Possessions we once thought valuable and worth preserving sometimes end up in boxes that are ignored for years. I tell my wife that our kids will probably use a giant dumpster when we’re gone. Where else to put a leather-bound Encyclopedia Brittanica from the 1970s? A couple of stored boxes recently had my attention.
New analysis from Popular Democracy and the Institute for Policy Studies reveals how billionaire investors have become a major driver of the nationwide housing crisis – and several common-sense measures to help expand permanently and deeply affordable housing stock…
The NDP holds one more seat in the Legislature than the BC Conservatives. David Eby will continue as Premier by depending on support from Rob Botterall and Jeremy Valeriote, two elected Green Party members. With all ballot boxes counted, material change is unlikely when the final count is released on October 26. John Rustad’s right-wing coalition will form the Official Opposition but it is an unstable group. Newly elected centre-right Conservatives are wary of far-right radicals and will fight them for control of the party.
By exploiting coal, oil and gas, fossil fuel companies are inflaming extreme weather, making climate disasters more frequent and more severe–from hotter heatwaves to more destructive wildfires and unsafe air quality. Greenpeace asks people to support their call for making fossil fuel companies pay into a Climate Recovery Fund because of the climate disasters they’re fuelling.
Marc Lee and Alex Hemingway of the Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives issued a report on affordable housing. It is an analysis that is worth our attention. Some of the points made by the two economists who authored the report:
South Surrey Conservative candidate Brent Chapman was revealed to have called Palestinian children “inbred, walking, talking, breathing time bombs.” Additionally, he agreed with a podcast host from the fringe that what happened at residential schools was a “massive fraud.” Chapman joked about Indigenous kids dying after they’d been forced to leave their family homes. Rustad refused to eliminate Chapman or other Conservative candidates with records of bigotry. He said, “People sometimes make mistakes.”
Surrey-Cloverdale BC Green candidate Pat McCutcheon pointed to the BC Government boasting that a new addition to École K.B. Woodward would allow some of the school’s portables to be “used by other […]
Right-wing coalitions friendly to big business ruled this province for 52 of the last 72 years. Led by a man removed in 2022 from the Official Opposition caucus for denying established climate science, Conservatives have absorbed BC United, successor to the misnamed BC Liberal Party. After next Saturday, a new government will be formed by the centrist free-enterprise NDP, or the Conservatives, a party that welcomes far-right radicals, fascists, and bigots.
Plants, People, Planet is a peer-reviewed bi-monthly scientific journal established by The New Phytologist Foundation, a non-profit that promotes plant science. In 2022, the journal warned about the dire consequences of the extinction of tree species…
John Rustad and Kevin Falcon talk about red tape reduction, but the real goal is deregulation, something demanded by their business sponsors. But regulations are vital tools for improving our day-to-day lives. These promote trust, predictability, and stability. Regulations exist to protect consumers from unsafe products and unfair business practices such as collusion and price-fixing. They exist to protect public health and safety and the environment…
Economist Erik Andersen offers something to remember when voting next month and beyond…
Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues, and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political dealings.
On October 19, British Columbia voters can choose between three approaches to climate change. Actually, there may be only two choices. NDP and Conservative websites make no mention of climate actions they would institute if victorious in the October election. The BC Green website provides specific policy information about the subject…
If Trump is reelected, millions of Americans think democracy is at risk. If his totalitarian followers seize control of the American government in the next few months, this Canadian thinks Canada may cease to exist.
Canada is one of 155 nations that signed the Global Methane Pledge. GMP promises to reduce methane (CH4) emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030. Despite the commitments, atmospheric concentration of the greenhouse gas is increasing faster now than at any time since the 1980s. Methane emissions result primarily from fossil fuel production, agriculture, waste management, and other human activities, including flooding of hydropower reservoirs like the one behind BC’s Site C dam.
In 2023, Canada experienced its warmest and driest conditions in decades, leading to extreme forest fires that released approximately 640 million metric tons of carbon, akin to the annual emissions of a major industrialized nation…
So BC Hydro plans to spend $57 billion over the next decade to meet what CEO Chris O’Riley and NDP Minister Josie Osborne say is a rapidly growing demand for electricity. For years, the utility has claimed that electricity demand is increasing by 40 percent over 20 years. That rise is 1.8 percent annually compounded, equal to the rate of BC’s population growth in the last ten years. This month, BC Hydro raised its demand forecast growth by more than one-half. The actual sales numbers do not live up to the forecasts…
Science shows that we cannot do what Western Canada is doing, which is to say it is good for us to increase production of fossil fuels and let future generations pay the price.
Failure to support the poorest and unhealthiest residents in our society is a form of collective violence. This is a choice that most of us would reject as individuals but we are more likely to accede to public policies, even if the result is cruelty…
In 2001, BC’s party of big business was called Liberal; in 2024, it is labeled Conservative. Different names; same purposes. Some voters in the October election were not even born when the right-wing coalition took power in BC. As a result, I offer this reminder of the BC Rail scandal and explain how that affected BC Hydro.
I would like to see a calculation that subtracts all the government subsidies, tax breaks, environmental destruction, etc from the…
When a parcel is offered for auction, companies must pay a minimum amount to acquire the rights to explore for…
That looks bad, and I suspect that it is; I think I understand the meaning of "competitive auctions" and "administrative…
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Thanks, Norm, for continuing to pound the drum about the giveaways in the oil and gas extraction industry. Aside from…