Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Delegates attending the convention of British Columbia’s New Democrats have called on their own government to build ferries in Canada and “prioritize” shipyards in BC. The appeal comes in form of a resolution backed by the BC Federation of Labour and BC Building Trade among others, and follows BC Ferries’ decision to contract a shipyard owned by China’s communist government to build four new major vessels, with BC Ferries citing costs and a lack of local capacity for the decision. Brynn Bourke, executive director of BC Building Trade, says the provincial shipping industry has reached what she calls an “inflection point” in pointing to the political support that the shipping industries in Germany and Poland receive from their respective governments. Bourke says BC “must act now” if the province ever wants to see ferry construction return to the province ...  CLICK HERE for the full story

There is a void at the BC NDP’s convention in Victoria this weekend about an issue that party members’ own government grapples with constantly and is high up on the public agenda. In 418 pages of resolutions submitted by members and two days full of meetings, the mentions of “crime” are few and far between. Street crime, how the judicial system handles it and the mental health and addiction problems behind much of it, have been the dominant issues of Premier David Eby’s time in office. But party members have found just about everything else in the world to talk about except that ... ... Crime in the broader sense gets scant mention anywhere  ... CLICK HERE for the full story