Canada’s Best Known Political Commentator
Mar 11th, 2010 by admin
Photo courtesy of Ian McAllister/Pacific Wild
Rafe tells us that the provincial government is again considering slaughtering wolves from helicopters. He tells us why this was a bad idea in 1979, and it’s a bad idea now. Article at The Common Sense Canadian: Why Are We Still Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?
Mar 11th, 2010 by admin
Every now and again you read something so outrageous you have to laugh. So it is with the report recently released by BC Citizens for Clean Energy: A Triple Legacy for Future Generations.
The essence of this lobby group’s proposal is that the government should develop an export policy for green energy targeting up to 17000 MW of exports by 2016, an amount greater than the size of BC Hydro’e entire existing hydroelectric system. Then it wants to target for more than double that amount of exports by 2036. And the legacy they offer if this is done:
The promised legacies are, of course, nonsense. Committing all that energy potential to export won’t enhance B.C.’s security of supply. It is the export of privately-developed, privately-owned power this group wants government to promote. BC Hydro couldn’t use that power itself when the power is committed to export; it would just be the conduit making the development and exports happen. Continue Reading »
Mar 10th, 2010 by admin
A brave daughter journeys into mental illness. Image by Nora Kelly
Susan Inman’s memoir is a must read for any family faced with schizophrenia, and for our health system, too.
After Her Brain Broke: Helping My Daughter Recover Her Sanity
Susan Inman
Bridgeross Communications/Ingram Books (2010)
I suffer from depression and have been treated for it for more than 20 years. My problem is anxiety — not anxiousness, but overwhelming unchangeable anxiety, mind-numbing anxiety that has its physical side which I’ll tell you about in a moment. Book review by Rafe Mair at The Tyee: ‘After Her Brain Broke’
Alexandra Morton
Here’s an Article by Rafe at The Common Sense Canadian which tells us that even the former Attorney General of Norway and the owner of the world’s largest salmon farming company agree that salmon farms must be moved out of migration routes.
Mar 3rd, 2010 by admin
Stop me before I lash out in self-defense.
Each new wave of digital device takes an extreme disliking to me.
It seems to be axiomatic that the older people get, the harder it is for them to make changes. The old ways were better. This newfangled stuff will ruin civilization, or at least the part which isn’t already ruined. I try to avoid this — not in an attempt to end the aging process, but in order to keep my brain active so I can continue to work.
Some of the inventions of the last 25 years or so I enjoy, including the personal computer — although there I have my grievances. You see, I’m one of those people that only has to touch an electronic gadget to have it stop its inner workings immediately. When I touch a button on, say, the entertainment centre on a plane, it packs in — often taking other passengers nearby with it. I have a lifetime aversion to electric instruments. In fact, they frighten me because I’m sure they will either electrocute or nuke me. The machine in question feels my trepidation and retaliates accordingly.
Era before ‘automatic save’
My early encounters with a PC were nightmarish. I would finish an editorial and before I could save it (there was no automatic save in 1981) the computer would “lock,” and after frantic calls to experts, I would have to crash it and lose everything. Or I would have slippery fingers, accidentally telling it to print 100 copies instead of 10 — and then I would fail to stop the damned printer. David Chalk and Mike Agerbo (two people who I got started in radio, incidentally) would be like the doctors on call, and I would insist they did house calls.
Eventually as PCs and I matured, we became tentative friends.
When the fax came along, despite the fact that I felt the need for a lead jockstrap to prevent that area from being nuked, I adjusted. Continue Reading »
Feb 28th, 2010 by admin
Next time, march to give elected reps real power.
Why demand MPs go back to work if they can’t do real work once there?
Now that the prorogue issue is behind us, it may be a good time to examine how Parliament works — and, more importantly, how it doesn’t work. What I have to say may sound cynical, but I say it’s simply an unpleasant truth.
During the rallies on the prorogue issue, it became apparent that while the protesters had every reason to be angry at a very arrogant prime minister, it was for the wrong reason.
The demand was that MPs go back to work. But that supposes that when MPs are in the House they are working — and that when they’re not, they’re lollygagging on a warm beach somewhere.
Well, when they’re in the House they are busy but they sure as hell aren’t working — at least not for the people.
Your civics teacher was wrong
The ultimate power is the House of Commons. This is what we are wrongly taught in school.
Remember how we were told that “responsible government” meant that the government — the prime minister and cabinet — were “responsible” to the House of Commons who could toss them out any time they wished?
If that were true, then surely there would be an example of this happening.
In fact, you have to go back to the “Pacific scandal” of 1873 to see a majority government pulled down by MPs. This was caused by an enormous scandal where Macdonald and his colleagues were alleged to have “sold” railway rights for contributions from the railway men to the Conservative party. This is, in my research, the only time such a thing has occurred — and it was at a time when party discipline was not nearly as complete as it is now. Continue Reading »
Feb 1st, 2010 by admin
Today a potpourri.
