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The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe Mair: Rachel Notley can go to hell for threatening BC over pipeline

May

23

2017

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley (Flickr CC Licence / Premier of Alberta) You can go to hell, Rachel Notley. Now, everyone, repeat after me. OK? Here we go. There is no risk in transporting Alberta’s bitumen through our forests, over our rivers, past our sparkling, azure lakes, through our cities, into Vancouver Harbour, over the Salish ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Weaver would be crazy to make pact with Christy; NDP should have nailed Libs on economy, LNG

May

11

2017

The three BC leaders at the televised debate (Photo: Broadcast Consortium) It’s May 10, 2017 as I write this, an appropriate date to examine the election, being the anniversary of the Nazi invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940 and the day Winston Churchill came to the rescue. Like then, much of the ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Green Party campaign manager quit over Andrew Weaver’s bullying, bad policies

May

8

2017

Andrew Weraver attacks BCNDP Leader John Horgan during the televised leaders’ debate On the eve of his candidate’s kick-off event, Green Party campaign manager Troy Grant reached his breaking point with Andrew Weaver, causing him to resign. “I can’t support the BC Green Party because of Andrew Weaver,” Grant now admits. Here’s why. Troy Grant is ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Why the BC Liberal economic record is actually worse than the NDP’s in 90’s

May

5

2017

Many people are ready for a change in Victoria. Christy Clark is one of the least popular candidates for premier in BC history and, after 16 years of scandal-filled rule, her Liberal Party has tried British Columbians’ patience to the extreme. Yet everyday on social media, I run across a familiar refrain: “Better than going back to the ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: It’s got to be the NDP to replace Lyin’ Liberals…but LNG complicates matters

May

3

2017

NDP Leader John Horgan Like a large number of people in the WestVancouver- Sea-To-Sky constituency, I am breaking the usual rules – I want the NDP to form the next government but I am passionately opposed to Woodfibre LNG which the NDP candidate supports. If I were to support her, my neighbours, with every justification in ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Heartwood: How Vancouver Island lost 90% of its ancient rainforest

May

3

2017

In Part 1 of this new 3-part mini-series titled Heartwood, filmmaker Daniel Pierce explores the endangered old-growth forests of Vancouver Island. Despite the reality that less than 10% of the prime, low-elevation old-growth remains on the island, these forests continue to be converted into second-growth tree farms. Pierce unpacks what the loss of these forests means ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Christy Clark’s LNG promises are nothing but hot air

Apr

24

2017

Premier Christy Clark at her government’s LNG conference (Province of BC/Flickr) We have all been screwed, blued and tattooed in the riding of West Vancouver-Sea-to-Sky, and let me tell you how this affects every British Columbian in every region of the province. Just as Kinder Morgan would use the Salish Sea as the sewage disposal and ...

The Canadian Progressive: Canadian Conservatives still support the TPP, which died after Trump’s withdrawal

Apr

20

2017

The Conservative Party of Canada maintains its support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which is now doomed following the United States’s withdrawal earlier this year. The post Canadian Conservatives still support the TPP, which died after Trump’s withdrawal appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.

The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe Mair: How Liberal myths about the NDP distort BC’s political history

Apr

14

2017

Christy Clark (Province of BC/Flickr and John Horgan (BCNDP/Flickr) Let’s look at some political myths and near-myths. The BC Liberals are hammering away at the NDP, saying that the last time they were in office, it fiscally ruined the province; this from the government that in 16 years, in 2016 dollars, has doubled the provincial ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Economist: Thanks to Liberals, BC is Canada’s most indebted province

Apr

10

2017

The Liberal Government has already made BC Canada’s most indebted province. Projects like Site C, which Premier Christy Clark is shown announcing here, will only make matters worse (Province of BC/Flickr) Almost four years ago I prepared an article on the financial affairs of BC, musing about the way BC voters returned the BC Liberals to ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Christy Clark must go!

Apr

6

2017

British Columbians have had enough of Christy Clark, say Rafe Mair (Province of BC/Flickr) The Christy Clark government and Clark herself must go! I am not a socialist but neither are the NDP. Of course, we must have a thriving economy that supports our necessities and has room for earned luxuries. What we can no ...

The Common Sense Canadian: BC Hydro’s real debt has grown 1337% under Liberals…Shouldn’t someone call the cops?

Mar

20

2017

The Keystone Kops (1914) I start this exercise with a couple of general comments. The detailed information available on the “progress” of BC Hydro since the Liberals took over in 2001 would be very difficult to pull together if we were left to government confessions of error or sleuthing by the NDP opposition. In fact, ...

The Common Sense Canadian: The Shattered Mirror: What caused the fall of mainstream media – the Internet or shoddy, sycophantic corporate journalism?

