Ret. Navy Commander torpedoes LNG lobby’s tanker safety story
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave…when first we practice to deceive.” ― Sir Walter Scott One Stewart Muir is the executive director of Resource Works, an elite organization formed…
Rafe Mair
Why Rafe Mair is begrudgingly voting “Yes” in Transit Plebiscite
Rafe Mair trusts Mayor Gregor Robertson (pictured) with our transportation future a tad more than the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation – despite big misgivings about transit management to date (Vision Vancouver/Twitter)…
Rafe: All hands on deck for Howe Sound as LNG storm brews
Boaters raise the alarm over plans to re-industrialize Howe Sound (Future of Howe Sound Society) Howe Sound needs the help of all British Columbians and it needs it now. The…
A PR Flack’s Guide to LNG: Dream Team tries to repair industry’s image
Clockwise from top left: Teck’s Doug Horswill, Stewart Muir, former A-G Geoff Plant, and Lyn Anglin It’s an axiom of debate that if you don’t like the argument you’re in,…
Joe Oliver says fracking is safe, so it must be
Finance Minister Joe Oliver (Adrian Wyld/CP) I must apologize for being an alarmist. I now discover there is no reason for concern about hydraulic fracturing, commonly called “fracking”. I have…
Rafe: Federal leaders out of touch on LNG, fracking
Thomas Mulcair, Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau Prime Minister Stephen Harper has thrown down the gauntlet with his promise of federal tax giveaways for LNG enterprises. I expected this sort…
Christy Clark’s LNG-fueled Fudge-it Budget…and the enabling NDP
Premier Christy Clark made big election promises about managing BC’s economy (CP) Welcome to Ruritania! Where is Peter Sellers when we need him? We now have a legislature pretending to…
Woodfibre LNG proponent has history of fraud, tax evasion
Sukanto Tanoto (right), the man behind the proposed Woodfibre LNG project Permit me to make some observations about the LNG situation in Squamish. What the people of Howe Sound do…
West, Weyler team up to battle Kinder Morgan
Ben West addressing a Vancouver crowd about Kinder Morgan in 2012 (Damien Gillis) There’s big news on the environmental front! Ben West, the eminent young environmentalist until now with Forest…
Tide may be turning on farms destroying salmon habitat
A coho spawning in a small stream (Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife) I come today in praise of the Vancouver Sun and trust that events don’t prove that I…
Rafe: NDP Opposition should try some actual opposing
BC NDP and Official Opposition Leader John Horgan (BCNDP.ca/youtube) I’ve been very critical, especially recently in the tyee.ca, of John Horgan, leader of the NDP, and the Official Opposition itself.…
“The environment IS the economy” says Tory MP Weston…Really?
Tory MP John Weston (from his annual Christmas video message/Youtube) There is surely nothing quite as ridiculous as a Tory pretending that he cares. Money and rich friends they understand…
Calgary paper dispenses free parenting advice to BC’s Kinder Morgan opponents
Kim Fink-Jensen (left) and daughter Kate pose with MP Kennedy Stewart after protesting the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline at Burnaby Mountain (Photo: Kim Fink-Jensen/facebook) I say two cheers and a…
Rafe: What’s the NDP thinking jumping on Liberals’ sinking LNG ship?
BCNDP Leader John Horgan talking LNG at UBCM meeting (Photo: BCNDP) I suppose it’s not unusual for an electorate to feel swindled. It sure as hell happens often enough. The…
Rafe to Christy: Spare the kids, parents your Kinder Morgan lectures
11-year-old Kate Fink-Jensen (CTV) and Premier Clark (Lyle Stafford, Postmedia) Premier Christy Clark has taken it upon herself to criticize the parents of two 11-year-olds who protested the Kinder Morgan…
Rafe: Critics of Burnaby Mountain citizens are out of touch with public will for change
84 year-old retried librarian Barbara Grant getting arrested at Burnaby Mountain (Burnaby Mountain Updates/facebook) I’m inspired, if that’s the right word, from two quite irreconcilable sources. First, the Vancouver Sun…
Rafe: Tough on Kinder Morgan, Corrigan & Robertson my kind of mayors
Re-elected mayors Gregor Robertson & Derek Corrigan. Photos: CP (left) / Dale Cornish/Forest Ethics (right) Derek Corrigan is my kind of mayor. So is Gregor Robertson. Both of these mayors…
Rafe: Shell promises “green” LNG…we can trust them, right?
Christy Clark and Marvin Odum, President Shell Oil Company at recent BC LNG conference (BC govt flickr) I’m sure, like me, you were excited to read in the Vancouver Sun…
Shell Game: Public being fooled by great BC LNG illusion
We are allowing ourselves to be mesmerized over Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). Perhaps we’re doing this to ourselves but the sad fact is that the government’s total ineptitude is not…
Rafe: Runaway Simushir may be safe now; BC’s coast is anything but
The Simushir under tow from US tugboat Barbara Foss (via Maritime Forces Pacific Facebook) The incapacitation of a Russian cargo vessel off Haida Gwaii caused great panic amongst all of…