This month (October 2011) The Auditor General of British Columbia presented his report to Government titled “BC Hydro: The Effects of Rate-Regulated Accounting”. For most folks this is not be a gripping story they will want to master. That of cours…
Continue readingTag: Common Sense Journalism
The Common Sense Canadian home page: Oil Pipelines and Tankers: A Bad Proposition for BC’s Economy and Environment
There are two stories about pipelines this week – the first was a Vancouver Sun article October 25. Here it is, in part:Sixteen business and labour leaders have signed an open letter to British Columbians urging their support for natural gas and oil …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Port, Province Set to Steamroll Over Delta’s "Meaningless" Farmland
We’ve known it all along, but at last we hear it out loud. Robin Silvester, the President and CEO of Port Metro Vancouver, has stated that:“Agriculture is emotionally important, but economically [of] relatively low importance to the Lower Mainland….
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Well-Informed Futility Syndrome
Ever get the feeling that our environmental problems are just too big to solve? Ever cringe when hearing of another “unprecedented weather event”, when reading of another species on the verge of extinction, or seeing headlines of another sobering repor…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Could Jimmy Pattison Have an Eye on BC Hydro? Rafe Speculates Wildly
How about a bit of totally nonsensical speculation of the order of “Hitler is alive and well living in Argentina”. Something utterly absurd. I bring to this speculation a very unique history – I’m the only person in captivity who’s been fired…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: "Good Corporate Citizen"? No Such Thing – Especially in Fish Farm Business
See those two dots – one says corporate decency (underneath it says “good corporate citizen”). The other dot says democracy, the rule of law and responsive government. These two dots are joined to make up the dot that says “what a pil…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: What ISA Salmon Virus Did to Chile: Damien Gillis’ 2009 Photo Essay
In the wake of the discovery of catastrophic Infectious Salmon Anemia in wild Pacific sockeye this week, The Common Sense Canadian revisits Damien Gillis’ 2009 photo essay documenting how the same deadly disease wiped out the Chilean salmon farming ind…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: US Senators Demand Action on Salmon Virus While BC Counterparts Go Into Denial Mode
Two items came across my desk yesterday that, taken together, illustrate just how embarrassingly backward our BC Liberal government is when it comes to matters of the environment. One was a transcript from the BC Legislature, wherein NDP Fisheries Crit…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Delta Council Paves Way for Massive Housing Development on Farmland, Over Public Opposition
On the eve of municipal elections, Delta Council has unanimously voted to begin amending its Official Community Plan, paving the way for a highly controversial housing development by Century Group atop the Southlands (aka Spetifore Farm). The October 1…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Catastrophic ISA Disease Found on BC Coast
Here is the story from salmon biologist Alexandra Morton: Infectious Salmon Anemia virus has been found in two young sockeye salmon. Sheer reckless, negligent behaviour has loosed a highly infectious fish farm influenza virus into the North Pacific. I …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Private Power by the Numbers: Hugely Overpriced IPP’s Mean Soaring Hydro Bills
This article was originally published in the Alaska Highway News.Dave Cobb is president and CEO of BC Hydro. In August, he confirmed what Hydro watchers have been saying for some time: that provincial energy policy is forcing Hydro to buy electricity i…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Gross National Happiness
The industrialized world is a funk these days. If it is the worrisome realization that this economic system is beginning to show some serious flaws, then maybe the time has come to give some serious consideration to the Bhutanese notion of Gross Nation…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Thoughts on Communism and Capitalism as "Occupy Vancouver" Approaches
“Although Communism may be dead in fact if not name, the conditions that spawned and nurtured it are very much with us today. Large corporations have replaced the noblemen, the dwindling middle class is no buffer between the haves and the have-nots, …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Motorists Who Slam Transit Levies Have the Wrong Target
This past week – as the debate was raging over whether Metro mayors should vote for a 2 cent hike to the gas tax and a tiny (avg. $23/yr), temporary property tax increase in order to fund several badly-needed and long-awaited transit improvements for t…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Muzzling Science and Scientists
Muzzling science and scientists is ultimately an exercise in futility, an effort that inevitably causes more trouble than the initial discomfort of confronting the reality of evidence. History has shown this repeatedly. The Church didn’t like the helio…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Tide Turning Against Premier Photo-op – Even Mainstream Media
Will wonders never cease? Was that a mild reproof of Premier Photo-op in Mike Smyth’s column the other day? Was that a mild criticism of the Liberals in Vaughn Palmer’s column last Wednesday? Then was that an out and out criticism by Mr. …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: AG Slams BC Liberals’ Bogus Accounting, Massive Hidden Debt
Forward by Rafe MairWe now know that the BC Campbell/Clark government has deceived the public hugely in their financial statements. Below is a blog from our expert independent economist, Erik Andersen. BC Auditor General John Doyle has exposed this dec…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: The Ethical Oil Bait and Switch
In the ongoing campaign to put a positive spin on Alberta’s Tar Sands, proponents have deployed a new rhetorical attack: women’s rights. If you support women’s rights, say conservative pundits Ezra Levant and Alykhan Velshi, choose “ethical oil…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Dealing with Rigged Game; New Local Issues Page
Two items for you today. I have written a bit lately about civil disobedience and have got some feedback. Civil disobedience must not under any circumstances be violent and it must be carried out as Mohandas K Gandhi saw it – passive resist…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Salmon Farms Killing Sea Lions
If spreading sea lice, diseases and pollution weren’t justification enough for removing open net-pen salmon farms from BC’s wild West Coast waters, the latest outrage is the slaughter of California sea lions and their marine cousins.The Department of F…
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