As I get older, I find there are fewer and fewer things I’m willing to get upset about – hence the lack of editorial rants of late. There is, however, one issue that has me so incensed, so appalled, so disgusted, so flat-out ashamed, that it’s taken me weeks to write about it without using some of the more colourful (and less...

Canadian climate change opinion is polarized, and research shows the divide is widening.The greatest predictor of people’s outlook is political affiliation. This means people’s climate change perceptions are being increasingly driven by divisive political agendas rather than science and concern for our collective welfare....

Let’s start with something simple: walking down the street. If you have moved to Rossland from a larger centre in the past little while, you may be accustomed to walking eyes-forward, avoiding looking at people, as if eye contact with a stranger could be dangerous, and greeting a stranger even more dangerous. Or you may be ...

By  Ben Parfitt, from The Narwhal When a public regulator repeatedly makes major decisions that favour corporate interests — quietly and behind closed doors — we have a problem. British Columbia’s Environmental Assessment Office bills itself as a “neutral” provincial agency. But there is...

As pointed out by Dermod Travis of Integrity BC, there’s been lot written recently, both for and against proportional representation.  For those having trouble deciding how to vote, try the link provided at the bottom of this piece. Some of what we've all seen has been outright false.  Claims that rural ...

News about orca mother Tahlequah carrying her dead newborn for 17 days through the Salish Sea this summer was heartbreaking, and rightfully captured the world’s attention. It highlighted the plight of one of Canada’s most endangered marine mammals. The southern resident killer whale (orca) population has dropped by 25 per...

Editor's Note: In this age of fake news, when politicians are allowed to lie with impunity -- perhaps even encouraged to lie, because they appear to get good results by lying -- how are people reading the news, or social media, where bizarre fake news abounds -- to know what to believe? For that matter, is it ever a good idea...

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...

This week the House of Commons passed Bill C-76, the Elections Modernization Act, the federal government’s answer to the so-called “Fair Elections Act” that the Conservatives enacted in 2014.  And although I and the rest of the NDP caucus voted in favour of the bill, I would say this bill is “a day late and a dollar short.”...

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...