TECH TALK: A little knowledge can go a long way
Everyone should know a little computer programming. I know that the most common response I'm going to get is that you don't care about programming and you just want to use them. The value in having a basic understanding of how programs work is that it gives you a basic understanding of how computers work. ... it just makes...
ATAMANENKO: Private member's bill would prevent job-killing foreign takeovers
A private member’s bill tabled by New Democrat Mining Critic Claude Gravelle (Nickel Belt) would amend the Investment Canada Act to prevent job-killing foreign takeovers of Canadian companies. As it presently stands, when a foreign company proposes a takeover of a Canadian firm, the information it provides to Industry Canada...
Carole James courts the carpetbaggers
So Carole James thinks meeting with business is going to help her look like a leader. Good luck with that. No one will take this sad effort seriously – not her supporters, who want her to represent them which means against the reactionary interests of business. And certainly not business who will only be impressed with an NDP...
New Democrats vote to fix gun registry
New Democrats said tonight's defeat of bill C-391 must be followed by a genuine attempt to fix the registry and unite rural, northern and urban Canadians. “I have spoken with many of my constituents in communities across my riding and heard the opinions of those on both sides of the issue," said Alex Atamanenko, M.P. for B.C....
Sun/Province: a loss of trust
Trust. It’s a small word, but it represents a very big concept: perhaps one of the most powerful positive characteristics we allow in our personal or business relationships.And, apart from perhaps the medical profession, there may be no business that DEPENDS more on the trust of its customers than the news business, especially...
Do we need a Police State Watch?
Last spring I wrote a column called “Is this what a police state looks like” in response to the dangerous police actions surrounding the G20 Summit in Toronto. I argued–as many have–that police states don’t pop up full blown over night. They develop slowly in direct proportion to people’s willingness to accept new definitions...
Carole James: Say it ain't so!
NDP leader Carole James was so quiet for so long, many of her own supporters wondered where she was all summer. With the HST and the Liberals imploding, it would have been a great time for the wanna-be Premier to show her stuff, to take the lead, to convince British Columbians she’s no wasteful socialist extremist. Then she...
DOBBIN: The beginning of a new era in politics
I confess that I did not, as promised, spend the summer thinking about the new paradigm of local, national and global politics. It was the perfect summer at my log cabin in Saskatchewan and I spent most of it swimming to the end of the lake and back, picking blueberries and swinging in my Mexican hammock. But I did spend...
Gordon Campbell: The new Rocky Balboa?
I love BC politics. It’s often more dramatic than some of the prime time offerings offered up for our entertainment on the big screen or the tube. And, whether you see him as the hero or the villain, Premier Gordon Campbell deserves an Oscar and an Emmy.He was on the canvas, bruised and beaten down; his enemies could smell his...
ATAMANENKO: The divisive politics of the gun registry
The current Bill C-391 to abolish the gun registry appears to be receiving a lot of media attention these days. The Conservative government is cranking up its publicity campaign to abolish the registry, pitting different regions of the country against each other. If we were to look at how this is playing out in the […]