OP/ED: B.C.’s first ever Poverty Reduction Plan tracks strong start with comprehensive approach but gaps need to be filled moving forward
The B.C. Poverty Reduction Coalition (BCPRC) congratulates the provincial government for launching the first ever poverty reduction plan for B.C.: TogetherBC. After a decade of advocacy, B.C. is no longer the only province without a poverty reduction strategy. The BCPRC welcomes the strong start outlined in the plan tracking...
Open Letter: Support for the Immediate Passing of Bill C-262
To The Editor: Dear Senators, The First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) is calling on each Senator of Canada to support the passage of Bill C-262, An Act to ensure that the laws of Canada are in harmony with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, without delay. The Truth and Reconciliation...
Letter: Apology due to Jody Wilson-Raybould
OPEN LETTER: The discriminatory, sexist comments about Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould being spread by government officials and staff are appalling and condemnable Dear Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, We demand that you immediately and categorically publicly condemn the racist and sexist innuendo about Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould...
Letter to the Editor: We had the referendum
Dear Editor: We just had a direct democracy referendum on the issue of electoral reform. How much more democractic (the will of the people) can we get. The issuewas decided by the plebians not the aristocracy, not judges, not political parties and not politicians. There is no way the Canadian people are going to have...
Letter: No Canadian needs to face cancer alone
To The Editor: In light of the Greyhound bus lines reducing service in British Columbia, the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) wanted to take the opportunity to reach out to any people living with cancer who may be impacted by this withdrawal of service. No matter where you live, CCS is here to ensure that no Canadian has to face...
Letter: What we can do
Don’t worry! The Group of Twenty (G20), composed of nineteen countries (including Canada) and the European Union, will meet in Buenos Aires (Argentina) November 30th and December 1st. By then, newspapers and media analysts will most likely tell us again that they won’t all get along on some major issues during this summit. ...
LETTER: Huge Provincial Subsidies Threaten Health, Prosperity
Dear Editor, BC taxpayers miss out on almost a billion dollars every year due to our government's dangerous and misguided fossil fuels subsidies; dangerous because fossil fuel expansion threatens to further degrade the health of BC's citizens and environment, misguided as it unfairly skews the market away from the clean energy...
Letter: It's not just about fairness; an Ontario citizen cautions BC voters
So far, most of the discussion about Proportional Representation (PR) has focused on fairness. Without a proportional voting system, there’s no way to make every vote count equally. But there are other reasons to adopt it, arguably as valid: it would bring social and financial stability and cut waste. In elections using...
Letter: BC needs a new voting system
Several times in our province we have had election results distorted by our current voting system (first past the post). As a result the political landscape has been plagued by polarized politics for as long as anyone can remember and many voters find themselves voting to block something they despise and/or not having their...
Letter: Confused about proportional representation? Read this.
A key ingredient in any democracy is that people choose their leaders based on their values. In our current voting system we are often forced to choose between a person or a party or to vote “strategically”. The make-up of the government often doesn’t reflect the popular vote so a party may only get 10% of the seats even if...
