What is to be done when 'Harper is us'?
There is one basic, foundational ground on which all politics in Canada must find traction, or not have any effect. This is it. Less than 15% of the people are "political" as part of their daily thinking and activity. They are the few to whom the actions of politicians, and their words and opinions, matter. The rest are not...
COMMENT: More than tuition at stake as Vancouver rallies in support of Quebec students
On a rainy Tuesday, Vancouverites rallied and marched in solidarity with the Quebec student movement. Today’s demonstration took place exactly 100 days since the monumental student strike began. Many speakers, including Margaret Orlowski, lucidly articulated how this movement out of Quebec is relevant across the whole...
The Hunger Games...and other dystopias
The Hunger Games have arrived, a storm of popularity that is selling millions of books and filling movie theatres. Suzanne Collins' dystopian story is about North America in ruin after an unspecified cataclysm leaves the rich in absolute power and the poor as their slaves. The story has a credibility because it extrapolates...
OP/ED: MP slams Tory cuts to Community Access Program funding
Southern Interior MP Alex Atamanenko added his voice today to the growing calls from his constituents demanding that the Conservative government reverse the cuts to the Community Access Program (CAP) hidden in the federal omnibus Budget Bill C-38 that will affect rural and low-income Canadians. “CAP used to have more service...
OP/ED: Give moms capes and superpowers ... or leave 'em alone, wouldja?
The cover of the May 21 issue of Time magazine caught my attention – it could be the picture of a gorgeous woman breastfeeding her three-year-old that drew my eye, but what really grabbed me was the title Are you Mom enough? I think this question speaks volumes about the amount of pressure today’s society […]
OP/ED: Lillooet rapidly becoming basket case of municipal governance in B.C.
IntegrityBC is calling on the provincial government to appoint a conciliator to try and resolve the escalating disputes in the town of Lillooet over local governance and water management. IntegrityBC's call follows on the heels of the government rejecting the request of 336 residents for an inquiry into town affairs earlier...
Pushing the West OUT of Canada
Don’t think it couldn't happen! People out here in the West may not yet be mad as hell, but we are confident enough in ourselves these days that we’re not going to take it anymore if NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair (and any other Central Canada political leaders) tie their pursuit of power to policies pumping up Eastern Canada...
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Stephen Harper, too, shall pass into history, recorded as one of the most destructive, personally malignant personalities ever to have soiled the Canadian political landscape. But in the meantime, Canadians are so distracted by his political blitzkrieg through the agencies, policies, programs and institutions that make Canada...
Obscure US corporation may be behind BC Hydro's exaggerated power demand, ruinous IPP contracts
By Erik Anderson in The Common Sense Canadian. Why has BC Hydro gone so Big? Over the past few years a number of us have puzzled over this question. The Crown Corporation, in most people’s minds, was given its natural monopoly status in the belief that the Board and Officers will prudently manage Hydro’s ...
OP/ED: One Mom's job action in support of teachers
All of the recent job action talk lately has me really feeling terrible for our teachers. I don’t know a whole lot about the politics of it all but I do know that teaching is HARD! I cannot imagine what it must be like to have to sit in a room with 30-plus children all […]