On Friday, November 25, the world lost one of history’s most selfless individuals. Fidel Castro passed away at the age of 90. Born into a very wealthy family, Fidel began standing up for the underdog at a surprisingly young age. His father owned a farm thousands of hectares in size and employed hundreds of poorly…
Making real “dates” for dumping fossil fuels
Some great news on the climate change front this week as Canada joins the ranks of a number of other nations in committing to a firm date by which we will no longer be burning coal. The Liberal government announced on Monday that by 2030 coal use in Canada will be a thing of the…
Bernie Sanders: 2020
I just woke up from the worst nightmare I’ve ever had — Donald Trump won the U.S. election! But wait. It’s not a nightmare — it really did happen! We will be debating and analyzing Tuesday’s election results for a generation to come. But for me the No. 1 takeaway is the outright opposition within…
Affordable housing: Gregor Robertson still doesn’t get it
It’s perfectly clear to anyone paying attention that we have a housing crisis in Vancouver today — a crisis that has been with us for quite some time and is only continuing to get much worse. But the only thing more troubling than the crisis itself is the lack of leadership and complete absence of…
A tale of two school boards: One fiery, one fired
One of my fondest political memories is the night when results came in for the by-election of a brand new Vancouver School Board in 1986. Two years earlier, in 1984, COPE (Coalition of Progressive Electors) had won a bare majority on the school board, electing five of the nine trustees. They had campaigned very heavily…
The power of girls and women
As many of you may know, October 11 was the International Day of the Girl. In all walks of life we need to do a better job of creating a truly equal society. In commerce, politics and our work environments, girls and women are still not treated equally or fully valued for their contributions. One…
Diminished by a mega-mall
Tsawwassen Mills shopping mall had its official opening Wednesday, October 5. This is a shopping centre of truly gigantic proportions situated on Tsawwassen First Nation land in Delta near the ferry terminal. Described by some as “alarmingly big”, this mega-mall is over 1 million square feet in size and composed of not one but 16…