In the ongoing campaign to put a positive spin on Alberta’s Tar Sands, proponents have deployed a new rhetorical attack: women’s rights. If you support women’s rights, say conservative pundits Ezra Levant and Alykhan Velshi, choose “ethical oil” over “conflict oil”. The phrase is now standard prose for the Harper government,...

Federal, provincial and municipal governments should implement coordinated national and regional water conservation guidelines to address the detrimental impact climate change is having on Canada’s water system, according to a new report from ACT, Simon Fraser University’s Adaptation to Climate Change Team. “The days when Canadians take an endless abundance of fresh water for granted […]

The province is no longer the best place on Earth, as the Christy Clark era has seen the slow disintegration of the provincial slogan, The Tyee’s Bob Mackin writes. Once the advertising line from the Gordon Campbell-led government’s websites, “The Best Place on Earth” slogan is becoming a thing of history as the province distances […]

Monday’s throne speech opening the fourth session of the 39th Parliament in B.C. focused on job creation, building stronger, safer communities and continuing to open up government for British Columbia families. The Province could be introducing changes to benefit families: The introduction of a new provincial statutory holiday Family Day, on the third Monday of […]

This fall British Columbia’s Missing Women Commission will finally begin its work. It does so in under a cloud of suspicion: an inadequate mandate, a potentially compromised commissioner, and a refusal to financially support affected native communities, families, and Vancouver Downtown Eastside community groups to participate...

The First Nations Summit (FNS), the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), the BC Assembly of First Nations (BCAFN) and the Native Courtworker and Counselling Association of BC (NCCABC) today expressed shock and outrage at the RCMP beating of a 17 year old handcuffed aboriginal girl in Williams Lake and an aboriginal death in...

Dear Editor,The BC Liberals' attempts to silence the growing Smart Meter controversy have failed at the Union of BC Municipalities convention with delegates voting for a province-wide moratorium. Could the heavy-handed, dictatorial edicts of Rich Coleman and the Liberals have actually prompted this clear vote for democracy,...

By: Jordan Bateman, B.C. Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation As hundreds of municipal politicians gathered in Vancouver last week for the Union of BC Municipalities conference, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) released the contract with taxpayers they will be challenging B.C. candidates to sign ahead of the Nov. 19 municipal elections. “Taxpayers are stretched thin and […]

U.S. authorities have raised the possibility of putting up fencing along parts of the long, open border between Canada and the U.S., the Vancouver Province reports. The proposal is part of a draft report from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency in Washington, D.C. “Barriers would include selective fencing at selected points along the […]

TD is predicting a significant increase in lumber prices by 2013 – and has praised British Columbia’s government for opening up new markets to counteract the slump in the U.S. housing market. Leslie Preston, an economist at the TD banking group, stated that, “The B.C. industry and govern­ment have been very proactive in marketing wood […]