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Good Luck with Your New Team, Premier

Mar 21st, 2011 by

Cartoon by Ingrid Rice.

Does Christy Clark know the difference between a caucus and a cactus? To survive, she’d better.

Understanding how caucus and cabinet work requires a mind that doesn’t believe what he/she is conditioned to believe by politicians and the media. It’s like most of our political system — what we think happens is not so in practice.

Let’s clear away a bit of political language.

The caucus is both the cabinet ministers and the MLAs, even though it’s also commonly used to describe backbenchers only. In practice, the caucus is the backbench of the ruling party. I will use the terms as they reflect reality. Continue Reading »

Posted in The Tyee | 1 Comment »

Vancouver Sun Still Reluctant to Take on IPPs

Mar 19th, 2011 by

The Vancouver Province has, belatedly to be sure, attacked the BC Energy policy and called it “folly”. I felt it might be appropriate, then, to offer an op-ed article to the Vancouver Sun, which I did on March 1 and which I followed up on March 6 by emails to Fazil Milhar, the Vancouver Sun editor in charge of their editorial page. Having not even received the courtesy of a reply I sent another email Friday last saying that if I didn’t receive a reply by the 14th I would feel at liberty to make all this known.

My letters have been polite and respectful and merely asked for the opportunity his pages give to the BC Fish Farmers, for example.

Mr. Milhar was policy analyst for the Fraser Institute for several years. There’s nothing wrong with that except to say that putting a person with such deep right wing biases in charge of what opinions will be printed on the op-ed page of the Vancouver Sun seems unfair. Continue Reading »

Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 2 Comments »

A Wish List for Premier-to-be Christy Clark

Mar 11th, 2011 by

This would seem to be as good a time as any to make out a wish list for premier to be, Christy Clark. These are in no particular order.

May we please have back out our right to make a judgment as to matters which happen in our own backyard? Such as Independent Power Producers’ (IPPs) plans for a private power plant? Or a double pipeline for oil from the Tar Sands? It would seem that the wish to develop trumps the right to people’s wishes.

Here is the inconsistency: If a town wants to put in, say, a Walmart, councils listen to people BEFORE making a decision, but the provincial government doesn’t believe in consulting people and only lets the public in when it’s a done deal and government and the company are pretending to let the public make suggestions as to the environmental standards to be followed. Apart from all else, Dear Ms. Clark, no one for a moment thinks that either the government or the company gives – forgive the vulgarity – a fiddler’s fart about the suggestions made. Continue Reading »

Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | No Comments »

Christy Clark and Private Power

Mar 10th, 2011 by

Two very important and apparently unrelated evens occurred last week.

On Friday, the Vancouver Province, after years of supporting the Campbell’s environment/energy policy, called it “folly.”

On Saturday the Liberals elected Christy Clark as their new leader cum premier.

What connects these events?

Patience, my children, patience.

Ms. Clark’s selection was scarcely a coming together of all the crew. In fact it left her taking over with one MLA – none of the cabinet – supporting her. This is what happened nearly 25 years ago to Bill Vander Zalm, who took over a caucus with just one member, The Honourable Jack Davis on side. Two senior ministers, Grace McCarthy and Brian Smith fought for the nomination and they were the first to pull out of the cabinet as Vander Zalm’s caucus and cabinet had no confidence in him. Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | No Comments »

Shortest blog in history

Mar 9th, 2011 by



East Toba River and Montrose Creek generating station in the Toba Valley

The following will demonstrate, as if that were necessary, that the Liberal Government has lied through its teeth.

Below is a direct quote from Colin Hansen, found by Googling “Colin Hansen, private power”

Here’s what Hansen says:

“ … where we can encourage small companies to build small scale hydroelectric projects that are run of the river, and what that means is, instead of having a big reservoir, a big dam that backs water up, and creates a great big lake, these are run of the river, so the river continues to flow at its normal but we capture some of the energy in the form of hydroelectric power from this.

