Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Over the past several months, I’ve been clear about my concerns with the continued logging of high productivity old-growth. This past Spring, the BC Green Caucus called for a moratorium on logging old-growth hot-spots on Vancouver Island as an initial step. I think it is important to clarify, though, that there is some old-growth that I fully support harvesting. Much of it is hiding in plain sight in the fully-developed urban landscapes of Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria. I am talking about the beautifully preserved old-growth found in many homes built before the 1970’s.    Each year however, more than 1000 such homes are demolished in these communities. While the City of Vancouver has begun to implement regulations requiring a modest amount of recycling, a vast majority of the material from these homes end up in the landfill. That’s right, not only are we clear-cutting old-growth at unsustainable rates, we are also allowing beautiful old...

Righteous anger requires a credible and noble cause. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) offers neither. There is nothing righteous about terrorizing children. There is nothing noble about attacking and shaming democratic free enterprise nations because of their unprecedented success and subsequent high standards of living. That is socialist dogma; everyone should have equal benefit from the riches of the world without the responsibility of sharing equally in the effort, failures and risks inherent in generating that wealth. There is nothing remotely righteous about children leaving their classrooms and declaring they are “ on strike ” and demanding “ justice ”. These truants appear incapable of understanding or being grateful that they have the huge advantage of publicly funded classrooms and teachers.

I know I am not alone in my love for this country, which is why I am compelled to write a short series of blogs about our federal election and what it means to Canada. Our politicians are campaigning for seats, appealing to special interest groups who operate on a members-only policy, be they Quebecois, the "black" community, LGBTQ, recent immigrants, middle-class Canadians or Indigenous people. But who is campaigning for Canada? Who is fighting for the fundamental principles enshrined in our Constitution and Charter of Rights and Freedoms? These represent the foundation upon which this great nation was built. Bill 21 is a racist piece of legislation ... after all, it’s a whole lot easier to hide a crucifix under a blouse or shirt than it is to hide a hijab, burqa or kippah for orthodox Jews and yes, a turban It will not matter who wins the most seats if we sit quietly by and allow our country's foundation to be eroded thro...

Is Maxime Bernier the Big Bad Wolf of Canadian politics? You’d think so, to hear Jagmeet Singh, Elizabeth May and others who don’t want Bernier on stage for the Oct. 7 and 10 national party leaders’ debates. But not us. We can’t wait to see Bernier on stage. Bring it on. PPC leader Maxime Bernier (Facebook image) And we say this as a staunch pro-Conservative group, registered as a third-party advertiser with Elections Canada, doing everything we can to help Andrew Scheer become the next prime minister. Last week, the government-appointed Leaders’ Debates Commission — a terrible idea in the first place — walked back its original decision to keep Bernier out of the debates and announced they were letting him in. Set aside the fact that it’s almost too rich to think that a strong opponent of supply management would be shut out of these debates by a government-appointed board that controls access to the “vote market.” Having Maxime Bernier in these tele...

Welcome back to Day Seven … as we take a look at the most read commentaries of the week.  No delays today … here we go with …    #10 … ADAM OLSEN: The conflict of partisan politics can also have the undesirable effect of frustrating citizens and discouraging them from engaging (September 26 th ) … as we stumble through this federal election, we see the politics on full display … the discourse of our elections should be about how those who are lucky enough to be elected will govern … elections bring out the worst aspects of the conflict in our system of governance …   #9 … O’FEE: The Conservative Plan on Housing is a Recipe for Disaster – And not very Conservative (September 24 th ) … if we increase the amortization period to Andrew Scheer’s proposed 30 years (a 20% increase in time) would that cut the payment by 20%?  No. This couple’s payment would only reduce to $2378 just over a 10% drop ...   #8 … ROTHENBURGER: Most stayed clear...

To say Kamloops South Thompson MLA Todd Stone was not been impressed with recent announcements by Premier John Horgan’s NDP government, at the just ended Union of BC Municipalities convention, would be putting it mildly. On yesterday final day, Stone applauded the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) for standing their ground and demanding proper consultation and respect from the provincial government. Kamloops South South Thompson MLA Todd Stone “ Mayors and councillors from across the province took a stand and clearly said that they are fed up with empty promises and NDP arrogance ,” said Stone. “ The resolutions passed at UBCM this week show that local governments want John Horgan and the NDP to stop ignoring the concerns of local communities. It is time for them to start listening to local governments .” Commenting on concerns to UBCM representatives from communities around the province, MLA Stone indicated there were calls for John Horgan and the NDP t...

I was standing at the self check-out at the grocery store the other day thinking about an article I read a couple of years back. It featured a short video and transcript of Bill Gates making the case for taxing the robots. I noticed four check-out stations staffed by a single employee. On a busy afternoon in the past, those four stations would need at least four dedicated people and up to four more people diverted from the produce or grocery departments to bag the items, to operate. Automation has impacted up to (or at least) three jobs at that grocery store and the market is trending toward losing more jobs, as I highlighted in a blog post earlier this summer.

