Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

THE TWIGG REPORT -- An unusually spooky weekend presages a very scary week ahead

 




What a weird world we are living in now and it just keeps on getting stranger and stranger.

This weekend there is a full moon on Saturday, which of course is Oct. 31 and thus also Halloween, the one night of the year on which spookiness is celebrated, but it also will be the second full moon in the month which makes it also a so-called blue moon, i.e. a rarity, plus it's also the smallest full moon of the year, it will be fully illuminated by the sun and when it rises in the early evening it will be accompanied by the reddish-looking planet Mars in an unusually close proximity to Earth, and it will be the last full moon on Halloween until 2039.

So astronomically this is arguably a quite unusual weekend, and culturally it will be phenomenal too, such as it also being the end of Daylight Saving Time in B.C. (meaning everyone gets an extra hour of sleep), and politically there are many major shifts pending too, notably in B.C.'s case the still-unknown final outcome of the provincial election last Saturday (Oct. 24), which was greatly affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

It's almost certain that the B.C. New Democrats led by Premier John Horgan will emerge with a viable majority in the B.C. Legislative Assembly based on election-night vote-counting, which produced 55 seats for the NDP, 29 for the B.C. Liberals and 3 for the Green Party of B.C. from popular votes that were approximately 45 per cent for the NDP (a big gain from 39.7% in 2017), 35.4% for the Liberals (down from 41.2%), 15.3% for the Greens (down from 16.5%) and 3.7% for others (mainly 19 candidates for the Conservative Party of B.C.), up slightly.

However there may be a dozen or so of the 87 seats whose results could be changed by final counts that will include approximately 500,000 mailed-in ballots because so many people chose to vote that way to avoid the risks of catching COVID while waiting in lineups to vote, and exactly who wins and where and who loses and where will affect the makeup of the Horgan cabinet and also could hasten the departure of B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson, who fairly quickly told the party president he would resign once a new leader is selected but who was told almost as quickly by some re-elected and former Liberal MLAs that he should step down immediately.

Even B.C. Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau faces some uncertainty this weekend because the number of mailed-in votes in her Cowichan Valley constituency reportedly appears to exceed her modest margin of victory (about 40% to 35%).

So there is a lot of uncertainty in B.C. politics this weekend, and federally there is growing uncertainty too as the whole nation struggles to cope with new outbreaks of COVID-19 (with jumps in several provinces), but compared with the rising stresses in world affairs the turmoil here in Canada and in B.C. is still minor (e.g. Russia and China are now talking about renewing their military alliance - see https://www.thetrumpet.com/23064-putin-russia-and-china-might-forge-official-military-alliance).

Really the main event in world affairs is the sure-to-be-pivotal U.S. Presidential election looming on Tuesday (Nov. 3), the outcome of which will greatly affect lives and nations and trade patterns all around the world, with British Columbia and Canada near the top of that list because so much of our economic activity depends on trade with the United States, but there also will be many notable political and cultural spill-overs (e.g. in what social media focus on).

The highly-charged contest between the extremely contentious incumbent Republican President Donald Trump and bumbling, mind-addled and corruption-laden Democrat retread Joe Biden has already been causing palpitations among many pundits, voters and people among nations all around the world and its outcome probably will swamp political machinations in Canada and B.C.

So what is to be done? As I emphasized in the recent B.C. election campaign (while running for the Conservatives in North Island), the best thing we can do now is strengthen our self-sufficiency in key areas of our economy and society, beginning with boosting local and provincial food production, boosting our security by reviving the B.C. Provincial Police force (alongside the RCMP and municipal police forces), and reviving a provincially-controlled Bank of B.C. able to issue a B.C. currency and thereby secure a banking system and economy in the province.

There of course are many other moves that B.C. could do and which should be done by the incoming provincial government and I'll have more to say about them in months and probably years ahead - but meanwhile let's get through this very scary weekend and coming week.

 

John Twigg ... is a veteran independent journalist now based in Campbell River.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BC cannot regulate, redesign, and reinterpret its way to a stable forestry sector. Communities need clear rules, predictable timelines, and accountability for results.

Photo credit:  Atli Resources LP   BC’s Forestry Crisis Continues with Closure of Beaver Cove Chip Facility   As industry leaders, Indigenous partners, and contractors gather this week at the BC Natural Resources Forum in Prince George, the gap between government rhetoric and reality could not be clearer. Just hours after the Eby government once again touted reconciliation, certainty, and economic opportunity under DRIPA, Atli Chip Ltd, a company wholly owned by the ’Na̱mg̱is First Nation, announced it is managing the orderly closure of its Beaver Cove chip facility. The closure comes despite public tax dollars, repeated government announcements, and assurances that new policy frameworks would stabilize forestry employment and create long-term opportunity in rural and coastal British Columbia. “British Columbians are being told one story, while communities are living another,” said Ward Stamer, Critic for Forests. “This closure makes it clear that announcement...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stamer: Hope for Forestry Completely Shattered After Another Provincial Review Driven by DRIPA

IMAGE CREDIT:  Provincial Forestry Advisory Council Conservative Critic for Forests Ward Stamer says the final report from the Provincial Forestry Advisory Council confirms the worst fears of forestry workers and communities; instead of addressing the real issues driving mill closures and job losses, the NDP has produced a report that ignores industry realities and doubles down on governance restructuring. Despite years of warnings from forestry workers, contractors, and industry organizations about permitting delays, regulatory costs, fibre access, and the failure of BC Timber Sales, the PFAC report offers no urgency, no timelines, and no concrete action to stop the ongoing decline of the sector. “ This report completely shatters any remaining hope that the government is serious about saving forestry ,” said Stamer.  “ We didn’t need another study to tell us what industry has been saying for years. While mills close and workers lose their livelihoods, the NDP is focused on re...
Post a Comment
Read more

FORSETH – My question is, ‘How do we decide who is blue enough to be called a Conservative?’

How do we decide who’s blue enough to be a Conservative? AS OF TODAY (Friday January 30 th ), there are now eight individuals who have put their names forward to lead the Conservative Party of British Columbia. Having been involved with BC’s Conservatives since 2010, and having seen MANY ups and downs, having 8 people say “I want to lead the party” is to me, an incredible turn-around from the past. Sadly, however, it seems that our party cannot seem to shake what I, and others, call a purity test of ‘what is a Conservative’. And that seems to have already come to the forefront of the campaign by a couple of candidates. Let me just say as a Conservative Party of BC member, and as someone active in the party, that frustrates me to no end. Conservatives, more than any other political philosophy or belief, at least to me, seems to have the widest and broadest spectrum of ideals.   For the most part, they are anchored by these central thoughts --- smaller and less intru...
1 comment
Read more

Labels

Show more