Did BC taxpayers finance American TV ?
American cable TV producers moved taping of three of 18 episodes of Bravo’s Top Chef: Texas to British Columbia. That may seem unlikely because of the high costs of transporting…
Norman Farrell
Smile
Henning Wehn, German Comedy Ambassador to the United Kingdom, on Britain’s social classes: “Life in Britain is all about knowing your place. The lower class has a lot in common…
Open, accountable government, BC Liberal style
B.C. Lottery Corp. seeks reversal of document order, CBC News, March 15, 2011 “The Financial Transactions Reports Analysis Centre (Fintrac), the federal money laundering watchdog, hit BCLC in 2010 with…
Deep down, she is shockingly shallow
Game Change, an HBO movie about the 2008 McCain / Palin campaign is more about éminence grise Steve Schmidt than the Senator or his running mate. A central element is…
Might makes right
Far right commentators tell us that government should remove itself from every possible sector of the country’s economy. For example, the Fraser Institute, an organization that cares for interests of…
How much have Wall Street and banks changed?
Not much, according to Greg Smith, a London based Goldman Sachs’ executive director who is leaving with a loud message to the public. He contributed an Op-Ed to the New…
BC Jobs Plan working, in China
In the last year, the Pacific Northwest (BC, WA, OR) exported well more than $1 billion worth of raw softwood logs to China. Shipments for 2011 were more than in…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity 2012-03-13 19:33:00
A work by Vancouver-based writer and political cartoonist Geoff Olson. His work has appeared in The Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail, Adbusters, The National Post, This Magazine, The Vancouver…
Public land with full access now privatized
Liberals have been bulldozing barriers and slashing red tape for more than a decade. Who can forget: “Red Tape Reduction Task Force” of 2001 to recommend priorities for the review…
Bob Mackin’s tasseography
“Could the fumbling of the renaming of B.C. Place be the undoing for Clark? “The shocking resignation of Peter Brown from the board of the B.C. Pavilion Corporation could be…
VIHA CEO Howard Waldner in the news again
After Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times about the affluent exercising self-interest to make gains over the rest of us, Pamela Fayerman published a local illustration in the…
Believing stuff about equal opportunity
Nobel winning American economist Paul Krugman, Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton, writes frequently for the New York Times. This week, he offers Ignorance Is Strength, a timely…
A No Era for British Columbia
The British Columbia Liberals promised a number of things when they aimed to form government in 2001. This is from page three of their 36-page campaign document A New Era…
Dishonourable and unscrupulous – but consistent
Currently, the internet is alive with discussion of public education in British Columbia and I’ve gathered a few elements from different sites to create a composite of opinions that reflect…
No more reprehensible MP than this guy
Veterans called NDP hacks, Jeff Davis, Postmedia News “OTTAWA — Calgary MP Rob Anders — who embarrassed himself by falling asleep in the Veterans Affairs committee last week — offered…
A very good year, for a few
The Rich Get Richer: 2010 Was a Very Good Year to Be in the 1%, Derek Thompson, senior editor at The Atlantic “This recovery has been a luxury item. For…
Feeding time ending
Alex Tsakumis has the slow cooker warmed. The hogs might soon be shredded pork. Pigs at the trough will start to squeal. Don’t miss the story of how British Columbia’s…
Requiescat in pace
Today in British Columbia’s Legislative Assembly, Leonard Krog, Opposition Critic For The Attorney General, said this: “I rise today to ask the House to pay its respects to the passing…
What do YOU want from education?
A young woman, for whom I have unlimited regard, sent this message to me. She is a very experienced school teacher with a Masters degree in education. She knows more…
Adventures in not net zero land
Helping manage the BC government’s war on school teachers and public education is Deputy Minister of Education James Gorman. He is a long time senior bureaucrat. Public accounts show his…