Thoughts on BC Politics and More

... When Mr. Zelensky raised the issue of a security guarantee in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump angrily said Ukraine doesn’t hold any cards and should submit to the will of the U.S. if it knows what’s good for it. For Canada, it was just one more disorienting moment. The day before, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer refused to come to Canada’s defence when he was asked by a reporter – Mr. Trump standing to his left after a meeting between the two men – whether he had raised the issue of the President’s desire to annex Canada and make it the 51st state. Mr. Starmer later dodged the same question during an interview on Fox News. This week, Canada’s latest economic D-Day arrives. Blanket tariffs on Canadian goods imported into the U.S. are to come into effect on Tuesday – although, lucky us, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick says they may not be as high as 25 per cent. And next week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will resign and make way for a new Liberal Party leader. Within weeks...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not rule out sending Canadian troops to Ukraine as part of a possible ceasefire deal, when asked about the prospect during a peace and security summit Monday in Kyiv. “We will work with our neighbours on it, but everything is on the table,” Trudeau said at a joint media conference with other leaders. The prime minister was in the Ukrainian capital alongside a dozen European leaders to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion ... CLICK HERE for the full story

This week, Philippe and I discuss the latest threats from the New Democrats to rip up their confidence-and-supply agreement with the Liberals and just how likely it is that this could lead to the fall of the government. We also chat about new polls on how Canadians view support for Ukraine and where the parties stand in Quebec as chatter increases on the possibility of a third referendum on sovereignty. Plus, we discuss an upset byelection win in P.E.I., answer listener questions and I put Philippe to the test with another Quiz . . . CLICK HERE for the full discussion

In the United States, the Republicans can't be trusted, but neither can Joe Biden. In Canada, it'll depend on genuine conservatives holding the line in Poilievre's party ... ... For any Conservatives reading this who are going squishy about Ukraine, you may well be upset with what I have to say here. But you should pay close attention to what Shuv Majumdar (Conservative MP in Stephen Harper’s old Calgary riding) says ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Growing threats demand a global defense for democracies. Could the answer be a New Alliance Treaty Organization?    After 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) largely succeeded in its mission to protect democratic Europe by keeping “the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down,” in the words of its first Secretary General. Russia has never invaded a NATO member, the US has guaranteed alliance security for almost 75 years, and Germany was so successfully kept down that its current generation of leaders struggled to embrace the idea of hard power, even when full-scale war returned to the continent.  Russia’s brazen and brutal invasion of Ukraine, however, has thrown a spotlight on NATO’s strategic and structural weaknesses. Even after years of Russian hybrid warfare and election interference against NATO member states, military aggression and expansionism in Georgia and Ukraine, and now a full-scale war and attempted genocide, i...

    This week’s Centre Ice Canadians update comes from the heart of democracy in East Asia. I am here at the invitation of Taiwan’s government, part of a delegation of Canadian politicians learning more about a country that, since being freed from 50 years of Japanese occupation in 1945, has resisted Communist China, overcome a military dictatorship, and gone on to build a vibrant, wealthy, and inclusive multi-party democracy.   It's a democracy under threat.   Taiwan is a hot place right now, literally, and politically. With the Humidex pushing 50 even locals are hunkered down, with air conditioners working overtime. And every day, along the 130-kilometre-wide Taiwan Strait which separates Communist China from free Taiwan, boats and aircraft from the Chinese armed forces push into Taiwanese territory.   Canada does not recognize Taiwan. We abandoned the country in exchange for an embassy in Beijing, way back in 1970. We are not alone: only a ...

  At the author’s request, this commentary is shared anonymously ...     Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would say something like this. But I feel I must. Even though I know full well that it will achieve nothing.    I am an unashamed peacenik. I have spoken out against war my whole life. My prayer is, “ Lord, make me an instrument of your peace .” My favourite saying from my youth is “ Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came .”   But I am also the son of a Canadian farm boy who left his home and family to lay down his blood in the fields of France to liberate Europe and rid the world of a tyrant. He quietly suffered from his wounds the rest of his life. It was as a price he was willing to pay so that his children would never have to face a similar horror. It was his hope that this would never happen again. Yet, it has. And, we all have skin in this game; our peace was purchased with our father’s blood.    " Take up ...

  I can’t help but feel I am not alone in worrying, and wondering, about what the world can do following the rolling of Russia’s military in to the sovereign and independent country of Ukraine.   Just 39 years old when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) collapsed at the end of 1991, former military intelligence officer Vladimir Putin seems, by all appearances ready to once again use the hammer of military force to overpower any resistance to his aspirations.   While crushing resistance at home to a war which many everyday Russians oppose strongly, and indiscriminate bombing going on in the Ukraine, it seems that the megalomaniac President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, will not counter any resistance to his imperialistic intents. But now, what should western democratic countries do? In addition to actual military targets, Putin has unleashed the targeted bombing of schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and homes – with the end result of innocent civilians bei...

  This image says it all. But, if words are needed, these are what they should be: Vladimir is a disgusting bully, and an egotistical megalomaniac, who must be overcompensating for something small and tiny!