Now please look at a copy of the March 8 Vancouver Sun, section C, the Business Section and look at the picture of that “small scale hydroelectric project” at Toba Inlet. Here it is: Magma Energy, Plutonic Power team up

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Posted in General | No Comments »

Clark’s Big Problem: Vander Zalm Syndrome

Mar 8th, 2011 by

Cartoon by Greg PerryIncoming premier faces a raft of challenges. Hardest might be building a loyal cabinet.

Christy Clark faces the Vander Zalm syndrome, and I question her ability to handle it. I would say the same thing about any of the other candidates had they won.

Before I go there, let me express my horror at the predictions of the media “experts” that, going into the final ballot, said that Falcon would win!

The situation was roughly this: Clark was ahead of Falcon by 1,000 votes, and 2,000 fresh ones came into play from Abbott’s camp. This was a no-brainer — Falcon would have had to get 1,500 of those vote to win! Doing that sort of commentary does, or should require a reasonable ability in basic arithmetic! Continue Reading »

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Posted in The Tyee | No Comments »

Private Power: Postmedia Sees the Light

Mar 7th, 2011 by

THE VANCOUVER PROVINCE SAYS THAT PRIVATE POWER DECISION “A FOLLY!”

Can the Province’s stablemate, the Sun be far behind?

As I settled into this past Friday’s breakfast, I glanced at the title of the Vancouver Province editorial and saw “Hydro needs to get back to its roots”. To my utter astonishment I read the following words in the editorial itself: “a large part of the problems at Hydro is the government insistence that it pursue costly private run of the river projects and other so called ‘green’ initiatives. A look at Hydro’s annual report shows the folly of this approach“. (emphasis mine)

Where the hell have they been as this ghastly program moved inexorably down the path to one environmental disaster after another, bankrupting BC Hydro along the way? Continue Reading »

Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | No Comments »

Being Old Is No Excuse to Give up on the Future

Feb 22nd, 2011 by

The more I age, the more I strive to care about the world my grandson will inhabit.

Whoever said that they are the “golden years” must have been a failed alchemist — though I suppose that’s redundant.

I can tell you that they are shitty with either an abundance of that commodity or into the laxatives.

I find myself, having recently celebrated the 40th anniversary of my 39th birthday, now firmly ensconced in the medical system. Where I once went to the doctor at the end of an ambulance ride, I now have ear doctors, eye doctors, orthopedic surgeons, foot doctors and my family doctor vying with my chiropractor and dentist for my attention. Did I mention my pharmacist? Visits to her put paid to the argument that we have socialized medical care. Continue Reading »

Posted in The Tyee | 1 Comment »

The Numbers Don’t Lie: We Don’t Need More Private Power

Feb 15th, 2011 by

Sooner or later the truth must come out. Clearly it must be from outside the government and BC Hydro – and it sure as hell isn’t going to come from the mainstream media.

Let me lay this out clearly – either what The Common Sense Canadian says is true or it isn’t. We’ve laid out the facts and taken our message around the province and are about to start another tour. The numbers tell us that thousands of you are seeing what we do and your response has been fantastic.

We don’t just tell you what comes into our heads – we rely upon the best experts in the business. We are a-political in the sense that we don’t support any political party but we sure as hell will support any party with a chance to form a government that wants to save our province from those who steal our resources and take them and the profits away to faraway places. Continue Reading »

Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 3 Comments »

Time Enviros Tune into in BC Politics

Feb 13th, 2011 by

The time has come, the walrus said… no Rafe, the Liberal leadership only looks like Alice in Wonderland.

It is, though, time for all environmentalists to start looking very seriously at BC politics because after the NDP convention, we’ll be in the countdown to the next election. Even though the election will still be two years away, that will be the time we who care about environmental values must start turning it up, notch by notch.

In doing this I ask to you bear in mind my biases. I don’t give a damn who gets in as long as he/she opens up the private power file, produces all the secret energy purchase contracts so we can see which, if any, are in the public interest and axe the ones that aren’t, then cancels the Campbell Energy Plan, and, after consultation with the people, presents a new one. Continue Reading »

Posted in The Common Sense Canadian | 2 Comments »

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