For a while, I was wondering whether Christy Clark and her supporters realized THEY were in government, not opposition! They all spent much of the Liberals’ half-hour paid advertisement on Global TV Sunday night warning against the evils of deficits and debt: BC NEEDS a balanced budget “for our kids”; BC should NOT leave those...

The purpose of local government, as defined in the Municipal Act, sec. 3(a), is to provide “good government for its community.” The Act does not define what a community is, and there are many ways to define a community. For the purpose of local government, a community can be defined as “a body of people living in the same...

Let the campaign begin. With the election writ set to be dropped Tuesday, campaigns kicked off over the weekend with both major parties, NDP and Liberals, doing their best to score some early points. The election is Tuesday, May 14. Liberal Leader Christy Clark renewed her call to debate NDP leader Adrian Dix one-on-one while […]

The day I picked up a copy of Stéphane Hessel’s Time for Outrage! at my local bookstore was the day the Royal Bank of Canada’s hiring practices made headlines. There was confusion about what RBC was being accused of. Was it outsourcing? Was it off-shoring? Was it an abuse of the temporary foreign workers’ program? Whatever ...

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...

British Columbia’s provincial health officer released the following statement on H7N9 influenza in China: “B.C.’s public health officials are working with national and international authorities to keep a close eye on the H7N9 influenza situation in China. “The level of risk to British Columbia and Canada is currently considered to be low, with reported cases […]

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...

IntegrityBC is issuing a challenge to every party leader in B.C.: attend at least one all-candidates' meeting in your constituency in advance of the May 14th general election. The organization issued the challenge following Premier Christy Clark's decision not to attend any all-candidates' meetings in her riding of Vancouver-Point...

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...

British Columbians will soon notice they are paying less for many of the generic prescription drugs they need for their health. Starting April 1, a new drug pricing regulation will reduce the price of generic drugs to 25 per cent of the brand name price, from the current rate of 35 per cent of the brand name price. The price...