Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Mark Carney and Wilbur Turner, Kelowna, BC February 2025 “In a crisis, plan beats no plan. We have a plan for Canada that is going to deliver the strongest economy and ride out the Americans until they come back to the table,” Mark Carney said during a leadership campaign stop in Kelowna on February 12, 2025.  Watching the erratic behaviour of the U.S. president toward Canada since then, I keep coming back to those words I heard Carney speak that day when I met him in Kelowna. When the United States imposed sweeping tariffs on Canadian goods in 2025, the political temptation would have been to respond to every provocation coming out of Washington. President Donald Trump repeatedly framed the trade dispute as leverage, openly speculating that Canada would eventually fold or be better off as a U.S. state. Mark Carney took a different approach. Rather than chasing every headline or reacting to each rhetorical escalation, his government returned to a consistent message. We are going to...

There have been no fixes to the process that funds and treats rare diseases with expensive drugs, five months after BC Premier David Eby said it was obvious the system wasn’t working. Eby called for a review of the system and changes after his government had come under heavy criticism for its handling of the Charleigh Pollock case from Vancouver Island. The 10-year-old suffers from a rare neurodegenerative condition called Batten disease for which there is no cure. Initially, the BC government backed the decision of an expert committee that recommended a more than $800,000-a-year treatment be discontinued. But under increasing public outcry, the government reversed course, citing experts in the U.S. In response to Postmedia News questions this month, the BC Health Ministry said the review is still underway ... CLICK HERE for the full story

The following commentary references a story this morning (December 29th) from CBC News:    Why this Independent MLA wants to make it easier for MLAs to be ousted by voters   Amelia Boultbee’s private member's bill seeks to lower the threshold for a successful recall... To be fair, there needs to be a careful line drawn between voters who are unhappy with a MLA's genuine work, and voters whose choice for MLA lost, and who won't accept that the majority of voters didn't vote the same way they did.  I've changed my opinions on recalls. It was one of the first things I asked Chief Election Officer Ms Campbell at the Thompson Nicola Regional District (TNRD) as I signed the paperwork as an election candidate; what are the processes of a recall if residents don't find me accountable so I can tell voters during election I am about accountability. I was told for the local order of government, there aren't any legislated recall processes and remember being...

Claims that BC is making progress salvaging wildfire-damaged timber are masking deeper problems in the forest sector, the province’s forestry critic says. Last week, BC’s Ministry of Forests said mills in the province processed more than one million cubic metres of wildfire chips in 2024-25, up from 500,000 cubic metres in 2023 and representing about seven per cent of all processed wood. Kamloops-North Thompson BC Conservative MLA Ward Stamer said those claims of progress ignore the reality that only a fraction of burned timber is being used ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Pierre Poilievre explains why he doesn’t believe Mark Carney is serious about building a new pipeline, during an exclusive year-end interview with Brian Lilley. CLICK HERE for the interview 

Special edition of thePodcast: The Best of 2025. Featuring (in order of appearance):  Mario Canseco of Research Co ... Tristin Hopper of the National Post ... Brian Calder of the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce ... Laurie Trautman of the Border Policy Research Institute ... former Prime Minister Kim Campbell ... Jonathan Simkin of 604 Records ... Duff Conacherof Democracy Watch ... Declan Hill of the University of New Haven ... Christian Leuprecht of the Royal Military College of Canada ... Mubin Shaikh of Parents4Peace ... former Chief of Staff to the Speaker Alan Mullen ... the MMA Panel (including Andy Yan of the Simon Fraser University City Program) ... and Geoffrey Moyse, former senior aboriginal law advisor in the BC Ministry of Attorney General ... CLICK HERE

2025 was a busy first year. As a Caucus, we worked very hard to defeat Bills 14 and 15, legislation which allows the provincial government to move ahead without environmental assessments on renewable projects, and that also allows cabinet to build infrastructure projects without getting approval from local municipal governments. This is not acceptable to your BC Conservative caucus, and we will continue to press this government for open and transparent projects in the future.  Two things we had success in were having the first Private Members bill passed in over 40 years. The first was Jody Toors Prenatal and Post Natal Care bill, and then there was my private members Bill M217 Mandatory Dashcams in commercial vehicles (passed second reading unanimously and is heading to Committee in February). Regrettably, much of the legislation passed by the government was little more than housekeeping bills, or opportunities to strengthen the ability of Cabinet Ministers to bypass the BC legi...

Conservative Party of BC interim leader Trevor Halford   There was a disturbing admission from Premier David Eby this month as part of his year-end interviews with the media. When asked about how many claims of Aboriginal title have now been filed in BC courts, he refused to provide a specific number and instead offered this unsettling statement: “The challenge, I guess, as I would put it, is no one has really nailed how to move forward on this in order to provide both the certainty to the business community but also address reconciliation.” The implications are crystal clear: The premier has no path forward on the most consequential file shaping our collective future. By his own admission, the government’s reconciliation agenda is fundamentally incongruent with creating a climate of certainty and interest within the business community. Without an immediate course correction, this void in leadership could devastate BC by creating a new reality where privately held land title is s...