Frankly Speaking

One of these six individuals will be the new BC Liberal party leader, as of Saturday night. From left to right, (top) are Dianne Watts, Andrew Wilkinson and Michael Lee; (bottom) Sam Sullivan, Todd Stone, Mike de Jong. (Montage by CBC) Members of the BC Liberal party are casting their ballots over the next few days to choose a new leader of the opposition. That very phrase must gall many of them, after the party enjoyed 16 straight years in power under premiers Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark. However, that’s where they find themselves right now, and based on the most recent public opinion poll which came out Jan. 19, they could be there after the next election as well. The NDP were well ahead of them in that poll, 40 per cent to 31 per cent (the Green Party came in at 19 per cent) conducted by Insights West. The new Liberal leader will be determined by a ranked ballot, and membership sign-ups actually will play a diminished role in the final selection of the leader. Eac...

Attorney-General David Eby is setting the table for some significant changes at the Insurance Corporation of B.C. It is important to remember that ICBC has been a highly-political Crown corporation, used by all political parties for their own purposes, since it took over the car insurance market in 1974. The Insurance Corporation of B.C. (ICBC) is in crisis. ICBC is set to lose $1.3 billion in the current fiscal year, and once again it is the subject of intense political gamesmanship. On Monday, Attorney General David Eby called a press conference to officially confirm the deficit. He pledged a number of measures to try and ease the bleeding. At the same time, he said the former BC Liberal government left ICBC as a “blazing dumpster fire” by ignoring its problems, and even changing an independent report commissioned in 2014 which examined ICBC’s financial issues. “They knew the dumpster was on fire, but they pushed it behind the building instead of trying to put the fire o...

When the BC Liberal government under then-premier Gordon Campbell decided to replace the original Port Mann Bridge (pictured) and upgrade Highway 1 between Vancouver and Langley, it failed to see how unfair it was to only charge bridge users a toll to pay for the entire project. That inequity has been rectified by their successors, the new NDP government under Premier John Horgan. Stephen Rees photo On Friday, Premier John Horgan announced that tolls would be removed from the Port Mann Bridge and the Golden Ears Bridge, effective Sept. 1. This fulfills a key election promise made by the NDP – one that likely made the difference between winning and losing the provincial election. They picked up four seats in North Surrey and Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows (and a fifth one in North Delta). There is no doubt that the pledge to remove the tolls was a key factor in some voters switching their loyalty from the BC Liberals to the NDP in all those ridings. (The importance of this pr...

The issue of bridge tolls should be an important one in the May provincial election, particularly in the 19 seats between Chilliwack and Delta where drivers are most directly impacted. Gary Hee is running as an independent candidate in Surrey South, specifically on a promise to remove the tolls. Photo copyright nobridgetollsinbc.com A review of bridge tolling policy won’t happen until after the next election. The decision by Transportation Minister Todd Stone is clearly in the interests of the current BC Liberal government, but it may not be in the interest of bridge users. The best time to apply pressure to any government is just before an election ­- not afterwards. Stone said last month there is no rush to do such a review. The province has decided it is going ahead with the Deas Island bridge which will replace the Massey Tunnel, and it will be tolled. “If they (the Mayors’ Council) move forward with a tolled bridge to replace the Pattullo, that would leave the...