By: Jordan Bateman, Director Canadian Taxpayers Federation With just ten months until the next provincial election, the lifeboats are starting to fill up as MLAs of both political persuasions look to leave the ship of state. That means one thing: millions of dollars in pension payouts, primarily funded by taxpayers. Dave Hayer...

Open Letter to West Kootenay Residents: It seems like the people who make decisions far away in Ottawa don’t quite understand BC nor do they understand the importance of physical geography in such a mountainous place. They look at maps with demographics and populations and what they have is an impression of where we live, […]

Do you care what sort of health care we will have in Canada starting in 2014? Do you want cheaper drug prices? How about health care programs and policies co-ordinated and monitored at a national level? Or having a national strategy to reduce wait times? Or including national standards for home and residential care? All these...

Cockamamie! Lets just get down to the brass tacks, the council made their decision on chickens within city limits. Some of you may not have liked the way the decision was reached, but so be it; Things don’t always go your way and life surely isn’t fair. The mayor and council are elected by the citizens to make decisions with...

Thanks to a recent Nelson council meeting, everyone is focused on the subject of drugs. Adrian Barnes‘ June 30 opinion piece is an example, and another is a letter in the Star. I quote that letter by K.M. Sykes: …it’s paramount to ask the right [questions}, the deeper ones, the ones that embrace a higher level of awareness…...

Truth be told, the truth is elusive. It can never be “final” since it is grounded in the human mindset and limited to facts known at a point in time. As more details become known, social attitudes and customs change and a new truth emerges. This is our life story, yet humans hunger for a reality that is anchored to our senses....

Technology rocks. Just look at all of wonderful things it has brought into our lives … I can sit here on my couch with my coffee and my mini laptop and send this to my editor within seconds of finishing. I can listen to 800 different songs on something that’s smaller than a box of […]

When it comes to jobs and the economy we often get conflicting messages as to how many jobs were actually created.  I thought it would be interesting to share some figures that Statistics Canada released for the month of May. THE BASICS The Canadian economy as a whole added just 7,700 jobs in May – a relatively weak showing. ...

Alex Atamanenko, MP for BC Southern Interior, paid a visit to the Pacific Northwest to learn firsthand about the proposed Enbridge pipeline project. He, along with Federal NDP Environment critic Megan Leslie and BC MPs Fin Donnelly and Randall Garrison were hosted by their colleague, Nathan Cullen, MP for Skeena Bulkley Valley.  The group met with […]

A family fun-filled day, that’s what we had planned. You know, like the ones they show on commercials with all of the slow motion laughter and delight. Well, I’m sorry to tell you, all that that just didn’t happen. I’ve now decided that family fun-filled days are only possible if you pack; a good sense […]