Frankly Speaking

The Canadian hand-wringing over Donald Trump is palpable. There is hardly a media or political figure who won't go out of their way to denounce the Republican candidate for president of the United States. The most recent one to jump aboard was James Moore, former Conservative cabinet minister, who painted quite a dark and foreboding picture on CBC Radio's The Early Edition Friday morning. They may all be correct. However, it isn't up to Canadians to elect or defeat Trump. That is the job given to American voters, who hopefully will turn out at the polls in droves in November. I watched almost all of Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican convention on Thursday. I wanted to hear it for myself - not through a variety of media filters. I also wanted to compare it with earlier speeches I'd seen him make after primary wins. Those, I thought at the time, were stream of consciousness speeches - with him saying whatever came into his head. I wondered if this would...

This week's column in the Surrey Leader and Peace Arch News The Surrey LRT project championed by Mayor Linda Hepner is a step closer to reality, with the  confirmation Monday that a Conservative federal government will fund one-third of the cost, up to $700 million. Naturally, the Conservatives had Dianne Watts, Hepner’s popular predecessor and candidate in South Surrey-White Rock, make the announcement, along with Industry Minister James Moore, who is not running in the election. Watts had been scheduled to make the announcement with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Sept. 3, but the dramatic news about members of a Syrian refugee family who had hoped to come to Canada and died at sea changed the focus of the planned news conference. LRT was not mentioned. Hepner promised in last fall’s municipal election campaign that the first phase of LRT would be up and running by 2018. On Monday, she revised that estimate, saying that she now hopes work will be well underway by t...