Frankly Speaking

The voting packages for the referendum on how B.C. voters will elect the next provincial government are either in the mail, or have been received. Mine came on Wednesday. Everyone on the voters' list should receive their ballots by today. If they don't, they should contact Elections BC. There is an ongoing rotating postal strike, but voters have yet to hear if there will be alternate ways to get them back to Elections BC - perhaps by dropping them off at designated locations. The municipal election is over, althoigh inaugural meetings of most new councils and school boards won't take place until next week. Now voters are being asked to cast another vote. The province is conducting a referendum, using mail-in ballots, on the issue of proportional representation. Voting was to start on Oct. 22, just two days after the municipal election. All completed ballots must be in the hands of Elections BC by Nov. 30. No date has been publicly set as to when results will ...

Construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project will continue, but under federal ownership. The federal government is taking over Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline and obligation to twin the pipeline, for $4.5 billion. The federal government announced today (early this morning, in fact) that it will spend $4.5 billion to buy the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, and continue construction of the twinned pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby. This wasn't too surprising, given Kinder Morgan's deadline of May 31 for a final decision on whether to proceed with the project, given the protests, court challenges and intractable opposition of the B.C. government. Black Press has done an excellent series on this project, giving extensive background to explain its many ramifications. The intent is to help readers get a more detailed understanding of the controversial Kinder Morgan pipeline twinning project. The project has prompted plenty of p...

Finance Minister Mike de Jong is also the BC Liberals' government house leader. Mike de Jong, Abbotsford West MLA (who also represents northeast Langley) was the latest provincial politician to hold a news conference. His took place today, in Vancouver. De Jong is the government house leader and also minister of finance. He (quite rightly) said it is not up to the BC Liberals to strengthen the hand of an NDP minority government which will likely take office when the BC Liberals lose the confidence of the B.C. legislature. He does not expect a BC Liberal to stay on as Speaker once the government falls. A Liberal will likely to become Speaker on June 22, when the legislature is scheduled to meet. That will allow the government to present a throne speech He is also correct that the NDP-Green agreement seems quite shaky. We will know best how strong it is after there is an NDP minority government in place. For now, Green Party leader Andrew Weaver is making irresponsible statemen...

Travelling across the Port Mann Bridge may become free, if the NDP follow through with plans to eliminate tolling on bridges. An NDP minority government will likely be in place within the month. None of us have any idea of when the NDP will form a minority government in Victoria, but the agreement signed last week by NDP leader John Horgan and Green leader Andrew Weaver indicates it will happen. Now that the legislature has been called back (it will begin sitting on June 22), it's a fair guess that an NDP minority government will take power in late June or early July. That means some significant changes in the transportation realm, one of the hot button issues that attracted votes for both parties in Surrey and Delta. The NDP was the prime beneficiary, going from three seats in Surrey to seven NDP MLAs representing Surrey and Delta in the provincial legislature. This compares to four BC Liberals. Attention to transportation issues also helped the NDP win the two Mapl...

Grace McCarthy was one of the most influential B.C. politicians from 1966 to 1994, and a trailblazer for women in politics. Her death Wednesday comes at a time when B.C. politics is in turmoil. She was one of the last living persons to have served in the cabinet of Premier W.A.C. Bennett, who first came to power the last time B.C. voters elected a minority government - in 1952. It is symbolic that results of the closest election in B.C. history were finally confirmed on Wednesday, just hours before news of the death of Grace McCarthy became public. A younger generation won’t know McCarthy’s name, but she played a key role in B.C. politics for many years and almost certainly blazed the trail for the current generation of female politicians. Her work in uniting the right after the NDP were elected in 1972 under Dave Barrett was absolutely critical to the future of the Social Credit Party and its ideological successor, the BC Liberals. She served as deputy premier under Bill ...