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 ...

Every senior in British Columbia deserves the peace of mind that comes with having safe and affordable housing – yet too many can’t find the secure, accessible, affordable homes they need. Our government is working with community partners to increase the supply of housing and make sure more seniors have good homes they can ...

Our old first-past-the-post voting system isn’t fair. It doesn’t work to support democracy. It works for political insiders. Those insiders know how to use the system to get elected without having support from the majority of all voters. The voting system is the hardware of our representative democracy. It is supposed to elect...

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...

Move over Quebec, the mantle has been passed. With last week's release of Dirty Money, the report on money laundering in B.C. casinos by former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German, the province that Maclean's Magazine once called the most corrupt in Canada now finds itself an also ran to B.C. A lot of public attention has...

Wayne Stetski, Member of Parliament for Kootenay – Columbia and NDP National Parks Critic, offers his monthly column from Ottawa and the riding. A very busy session of Parliament ended on June 20th, with over 400 votes on bills and amendments in the final couple of weeks with the House of Commons sitting until midnight. I was...

Ever sense that you've been listening to one, or more, of these rants again and again over the past few years? "It's foreign buyers. No, it's not. Show me your proof. The CMHC said so. No, they didn't. They said there wasn't sufficient data to form a conclusion." "It's all about supply. Yeah, right, what supply? Every time ...

More action on single-use plastic bags? Rossland City Council has stated that it was waiting for the outcome of the court challenge against the City of Victoria’s bylaw to ban plastic “check-out” bags.  The Canadian Plastic Bag Association challenged the City of Victoria’s right to regulate plastic bags. Now the Supreme Court...

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...

The Province will host a series of meetings this month to engage with and update communities about the recently launched negotiations on the future of the Columbia River Treaty. "As we begin negotiations around the future of the Columbia River Treaty, our government is committed to engaging in meaningful consultation," said...