Frankly Speaking

The campaign to Keep the RCMP in Surrey may be a decisive factor in the outcome of the provincial election in Surrey. Frank Bucholtz photo The provincial election that almost no one wants or needs is now underway. NDP leader and current premier John Horgan has taken a huge gamble, hoping that the government’s popularity due to its handling of COVID-19 will be enough to give his party a majority government. John Horgan It’s a gamble for a number of reasons. The biggest one is that so few people want an election, and do not believe that the minority government was in any danger of falling. The next election was scheduled for October, 2021, and most people were quite ready to wait that long to vote. It’s also a gamble because the number of COVID-19 cases is much higher than it has been, and the situation in schools (recently reopened) is challenging. There have been COVID-19 cases in schools already (many of them in Surrey) and many parents and teachers have serious doubts about ongoing ...

Lynn Bucholtz, on her 77th birthday in October, 2010. My mother Lynn Bucholtz died on Sunday, July 5. She was 86 years old, and had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for most of the past decade. Like many other aspects of her long and interesting life, she did not let Alzheimer’s define her. Nor did she allow it to rob her of her dignity and personhood.  She endured it - and even right to her final few days, she didn’t let it get her down. Lynn Woolard was born on Oct. 11, 1933 in Regina, first child of Frank and Kay Woolard. Her arrival in this world came at a time of great uncertainty - kind of like what we are enduring now, but in many ways much worse. Her parents had to hide the fact that Kay was pregnant and delay getting married. They did so because Frank had lost his job and, at the depths of the Great Depression, wasn’t too likely to find another one in Saskatchewan. (There was no CERB or even EI in those days). Kay had a job, but she would lose it as s...

If Andrew Scheer seems to be looking slightly over his shoulder in this photo, it's probably because he is the latest in a long line of federal Conservative leaders to be gutted by his own party members. Chances are, his successor as leader will suffer the same fate. Andrew Scheer has resigned as leader of the Conservative Party. This is no surprise, given the incendiary remarks about his leadership, the results of the recent election campaign and the attacks on his personal religious views. Most of the remarks can be traced back to fellow Conservatives - often whispered to the media on condition of anonymity, who then repeat these anonymous opinions as fact. It brings to mind what has often been said about those engaged in politics and other endeavours where the chief aim is to try and persuade others to a certain perspective: “When you lose the battle, one of the first things to happen is that those still standing go onto the field and shoot the wounded.” That this should ...

Justin Trudeau is following in his father's footsteps after Monday's federal election - emerging with a minority government in his second election after the Trudeaumania wave disappeared. Canada emerged very divided from the election on Monday, and the first act of the three national party leaders after the results were in did not bode well for future co-operation. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke in Montreal just after Conservative leader Andrew Scheer began to speak in Regina. Scheer took to the stage while NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was winding up his remarks in Burnaby. The Liberals won a minority government, with 157 seats. Most of those seats are concentrated in the Toronto and Montreal areas, and in the Atlantic provinces. They were shut out in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and their B.C. presence is concentrated around Vancouver. They have no B.C. seats outside Metro Vancouver. The Conservatives have 121 seats, including ...