Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Our government’s dealings with China are flat-out bizarre. We have a Chinese executive of the Huawei technology giant, Meng Wanzhou, under house arrest for extradition to the US for trial on fraud charges there. House arrest? For a foreign national? It seems odd that Ms Wanzhou owns not one but two multi-million-dollar mansions in Vancouver. Her aircraft allegedly landed in Vancouver to refuel on rout to Mexico when she was arrested. Now she is under house arrest, but hires her own body guards (at her cost) to keep watch over her while she is under detention. That is highly unusual. Why has Ms. Wanzhou’s security detain not taken her to the airfield and sent her off to freedom in a private jet? Why are Canadian security people not keeping watch over her? Could it be that it is in China’s interests to keep Ms. Wanzhou under very soft arrest conditions as a bargaining chip? Ms. Wanzhou’s company builds 5G internet network routers it wants to sell to our government. The Huawei r...

Welcome once again to Day Seven – the Fathers Day edition -- and a countdown of the most read stories and commentaries of the week ... including one which hits the top spot for a second week. We have racism, Trudeau’s failed quest to win a seat on the UN Security Council ... the start to a new session in the BC legislature ... the re-start of the BC Green Party leadership race ... and much more.   Let’s get things underway with ... #10 ... FELDSTED -- Everyone, regardless of colour, ethnic origins and race has conscious and unconscious prejudices -- each of us has to deal with them as best as we can (June 19 th ) ... It is painful to watch people wrestle with the new media and political phrase, “systemic racism” as if it was meaningful and relevant. Synonyms for ‘systemic’ are ‘complete’, ‘general’, ‘total’, and ‘universal’. The idea that every person associated with an institution is racist is not reasonable. It is more accurate to state that our society is prone to discrimi...

Over the past several months our Prime Minister – Justin Trudeau – has been burning up the phone lines with the leaders of dozens of countries, in his quest for a seat on the UN (lack of) Security Council. And before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, he had racked up tens of thousands of air miles to grovel, in person, in the hopes of getting the support of UN members. How many billion$ have been wasted on this quest, by our self-indulgent leader, for this temporary two-year place at the table? To be certain, we’ll never know, because much of those costs will be buried as part of on-going and regular interactions with these countries. Lebanon ... the Permanent Representatives of the United Nations’ Latin American and Caribbean Group ... Liberia ... the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States ... North Macedonia ... the Permanent Representatives of the United Nations’ African Group ... Jamaica ... the Permanent Representatives of the Arab League coun...