Did Finance Minister Kevin Falcon or any of the Liberals learn anything from the HST referendum?

Premier Christy Clark promised that the referendum would take place just like a normal election, but she then allowed third-party advertisements without disclosure. We'll never know how many millions were spent on trying to convince people to vote for the HST, but we know the government spent $7 million. It wasn't just the advertising campaign that failed any reasonable test of transparency; information provided by the government and its "independent panel" couldn't be verified. One of the lessons the Liberals should learn from their HST failure is that transparency is essential in order to earn public trust.

British Columbia's Representative for Children and Youth has just issued an "aggregated, in-depth" report into the recent deaths of 21 infants in that province.

The total number of deaths in B.C. within the time period examined was actually 69. Moreover, that figure refers to 69 cases "reported to the Representative," suggesting more, unreported, infant deaths may have in fact occurred in B.C. over that time. Under the methodology employed by the Representative, the report screened out 48 cases

The UN climate change negotiations wind to a close today in Cancun, but the hot air has long since gone out the room. This time around, nobody really expected a meaningful new climate treaty to be signed. And yet the urgent task of dealing with climate change remains.

VANCOUVER, B.C. - Environmental groups are praising the vote today in the House of Commons in support of a legislated tanker ban for Canada's Pacific North Coast. The motion was put forward by Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen whose riding includes the Great Bear Rainforest and thousands of coastal jobs that depend on a healthy marine environment.

"After years spent working to protect the coast and support sustainable livelihoods, the people of British Columbia do not want the imminent risk of an oil spill to destroy it all," said Nikki Skuce of ForestEthics. "Polls show that 80 per cent of British Columbians support a tanker ban -- this vote showed that most of our politicians are listening."

November 16, 2010

VANCOUVER -- Fishing is allowed in all but one per cent of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) on Canada's Pacific coast, according to a study conducted by Living Oceans Society and published in Marine Policy this month. This is in spite of the fact that over half of the MPAs are rated as "strictly protected" and are intended to prohibit all fishing.

"Marine Protected Areas should be safe havens where species can regenerate, but the great majority of our MPAs are really just paper parks that offer almost nothing in the way of ocean conservation or sustainable fisheries," says Kim Wright, Living Oceans Society's Marine Planning and Protected Areas Campaign Manager.

The Communist Party of British Columbia issue the following release on the resignation of B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell:

The three terms of the Campbell Liberals have been characterized by implementing the lowest taxes for the wealthy and corporations in North America at the expense of the standard of living, wages, and social programs of B.C. residents. His forced resignation is a compliment to a tenacious and awakened electorate who has had enough.