Castlegar homeowners may be happy to hear that, although tax rates have increased, the average homeowner will actually be paying less this year, according to a report received by council at its regular meeting last Monday.   Director of financial services Andre Buss told council that, although tax rates have increased for residential rate payers, […]

By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily The political future of BC Southern Interior Conservative candidate Stephen Hill is uncertain after he was a no show in an all-candidates forum in Grand Forks Monday night, one day after apologizing for “disrespectful” comments he made in a public forum in Nelson earlier this year. Neither Hill nor […]

 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 […]

It took three ballots but Adrian Dix finally won out over two other NDP leadership candidates Sunday and will become the new leader of the provincial Opposition. The Vancouver-Kingsway MLA edged Mike Farnworth, after Dana Larsen and Juan de Fuca MLA John Horgan were dropped after the first and second ballots, respectively. Dix received 9,772 […]

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 recurring mantra of childhood fatherly advice, a deep rooted love for the region and the desire to do what’s right: Bryan Hunt’s formula for getting elected as the Green Party MP in the BC Southern Interior riding is also a formula he hopes will allow him and folks like him to spend more time […]

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 […]

There are lots of questions remaining about the BC Rail scandal…. the biggest being ‘why did the Liberal government pick up the $6M defence lawyers’ tab for two convicted criminals?’.   This week I had a chance to keep that question–and story-alive, by appearing on broadcaster Stirling Faux on-line business show This Week in Money.  Here’s […]

 The election campaign is less than week old and Stephen Harper seems to be demonstrating that he is even more of a mad hatter than people thought. Despite his superman view of himself – the smartest man in the universe not just in the room – he has looked very shaky and is proving that […]