Mar

4

2017

“Nine-year-old newsie and his 7-year-old brother ‘Red.’” (1915 Photo: Lewis Wickes Hine/Shorpy) OOOOH CANADA, WE STAND ON GUARD FOR WE … On January 27, an outfit called the Public Policy Forum released a report call the The Shattered Mirror, dealing with the state of Canada’s media. It was quarterbacked and written by Edward Greenspon, best ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe to Justin: Kinder Morgan pipeline would drive a permanent wedge between BC and Canada

Feb

27

2017

Former BC Minister and longtime journalist Rafe Mair (photo: Youtube/CMHABC) Dear Prime Minister, I’ve reached a point where I can say what I please without concern for personal consequences. My age of ambition is long gone and social disapproval simply doesn’t matter anymore. That is where I am and intend to speak my piece. I’m ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Trumplandia vs. Clarklandia: How BC stands to lose on LNG, lumber and trade

Feb

17

2017

Part one in a series by Kevin Logan February 17th 2017 As the faux populist facade fades and the new reality show “Trumplandia” begins to emerge from the ruins of the Democratic elite’s embrace of hedge funds and wall street masters, one thing is crystal clear: Big oil and gas is now in the driver’s ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Note to Justin: Pipelines don’t help transition to green economy

Feb

13

2017

Photo: Canada2020 / Flickr When Justin Trudeau talks of oil pipeline projects as part of an energy transition, what exactly is he talking about? That we will be on the path to reducing our dependency on fossil fuels by increasing our oil dependency in the short term? And that by immaculate conception we will reduce ...

THE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: It’s Time to Change The Way We View Exercise For Frail and Critically Ill

Feb

10

2017

I’m posting this guest post from http://evidencenetwork.ca because my Mom has had so much difficult regaining her strength after 3 hospitalisations in the past 4 months. Next time my Mom is in a hospital bed, I’m going to ask for in-bed cycling! It’s time to change the way we view exercise for frail and critically ...

THE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: It’s Time to Change The Way We View Exercise For Frail and Critically Ill

Feb

9

2017

I’m posting this guest post from http://evidencenetwork.ca because my Mom has had so much difficult regaining her strength after 3 hospitalisations in the past 4 months. Next time my Mom is in a hospital bed, I’m going to ask for in-bed cycling! It’s time to change the way we view exercise for frail and critically ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: BC Green candidate Lia Versaevel brings a lot to the table

Feb

4

2017

MLA candidate for Nanaimo-North Cowichan Lia Versaevel (photo: BC Green Party) This coming election, May 9, is the most unsatisfactory one I can remember since, perhaps, 1952, when the old Coalition broke up. Most people I talk to throw up their hands, saying such a terrible choice – a corrupt, cheating, lying, government and an ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: BC Liberals taking heavy fire, but NDP need to pour on the gasoline

Feb

1

2017

BCNDP Leader John Horgan (Flickr/BCNDP) and Premier Christy Clark (Flickr/Province of BC) It’s not easy to write an article on politics in the quiet backwater of British Columbia in light of the tragedy in Quebec. I’m going to make this, then, a doubleheader. This past weekend, the initial story, of course, was all President Trump as ...

The Common Sense Canadian: How rich elites took over BC…and the Liberals welcomed them

Jan

27

2017

Imperial Metals’ Murray Edwards, Real Estate magnate Bob Rennie and Kinder Morgan’s Ian Anderson The following is re-published with permission from author Roy Hales and The Eco-Report. It’s been a fortnight since the New York Times carried the story. The author, Dan Levin, told Global News: If this were in Russia or China or the Balkans or some developing-world ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Liberal pals plundering BC Hydro for tens of Billions

Jan

26

2017

By Norm Farrell Until the mid-twentieth century, much of British Columbia lacked reliable and affordable electricity. To resolve the privation, W.A.C. Bennett created BC Hydro, a publicly owned utility. The province’s leader acted because the private sector had refused to meet growing needs for electricity. Unlike less effective successors, Premier Bennett was a pragmatist, not ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe Mair: The BC election no one can win

Jan

11

2017

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 as our eyes and ears ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Despite Trump & Trudeau’s pipeline fetish, green economy will keep booming

Jan

7

2017

US President-Elect Trump (Flickr/Gage Skidmore) and Canadian PM Trudeau (Flickr/Canada 2020) are both big on pipelines Forces at play suggest there will continue to be significant advancements in the global migration to a green economy. Trudeau and Trump are rowing against the current. Despite Trudeau’s continued focus on tar sands extraction and limiting provincial action on ...

The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe’s New Year’s letter to Trudeau: Time for PM to get to know BC…for real

Dec

31

2016

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 I’m sure people in Trois ...