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Monthly Archive for October, 2010

Basi-Virk trial update

The decision by Crown Counsel Bill Beradino to reduce his witness list in the Basi-Virk trial is disturbing, very disturbing indeed. This case is, of course, all about the “lease” of BC Rail to CN and the Campbell government’s role in it. Mr Berardino has a huge experience in litigation, having been involved in many […]

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Our health care is not free

If there’s one thing certain to raise the ire of the left it’s questioning Medicare. Any time I raised issues when on air I could almost be certain that Shirley Douglas, daughter of St Tommy, would call and want to be a guest. (Incidentally, Tommy Douglas was not the first to bring Medicare to Canada; […]

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There is no way I’m going to stop electronic progress but I can still bitch about it. Why do people email me in pale blue? I must hit the reply button then raise the font and make the print black. This pale blue bit seems to be spreading. Why is there such an interest out […]

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Andrew Petter becomes President of SFU

Last Thursday Wendy and I had the privilege and pleasure of seeing Andrew Petter, former Attorney-General, former Dean of the University of Victoria Law School, sworn in as 9th president of Simon Fraser University. I first met Andrew in the early days of the NDP government in 1991 and we became friends. During those years […]

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Affirmative action

I’ve just finished David Remnick’s The Bridge, a biography of Barack Obama, and it’s a first class read. Not coming directly out of the book, but always in the overall scenario of a black man becoming President, is the cultural and economic straitjacket most Afro-Americans are born to, and have an enormous struggle escaping from. […]

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Minimum wage

I thought Jim Sinclair, president of the BC Federation of Labour was right to demand a sizable increase in the minimum wage but after seeing that the Fraser Institute was against it I knew it was right. The reason workers in McDonald’s and their ilk are paid so pitifully is because the owners can get […]

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Several things on my mind today. One of the great advantages to writing a column somewhere else, at thetyee.ca for example, is that people who respond do so with great candour. It takes care, in part, of Robbie Burns couplet, “O wad a power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as others see us.” […]

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The Zalm Factor

New Dems wise to keep their distance from Bill Vander Zalm, despite his HST-fighting success. The HST business is having some interesting fallout. One need hardly note that the Campbell government is spinning out of control, otherwise how can you explain the appointment of Hon. Wally Oppal, QC to head up the Pickton inquiry? Of […]

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A retrospective look at Dave Barrett

Last Saturday Dave Barrett, Shirley, his wife of 57 years and their family celebrated his 80th birthday, a good moment, I think, to look back on his career. Dave became leader of the NDP in 1969 when the NDP under my old classmate, Tom Berger, lost yet another election to WAC Bennett. He led them […]

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My diverse musical taste

I love music but perhaps in the sense Sir Thomas meant in his aphorism, “the English hate music but they love the noise that it makes!” As a young person I had a sizeable record collection (that’s what music came on folks, before you downloaded onto an iPod). In High School I wrote an article […]

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