Tag: British Columbia

A Conservative MP from B.C. opens up on Northern Gateway: A highly conditional approval

Dan Albas handout
Newly elected in the 2011 general election as the MP for Okanagan-Coquihalla, Dan Albas is welcomed to the House of Commons by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. This photo was taken by a member of the prime minister’s staff.

Dan Albas is the Conservative MP for the riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla, a riding in the south, central part of the province that is a long, long way  from where Enbridge Inc. proposes to build the Northern Gateway Pipeline that will carry as much as 500,000 barrels of Alberta bitumen across the Rockies to the northern B.C. port of Kitimat. Kitimat, incidentally, is in the riding of New Democrat Nathan Cullen, while the pipeline runs through Cullen’s riding and then the ridings of BC Conservative Bob Zimmer (Prince George-Peace River) and Alberta Conservative MPs Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead) and Brian Storseth (Westlock-St. Paul)

Though Albas and his constituents live a long way from the Northern Gateway’s route or port — as do most who live in B.C. — this is a big issue for them. The federal NDP believe that, so far as votes in B.C. go in the 2015 general election, campaigning against the pipeline is electoral gold. Continue reading A Conservative MP from B.C. opens up on Northern Gateway: A highly conditional approval

A magical future awaits B.C. thanks to natural gas!

B.C. Premier Christy Clark
B.C. Premier Christy Clark, photographed in Halifax last year, is betting big on natural gas. (REUTERS/Adam Scotti)

British Columbia’s Lt Gov Judith Guichon delivered a rather remarkable Speech from the Throne this afternoon in Victoria. After failing to meet for than eight months, the government of B.C. Liberal Christy Clark convened this afternoon for what will be a very short session ahead of a May 14 provincial election.

It was remarkable because, within only a handful of sitting days ahead of it, this speech from the throne could not do what most speeches from the throne do, namely lay out what kind of legislation the government will present to the legislature. Instead it was largely aspirational, looking ahead to a future in B.C. when natural gas has done for that province what oil has done for Alberta. Continue reading A magical future awaits B.C. thanks to natural gas!

In Conservative Kamloops, 600 show up for the next leader of Parliament's third party

Kelowna for Trudeau

Hate to steal again from the Instagram feed of Gerry Butts, an advisor to the Justin Trudeau for Leader campaign, but he gives us this picture tonight from Kelowna where, shortly after it was taken, his candidate spoke to the crowd. Butts, on Twitter reported:

Now, Butts is certainly not a disinterested party here, of course,  [UPDATE: The Kamloops Daily News goes with 600 as well in “Trudeau wows Grand Hall Crowd“]  but that certainly looks a rather full house  to me and it’s worth pointing out the following: Continue reading In Conservative Kamloops, 600 show up for the next leader of Parliament's third party

No other way to say it: The BC Government is fudging its job creation record

  • While Clark campaigns to be number one on job creation, BC is actually the worst in the West and 4th worst in Canada
  • BC government is making false claims about the performance of the BC Jobs Plan

The headline news from Statistics Canada Friday morning was not good for the government of Premier Christy Clark. In it’s monthly jobs report, Statscan reported an unexpected and surprising jobs boom in Ontario and Quebec but the worst performing province in November compared to October was B.C. Statscan reported 4,700 jobs were lost in B.C. in the month and the unemployment rate rose to 6.8% from 6.7%. Continue reading No other way to say it: The BC Government is fudging its job creation record

Lousy poll numbers prompts B.C. Premier to slag pollster

Premiers Brad Wall and Alison Redford, of Saskatchewan and Alberta respectively, are the country’s most popular premiers, pollster Angus Reid says in a new survey.

At the other end of the scale are Nova Scotia’s Darrel Dexter — just 27 per cent approve of the way he’s doing his job — and B.C.’s Christy Clark – second lowest at 30%.

Continue reading Lousy poll numbers prompts B.C. Premier to slag pollster