We’ve heard a lot in the news lately about the challenges facing the oil sector, but much less about the serious problems confronting another natural resource industry—forestry. Two years ago, the United States placed significant import tariffs on softwood lumber.  Those illegal tariffs are still in place, yet we hear almost...

In this coldest time of the year, we often think of the people in our area who are homeless.  Some have ended up on the streets and in rough camps because of mental health issues, addictions, or a combination of the two.  Some are children fleeing abusive parents or women fleeing abusive spouses; others have become disabled. ...

If Castlegar city council is serious about transparency and better communications, I would suggest Job One for them should be to leave a pile of rubber bands on the media table before every meeting so we can ping any member of senior staff or council who forgets to use their microphone. While that is obviously a tongue-in-cheek...

To The Editor: In light of the Greyhound bus lines reducing service in British Columbia, the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) wanted to take the opportunity to reach out to any people living with cancer who may be impacted by this withdrawal of service. No matter where you live, CCS is here to ensure that no Canadian has to face...

As I get older, I find there are fewer and fewer things I’m willing to get upset about – hence the lack of editorial rants of late. There is, however, one issue that has me so incensed, so appalled, so disgusted, so flat-out ashamed, that it’s taken me weeks to write about it without using some of the more colourful (and less...

So far, most of the discussion about Proportional Representation (PR) has focused on fairness. Without a proportional voting system, there’s no way to make every vote count equally. But there are other reasons to adopt it, arguably as valid: it would bring social and financial stability and cut waste. In elections using...

This week the House of Commons passed Bill C-76, the Elections Modernization Act, the federal government’s answer to the so-called “Fair Elections Act” that the Conservatives enacted in 2014.  And although I and the rest of the NDP caucus voted in favour of the bill, I would say this bill is “a day late and a dollar short.”...

Several times in our province we have had election results distorted by our current voting system (first past the post). As a result the political landscape has been plagued by polarized politics for as long as anyone can remember and many voters find themselves voting to block something they despise and/or not having their...

To The Editor:   Would you vote for a party list without candidates? Of course, you wouldn't, and neither would anybody else. Of course, we will keep local representation under pro rep, and of course nobody will be 'appointed' an MLA unless we vote for them. How dumb do Liberal Party bosses think BC voters are that we would...

After months of negotiations and a seemingly endless series of false deadlines, negotiators have hammered out a new trade agreement between Canada, the USA and Mexico.  The new agreement (called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA for short) will create winners and losers, of course, and the general consensus...