Under the current government, the BC Legislature seems to have become a necessary evil to be used sparingly or otherwise avoided.In the Liberals first term, Premier Campbell introduced a sweeping set of democratic reforms that were supposed to elevate …
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The Common Sense Canadian home page: A Coal Port in the Storm: Tsunami Risks for Raven Mine Storage Plan
What does Port Alberni have in common with Fukushima, Japan – besides a love for fish? Two things, potentially. First, according to experts from Emergency Management BC, Port Alberni is located in the heart of the most dangerous Tsunami zone in the cou…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Site C: Simple Questions & Answers
We at the Common Sense Canadian will be dealing with the Site C project in some depth and from the outset we would like to acknowledge the tremendous work and research done by our colleague, well known economist Erik Andersen, who cut his professional …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Rafe’s Books Nominated for Samara Awards
I’m astonished and hugely flattered to learn that a long time
listener and reader of my stuff, Gavin Bamber, has nominated three of my
books for recognition as the top Canadian political books of the past
25 years by Samara. This about Samara …
The Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Manufactured Doubt
Doubt is the foundation of all science. Every scientific principle and theory, no matter how established and trusted, contains the acknowledged possibility of error. This is the way science works. It is always in the process of disproving, adjusting or…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Video: Mainstream Plans New Farm Amidst Tanking Clayoquot Wild Salmon
A proposal from Mainstream Canada – the local subsidiary of Norwegian aquaculture giant Cermaq – for a new 56-hectare open net pen salmon farm in Clayoquot Sound threatens the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve’s already hard-hit wild salmon stocks. The Common S…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Thorium: Nuclear Power’s Last Hope…Maybe
Awhile back I did a piece on nuclear energy and you would have thought I was in favour of hanging petty thieves (that theory belongs to the Harper Conservatives). I said nothing in favour of nuclear but only made the point that before anything is rejec…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: The Psychology of Denial
The scientific community has been in a state of constrained panic during the last couple of years as the binding terms of the Kyoto Protocol approach expiry, as a replacement agreement to cut global greenhouse gases emission have foundered at internati…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: How the Campbell/Clark Liberals Brought Real Lying into BC Politics
I have been in politics or commenting on them (same thing) back to the days of WAC Bennett. My first published piece was a criticism of Bennett’s position on the failed (thankfully) Victoria Charter. During that time I’ve seen plenty of gildi…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Audio – Coop Radio: Damien Gillis on Enbridge, Natural Gas, Foreign Trade Zone
Get MP3 (40.7 MB | 34:00 min)Listen to Damien Gillis’ recent appearance on CFRO 102.7 FM’s Wake Up With Co-op, discussing key issues reshaping BC’s economy and environment – including the recent revelation on CNBC’s Mad Money that Enbridge is seeking…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Salmon Farming – The Tightening Noose
The Norwegian-owned salmon farming industry that has inundated BC’s West Coast with open net-pen feedlots invariably defends itself against accusations of causing environmental damage by insisting that no evidence exists to definitively prove any such …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Gas Pipeline Blazing Trail for Enbridge Gateway Project?
During an eight-minute interview with Fox News’ Mad Money host Jim Kramer last week, Enbridge CEO Pat Daniel made a revelation that was at once startling and hardly surprising – one with profound ramifications for several of the key environmental chall…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: CoalWatch Letter Seeks Real Public Consultation on Raven Mine
CoalWatch Comox Valley SocietyPO Box 157Union Bay, BC V0R 3B0250-335-2246www.coalwatch.ca May 17, 2011 The Honourable Terry LakeMinister of EnvironmentProvince of British ColumbiaParliament BuildingsPO Box 9047STN PROV GOVTVictoria, BC V8W 9E…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Growth: Time to Remove its Halo
“No belief in industrial society is so pervasive and so essential to it as ‘progress’ defined in terms of economic growth. It sustains faith in the industrial system and reinforces the hope among the poor that they may also ‘strike it rich'”. – From Ar…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Standing up to Enbridge in an Undemocratic Canada
Last article I spoke of civil disobedience, a legitimate tool of dissent in a democracy when a government makes political decisions without public consultation and to the exclusion of all but the powerful. We have just such a decision forthcoming with …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Electoral Reform: An Unfinished Conversation
The recent federal election has once again reignited debate about the need to reform our voting system and a “National Day of Action for Electoral Reform” has been called for May 14. The current first part the post (FPTP) system creates majori…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Rafe on Christy’s Narrow Win, Looking Forward to General Election
What, if anything, do we read into Premier Christy Clark’s narrow win in the by-election? In one sense it can be said that the only important thing is that she won, but that isn’t so. Of significance is the low turnout. The only example I can …
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