Nature has inviolate principles, Christy Clark does not
A comment left by Lew on an earlier article deserves to be featured. Here is Christy Clark, the premier of our province, speaking as a radio show host just before…
Norman Farrell
Puffery, misrepresentation or outright lies?
Puffery is an exaggeration or overstatement expressed in broad, vague, and commendatory language. According to Law for Business (Barnes et al., 1991), “The elements of misrepresentation are ordinarily given as:…
Comforted by false reality
A New York Times article, The Surprisingly Large Cost of Telling Small Lies, quotes a successful English business person about the need to confront truths, even uncomfortable ones, “…telling lies…
Tax evasion at the heart of global economy
The Globe and Mail reported September 19, 2014: “Internal Canada Revenue Agency documents confirm the agency is cutting some of its most highly-trained staff and folding international tax evasion units……
Managers justify generous treatment of managers
In 2013, the consulting firm Ernst & Young was hired to review trends in compensation across the BC Public Sector. It is now available through the Legislature’s public documents. Reports…
The real news gets ignored – REPLAY
I wrote the following article 3½ years ago. It demonstrates how little has changed. On the day George Abbott became the first Education Minister to speak at a convention of…
The Explainer explains
Surveying corporate media coverage of the education dispute, I noted a column by Vaughn Palmer that displays his particularly usefulness when BC Liberals want information distributed. More about education later…
UBC Professor of Law Joel Bakan speaks
“I see a lot of sense in the BCTF’s insistence on eliminating E80 from the package for consideration in binding arbitration… “As is true of any negotiation, the respective bargaining…
Lies and Liberals, an inherent match
In November 2001, after NDP MLA Joy McPhail reported a government plan to increase medical service plan premiums, Canadian Press quoted Liberal Health Minister Colin Hansen, “Joy MacPhail needs a…
Dignity not in anti-union Liberal playbook
Recognizing that workers have the right to bargain collectively as part of their freedom to associate reaffirms the values of dignity, personal autonomy, equality and democracy that are inherent in…
CBC dominates the Websters
I bet Jack Webster’s spirit twitches when the $175 a plate bun toss named for him recurs and this town’s higher purpose people gather to honour worthy journalists, not all…
Captives of industry
Regular readers are aware that British Columbia’s natural gas industry provides surprisingly little return to the province by way of royalties for depleting non-renewable public assets. In the last two…
Extractivism – B.C. as third world economy
Examining British Columbia’s natural resource sector, I was surprised that public returns had declined although produced quantities increased and values rose exponentially. Not long ago, British Columbia thrived on resource…
R.I.P. Paul St. Pierre, 1923-2014
In the summer of 1968, I was a naive minion of the Liberal Party, helping manage the coastal part of Paul St. Pierre’s campaign to become MP for Coast Chilcotin.…
Before taxpayers spend billions on LNG…
Since Paul Taylor’s keys to the public sector were taken away, again, I’ve been waiting for news of his latest landing ground. The Report of the Joint Review Panel (JRP)…
Where the vision and the visionaries?
Thirty-five years ago, the U.S. government’s EPA Journal stated, “Quite simply, Love Canal is one of the most appalling environmental tragedies in American history. “But that’s not the most disturbing…
In the land of Not-Net-Zero
Teachers were advised about a year ago that their pension contributions were rising again because the plan had an unfunded liability of $855 million, up from $289 million two year…
From outside the Liberal spin machine
Last March, the government MLA for one of Canada’s wealthiest municipalities rose in the Legislature to speak about natural gas. Jason Sturdy said, “our government’s deep-well royalty credit and infrastructure…
Patronage and private privilege – BC Liberal P3
By numerous measures — lower job and GDP creation, fewer public services and rapid expansion of public debt — BC Liberals are colossal failures. Most BC residents are unaware because…
Hey Tom, whose energy policy has been nonsense?
In the article “Unparalleled, indeed,” I quoted from an item written in 2011 by Black Press proselytizer Tom Fletcher. In it, he “lauded Gordon Campbell’s “long-term strategy to export hydroelectric…