Layton caves on corporate tax cuts
>When Jack Layton announced last week that he was no longer pressing the Harper government to cancel its next round of corporate tax cuts (cost: $6 billion) he revealed that the NDP cannot figure a way out of the trap it has been setting for itself since Stephen Harper got elected five years ago. Stuck at 15-17% […]
The real story behind Liberal leadership contributions
The release of the preliminary contributors list for BC Liberal leadership candidates makes for an interesting read, but the most intriguing part goes well beyond the totals. Naturally, most of the media highlighted who has so far taken in the most: Kevin Flacon $708,000; Christy Clark $519,000; George Abbott $427,000; and, Mike De Jong […]
LETTER: Does the $6M bill for infrastructure upgrade benefit developers? Will it ruin The Mountain Kingdom?
Dear editor,At a City of Rossland financial planning meeting late last year, I asked questions about the justification for the Columbia/Washington infrastructure upgrade project. After a few vague and unqualified answers about the need to replace 100-year-old infrastructure, further discussion was cut off on the grounds that...
LETTER: Councillor disputes Telegraph story, tells his side
Dear editor,There is significant misinformation in the recent article about the parcel tax review panel.This misinformation does a disservice to readers of the Telegraph.A parcel tax roll is prepared on the basis of a bylaw adopted by Council.The bylaw (not the panel as stated in the article) defines the specifics of the...
ATAMANENKO: The U.S. Right on crime campaign
Two prominent US Republicans, Newt Gingrich (former Speaker of the House) and Pat Nolan, (former Republican Leader of the California State Assembly) are saying that the American style “tough on crime” approach is not working. They, along with other US Conservative leaders are spearheading the Right on Crime Campaign, a national movement urging states […]
QUNFUZ: How many martyrs?
Our thoughts and prayers are with the heroes and heroines and martyrs of Libya, and with our brave correspondent in Tripoli, now under fire. Communication is on and off, mainly off. Here is her most recent report. Since she sent it the phone lines have been cut entirely and the city’s electricity is also disconnected. […]
COMMENT: Back to the "Good" Old Days?
“The disparity in income between the rich and the poor is merely the survival of the fittest. It is merely the working out of a law of nature and a law of God.” —John D. Rockefeller, 1894. During the first 70 years that followed this pronouncement by one of the 19th-century’s leading robber barons, […]
CTF: BC budget disappoints as spending and borrowing rise
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is disappointed with the B.C. government’s management of the public purse and troubled by rising public debt forecast in today’s provincial budget. “This government would like everybody to cheer a $1.265 billion deficit for last year, because it’s lower than forecast. That’s not good enough. The real story here is $440 […]
Harper, Autocrat
As tens of millions of Egyptians celebrated their victory over a brutal dictator and began the task of creating democracy, the story from Canada was of democracy going backwards. For five years under Stephen Harper, Canada has been subjected to a systematic erosion of democracy (as I document here). Canada is not Egypt and Harper is […]
COMMENT: The West Kootenay's Incredible Shrinking Labour Force
Over the last couple of weeks I have heard several comments about a “mini boom” that will result from development projects such as the Waneta Dam, the expansion at Firebird Technologies in Trail, the new casino in Castlegar and some recovery in the forestry sector. Based on B.C. Stats data, we may have a long […]