning that promises, even threatens, political change. In Women
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Still Looking after needy minorities – RERUN
First published May 2010. From the reliable Justine Hunter and Ian Bailey at the Globe and Mail, read HST backlash could prove to be B.C. Liberal’s Waterloo. This excerpt: Mr. Canseco, a vice-president with Angus Reid Public Opinion, said the only demographic where the Liberals have not seen a double-digit
Continue readingNorthern Insight: "Vote for us, even if we’re crap…"
Until recently, Paul Willcocks of the blog Paying Attention was one of the truly fine journalists working at Postmedia newspapers. Unlike most in the blogoshere, Paul retains loyalty to former colleagues in corporate journalism. Nevertheless, his issue analysis is always fair minded and perceptive. He and partner Jody Paterson are
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Fraud is a lie writ large
Finance expert says speculators are behind high oil and gasoline prices, David Lightman | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — Financial speculators are gambling on oil the same way they gambled on the housing market a few years ago — a frightening prospect for the fragile economy, a Democratic congressional committee was
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Cool wind map
H/T Doug Coupland. Follow him on Twitter. Surface wind data comes from the National Digital Forecast Database. These are near-term forecasts, revised once per hour. So what you’re seeing is a living portrait. Live version HERE.
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Has dam protecting the Libs now broken?
Ex-MLA expensed over $2,000 to attend party fundraisers, Jonathan Fowlie, Vancouver Sun “VICTORIA — A former B.C. Liberal MLA now working as a director at Simon Fraser University has been giving public dollars from his university expense account to the B.C. Liberal Party. “Documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun show
Continue readingNorthern Insight: The word is malfeasance, AKA theft
http://saveourrivers.tv/powerplay_player5.html Protect salmon habitat? Protect BC consumers? Protect BC taxpayers? No way. H/T John W.
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Hypocrisy "R" Us
According to cash strapped TransLink, senior executives are eligible for bonuses of 15-20 % as part of the company’s incentives plan. Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom is outraged, sort of. He thinks a public organization struggling to fill funding gaps should not be paying bonuses. Premier Photo Op added her voice,
Continue readingNorthern Insight: One publication raising the bar
I am a frequent critic of corporate media but wish I could be an enthusiast rather than a detractor. When ink stained wretches — perhaps today that should be digital savvy geeks — provide incisive commentary valuing common citizens ahead of magnates and moguls, I’m keen to applaud. Good people
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Wingnut alert!
REPLAY: First published Oct 22, 2010, this small piece, with minor updates, remains apropos. BC Liberals Keith “Fore!” Baldrey and Bill “That’s an old story” Good, with Mr. “I’ve Seen No Evidence” Palmer, said on Corus Radio that bloggers are anonymous “wingnuts” writing “things they don’t know.” I might be
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Solution for the Auditor General
A person commenting on Jonathan Fowlie’s puffery in the Vancouver Sun proposes a way Premier Photo-Op can resolve her government’s dispute with Auditor General John Doyle over documents in the Basi Virk payoff: “…the Auditor General will be given a “mediator” with a zero document mandate.”
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Things that make you go "Hmmm"
The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is the primary agency overseeing K-12 public education in Washington state. OSPI works with the state’s 295 school districts to administer basic education programs and implement education reform on behalf of more than one million public school students. It is headed by
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Trailing edge from the Ledge
A reader commenting in the preceding article about corporate journalism left this statement: “A means must be found to reign in the illegality and criminal activity in BC’s provincial government.” I believe that exposing unvarnished truth is the single most important thing. The co-opted mainstream media must be forced to change or
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Mostly fools
When asked the population of England, Scottish historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle gave as his answer, “Thirty millions, mostly fools.” If asked about British Columbia’s population, Time Colonist writer Les Leyne would say, “4.6 millions, mostly fools.” That would explain a pair of columns by Leyne that could establish a
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