First, to correct a misimpression making the email circuit, I have never pronounced support for nuclear power. Here’s what I said in The Tyee:
“I do not, repeat not, say we should adopt a nuclear power program in B.C., only that we stand back and look at nuclear with a jaundiced eye but still look. We are, under the Campbell Liberals, bound and determined to destroy our rivers. Campbell, nose growing all the time, says we need the power and that’s why our rivers must be sacrificed. His nose stretches because we do not need the power and even if we did, private river projects won’t help because they only produce power when BC Hydro doesn’t need it. But if there’s a valid alternative, shouldn’t we look at it?
“There are, as I see it, these concerns to be dealt with, any one of which would negate the arguments for nuclear energy.
“1. Is it, under 2009 conditions and knowledge, safe? Even if it’s safe under everyday circumstances, could terrorists use it to create an atom bomb-like disaster?
“2. How do we dispose of the waste? It’s been this problem that has for many people made the issue a non starter.
“3. Is it cost effective? We know that they haven’t been but are the numbers better now?
“4. Is it really green, considering what it takes to build and maintain a facility?
“We would be damned fools to rush into a pro-nuclear policy but also damned fools not to consider it.” Continue Reading »
Jan 22nd, 2010 by admin
This release is huge news for those who have been opposing this horrible project – mostly it’s good news for all of British Columbia.
The proponent, Bute Hydro Inc., recently indicated that additional field work and analysis would be conducted in the spring and fall of 2010 before it will be in a position to submit its environmental impact statement. In light of this new information, the timelines for the review panel process will be substantially delayed.
The participant funding process will be re-initiated when the proponent is in a position to confirm a timeline for the submission of its environmental impact statement. At that time, an announcement will be made with the revised funding amounts and the deadline to submit applications. Current applicants will have an opportunity to revise and resubmit their applications for consideration at that time.
The Agency announced in May 2009 the availability of $250,000 under its Participant Funding Program to assist groups and individuals to participate in the environmental review for the Bute Inlet Hydroelectric Project.
Information on the Participant Funding Program, the proposed project and on the environmental assessment process is available on the Agency’s Web site at www.ceaa-acee.gc.ca, registry number 09-05-44825.
Bute Hydro Inc. is proposing to construct 17 run-of-river hydroelectric facilities in the vicinity of Bute Inlet. Major components in addition to the generating facilities include a substation near the mouth of Southgate River, associated access roads and ancillary works, 216 km of 230 kV collector transmission line and 227 km of 500 kV trunk transmission line from the proposed substation near the mouth of Southgate River to the existing 500 kV substation at Malaspina.
The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency administers the federal environmental assessment process, which identifies the environmental effects of proposed projects and measures to address those effects, in support of sustainable development.
For further information: media may contact: Annie Roy, Manager, Communications, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, Tel.: (613) 957-0396
Jan 14th, 2010 by admin
While the article below is about Ontario, you’ll see from the highlighted portions that it foretells what will happen in BC as BC Hydro is forced to pay private companies double the price of what they can sell that energy for.
KAREN HOWLETT
Globe and Mail
Jan. 08, 2010
Ontario has a power problem.
A strategy to subsidize the province’s nascent green energy industry is
starting to sting businesses and many households that find themselves
paying the biggest markups on electricity pricing in the country.
Even as electricity demand – and market prices – dropped last year with
the global economic downturn, electricity bills have risen steadily on the
back of generous contracts signed by the province’s power planning agency.
Now, the government of Premier Dalton McGuinty is preparing for a looming
political backlash.
What’s at stake is an industrial strategy that’s on a collision course
with a century-old policy of delivering electricity to consumers at the
lowest possible cost. After the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in
the manufacturing heartland, Mr. McGuinty vowed to create more than 50,000
new ones through the Green Energy Act. But he is building this new sector
- and burnishing his green credentials – by ratcheting up electricity
costs. Continue Reading »
Jan 9th, 2010 by admin
Gerry Heaslip's 'fish of a lifetime' from the River Dodder in Dublin.
A bit of a heads up … shortly, Damien Gillis – the superb producer of outdoor videos – and I will soon be announcing an undertaking which we’re very excited about. Stay tuned!
Premier Campbell and his henchmen along with the federal minister, Gail Shea, continue to deny the heavy impact of sea lice from fish farms on migrating wild salmon. When you read the following report from Norway remember that our migrating salmon smolts are smaller than the Atlantic Salmon and Sea Trout in Europe thus even more vulnerable.
I must tell you that I returned from a short holiday in London thoroughly re-energized so despoilers of the environment will be hearing from me and colleagues this year BIG TIME. My every sense tells me that the public is getting angrier by the day at what they see happening to our beautiful province which means that to keep the pressure on, please send this and other information to your address book!
Here’s an article that appeared in the Irish Times on December 28, 2009:
BY DEREK EVANS
NORWAY’S Directorate for Nature Management and the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (Nina) have issued a warning that salmon farming in Norway must be reduced during 2010.
The warning is directed to the new Minister for Fisheries, Lisbeth Berg-Hansen, a former head of the Norwegian salmon farming association and the owner of a salmon farm. Continue Reading »
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Canada’s Best Known Political Commentator
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