More action on single-use plastic bags? Rossland City Council has stated that it was waiting for the outcome of the court challenge against the City of Victoria’s bylaw to ban plastic “check-out” bags.  The Canadian Plastic Bag Association challenged the City of Victoria’s right to regulate plastic bags. Now the Supreme Court...

As promised, this Part will describe the Mixed Member Proportional system to achieve proportional representation in the BC Legislature. Part Two described the Dual-Member Proportional system, which would make most electoral districts larger, and assign two MLAs to each district by a system designed to achieve proportionality....

Last week I travelled with Jim Carr, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, to the G20 energy meetings in Argentina.  The meetings are a mix of reports from the G20 countries and of presentations by world experts about the state of energy markets and future energy demand. The main theme of the talks was the “grand […]

Rossland City Council meetings, June 12, 2018  PUBLIC HEARING: Re: A bylaw to re-zone 2194 Park Street from R-1 Residential to R-1 GS (allowing for short-term rental of a guest suite.) One resident had written and expressed comfort with the application, as long as the off-street parking would be used, instead of the owner and...

In Part One, we looked at the first question on the two-question referendum, and expressed an opinion, but did not describe the choices of voting system in the second question. I intend to discuss each of the voting systems separately, with re-caps along the way. This editorial will describe only Dual-Member Proportional....

Canadian democracy is not a matter of fairness. Since European invasion, Canada has had 200 years of colonial autocracy, then 50 years of elections without votes for women, and an additional 50 years without votes for Indigenous people. In every form democracy has taken since Confederation, it has been used to defend the...

Editor’s Note:  Many people are not yet aware of the proposal to turn about 700 square kilometres of the southern Purcell  Range into a heli-playground, cutting new trails and building lodges, with helicopter flights carrying in skiers in the winter and hikers and mountain bikers in the summer.  The...

Few people here can recall war efforts in Britain during the Second World War, but more of us have read about them. Most everyone pitched in; they sacrificed personal comfort and convenience for the common good, obeyed blackout rules, saved even gum wrappers for the aluminum content, contributed pots and pans, rationed food,...

Will Canada finally inspire a wave of celebration on World Oceans Day, June 8? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to lead G7 nations on global marine protection during Canada’s presidency this year, a welcome change after decades of inaction left just one per cent of our oceans formally safeguarded. The government is...

There’s a lot of palaver about the upcoming referendum on electoral reform in BC.  The questions that will be asked on the referendum ballot have been released, and the government has made other commitments. Let’s look at these things. First, the questions.  Based on news released so far, there will be two questions.  The...