To the Editor, It is our Government’s long-standing position that political parties should rely on their supporters for financing, supporters who choose to fund the activities of political parties. The “per-vote subsidy” to fund political parties is, in fact, a tax-on-voting. Canadians should have choice over whether or not they want to fund political activities. […]

Dear editor, After 30 bargaining sessions at the provincial table we have had no offers of pay increases, benefit improvements or the return of the class size and composition language that the BC Supreme Court recently ruled was illegally stripped from our contracts. The court found that then-Minister of Education Christy Clark proudly led legislation […]

Re: Hurricane Irene and the staggering costs of climate change To the editor: It is unlikely that global warming will cause increased extreme weather. If the world warms due to increasing greenhouse gas emissions, temperatures at high latitudes are forecast to rise most, reducing the difference between arctic and tropical temperatures. Since this differential drives […]

To the editor: The Liberals have made the HST an interesting topic of study for political scientists around the world; not in a positive way mind you, but as a fine example of how NOT to implement a tax shift. What started as a lie in an election has now evolved into Christy Clark’s attempt […]

Dear Editor: It is with interest that I read the comments of Minister Lynne Yelich in regard to my statement on the budget.  Rather than reiterate what I had originally said, I would like to make a few other comments.  It is certainly reassuring that Western Diversification will continue to provide effective programs.  However,...

To the Editor, Why are Bill Vander Zalm and Chris Delaney afraid of local voices? The B.C. government has announced it will hold HST public dialogues featuring speakers from the No and the Yes sides in 10 different communities across the province. It is clear that the intent was to have local participation from both […]

 Dear Editor, We are writing to ask your readers to help us make poverty an issue in this election campaign.  We know the Harper government has the needed funds to reduce poverty, but instead it has chosen to spend billions of our tax dollars for things like the G-8/G-20 Summits, reduced taxes for large corporations, fighter […]

Ask anyone who has lived under a dictatorship and they will tell you of its ugly features: A Supreme Leader who rules with an iron fist; legislation pushed through by a rubber stamp legislative assembly with little or closured debate; government officials ordered into silence or fearful of speaking up; and a press denied the right to even […]

In the Facilities Report released by the school district this fall, three of the top-rated scenarios see Rossland Secondary School closing and MacLean Elementary becoming a K-7 school. This is based on the assumption that grades kindergarten to seven will fit in MacLean. When you take a closer look at the numbers, however, it becomes […]

Our thoughts and prayers are with the heroes and heroines and martyrs of Libya, and with our brave correspondent in Tripoli, now under fire. Communication is on and off, mainly off. Here is her most recent report. Since she sent it the phone lines have been cut entirely and the city’s electricity is also disconnected. […]