I will forever remember election 2011 as the “ambivalence” election.   I was glad to see incumbent Atamanenko retain his seat, not out of any loyalty to the New Democrats, but because I didn’t feel the other parties fielded candidates worthy of ousting Atamanenko.  I think the only real competition for the seat came from […]

Canada’s financial sector has been the greatest beneficiary of recent corporate income tax cuts, as well as from preferred tax rates applied to capital gains taxes and stock options. In total, the value of these tax preferences and recent tax cuts now adds up to approximately $11 billion a year for Canada’s financial sector and […]

There is no point dwelling on the obvious other than to simply reiterate it. The election of a Conservative majority government will usher in wrenching change in Canada and we will have to witness the worst that Stephen Harper has to offer. It remains to be seen whether or not Harper actually wants to stay […]

 picture by Ali FarzatBy last Friday, if it hadn’t already done so, the Syrian regime effectively declared war on its own people, killing at least a hundred protestors. Throughout this week parts of Syria have fallen under outright siege.The tanks and infantry which haven’t peeped across the occupied Golan since 1973 entered...

Vancouver South Conservative candidate Wai Young is having a difficult campaign: she’s been criticised for attending a BC Khalsa school meeting, where she was endorsed by Air India bombing suspect Ripudaman Singh Malik; her own siblings are suing her in a family dispute over an inheritance; and, they’ve also announced they will not be voting for her. […]

 There will be no excuse for anyone not to vote in the next provincial election, thanks to the NDP’s choice of Adrian Dix as its new leader. For years, how many times have we heard those who do not vote saying “They’re all the same.”? Well, not this time.  Adrian Dix and Christy Clark are […]

Stephen Harper’s announcement that he is going to reach his deficit elimination goal a year early and do it by lopping $11 billion off federal spending is in effect lifting the veil on his long feared “hidden agenda.” It is hidden no more as the polling numbers, for both his leadership and his party’s support, […]

The mistake most people make in rating election debates is they assume all the candidates start as equals.  But unless they’re all neophites, that is simply not true: one is already the Prime Minister or Premier or Mayor–and it’s up to the others to knock him/her of the top perch. It was a good debate, […]

A huge dilemma came up in my life last night: the English language leaders debate for the election was on the same night as the season finale of What Not to Wear. I love What Not to Wear. For me, each episode is a veritable treasure trove of information I store away in my little […]

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 […]