Thoughts on BC Politics and More

This is the third in a series ... on the Executive Branch of the Canadian government.   You can CLICK HERE to read Part #1 ... and CLICK HERE to read Part #2   In previous commentaries, I outlined the constitutional arrangement of the Executive Branch and some reasons why the Privy Council must be returned to the domain of the Governor General. I have also indicated that the Privy Council must be politically neutral. All legislation, whether initiated by the House of Commons, the Senate, or a Private Member is referred to the Privy Council for review. Since the Privy Council should include opposition members and may include other experts, Privy Council confidentiality is ironclad. Materials forwarded to the Privy Council and discussion related thereto cannot be used or discussed outside of the Privy Council. Members cannot take what they have learned in Privy Council proceedings back to their political parties. That would end the usefulness of the body.  Our ...

This goofy clause in Bill C-69 will ensure resource development in Canada stops cold -- This is not legislation. This is sabotage Diane Francis ~~ Financial Post   ~~ May 13, 2019 The Liberals’ Bill C-69, a train wreck of politically correct nonsense, passed last year and is now in the Senate where dozens of amendments have been proposed. Frankly, the Senate should reject the bill because it will impose onerous consultative and other burdens that will severely hobble all energy projects in future. It grants power to the environment minister — not the minister of natural resources — over fossil fuel, mining, nuclear, pipeline, and rail transportation projects. … the hidden coup de grace for the Canadian energy sector is a goofy requirement that projects will be judged according to “the intersection of sex and gender with other identity factors.” Whatever that means … CLICK HERE to read the full story It is more and mo...

Last week, when I sat in the Senate Committee meeting in Calgary with Brad Schell, I began thinking about prairie fires. As I listened, and as Brad and I spoke on Bill C-69 on behalf of Suits and Boots , I thought about the upcoming Alberta election being held tomorrow and how it just might prove to be the spark the sets off a prairie fire. I could imagine the fire – a smoking wall of western Canadian frustration.  It would sweep from Manitoba through Saskatchewan and Alberta, across to British Columbia, sparing only the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island. Fantasy as it may be, that’s been the thought crossing my mind in the past few weeks as I’ve watched the Bill C-69 Committee hearings unfold. There is a clear, palpable and strong undercurrent of deep discontent across the resource-producing sector of Western Canada. You know it – everyone at Suits and Boots does. It’s one of frustration, and increasingly, lost hope that things will e...

Reconciliation should not be partisan': Ministers call for end to Tory stalling on Indigenous rights bill John Paul Tasker ~~ CBC News ~~ Apr 11, 2019 Attorney General David Lametti and Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett are demanding the Conservative leader in the Senate put an end to procedural manoeuvres by his caucus that threaten to derail legislation to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in Canada. In a letter to Conservative Senate Leader Larry Smith, Lametti and Bennett said "stall tactics" employed by Conservative senators — such as adjourning debate, a tool used to punt a vote or delay further discussion — are blocking Bill C-262 from getting a timely study at the Senate's Aboriginal Peoples committee. CLICK HERE for the full story : The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People has no bearing on reconciliation. We al...