Frankly Speaking

Frank Bucholtz photo Portland's Tri-Met LRT system moves people around the Oregon city very well. But in areas where it runs along streets, it is not particularly fast. Metro Vancouver mayors unanimously agreed to a $2 billion transportation improvement plan on Wednesday. It will improve bus, SkyTrain and SeaBus service, and planning will continue on a rapid tranit extension along Broadway in Vancouver and Surrey LRT lines. Funds for those two mega-projects are yet to materialize, but if and when they do, taxpayers will be on the hook for billions more in spending. If an LRT line is built along Fraser Highway in Surrey and Langley, as proposed, it will put Langley transit users at a significant disadvantage. Langley residents may be getting the short end of the stick with the suggested transportation improvements put forward by the Mayors’ Council. While the addition of bus service to Willoughby is a positive step, and one that is long overdue, the plan to build an LR...

Donald Trump will be the 45 th president of the United States – to the shock of many people, myself included. His victory is a massive repudiation of the polling industry, the mainstream media, the Democratic Party and many Republicans, particularly most of the party establishment. The polls were all wrong. Almost every one of them had Hillary Clinton winning, right up until Tuesday morning. Trump not only won the electoral vote, which in 48 of 50 states means that the candidate with the most votes wins all the electoral votes, but throughout Tuesday night he was winning the popular vote. He may end up slightly behind Hillary Clinton when the final vote is counted. The same thing happened in 2000, when Democrat Al Gore got the most votes, but lost to George W. Bush when the Florida result was finally decided, weeks after the election. Because of the electoral vote system, Democratic candidates for president can be on the losing end even when they get the most votes. Thi...