One of these things is not like the other thing… but they are connected…
Connections
Who funds BC politics
Annual reports of the parties filed with Elections BC reveal that BC Liberals have consistently taken in substantially more political contributions than BC NDP. This is a seven year summary to 2015 (2016 reports are not yet posted).
Takin’ care of Liberals
If Homer Stevens had been around and he learned the Gulf and Fraser Fishermen’s Credit Union (now G&F Financial) contributed more than five thousand dollars to BC Liberals, the labour leader’s voice […]
Just asking…
BC Stats, the province’s statistical agency, reports that in 2016, the oil and gas extraction industry provided 16 out of every 10,000 jobs in British Columbia. That is 0.16%. Fewer people were […]
What’s good for the BC Liberals may not be good for BC Hydro
Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett announced a five-year, $300 million hydro bill deferment plan for 13 mines owned by six companies.Never mind that B.C. Hydro is already grappling with its own deferral problems to the tune of $5 billion. Make no mistake, there’s a price to pay when B.C. Hydro becomes a political arm of government. The intertwining of self-interests gets complicated, while the interests of ratepayers can take a backseat to political interests. Three of the six companies in Bennett’s deal were highlighted in a December Financial Post article, “Debt risks mount as Canada’s base metal miners sink deep in the hole.”
Loyalty rewarded
UBC Board of Governors elects Stuart Belkin as new chair, UBC News, December 7, 2015: UBC’s Board of Governors has elected Stuart Belkin as the board’s incoming chair. Belkin is chair and […]
Our wealth commands us
As a student politician in her untenured days at SFU, Christy Clark operated with an imperfect moral compass. When final history is written, the hallmark of her premiership will be deceit and corruption. Her government regularly wages war against working people and helps contractors evade the few responsibilities owed employees. Income and disability assistance rates were last raised on June 1, 2007 but annual drilling subsidies to gas producers climbed 130% in the same time frame, from $370 million to $850 million. In addition, since 2007, natural gas royalties receipts declined from $1.2 billion to $185 million in the current fiscal year. Revenues from gas and petroleum rights sales fell from $2.4 billion in fiscal year 2009 to only $9.7 million in the first 11 months of 2015.
A government of universal deceit
Theoretically, politicians are stewards of the nation’s resources and regulators of industries that exploit public assets. Yet those chamberlains receive contributions worth millions of dollars every year from the people they are […]
Duelling developers fuel city election
Of course, this wouldn’t be a story if the provincial government ever decided to impose spending limits on municipal-election campaigns. They already exist in provincial and federal elections, but in the banana republic known as British Columbia, they don’t apply at the local level…
Drawing lines
One of the items in my Mirth and Meditation Archive is this: Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere. – Gilbert K. Chesterton Chesterton’s expression is wonderfully concise but, in […]
Real journalism is . . .
Amy Goodman, founder, host and executive producer of DemocracyNow!, was co-recipient of the inaugural Izzy Award for outstanding achievement in independent media. The accolade memorializes I.F. Stone (1907-1989), a titan of 20th […]
Friends take care of friends
Ian Reid, writing in Why the BC Rail deal sucks. And why you should care: . . . The defence won the closed door argument about admissibility. The Special Prosecutor lost. That […]
IN-SIGHTS 
Recent Comments