Richard Hughes-Political Blogger I have been following the Canucks since about 1956 when they played in the Western Hockey League. Jim Cox was still doing play by play on CKNW and then later a young Jim Robinson stepped to broadcast Canuck games. Jim was behind the mike from 1958 until
Continue readingTag: Cowichan Conversations
Cowichan Conversations: Cowichan Politicians Reject Staff Driven Bid For Hiring PR Spinners-Slash Budgets
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger It is too easy to poke at our politicians of all stripes and all stations but recently encouraging signs have emerged that show our elected folks are paying attention. At the CVRD table perhaps it is an injection of newly elected Directors that is making the difference.
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Austerity-driven cuts ignite protests in Montreal
By Stefan Christoff -Rabble.ca Last night on the streets of Montréal thousands joined a spirited protest against austerity, targeting the violent cuts to the public sector currently taking place under the Liberal government of Philippe Couillard, occurring within the wider context of the Conservative austerity hammer coming down across Canada. “On avance,
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Shawnigan Community Fights Against Contaminated Soil Dump
More than 200 residents from Shawnigan Lake showed up to discuss last week’s decision by the provincial government to allow a company to dump contaminated soil near Shawnigan Lake CHEK TV reports Shawnigan area residents jammed into an overflow room at the Community Centre to get updates on their
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Rocco Galati in court to challenge how Bank of Canada does business
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger The mysterious world of money, making it, printing it,spending it. There has been contrary views regarding the role of banks in controlling our money supply since the Bank of Canada stepped away from providing debt free money to cities, town and municipalities. Across the country, budgets are
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Harry Smith the 92-year-old anti-austerity campaignerIs Coming After Harper
Harry Smith has lived through the good times and the bad times. He sees a return to the lean mean 20’s of his youth and he is going to go after Steve Harper. Inspiring, he tells it like it is. By Jerry Nuttall Harry Smith: ‘Since Harper has come into power, everything
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: CVRD Failed To Enforce Their Land Use Authority–Shawnigan Faces 5 Million Tonnes of Contaminated Waste
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger Here is the CVRD response to the BC Liberal governments decision to allow 5 million tonnes of contaminated soil into the Shawnigan Watershed property on Stebbings Rd. Truth is the CVRD blew it from the outset by refusing to enforce their land use authority. The anaemic response
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Quicksilvers Bankruptcy Stalls Fracking Operations On The Island
Don Maroc It is never good form to gloat over someone else’s ill fortune, but when their loss is our gain it’s hard to maintain a polite composure. Quicksilver Resources, Inc., and its 13 U.S. subsidiaries, have joined the line-up at a Texas bankruptcy court putting itself under the protection
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Artificial Turf Controversy Fuels Dispute Over Health Concerns In North Cowichan
Don Maroc Michelle Hutton-Marinier, in a letter to the Cowichan Citizen newspaper, voices her disappointment n North Cowichan Council’s decision to delay for a couple of weeks signing a contract to install an artificial turf field to replace one of the grass soccer pitches on Sherman Road. Her son plays
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: BC Libs OK SIA Permit, 5 Million Tonnes of Contaminated Soil Destined For Shawnigan Watershed
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger What a shame! Residents were duped into process with various government agencies, a mugs game at best. Polite, respectful and ineffective. Money talks. The so called appeal hearing is a cruel and expensive joke. The CVRD dragged their feet for months before they engaged in useless corroboration with
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Charlie Smith’s Memo to Keith Baldrey: Democracy is Already Imperilled
Richard Hughes-Just another Political Blogger MSM legislative Global TV guy Keith Baldrey is a master on Twitter. He is not without a developed sense of distortion, as is clear in this provocative deviation from reality highlighted in Charlie Smith’s memo below. In truth, the blogosphere is multi dimensional in its coverage,
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Maroc–We Just Moved Several Meters Closer to the Edge of a Cosmic Abyss
Don Maroc We just moved several meters closer to the edge of a cosmic abyss and no one is calling for a time out. Last year the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) quietly established the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as a counterweight to the US/UK controlled International Monetary
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Time to Regulate the News Media
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger The Tyee’s Associate Editor Shannon Rupp wrote this thorough analysis regarding the state of the media, published in August 2014. It seems timely to post it once again when on Vancouver Island we could soon be facing Black Press papers from one end to another. In the Cowichan
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: BC Liberals Bailing Over Auditor Leak — Where is the Lipstick!
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger Week in week out Black Press columnist Tom Fletcher was able to put lipstick on the BC Liberal pig. He usually spun such utter flapdoodle for the reigning Christie Clark gang that it made his columns laughable, but rarely digestible. It generally was a column that I read
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: A Look Back To Loren Duncan’s Stated Concerns About Runaway Senior Staff Salaries
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger Longtime CVRD Director Loren Duncan put his concerns about CVRD senior staff salaries on record in June 2013. As a semi recovering politician I have an appreciation for not only his insight but for stating it publicly. The group or table dynamics are such that it is
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: CVRD Directors Approve Consultant Driven Formula For Senior Staff Salaries
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger There has been a great deal of discussion regarding the pay levels of CVRD Senior Staff and Department heads over the last couple of years. These key positions deserve to be well paid by qualified personnel, but the level of pay is disproportionate with the incomes of
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Chris Hedges–The Most Dangerous Woman in America
At a time when voters stay away from the polls in droves it seems new voices of relevance register with those who the politicians generally avoid. Clearly the key for many successful younger politicians is to reach out to the disenfranchised, the unrepresented, the majority. In Seattle a champion has
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: CVRD-Board Ducks and Transfers Additional Power To CAO
Don Maroc Getting toward the end of a three-hour meeting of the Cowichan Valley Regional District Board last Wednesday (11 Mar. 2015), Corporate Secretary Joe Barry tiptoed through the bylaws to be voted on. It was routine stuff. Board Chair Jon Lefebure was almost chanting, “may I call the question?
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Canada-wide Demonstrations Against Proposed Anti-Terrorism Law
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger Perhaps there is a silver lining behind the storm clouds of oppression being waged by our Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Canadians from four former Prime Ministers, to Civil Liberties organizations, major MSM newspapers, even Conrad Black are calling out the Conservatives for these extreme and unnecessary restrictions
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