Pete's Viewpoint

Just when the MSM was about to get serious about some honest reporting, this egg was laid by senior political reporter playing the 'both sides' card. Almost on cue. No Keith. The NDP doesn't get the blame for travel expenses that Craig James and Gary Lenz traded signatures on. It was unknown enough that it took Speaker Daryl Plecas by surprise when he dug around for the information. This 'both sides' narrative is a BC Liberal talking point because they know how ethically exposed they are already; this makes matters worse merely a week ahead of the Nanaimo byelection they're poised to lose. Now with this stink out there, it feeds into the narrative that BC Liberals are the party of crony capitalism and insiderism; so lets throw some mud at the NDP and make them to blame too. Nothing in the #plecasreport implicates the NDP government or any of its MLA's or cabinet ministers. How embarrassing.

It was a fascinating dynamic to watch hard core Bernie fans either refuse to vote, vote Green, or Vote Trump because their guy Bernie Sanders didn't win the Democratic Party nomination in 2016. Eventually, Hillary would win the popular vote by at least 3 million votes, but as it is with our own FPTP system, votes don't determine outcome. Electoral votes did. Strategically, either by fluke or by design, Donald Trump went on to win and become the 45th President of the US. He won smaller conservative states to be sure, but he also won enough larger states to tilt the balance - regardless of what New York or California did. Already, the Warren/Beto/Sanders camps are going to war against each other *inside* the Democratic Party, as the various groups of activists claim that their opponents are 'no different than Trump'. Hogwash. At this point, a moldy piece of bread is an improvement to Trump, but activists would convince you of otherwise. If this keeps up, Trump is on...

One of the more insidious talking points of the anti reform side is that changing to a proportional representation system will give rise to extremist groups. This is bullshit. The electoral system doesn't determine who gets seats, it determines how they're elected. Ultimately, voters choose who gets to represent them. But to the false point being made by the chicken-little movement, consider Alberta for a moment. To consolidate conservative votes into one party in order to beat the NDP in '19, Jason Kenney has formed his UCP movement.  Mathematically, it works. If you take all the right leaning votes that had split into 2 or 3 parties and replace with 1 option (assuming all vote for #1), then you win. The trouble is that among the conservative spectrum in Alberta, they have...issues. I'll pause here for a moment and underline this: not all rational conservatives are extremist in their views . While I don't necessarily agree with their political ...

Global writer Keith Baldrey penned an opinion piece on the coming storm regarding the carbon tax. More than anything, it muses about the politics around the carbon levy and its future. My bet is that it isn't going anywhere. Both Justin Trudeau and John Horgan have little to be concerned about regarding the political noise being made around it. The legal challenge. Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have filed a legal challenge to attempt to stop the federal government from imposing a carbon tax (in the absence of a provincial one) of up to $50/tonne once fully in place. The trouble is that the federal government, constitutionally, has no limit to what tax it can impose. Literally, in Article 91(3) it reads , "The raising of Money by any Mode or System of Taxation.". So if I was a betting man, this challenge doesn't go far. The Confidence and Supply Agreement The NDP and Green Party in BC signed a "CSA" in 2017 that put the NDP into office for t...

As if planned this way, Conservative cry-babies react to the Trans-Mountain decision by appropriating the pipeline setback as "western alienation". Spare me for a moment while I try not to throw up. Albertans and pro-pipelines folks are no doubt upset by the Appeals Court to overturn Cabinet approval for the pipeline project, but not because the Ottawa Liberals suddenly turned anti-West.  To be sure, I have never seen such a pro-pipeline party as Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party; so much so that the Natural Resources Minister had to apologize for threatening to call in the military on pipeline protesters. Even Stephen Harper didn't go that far. What Trudeau is guilty of is betraying a central campaign promise. He said that his new government would reboot the approval process as the 'current model' was flawed. He was right. The process was flawed - it is still flawed. That is why the court acted as it did. The problem is that Trudeau didn...

Voters did not re-elect Christy Clark into another term of government. Voters did not elect the NDP into power. Voters did not vote for any 'coalition' arrangement. Voters elected a minority parliament, and by extension, told said MLA's to work together. NDP learned that lesson. Green Party learned that lesson. One (now former) BC Liberal MLA got that lesson. Christy Clark, Rich Coleman and the rest of the BC Liberal caucus did not learn. After the dust settled that produced the 43-41-3 legislature, two parties figured out that they were going to have to give a little on what they wanted in order to make government work. The BC Liberals had other plans. In one of the most cynical stunts ever, Christy Clark offered up a throne speech that mirrored much of what the NDP and Green Party had campaigned on. Oh, it wasn't because the BC Liberals had a change of heart, it was because they needed to pull at least one opposition vote away from the NDP/Green side to pas...