Bigotry Against the Rich: Is That a Thing?
So apparently the rich are an oppressed minority now. Last month, in what is thought to have become the most widely read letter to the editor ever published by The…
Song of the Watermelon
National Post Letter
Should any readers take a look inside today’s National Post, they might find a letter of mine defending Canada’s United Church and its boycott of goods from Israeli settlements on…
Vancouver Sun Letter
A few days ago, former BC NDP premier Dan Miller had an op-ed in The Vancouver Sun in which he criticized his party’s insufficient enthusiasm on resource development. As regular…
Referendums on Pipelines?
The longstanding “will they or won’t they” dynamic existing between BC premier Christy Clark and Alberta premier Alison Redford took a turn for the depressing recently when they announced they…
A Q&A on Syria and the “Responsibility to Protect”
What is “Responsibility to Protect”? “Responsibility to Protect,” or R2P, is a doctrine that grew out of a 2001 report by the Canadian-established International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty…
Vancouver Sun Letter
A letter of mine in the Vancouver Sun today, this one about the “Disappearing Palestine” ads on public transit here in the city. I try to defend the ads against…
An Open Letter to TransLink Regarding the “Disappearing Palestine” Ads
Dear TransLink: I am writing to express my wholehearted support for your decision to display the pro-Palestinian transit ads recently unveiled at the Vancouver City Centre Skytrain station and on…
Thoughts on the Coup in Egypt
Tahrir Square in 2011 In the early hours of 12 April 2002, with massive anti-government protests filling the streets, members of the Venezuelan military abducted President Hugo Chávez and, promising…
Vancouver Sun Letter
A letter of mine found its way into the Vancouver Sun today. This one comes in response to a piece last week by Senator Mobina Jaffer about the role of…
Of the Greens and the Gutless
Those who know me know that I want nothing more than for the Green Party to succeed, but this objective is imperilled if the voting public does not think of…
Three Solutions to Mark Canadian Environment Week
In honour of Canadian Environment Week — currently underway amidst accelerating tar sands development, hot on the heels of withdrawals from the Kyoto Protocol and the UN Convention to Combat…
Exxon’s Love for the Poor
At Exxon Mobil’s annual meeting in Dallas this week, shareholders rejected a motion to set greenhouse gas reduction targets for the firm. CEO Rex Tillerson argued that such an extreme…
On the Limits of Scandalmongering, or Why I Don’t Care About Rob Ford’s Alleged Crack Use
For all my political ideals and self-conceptualizations, I cannot for the life of me seem to get myself more than superficially interested in the scandals that plague the holders of…
Five Lessons — Real and Imagined — from BC’s Election Results
In a stunning upset of “Dewey Defeats Truman” proportions, the BC Liberals have defied all the polls save one and returned to power with a fourth straight majority government. No…
Why Vote Green?
In the fight against global climate change, we are currently approaching the endgame. The time for compromise has come and gone. A certain temperature increase is inevitable — already “locked…
What the NDP Is and Isn’t Promising on the Environment
In the wake of the NDP’s Earth Day announcement unveiling its environmental platform in Kamloops, BC’s environmental movement has been falling all over itself in praise of the party sure…
A Socialist’s Lament
Let’s be clear about one thing: the New Democratic Party of Canada was never a socialist party. For all the hands wrung and tears shed over its newly amended constitution,…
A Socialist’s Lament
Let’s be clear about one thing: the New Democratic Party of Canada was never a socialist party. For all the hands wrung and tears shed over its newly amended constitution,…
Party Positions on BC’s Carbon Tax
With the release today of the NDP’s fiscal plan in advance of the May 14 election here in British Columbia, we are now finally able to assess where the major…
Bring Your Boomers: How BC Candidates Fare on Climate Change
Although the writ for the upcoming BC election won’t be dropped for another two weeks (yes, this campaign has been going on forever), I had the pleasure yesterday of attending…