Thoughts on BC Politics and More

When it comes to Justin Trudeau and his desire to land a seat on the UN Security Council, he went about it all wrong. We all need to remember that Justin has never done anything of significance in his life. The only reason he holds the highest political position in the land is because his daddy was a Prime Minister of sorts. Justin grew up as a spoiled rich kid, who thinks that throwing money around is the way to influence people and buy friendships. His answer to every situation is to bring out the check-book that actually belongs to the hard-working Canadian taxpayers, and he fills in a dollar amount and sends it away. That is typical of the social justice warriors and virtue-signalers of the day. As much as I think that the UN is a group of busy body people -- who think that they can dive into every countries business and make the world all warm and fuzzy -- I think, (or hope), they see through Trudeau. They see him sending checks everywhere, but those of us with experience, have ...

When I was a young fellow, my parents were too poor to help me finance my education, so I worked my butt off. I did whatever I could to make money. Whenever classes were not in session, I was working for wages. One particular Spring Break, I went to work at a mine. I had gotten to know one of the mining engineers, who had a nice new truck, and a pretty wife and a new house.   Wow. I liked his lifestyle, and knew that he must know something that I did not know about getting ahead. His life was so much better than mine. I would make every attempt to "accidentally" run into him at one of the few businesses that were in the small mining town.   I wanted to learn from him. One day I saw him at the post office and said ..." Hi Peter ... fancy meeting you here !" He laughed because the town was so small. Everyone ended up at the post office at least once a day. He smiled and he asked me how I was doing. Because I was raised to be humble, I t...

Over the past year, I have woven into my blog posts, strands of my personal pursuit for physical, emotional and spiritual well-being together with political philosophy, governance and stories of partisan games-playing. The content here is heavily influenced by my work as a Member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly, random articles and my podcast library. Has government distilled the value of each of us into an economic unit? One of the podcasts that has inspired me is  Philosophize This!  from  Stephen West . Each episode makes for a fine soundtrack to my morning walk. I recently listened to an  episode  summarizing the political theory of Hannah Arendt. West's podcast is a brilliant introduction to a range of philosophers and their perspectives. He skillfully distills thousands of pages of philosophical discourse into a 30-minute sound bite. It's always a gentle reminder of how much more reading I could be doing. ...

Wages for g overnment employees in B ritish Columbia were 5.8 per cent higher ( on average) than wages for comparable workers in the province’s private sector last year , finds a new study by the Fraser Institute , an independent, non- partisan Canadian public policy think- tank.   “ Of course, all levels of government in BC should offer competitive compensation to attract qualified employees, but wages and benefits in the government sector are clearly out of step with the private sector ,” said Jake Fuss, policy analyst at the Fraser Institut e.   In addition to the wage gap (which accounts for worker characteristics such as age, gender, education and type of work ) the study , Comparing Government and Private Sector Compensation in British Columbia , finds that government employees in BC — including federal, provincial and municipal workers — also enjoyed more generous benefit s in 2018, the latest year of comparable data.   For example ...

On Friday, the BC government invited all of us to ... give input on the wide range of training and job opportunities driven by CleanBC. Melanie Mark, Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training stated, “ We want to hear from people, educators, businesses, First Nations and industry on what we can do to make sure there are pathways for people throughout our province to ensure they have the skills and training they need to build a sustainable economy .” Further, Environment Minister, George Heyman also provided his thoughts saying: “ Together we can build a thriving, innovative economy that puts B.C. on the path to a cleaner, better future with new and rewarding job opportunities ”. “ As industry and businesses become more efficient, using cleaner energy, there will be changes to existing work as well as a need for new skills, which we must support through new education and training”. “We want to hear from people who have ideas about...

The official opposition has the responsibility to hold the Government to account. Part of this responsibility means looking at how the government spends your money on programs, projects and services to determine if there is value and results being delivered for taxpayers. The opposition is also assisted in the work that we do through journalists, who not only hold the Government to account, but also the opposition- in fact all elected officials and all the citizens we represent. One journalism organization that many Canadians outside of Ottawa may not have heard of is 'Blacklock’s Reporter ', a unique investigative news organization who stands alone in being the only reporter-owned and operated newsroom in Ottawa. Recently through a series of access to information requests, Blacklock’s reviewed the Trudeau Liberal Government’s billion dollar 'Strategic Innovation Fund'. This fund falls under the responsibility of Minister of Innovation, Science and E...