Christy Clark (Province of BC/Flickr and John Horgan (BCNDP/Flickr) The election is sufficiently near to develop a few axioms to carry us through the sea of a largely imponderable mass of horse buns that we’ll have to face. I suggest that the following are good starts to our defence mechanisms
Continue readingAuthor: Rafe Mair
The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe’s New Year’s letter to Trudeau: Time for PM to get to know BC…for real
Justin Trudeau hasn’t learned much about BC in the time he lived here and from visits like this one to the central coast in 2014 (Flickr/Justin Trudeau) Dear Prime Minister Trudeau, Allow me to introduce myself. I am a lifelong, pretty old British Columbian who loves his province with the same passion
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Site C Dam shows how broken our democracy is
BC First Nations Chiefs Roland Wilson, Liz Logan and Stewart Phillip took their anti-Site C message to Ottawa – to no avail (Liz Logan/ Twitter) This week I said I would talk about Site C but little did I know what I had taken on. I spent nearly a day and
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: If not Civil Disobedience, what? Letters to the editor?…Rafe Mair on the necessary response to Site C Dam, Kinder Morgan
84 year-old retired librarian Barbara Grant getting arrested at Burnaby Mountain (Burnaby Mountain Updates/facebook) Beyond doubt, British Columbia must get involved in two separate and substantial actions of civil disobedience, one with Site C and the other with the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline. Civil disobedience runs against the grain of many
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Trudeau, Notley’s defence of Kinder Morgan doesn’t wash for BC
Justin Trudeau is greeted in Alberta by Rachel Notley (Premier of Alberta/Flickr CC licence) I listened to Alberta Premier Rachel Notley on CBC with Rick Cluff this week and must say she said nothing to give me cause to change my mind on Kinder Morgan. To the contrary, I asked myself how
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Rafe Mair to Justin Trudeau: BC is not yours to give away
Photo by Province of British Columbia I’ll not waste too many words on Prime Minister Trudeau’s treachery. Of all the many political sins, surely the greatest of all is hypocrisy and this prime minister has taken that sin to new levels. He basked in the glory of Paris and being
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Gary Mason, quit lecturing Vancouverites for opposing pipelines
Recent Kinder Morgan protest in Vancouver (Photo: Lu Iz/Facebook) I simply couldn’t believe Gary Mason in Friday’s Globe and Mail In his article entitled “Sorry Vancouver: The rest of Canada needs pipelines”. I urge you to read the article so that if I misrepresent Mr. Mason you will see it
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe Mair to Justin Trudeau: BC is not yours to give away
Justin Trudeau speaks at the Paris climate talks – flanked by Canadian premiers (Province of BC/Flickr) “They hang the man, and flog the woman, That steals the goose from off the common; But let the greater villain loose, That steals the common from the goose.” I’ll not waste too many
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Trudeau will have hell to pay in BC if he approves Kinder Morgan
Recent Vancouver rally against Kinder Morgan (Photo: David Suzuki Foundation/Facebook) None should be in the slightest surprised at the anti-British Columbia stance of Justin Trudeau and the Liberals. As Talleyrand famously noted when, after the fall of Napoleon the Bourbons were restored, “they learned nothing and forgot nothing”. Thus it
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Clark’s big loss to teachers is an opening for NDP’s Horgan…at last
BCNDP Leader John Horgan (Flickr/BC NDP) and Premier Christy Clark (Flickr/Province of BC) You have to feel sorry for John Horgan, the BC NDP leader. He has had a hell of a time getting traction and seems unable to find an issue he’s comfortable with. Even when a decent one
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Canada’s Health Care ranked 30th in world by WHO – Time to admit we have a problem
Photo: Bob M~ / Flickr CC Licence Well, we’ve let it go a very long time – perhaps for so long that a better brand of chaos is all we can hope for with reform. I’m talking about our health care system in this country. Canadians recently learned that the
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Book Review: Beyond Banksters – Resisting the New Feudalism
Bankers Hall in Calgary (Bernard Spragg, NZ / Flickr CC Licence) Something strange was happening in the world and until a social event in November, 2011, I was having trouble putting my finger on it. That was the night some friends held a roast for me to celebrate my 80th
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: How our “democracy” really works – the charade of party politics and whipped caucuses
Christy Clark being sworn in as Premier of British Columbia in 2011, surrounded by her cabinet (Province of BC/Flickr) Well, it’s the political silly season again, when we democratically come together to decide by secret ballot who will govern us for the next four years. It’s a system we’ve used
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: With LNG approval, Trudeau govt shows true colours…but we shouldn’t be suprised
Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna with Industry Minister Jim Carr (left) and BC Premier Christy Clark (right) announcing the federal government’s approval of PNWLNG (Province of BC/Flickr) Developing a climate plan to meet Canada’s Paris Agreement commitments is a challenging but achievable task for the federal government. Doing so
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Why Judges should be judged too
I’m a lawyer by trade and recently helped celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UBC Law Class of 1956. Like all of my classmates, I am very proud of our Class, one of those of those extraordinary comings together of individuals who somehow become an identifiable entity. Out of the
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Why Donald Trump will probably beat Hillary Clinton
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (Gage Skidmore / Flickr CC Licence) Of course Donald Trump could beat Hillary in November. I think he will, but before going further, let me say that this would be any enormous worldwide tragedy and we must pray that there is a God and He
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: BC Greens sullied by friendship with Liberals
BC Premier Christy Clark (Province of BC/Flickr) and Greens Leader Dr. Andrew Weaver It’s always difficult to lose a friend even, perhaps especially when it is mostly a friend of convenience. Friendship covers a lot of ground, all the way from that which leads consenting adults into the sack through
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: How it became offensive for women to wear too much clothing
Photo: Flickr CC Licence / Flood G Yes, yes, yes, I know, Mr. Editor, we’re in the last stretch before the last stretch just before a big, real last stretch going into next May’s election and I should be thinking wall-to-wall BC politics. Well, sir, I’m not going to do that
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: With May staying on, what’s next for the Green Party?
Photo: Laurel L Russwurm/Flickr Whither the Green Party of Canada after its recent convulsion? In order to answer that question I think it must be understood, perhaps conceded is the better word, that the Green Party isn’t like other parties and probably never will be. If it struggles to be what
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: RAFE: ‘Responsible Government’ and how it blocks democracy – Pt.1
Rafe is revealing what some will be surprised to learn. Jaded blogger types and other seasoned politicos have understood the party control aspect for years but somehow it still flies under the radar. Not Read more…
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