Last week I travelled with Jim Carr, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, to the G20 energy meetings in Argentina.  The meetings are a mix of reports from the G20 countries and of presentations by world experts about the state of energy markets and future energy demand. The main theme of the talks was the “grand […]

Canadian democracy is not a matter of fairness. Since European invasion, Canada has had 200 years of colonial autocracy, then 50 years of elections without votes for women, and an additional 50 years without votes for Indigenous people. In every form democracy has taken since Confederation, it has been used to defend the...

Editor’s Note:  Many people are not yet aware of the proposal to turn about 700 square kilometres of the southern Purcell  Range into a heli-playground, cutting new trails and building lodges, with helicopter flights carrying in skiers in the winter and hikers and mountain bikers in the summer.  The...

The Castlegar and Area Fair Vote Chapter, a local citizens group for proportional representation, welcomed the announcement today of the referendum question by Attorney-General David Eby. “We're pleased to have a clear question for the citizens of BC. Now we can get to work on reaching as many voters as possible in our community...

After the 2015 federal election, most Canadians were happy about the prospects for positive electoral reform.  Both the Liberals and the NDP had campaigned on promises that first, there would be no more elections under the old first-past-the-post system, and second, that they would repeal the unfair aspects of the Conservative’s so-called “Fair Elections Act.” […]

The flood situation in the south Okanagan and Boundary regions has dominated the news for the past month and the news seems to get more serious by the day. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes and many have lost everything—houses, vehicles, land. Last Friday and Saturday I drove from Penticton to Trail and...

In a letter to the editor in the April 19 edition of the Castlegar News, Councillor Bruno Tassone explains his reasoning for voting against a council motion to support the upcoming Regional District Recreation Complex referendum. While I respect his right to support or oppose any motion, I do not accept his asserted reasoning....

The Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline has dominated news in the past few weeks.  The public is divided over whether we should build this pipeline and allow Alberta oil sands output to increase, or whether it presents too much risk to BC’s rivers and coastal environments. Many experts described the original project approval ...

Because it's Sunday (a more casual day, at least in my world), I feel I can write something personal and totally politically irrelevant – just information I stumbled upon which has made my life better, and I want to share. I was talking to my Mom several weeks ago, and told her she's my best friend. She said she found that ...

To The Editor: I was appalled to hear that the Prime Minister intends to provide a Texas extraction company with billions of tax dollars to foist their dirty pipeline on a reluctant province.  First of all, the Trudeau government has no such mandate.  This government pledged to be a proactive partner in the fight against...