Campaign Stops Corporate Voting in BC Municipalities, Probably
As it turns out, corporations have been able to vote in BC municipal elections for most of our constituted history. That this appalled me is a testament to a new regime of rights and entitlements of humans over corporations that makes me smile. That I was disgusted that the BC neoLiberal government was fishing around [...]
Vancouver’s Livability Delusion/Denial
Vancouver’s website has a link to the civic themes we’re promoting at our pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai. The spin [see below] is almost totally unbearable. I take issue with the the city’s PR claims of sustainability, livability, an urban sanctuary and our awareness of our impact on nature. I don’t care what kind [...]
Minority Governments in Ottawa and Victoria
Politicians who only seek power are easier to spot in an era of minority parliaments. Working from the reasonably solid premise that majority governments are inherently tyrannical, I prefer as merely a marginal improvement: minority governments. They’re no ProRep, but at the very least, they force more cooperation, though I use the term loosely. We’re [...]
Vision Vancouver Are Not Radical Socialists
Vision Vancouver are not radical socialists, but it plays well for the right-wing NPA to portray them as such. Much of what NPA enthusiast Mike Klassen writes in this article on relations between Vancouver and the BC Liberals is bang on. Except for this: Despite their radical socialist leanings and connections to labour, Vision so [...]
Politics, Re-Spun on Coop Radio, 5.31.10: The HST, Federal Coalitions, Some Class War
Imtiaz Popat on “The Rational” and I, talking about the HST, the Vancouver Parks Board’s dance with class war and gentrification, and federal coalitions in the UK and Canada! The video podcast of the conversation lives at Vista Video. You can watch it in Miro, the best new open source multimedia viewing software: http://www.miroguide.com/feeds/8832 or… You [...]
Which Politicians Think We’re Imbeciles?
When I try to infer the mental state of some politicians from what they say publicly, I can only conclude that they must think we’re too profoundly stupid that we’d not be able to think for 3 seconds to realize that they are full of shit. Let’s look at Kevin Falcon and Gregor Robertson. Health [...]
I Am a Free Speech Zone: No Mayor Can Waive My Charter Rights During the Olympics
Granted, I’m not a lawyer. I consider myself at best a pretend-lawyer [I prefer "lay-lawyer"] so when I dispense legal advice I add a standard disclaimer that I’m not real. We’re all lucky, though, that David Eby is a real lawyer, even those around here who have drunk the Olympics Boosterism Kool-Aid[tm]. But when it [...]
Fixing Vancouver’s Homelessness: A Survey With Teeth
Welcome to our Community Consultation Survey on Homeless Solutions and the Howe Shelter via City of Vancouver Homelessness Solutions Survey. In a time where Vancouver city council may or may not have the will to oppose a provincial government they seem to be cozying up with, they issue a survey to see what the citizens [...]
“I Am A Free Speech Zone”: A T-Shirt for the Olympics
“I Am A Free Speech Zone” Let’s put it on t-shirts to let VANOC know that citizens are in charge in a democracy! What if we all wore them all around town during the Olympics as a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card? Would it be like when I used to hand out copies of the Charter [...]
Olympic Ad Pollution with Building Condoms and Commercials: Vision Vancouver’s Vision
Honestly, it’s bad enough that every billboard will be literally monopolized by VANOC for its corporate johns during the Olympics, but now we are going to get dozens of buildings wrapped in ad condoms and “celebratory images …including video imaging and projections on walls” to Blade Runner proportions for about 5 months. That’s almost as [...]
Why the BC NDP Lost the Election
The BC NDP hasn’t joined the 21st century. Because of that, we missed a chance to pivot British Columbia into a healthy social, economic and political future. The BC NDP entered an existential crisis 6 days ago. This election loss, a voter turnout shamefully below 50%, the loss of meaningful electoral reform: all these things [...]
A Sad “Vision” of Billboards
Vision Vancouver is going to suffer from billboards for quite some time to come. “The Olympics are prime time advertising and the city might be offering it to Vanoc at the regular market rate,” the Richmond mayor said. “But all of this has been discussed at closed meetings, so I really can’t go into the [...]
Olympics Bring CCTV, Not Solutions for the Homeless
David Eby, from BC Civil Liberties, told the COPE AGM on Sunday of his concerns about the Olympics not so much being a lever for solving homelessness, but an excuse for a reduction in civil rights. It seems he got it right. When the provincial government floats examples like the Bard on the Beach as [...]
Why Vancouver’s NPA Lost Badly Today
Because I like to make electoral predictions, I guessed that the NPA would elect 5 people to various councils in Vancouver. It turns out I was generous. They got 4 in, unless more official results in the coming days alter that. This doesn’t really prove that the NPA is dead. Corporate donations will keep the [...]
Challenging the Myth of Non-Partisanship and the NPA’s Stability
Two nights ago during dinner, one of the candidates for the Vancouver Park Board phoned me. He is running with the Non-Partisan Association, the NPA…a group that I have written before [see "The Lie of Non-Partisanship" from July 8, 2005 at http://PoliticsReSpun.org]. In fact, the NPA is anything but non-partisan, being all conservative and neoliberal. [...]
contributors
