The writ has dropped! At 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked the governor general to dissolve parliament. She agreed, and now it’s full steam ahead for the October 21 federal election. For the past few months, I’ve been glued to the CBC’s online Poll Tracker, which is run by a…
Boycott Brazilian products!
The Amazon is on fire! Over the last few days we have witnessed horrific video footage and photos, much of them thanks to the efforts of Greenpeace, of literally thousands of fires in the Amazon. Most of the fires are located in the Brazilian portion of this great rainforest. According to BBC, Brazil’s space agency…
Have a great summer!
It’s that time of year again — August is upon us and it’s time for summer vacation! At this time every year, I close my law firm for three weeks and my partner, Penny, and I enjoy an incredible three-week staycation. Vancouver really is a spectacular city. Problem is most of us are so busy…
Speak out against Councillor Kirby-Yung’s motion restricting freedom of speech
South of the border, any time high profile politicians such as Bernie Saunders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez even gently criticize Israel for breaking international law, they are labelled by President Trump and others as antisemitic. Over the last number of years, the pro-Israel lobby has been very successful at getting governments, both in the US and…
Poll Tracker: A great way to keep tabs on the election
As a self-confessed political junkie, I follow polls with great interest. However, not all polls are created equal. Polling is a very difficult science and now it’s becoming moreso as people disconnect their land lines. This makes it increasingly difficult to contact participants because you need a random sampling that’s also representative. Polling is becoming…
Rise up with the Sunrise Movement
A relatively new and very exciting movement south of the border I pay a lot of attention to is the Sunrise Movement. The force behind the Green New Deal, it’s a powerful social movement that includes a broad section of society. But it’s mostly driven by a lot of smart young people. The Sunrise Movement…
1000-page packages!? City council needs to take charge
Vancouver Courier recently ran an interesting article by Mike Klassen in which he was rightfully calling out the huge agenda packages Vancouver city staff members are producing for city council. According to Mike, agenda packages frequently exceed 1000 pages these days! From my six years of experience on council (1999-2005), I’m totally surprised at this…