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
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The Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Christy Clark must go!
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
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: BC Hydro’s real debt has grown 1337% under Liberals…Shouldn’t someone call the cops?
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
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: The Shattered Mirror: What caused the fall of mainstream media – the Internet or shoddy, sycophantic corporate journalism?
“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
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe to Justin: Kinder Morgan pipeline would drive a permanent wedge between BC and Canada
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
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Trumplandia vs. Clarklandia: How BC stands to lose on LNG, lumber and trade
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
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Note to Justin: Pipelines don’t help transition to green economy
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
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: It’s Time to Change The Way We View Exercise For Frail and Critically Ill
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
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: It’s Time to Change The Way We View Exercise For Frail and Critically Ill
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
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: BC Green candidate Lia Versaevel brings a lot to the table
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,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: BC Liberals taking heavy fire, but NDP need to pour on the gasoline
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,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: How rich elites took over BC…and the Liberals welcomed them
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
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Liberal pals plundering BC Hydro for tens of Billions
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
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe Mair: The BC election no one can win
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
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Despite Trump & Trudeau’s pipeline fetish, green economy will keep booming
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
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe’s New Year’s letter to Trudeau: Time for PM to get to know BC…for real
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
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Site C Dam shows how broken our democracy is
BC First Nations Chiefs Roland Wilson, Liz Logan and Stewart Phillip took their anti-Site C message to Ottawa – to no avail (Liz Logan/ Twitter) This week I said I would talk about Site C but little did I know what I had taken on. I spent nearly a day and
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: If not Civil Disobedience, what? Letters to the editor?…Rafe Mair on the necessary response to Site C Dam, Kinder Morgan
84 year-old retired librarian Barbara Grant getting arrested at Burnaby Mountain (Burnaby Mountain Updates/facebook) Beyond doubt, British Columbia must get involved in two separate and substantial actions of civil disobedience, one with Site C and the other with the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline. Civil disobedience runs against the grain of many
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Trudeau, Notley’s defence of Kinder Morgan doesn’t wash for BC
Justin Trudeau is greeted in Alberta by Rachel Notley (Premier of Alberta/Flickr CC licence) I listened to Alberta Premier Rachel Notley on CBC with Rick Cluff this week and must say she said nothing to give me cause to change my mind on Kinder Morgan. To the contrary, I asked myself how
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Gary Mason, quit lecturing Vancouverites for opposing pipelines
Recent Kinder Morgan protest in Vancouver (Photo: Lu Iz/Facebook) I simply couldn’t believe Gary Mason in Friday’s Globe and Mail In his article entitled “Sorry Vancouver: The rest of Canada needs pipelines”. I urge you to read the article so that if I misrepresent Mr. Mason you will see it
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