Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Public Safety Deteriorates While Chronic Property Crime Continues to Hurt Communities and Businesses BC Conservative MLAs say British Columbians are still waiting for results from an NDP government that has spent a decade promising action on repeat offenders wreaking havoc on our communities. “British Columbians are paying the price for a justice system that too often gives repeat offenders chance after chance while law abiding citizens are left to deal with the consequences,” said Macklin McCall, Conservative Critic for Public Safety and Solicitor General.  “People deserve to feel safe in their communities, and that requires a justice system that prioritizes public safety, supports victims, and holds prolific offenders accountable.” A recent report out of Dawson Creek has once again raised concerns about repeat violent offenders with extensive criminal histories who repeatedly breach court-ordered conditions, fail to comply with probation orders, and continue cycling through the j...

Claire Rattée, MLA for Skeena and Official Opposition Critic for Mental Health, Addictions and Housing Supports, is calling on the NDP government to immediately release critical addiction and public safety data following a direct request from leading BC researcher Dr. Julian Somers. In a letter sent to the Minister of Health , Dr. Somers, who advised the province for over two decades, is now asking the government to restore access to data his team was ordered to destroy in 2021, so long-delayed research on addiction policy can finally be completed. This is the moment of truth for this government,” said Rattée. “A respected, independent researcher is asking for the data to be released so British Columbians can finally see the results, and the government now has to decide whether it will allow that transparency.” “For years, British Columbians were told these policies were grounded in evidence. Now the very expert who helped build that evidence is saying the work was shut d...

Last night (March 13th) 200 area residents, and members of the Conservative Party of BC, heard from Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar. Milobar, who has been traveling the province for several weeks, is looking to become the next leader of the Conservative Party.   The following is a condensed version of what he had to say:  This election as the right-of-center party -- as BC conservatives -- we cannot afford to lose. We need a win. BC needs us to win. And we need experience to do that. Not just in the leadership race, but in the actual general election. And my experience as a city councillor, my experience as a mayor, my experience as an MLA, as a small businessperson; I’m actually the only one in the race that can talk about that experience. Because make no mistake about it, the NDP will be competitive in this coming election. They are going to get 37-38 percent of the vote no matter who their leader is. We need to be cohesive. We're supposed to be a party that believe...

IMAGE CREDIT:   Darryl Dyck, the Canadian Press. I thought I had already made up my mind who I would be ranking on my ballot, in the Conservative Party of BC leadership race; now I am not so sure.  That means that, at least for me, and perhaps many others, it’s a good thing voting hasn’t already taken place. There were initially only one or two of the candidates that I thought might be a little too right of centre for my liking, now it seems that list is growing. I consider myself more closely aligned with what used to be called a Progressive Conservative, regardless, I feel more than comfortable within the Conservative Party of BC.  Some, however, in messages to me on my political Facebook page, have been rather, shall we say, a bit mean-spirited in comments they’ve made about my ‘purity’ as a conservative. To tell you the truth, I really don’t care! Some leadership candidates, in comments made online, have also been raising the issue of who is a pure enough conservati...

Speaking to municipal leaders at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention, Conservative Leader John Rustad laid out three clear commitments a Conservative government would deliver to local governments: restoring property rights and predictability, dismantling Metro Vancouver’s unaccountable bureaucracy, and establishing a $1 billion infrastructure fund. “We’ve seen and heard your concerns,” Rustad told delegates. “About property rights and predictability for housing. About accountability and transparency. And about the need for real investment in core infrastructure. A Conservative government will deliver on all three.” Rustad said the NDP’s Heritage Conservation Act amendments, DRIPA, and the Cowichan decision have created chaos and uncertainty for municipalities and builders, stalling housing projects across the province. “Certainty builds housing. Uncertainty kills it,” Rustad said.  “We will repeal the HCA amendments, repeal DRIPA, and refer the Cowichan decision to the Supr...

The federal gun confiscation program that will be announced in a few hours is illogical. It won’t save lives or make the public safer. The federal government doesn’t really even expect it to work, and is only going ahead with it because they’ve been stuck with a dumb proposal the Trudeau government made almost five years ago. If they could do it all over again, they wouldn’t, but they feel like they’ve blocked themselves in and have no choice but to proceed so that they don’t anger part of their electoral coalition, mainly voters in Quebec. That might sound like a blistering criticism of the program, the kind of thing you’ve read in any number of my columns before. It’s actually what the public safety minister thinks about it. He just didn’t know he was being tape recorded when he said so. In a 20-minute conversation Gary Anandasangaree had with a firearms owner he rents a home to, which was recorded and then leaked, the minister says all of the above things. (He has also confirmed the...

Image Credit: CleanBC Chilliwack  MLAs Á’a:líya Warbus (Chilliwack–Cultus Lake ) and  Heather Maahs (Chilliwack North)   are outraged after new Statistics Canada data confirmed that Chilliwack officially topped the charts as having the highest crime rate in Canada in 2024. The city recorded 11,352 police-reported incidents per 100,000 people, and a CSI of 141.7, well above BC’s average of 93.0. But the MLAs say the real story is that these numbers follow years of escalating crime, failed justice reform, and drug policies that have only made things worse.  “Chilliwack families are living with the consequences of a system that has completely failed them,” said MLA Warbus. “People are afraid to walk alone at night, properties are being broken into, and repeat offenders are cycling through the system with no accountability. The NDP has let public safety crumble, and their failed drug experiment is making it worse. It’s time to restore consequences, rebuild...