I have called it the Campbell/Clark government because that’s what it is. Premier Clark was in on the beginning of most policies including the disastrous energy plan that sees private power companies (IPPs) destroying our rivers to produce power for …
Continue readingAuthor: The Common Sense Canadian home page
The Common Sense Canadian home page: Site C: Poster Project for British Columbia’s ‘Command Economy’
Editor’s Note: Despite the criticism of BC Hydro’s big-dollar infrastructure plans by the BC Liberal Government following its handpicked panel review of the utility’s proposed rate hikes, Energy Minister Rich Coleman maintains it’s full steam ahe…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Local Communities and Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Responsibility for reducing carbon dioxide emissions is falling to cities, municipalities and regional districts because wider efforts during the last 30 years to ameliorate the threat of global climate change are not working. Multiple negotiations spo…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Rumours of Pipeline’s Demise Grow as Speculation Surrounds Enbridge
It’s impossible to divine anything concrete from the flurry of interesting chatter surrounding Enbridge’s embattled 1,100 km Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal. Alternate routes, Asian energy experts laughing at our stupidity, Enbridge as a straw man t…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: BC Libs, IPPs Can’t Distance Themselves from Hydro’s Woes
The response of the private power industry (IPPs) to the recently released study on BC Hydro is goofy even against other barmy statements they make. The defence against the charge that their power costs many times what BC Hydro can make it for the…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Video: Rafe & Damien on EVOTV
Rafe Mair and Damien Gillis discuss The Common Sense Canadian and their coverage of key environmental and public policy issues in BC and Canada on Shaw’s EVOTV, with host Irma Arkus. The three cover a wide range of issues in the half hour program – fro…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Hydro Report: Death Knell for BC’s Public Power?
This will be a short blog because the point is simple…and devastating. Mark down August 12, 2011 as the day BC Hydro all but concluded its suicide mission, with the Campbell/Clark government and the Review Panel playing the role of Dr. Jack Kerv…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Farmed Salmon Confidential (Part 2): The Cover-up
Part 2 of a 2-part series – read part 1 here.When does a foreign-owned corporation’s right to protect its share price trump the environment and Canadian public’s rights? Apparently, when it’s the Norwegian salmon farming industry.Numerous instanc…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: The BC Liberals and the "Family" Issue
What do families have to do with the
environment?
Quite a bit, actually.
The Campbell/Clark government is
looking for an issue to run on and the Family is the answer the backroom boys
and girls have decided is the best one.
This decis…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green – Don’t worry, Be Happy
“Don’t worry, be happy” is the refuge of the deceived and the oblivious, the
attitude that people assume when they fail to recognize the reality of their
situation.
“Trust us,” says our federal government. “We are planning the fut…
The Common Sense Canadian home page: Farmed Salmon Confidential (Part 1): ISA and the Cohen Commission
Part 1 of a 2-part series – watch for Part 2 this ThursdayThis past year, the Norwegian-controlled salmon farming industry spent $1.5 million on a glitzy advertising campaign in BC, which essentially denied the impacts of open net cage salmon farms on …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Campbell/Clark Government Goes After Wolves
The Campbell/Clark government has
done it again. Now wolves will be wiped out in BC because, it’s alleged
(by ranchers), that their cattle are being slaughtered by wolves. Ranchers are
friends of the government while wolves are not. The constituenci…
The Common Sense Canadian home page: What "Fracking" is About
Until a couple of months ago I had never heard of “fracking”.
I now understand why. And I should have known.
Governments, by long standing habit, don’t like smarty pants
environmentalists to learn what the hell is going on and thus be able
to alert…
The Common Sense Canadian home page: Reflections on BC Day
It’s August 1 – British Columbia Day. This being a relatively new holiday, we have not really come up with a tradition such as we have on Thanksgiving and Christian holy days. One might think of May 24th, the significance of which could not be…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Parenting in an Uncertain Age
When Elijah was four years old, he wanted to dress as a polar bear for Halloween trick-or-treating so his mother, Sandra, sewed him a costume from an old white bed sheet. As she was making his costume, it occurred to her that global warming may mean th…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Why the BC Liberal Government Doesn’t Value Your Life
There are many instances I’ve come across in the past number of years which suggest to me the Campbell/Clark Government places no real value on the lives of its citizens – this despite Premier Clark’s “families first” motto. That’s a bold claim, I know…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Are They Ganging up on the People and Environment?
Just before I get down to business, I know that all environmentalists will be saddened that a former member of the group, Patrick Moore, allegedly got stiffed by a client for $120,000. I hate to sound like a “Johnny-come-lately” with good advice bu…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Latest DFO Scientist Muzzling Part of Bigger Pattern Ignored by Media
The revelation by the Sun and the Province that a scientist in DFO, Dr. Kristi Miller, has been muzzled by the DFO and the Privy Council (which supports the Prime Minister’s Office) simply underscores how badly they have covered environmental matters…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Industrialization
Sometimes the magnitude of the environmental challenges facing us today seems overwhelming. So we traditionally examine the larger problem in fragmented details. We isolate one part of a huge complexity of issues and consider, for example, the decline …
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