Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Last summer, when The Tyee learned about BC’s secretive plan to tighten its response to protests in the province, we had questions. Nearly six months later — and only after filing and receiving a freedom of information request — we finally received an answer. Dozens of internal emails The Tyee received in response to its FOI request provide a behind-the-scenes look at how a reporter’s questions quickly reached top officials and triggered a carefully strategized response from a communications team, only to be withheld from the public. Sean Holman, the Wayne Crookes professor in environmental and climate journalism at the University of Victoria, said the province’s refusal to respond to media questions — which are asked on behalf of the public — smacks of creeping authoritarianism ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Victoria resident Bernard von Schulman was born in Vancouver, but says at heart he is an interior guy, and an exile from my home of heart, Lillooet BC On Monday (Oct 15 th ) my friend Bernard von Schulman said, “ Time to open a can of worms .”   And with that he proceeded to say: I have wanted to see a better electoral system for BC for close to 40 years but the more I look at this referendum the more I am not comfortable with the alternatives being offered. There are good PR systems out there but for some reason, the government decided not to offer them on the ballot. Denmark, Sweden, and Ireland all have good PR systems. None of these are on offer. I really dislike the lack of detail about the three alternatives. All we are offered is a name of a system without explaining how it would work if adopted. MMP is notoriously complex and slight differences in this hybrid model really change the outcomes. The primary reason I might vote yes is t...