Advocates of democratic electoral reform are really out of step. Ideas like proportional representation and advertising spending limits are so retro, so 2004. The fashionable electoral reform idea this year is to give corporations a real say. It’s time for individual citizens to share their electoral democracy with corporations to give meaning to those old [...]
Entries from January 31st, 2010
Corporations are people too
January 31st, 2010 · Blair Redlin · 3 Comments · Electoral reform, Municipalities, Taxes
Tags: accountability·B.C. government·corporations·democracy·Electoral reform·Municipalities·STV & electoral reform
BC’s Urban Housing (Un)affordability
January 25th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · 4 Comments · Agriculture, Environment, resources & sustainability, Housing & homelessness, Poverty, inequality & welfare
A new study published today by the Frontier Institute for Public Policy finds that Vancouver has the most unaffordable urban housing market not just in Canada, but in all of Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. This conclusion is based on a very simple, yet effective measure of housing affordability: [...]
Loukidelis did good work for government accountability. Now it’s a legislative committee’s turn.
January 24th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · 1 Comment · Law & legal issues, Transparency & accountability
David Loukidelis, British Columbia’s Freedom of Information Commissioner has accepted the new role as the province’s deputy attorney general. Vaughn Palmer did a good column on the switch in jobs but I thought Loukidelis deserved more credit for his ten years on the job. Personally, I think Loukidelis’s leadership was almost completely responsible for BC’s FOI legislation [...]
Tags: accountability·FOI·Loukidelis
A Modest Proposal
January 23rd, 2010 · Marjorie Griffin Cohen · 2 Comments · Environment, resources & sustainability, Housing & homelessness
At some point before long, Haiti is going to be rebuilt. It occurs to me that we in BC have available wood to help in the effort. Most things are built of concrete there because there simply isn’t any wood. Rebuilding out of concrete will be massively expensive and massively polluting. And, as Premier Campbell [...]
Tags: Haiti·pine beetle wood
Now for some disaster relief on the homefront
January 22nd, 2010 · Marc Lee · 1 Comment · Climate change, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare
I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at the public response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti. I’ve seen donations being collected through school bake sales, at the liquor store, and on Hockey Night in Canada, among the usual channels for such stuff. It’s nice to know that, collectively, we care, in spite of the neglect of [...]
Tags: carbon tax·Haiti·Olympics
Thinking about zero
January 21st, 2010 · Marc Lee · 3 Comments · Climate change, Environment, resources & sustainability
I’m still coming out of my malaise following the Copenhagen climate conference in December. It’s easy to think that the stupid political brinksmanship is never going to end, and the focus of attention will shift to adaptive measures. But what is more likely is a few more Katrina scale disasters that will serve to spur [...]
Tags: greenhouse gas·sustainability
Economic Impacts !?@#
January 20th, 2010 · Marvin Shaffer · 2 Comments · Economy, Energy
There isn’t a reputable economist that I know, nor a student in my benefit-cost class at SFU (that wants to pass) that does not understand the difference between economic impacts and real economic benefits. Nevertheless, industry lobbyists and all-too-many government officials never cease to point to economic impacts — the number of jobs a project [...]
Will CanWest’s bankruptcy lead to more media concentration or new opportunities?
January 18th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · 1 Comment · Media
There is an old political adage that you should never argue with someone who buys their ink by the barrel. Let’s ignore that good advice for a minute and talk about the CanWest bankruptcy. CanWest, Canada’s largest media company, filed for bankruptcy protection for its assets which include all of CanWest’s newspaper publishing and associated [...]
Tags: bankruptcy·Canwest·media democracy
Clearing the hurdles — sports brands and worker rights
January 15th, 2010 · Seth Klein · Comments Off · Employment & labour
As we prepare to host the Olympics, it’s worth thinking about how high (or low) the bar is set by the major companies that make sportswear. Despite some progress in recent years, substantial violations of worker rights and poverty wages are still the norm for workers in the sportswear industry. In response, Play Fair and [...]
Tags: Olympics
Child Poverty in BC — taking a look back
January 15th, 2010 · Seth Klein · 2 Comments · Children & youth, Poverty, inequality & welfare
In response to the provincial government’s efforts to explain away child poverty stats, First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition (which produces the annual BC child poverty report card) has started to produce monthly fact sheets to set the record straight. The first of these short reports was posted to their website this week. [...]
Tags: child poverty·poverty
