Photo: Province of BC/Flickr CC Licence In 1988, a year before the Iron Curtain fell, I was in Budapest and after a stroll I went back to my group in the hotel and said this: “Folks, this regime is in trouble…when I was in the main square, the money changers
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The Common Sense Canadian: Forget Paris: Justin takes LNG, Kinder Morgan over climate, democracy
Justin Trudeau joined by Canadian premiers at Paris climate talks in 2015 (Province of BC/Flickr) Justin Trudeau is not as young as he looks – obviously. If he was, he would have noticed a sea change in public attitudes that this old man, more of his father’s generation, has not
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Christy, Libs let off hook for ruining Hydro, ICBC, failing on LNG
Christy Clark and Rich Coleman (center) meeting with Malaysian LNG officials in 2014 (BC Govt photo) I have a bit of a knack for remembering doggerel as part of my brain’s principal function as a storehouse of useless information. Ergo this: You cannot hope to bribe or twist Thank God, the
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe to Horgan: Get Serious about Kinder Morgan, Woodfibre LNG
John Horgan being sworn in as Premier, with Environment Minister George Heyman looking on (Photo: Flickr/Province of British Columbia) Dear Premier Horgan, My congratulations to you and your new government. I can tell you that a great many British Columbians who do not usually support your party voted for you
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe to NDP: Now you’re the government…here’s what to expect that you’re not expecting
NDP Premier John Horgan and his cabinet being sworn in by Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon (Photo: Province of BC / Flickr) In politics, speculation is half the fun – the other half is figuring out how, with all your experience in the field, you could have been so bloody wrong.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Liberal Opposition will make life very difficult for NDP-Greens
BC Liberal MLAs in the Legislature (Province of BC / Flickr) I wish John Horgan and his new government well. He has his work cut out for him. There has been a load of pollyannish bullshit spouted by the media about what will and what will not happen to his
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: NDP-Greens good to govern – but beware Weaver’s IPP support
Andrew Weaver (left) and John Horgan (Photo: BCNDP/Flickr CC Licence) Looking ahead at our political situation in BC and assuming that the NDP will govern with a one vote majority, perhaps it might be well to consider what that actually means. An accepted authority is HOUSE OF COMMONS PROCEDURE AND
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: True Patriot Love: Why the Kinder Morgan pipeline will never be built
Photo: Damian Manda / Flickr CC License The Trans Mountain pipeline [Kinder Morgan] expansion project will never see the light of day. -Grand Chief Philip Stewart, Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs If you live anywhere in Canada other than British Columbia, you’re probably convinced that the Kinder Morgan (Trans Mountain)
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: NDP-Green pact should mean good riddance to Kinder Morgan, but Liberal opposition won’t make life easy
John Horgan and Andrew Weaver seal their pact (Photo: @jjhorgan/Twitter) It will be a much postponed verdict but my initial reaction to the NDP-Green deal is positive. Whether so motivated or not, Andrew Weaver has done the right politically moral thing – contradiction in terms though that is – by
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe Mair: Rachel Notley can go to hell for threatening BC over pipeline
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley (Flickr CC Licence / Premier of Alberta) You can go to hell, Rachel Notley. Now, everyone, repeat after me. OK? Here we go. There is no risk in transporting Alberta’s bitumen through our forests, over our rivers, past our sparkling, azure lakes, through our cities, into
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Weaver would be crazy to make pact with Christy; NDP should have nailed Libs on economy, LNG
The three BC leaders at the televised debate (Photo: Broadcast Consortium) It’s May 10, 2017 as I write this, an appropriate date to examine the election, being the anniversary of the Nazi invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940 and the day Winston Churchill came to the rescue.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: It’s got to be the NDP to replace Lyin’ Liberals…but LNG complicates matters
NDP Leader John Horgan Like a large number of people in the WestVancouver- Sea-To-Sky constituency, I am breaking the usual rules – I want the NDP to form the next government but I am passionately opposed to Woodfibre LNG which the NDP candidate supports. If I were to support her, my
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Christy Clark’s LNG promises are nothing but hot air
Premier Christy Clark at her government’s LNG conference (Province of BC/Flickr) We have all been screwed, blued and tattooed in the riding of West Vancouver-Sea-to-Sky, and let me tell you how this affects every British Columbian in every region of the province. Just as Kinder Morgan would use the Salish Sea
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe Mair: How Liberal myths about the NDP distort BC’s political history
Christy Clark (Province of BC/Flickr and John Horgan (BCNDP/Flickr) Let’s look at some political myths and near-myths. The BC Liberals are hammering away at the NDP, saying that the last time they were in office, it fiscally ruined the province; this from the government that in 16 years, in 2016
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Christy Clark must go!
British Columbians have had enough of Christy Clark, say Rafe Mair (Province of BC/Flickr) The Christy Clark government and Clark herself must go! I am not a socialist but neither are the NDP. Of course, we must have a thriving economy that supports our necessities and has room for earned
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: BC Hydro’s real debt has grown 1337% under Liberals…Shouldn’t someone call the cops?
The Keystone Kops (1914) I start this exercise with a couple of general comments. The detailed information available on the “progress” of BC Hydro since the Liberals took over in 2001 would be very difficult to pull together if we were left to government confessions of error or sleuthing by
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: The Shattered Mirror: What caused the fall of mainstream media – the Internet or shoddy, sycophantic corporate journalism?
“Nine-year-old newsie and his 7-year-old brother ‘Red.’” (1915 Photo: Lewis Wickes Hine/Shorpy) OOOOH CANADA, WE STAND ON GUARD FOR WE … On January 27, an outfit called the Public Policy Forum released a report call the The Shattered Mirror, dealing with the state of Canada’s media. It was quarterbacked and
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe to Justin: Kinder Morgan pipeline would drive a permanent wedge between BC and Canada
Former BC Minister and longtime journalist Rafe Mair (photo: Youtube/CMHABC) Dear Prime Minister, I’ve reached a point where I can say what I please without concern for personal consequences. My age of ambition is long gone and social disapproval simply doesn’t matter anymore. That is where I am and intend
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: BC Green candidate Lia Versaevel brings a lot to the table
MLA candidate for Nanaimo-North Cowichan Lia Versaevel (photo: BC Green Party) This coming election, May 9, is the most unsatisfactory one I can remember since, perhaps, 1952, when the old Coalition broke up. Most people I talk to throw up their hands, saying such a terrible choice – a corrupt,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: BC Liberals taking heavy fire, but NDP need to pour on the gasoline
BCNDP Leader John Horgan (Flickr/BCNDP) and Premier Christy Clark (Flickr/Province of BC) It’s not easy to write an article on politics in the quiet backwater of British Columbia in light of the tragedy in Quebec. I’m going to make this, then, a doubleheader. This past weekend, the initial story, of course,
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