OP/ED: Don't worry, Spokane, Canada's blowing a lot of smoke, too
Caleb Moon is a 29-year-old yard master for a railroad in Spokane, and the creator of the Facebook event entitled, “Blow Spokane’s Smoke Away to Canada.” The event description is as follows, “There are roughly 550,000 residents of the Spokane, Washington metropolitan area (per worldpopulationreview.com). To get rid of this ...
Editorial: How to avoid . . . breathing?
Recent announcements on air quality have stressed the hazards of breathing smoky air to children, old people, and anyone with respiratory issues such as asthma. But it’s bad for everyone, and we should all avoid it, whatever our age and level of health. Need convincing? Here’s some information about wildfire smoke from the...
Op/Ed: Wildsight comments on Columbia River Treaty negotiations
By Wildsight Representatives of the Canadian and American federal governments met on August 15th and 16th for the second round of negotiations to update the 54-year old Columbia River Treaty. The meetings were held, not in Ottawa or Washington, but in Nelson, in the Canadian Columbia River Basin. The treaty between the two ...
Op/Ed: Buy BC First, says BC Premier
By John Horgan, Premier of British Columbia This B.C. Day long weekend, let's take time to enjoy food, friends and family. Let's also celebrate the farmers, producers, and local businesses who provide quality food and drink grown right here in B.C. B.C. farmers grow fresh, local food delivered to us at farmers’ markets, grocery...
OP/ED: National lobby group calls for Victoria to give BC Interior a tax break
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on the provincial government to give interior residents a break by cutting fuel taxes, fixing ICBC and axing the Employer Health Tax (EHT). With many interior businesses depending on long haul trucking, tourism and shipping, the high cost of fuel and fuel taxes are punishing...
Opinion: Reconciling Energy and Indigenous Rights
In 2007, Canada was one of four countries to vote against the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (with New Zealand, the United States and Australia). With its single-minded focus on making Canada an “energy superpower,” albeit only with fossil fuels, the Harper government feared the declaration’s concept of ...
Column: From the Hill -- Columbia River Treaty issues
Last week I spent three days in Spokane at the Pacific Northwest Economic Region meetings. Over 600 legislators, business people, and other interested folks from BC, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Yukon and Northwest Territories gathered to talk about issues important to this region....
Letter: PR levels playing field
To The Editor: One of the things that first attracted me to proportional representation, PR, apart from the fact that it just made sense, is that it is supported by people across the political spectrum. At my first PR meeting in 2004, I sat next to someone from the Canadian Rate Payer's Federation and Andrew Coyne was the...
COLUMN: From the Hill -- G20 Energy
Last week I travelled with Jim Carr, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, to the G20 energy meetings in Argentina. The meetings are a mix of reports from the G20 countries and of presentations by world experts about the state of energy markets and future energy demand. The main theme of the talks was the “grand […]
LETTER: Canadian democracy not a matter of fairness
Canadian democracy is not a matter of fairness. Since European invasion, Canada has had 200 years of colonial autocracy, then 50 years of elections without votes for women, and an additional 50 years without votes for Indigenous people. In every form democracy has taken since Confederation, it has been used to defend the...