Thoughts on BC Politics and More

A 17-year-old Indigenous boy, Vincent, died at Kitimat Hospital three weeks ago, a death that MLA Claire Rattée says was entirely preventable and the result of the NDP’s failures in emergency care and diagnostic access in Northern BC. A mother lost her son because the system failed him at every stage,” said Rattée, Opposition Critic for Mental Health and Addictions. “He endured severe stomach pain for years, dismissed as constipation. Last month, he waited nearly five hours in the ER while turning blue before a CT was finally arranged in Terrace, but no ambulance was available. He had to wait for one from Terrace. This should never happen in British Columbia.” Vincent died at 10:48 p.m., before he was ever transferred for the scan that could have identified and treated his congenital hernia. The Kitimat community fund-raised for a CT scanner in 2023 to prevent tragedies like this. Construction did not begin until August 2025, and the scanner remains non-operational. Gove...

I have always believed in democracy and that as Canadians we have a tent big enough include all our political persuasions, and that we can achieve more working together with respect. I saw John Diefenbaker mentioned on your blog, and thought you might like to hear or share, a couple of stories I have about him.   We were living in Kitimat during one federal election when John was the leader of the Conservative party. I still remember painted footprints on the sidewalks with the words “ Follow John ”, ingenious!   But I digress.   Our candidate for the NDP on this election was Frank Howard who was the MP for Skeena for many years. We had worked with Frank for a long time and admired him immensely. The conservative candidate was a fellow named Art Bates, the manager of the TV station in Terrace.   Many of us in the NDP were fully aware of Frank’s background. As a troubled youth, who went from a very bad family situation into the foster care syste...

If you have to burn a fossil fuel for power or heat, natural gas should be the first choice. Energy specialist Ian King makes the case for liquefied natural gas from British Columbia. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: natural gas is a worse climate villain than coal. It’s a bridge fuel to nowhere. British Columbia should stop trying to become a supplier of liquefied natural gas to the rest of the world. It’s a familiar refrain, usually heard coming from green activists and the think tanks that support them. They’ll pump out occasional flurries of commentaries, flush with rhetoric and carefully picked factoids. At first glance, the arguments seem compelling — until you take a second look. Even from a distance, the arguments against LNG don’t hold up. If you haven’t the time to go deep, simply consider the fuels’ lifecycle emissions. University of Calgary professor Adebola Kasulu and colleagues analyzed Canadian LNG using a varie...