As we move towards the end of another session of Parliament I always like to reflect on the events of the past year.  Locally my office has continued to assist constituents who run into difficulties with the federal government bureaucracy.  We have been able to help people in obtaining justice from Revenue Canada and Citizenship...

Part 3 of the Municipal Act regulates all aspects of elections, from elector and candidate qualifications to the resolution of conflicts and irregularities. The scope of the Act’s election regulations meets all that can reasonably be required to assure fair and open elections in Yukon municipalities. However, elections are to democracy what oxygen is to […]

So how much is too much? It's a question worth asking after B.C.'s political parties reported their 2012 fundraising hauls last week. And quite the haul it was. Between them, the B.C. Liberals and NDP brought in more than $17 million. The Liberals alone raised $10.15 million, nearly $4 million dollars more than their Ontario...

The Columbia Avenue infrastructure project is going to cost more than our beloved mayor and former CAO proclaimed.  A lot more.  Our new, frequently absent and significantly overpaid CAO Cecile Arnott and Mayor Greg Granstrom have so far neglected, failed, or refused to inform council what the costs of the project have been...

My last column gave examples of referendum procedures with less than democratic consequences and of a two-stage referendum process which conforms to the principles of the Yukon’s Municipal Act. In this column we will examine the rationale for the Act’s exclusion of two politically sensitive issues, budget and taxes, from the...

One of the first pieces I wrote for this space focused on self-talk. The kind of conversation I might have with myself when seeing someone standing or sitting on the street, looking worn down and asking for a contribution from my pocket to his or her hat. Self-talk says a great deal about world-view. I can wonder how that...

UPDATE: Since publication of this story this morning, yet another oil spill has come across the wire - a CP Rail spill from a derailment in northern Ontario - raising the total of spills this past week to SIX. It's been another appallingly bad week for proponents of pipeline safety and new oil infrastructure. If the industry's...

“Don’t let another day go by, without the magic touch, embracing you, revealing you…  Change your mind.” – Neil Young. Change your Mind. It has become, almost without my noticing it, basic to my understanding of existence that matter and spirit are antitheses. They are “at war”. The Austrian oracle/ clairvoyant/ mystic, Rudolf...

One of the many things that Hugo Chavez, the charismatic and revolutionary president of Venezuela, contributed to the world was his demonstration for people everywhere the difference between democracy and liberal democracy. Chavez’s hyperbolic style, his tweaking the tail of the Imperial tiger and his willingness to be just...

In my last column we examined the referendum and its role in a democratic local government. When talking about referendum we cannot afford to ignore the importance of the rules that govern the referendum’s application. As with elections, the rules determine the efficacy of the referendum. Efficacy for the purpose of this...