BC Liberal MLA, and Mental Health and Addictions Critic, Jane Thornthwaite (L) Yesterday Mental Health and Addictions Critic, Jane Thornthwaite, convened a roundtable at the UBCM yesterday, regarding the immediate need for government action to help municipalities around the province deal with addictions and the opioid crisis. “ I sympathize with those who raised concerns over ‘compassion fatigue’ in communities throughout B.C. The overdose crisis has not only impacted people in major cities, but all around the province, and has saddled municipalities with rising costs ”, she remarked. Needle and garbage clean-up in city parks and school playgrounds, rising safety costs, and increased crime levels are just a few of the issues affecting communities around BC.   Resources such as action teams may be useful, but they are not enough to help municipalities with crippling costs, and they do nothing to end the cycle of addiction and get people into recovery – someth...

How dare you ( Greta Thunberg) , with your lack of experience, lecture world leaders on climate change ? Many of those world leaders are elected and answer to the people who elected them, not to you, not to the United Nations, or the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).       Many of us are appalled that the IPCC would choose to frighten school children with implausible predictions of pending catastrophe resulting from climate change. We are disgusted with the lack of critical analysis and poor judgement of schools and teachers -- who have chosen to regurgitate IPCC propaganda rather than using climate change as an opportunity to create real dialogue and debate on what the causes of climate change are -- and how can we best respond to minimize and offset the results of climate change on widely dispersed populations.    The main proponents of climate change alarmism, Dr. Andrew Weaver (Canada) and Dr. Michael Mann (USA)...

POSTED with permission of the author THE CONTROVERSIAL Chinese Consulate-General’s reception for Union of B.C. Municipalities delegates on Wednesday evening (Sept. 25, 2019) in Vancouver was a fine media event but, otherwise, it wasn’t much of an event at all. The issue with the reception is that China has not been a friend to Canada lately, detaining two Canadian citizens and pulling stunts with bans on Canadian goods in clear retribution for Canada’s detention of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the U.S.   IMAGE by Mel Rothenburger I would have boycotted the reception along with a lot of others but, out of curiosity, decided to briefly drop in to get a feel for the room, which at past UBCM conventions has been jam-packed with delegates. Outside the front door of the Waterfront Hotel, several media and some delegates and Chinese-Canadian citizens calling for a boycott of the reception mingled as protest placards were handed out. ...

Over the past few years, I’ve been mulling the difference between politics and governance. If you have been at one of my public presentations, then you’ve likely heard me working this topic over. It’s also appeared in various forms in my blog as well. Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay As we stumble through this federal election, we see the politics on full display. The discourse of our elections should be about how those who are lucky enough to be elected will govern. The definition of politics is “the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power.” The definition of governance is “the action or manner of governing.” Elections bring out the worst aspects of the conflict in our system of governance.

Guess who’s back in Ontario politics? “ Hey Carolyn (Carolyn Bennett, Liberal candidate for Toronto – St. Pauls).   I was just walking by, doing some errands and I could not walk by your office without saying ‘Hello’.   I love you and I just know you’re out there winning peoples hearts so good luck and we’ll see you on election night ” ~~ former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne Yup, that’s Kathleen Wynne, the disastrous former Premier that hiked taxes, doubled hydro bills, and exploded the debt … and now she’s on the campaign trail for ‘Team Trudeau’ … which has to make you wonder how desperate Trudeau and his MP’s really are?

Federal NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has many valuable attributes, but a knowledge and understanding of our constitution is not among them. The federal government is empowered to override the provinces on public works that cross provincial boundaries but are for the overall benefit of Canada (such as an oil or gas pipelines). The federal government has the power to declare a public work within a province a federal undertaking ... if it is to the benefit of Canada (such as a refinery). The federal government has an obligation, and control, over railways, roads and infrastructure that connects Canada to a sea or inland port, or one province to another (which includes ferries and bridges). As an example, the federal government has constitutional authority and an obligation to build a first-class rail line connecting our transcontinental rail lines to the Port of Churchill. It cannot sell th...

I have read Johns comments on this , and I offer the following comments: I have been in the real estate industry for 37 years, longer than John was a lawyer and I co-owned and managed the second highest producing real estate office in western Canada so I am quite comfortable in speaking to this.   In a previous comment, John implied that with this imitative, we were going to crash similar to what happened in the US in 2008 then threw out some stats that were not even relevant to this and to compare us to the US is frankly a joke.   The reason the US market crashed is because the banks down there would loan you 100% of purchase price to buy a home and then to add insult to injury, you could write off the interest on your mortgage payment on your income tax.  This was a complete joke because every time there was an increase in market values, Americans would refinance their home so they could go buy motor-homes, boats, toys of all shakes because they could write it...

Andrew Scheer, Conservative Party of Canada (Facebook) Yesterday (September 23 rd ), Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer announced that a new Conservative government would introduce four new measures to make it easier for first-time homebuyers to buy a home. “ With his poor judgement and tax hikes, Justin Trudeau has put the dream of home ownership further out of reach for so many, especially young Canadians ,” Scheer said. “ As Prime Minister, I will fix his bad policies and work to get more homes on the market to lower the price of housing .” That would seem to be good news, based on an article in Canadian Mortgage Trends from just four weeks ago (August 21 st ), which quoted Matt Fabian, TransUnion’s director of Financial Services Research and Consulting “... there are signs of some potentially unintended consequences. We have started to see an uptick in co-borrowing as the means of getting a foothold on the property ladder, where multiple consumers make an application...