BC HST Hits 20%--at selected stores
Well, that didn’t take long! Remember all those promises BC retailers wouldn’t use the HST to rip off consumers? And the Premier, the Finance Minister and the business community wouldn’t lie to us, would they?Been to Zellers lately?I was there today and the cashier asked, before ringing up the total for my single item, if ...
KEEPING IT REAL: Campbell AND the Liberals are going, going...
If anyone had any doubt it is game over for Premier Gordon Campbell, the latest Angus Reid poll spells it out in black and white. But what’s worse are the figures that also show that, even with a new leader, the Liberals are heading for an election disaster.That will be Campbell’s political legacy, barring a miraculous...
KEEPING IT REAL: Inquiry into missing women wastes millions
Vancouver Police got it wrong in the beginning-- and they’re getting it wrong again at the end. The department has jumped on the politically correct bandwagon and supported calls for a public inquiry into what went wrong in the case of the 26 missing women, who are believed to have died at the hands of Robert Pickton, already...
BC Green Party says cancel consideration of the Northern Gateway Enbridge pipelines
"BC Greens oppose the Enbridge pipelines between the Alberta Tar Sands and Kitimat. The Michigan spill proves that Enbridge has misled the public on the general safety of pipelines and on its own record of spills," said Green Party of BC Leader Jane Sterk."It seems that it is only after a disaster happens that the...
CTV Back at CRTC: Is it Begging or Blackmail?
Any cop, lawyer, judge or prosecutor knows that when you give in to blackmail, it’s not the end of the shakedown. Not by any means! Too bad the Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission never learned that lesson.It’s only a few months ago that the CRTC caved in to the demands of Canada’s private television...
DOBBIN: Another political season is over
As you may have noticed I haven’t been blogging much over the last couple of weeks. (Largely this is because I have been immersed in fighting the privatization of the local sewage treatment system). But in part it is the result of having some doubts about what the point is. I often say to people that the left – whatever that...
B.C. First Nations return from Gulf spill determined to stop Enbridge oil tankers
British Columbians cannot afford to let Enbridge bring the devastation of the BP oil spill to their coast. That’s the message a delegation of B.C. First Nations is bringing back from the Gulf of Mexico today, after a four-day tour of the Gulf Coast area affected by the BP oil spill. “Everywhere we went people told us the same […]
Time for Media to Stop Defending/Promoting HST
The hurt has begun: BC consumers are now being hit with a higher sales tax (HST) almost every where they turn. And as a result some of those who can hardly afford it, like food servers, are already taking the hit.A friend of mine told me the following story: each morning he has coffee and toast at a neighbourhood restaurant;...
DOBBIN: A response to the banker's association
When is a bank bail-out not a bailout? When the Canadian bankers’ Association President, Nancy Hughes Anthony says so. In her letter to the Vancouver Sun (which published my blog on the issue) Hughes Anthony points out that not a single bank went bankrupt and therefore did not require a bail out.But call it what you will ...
Maybe they ARE paying attention...
Wow! What a pleasant surprise. There, as CTV Vancouver’s local news top story tonight (Tuesday), was a hidden-camera investigation into B.C.’s program to prevent voluntarily self-restricted problem gamblers from entering casinos. The system failed … repeatedly … as a supposedly “listed” problem gambler entered three Vancouver-area casinos, gambled, and cashed in his proceeds without a single security […]