Christy Clark on motherhood, optimism and the plan for the next four years

By Nancy Macdonald - Saturday, May 18, 2013 at 10:18 AM - 0 Comments

Jonathan Hayward/CP

B.C. Premier Christy Clark in conversation with Maclean’s B.C. correspondent Nancy Macdonald:

Q: That was a grueling, 28-day battle. Now that the election’s over, are you going to take some time for yourself?

A: Hamish, my son, has never been to New York, so we’re going to take three days this weekend, and go to New York together.

Q: A celebratory trip?

A: It’s a thank-you trip. Win or lose, we were going to go. For 28 days I’ve hardly seen him. He was able to stay a few nights with me, during the campaign. He lives half-time with his dad, then half-time with me. And on my weeks, he went and lived with another family because I was gone. So we’ve really missed each other.

Q: I wanted to ask about the impact of all this on Hamish. British Columbia is unique—you just don’t see the degree of vitriol, the polarization, the incredibly harsh media commentary elsewhere in the country. How does an 11-year-old handle hearing these things about his mom?

A: We don’t get the newspapers at home because of that; it started to get really difficult for him. We used to read the paper—at our kitchen at home, over breakfast in the morning. He’d read it back to front because he’d start with the sports pages. We had to stop getting it because the commentary was so harsh.

Q: At what point was this?

A: Six months in—fall, 2011. There was a revealing moment for me on election night; he never talks to me about things people say to him, because he wants to protect me, right? He doesn’t want me to know that people have said bad things about me. He was sitting on my lap on election night, we’d won, and he said: “Wow, mom, you did it.” I said, “Well, sweetheart, do you want to sleep in tomorrow? You’ve earned a sleep in, you don’t have to go to school first thing in the morning.” He said, “Are you kidding me? I’m going to go to school, and all of those people who’ve been who made fun of me, and made fun of you—I’m going to go have a talk with them.” It was the first time he’d told me that there were issues for him at school that he was taking on.

Q: I remember watching your platform launch in Vancouver a month ago. You’d just seen the Liberal party through an ugly ethnic outreach scandal; you’d had to issue a public apology to the people of B.C.; your party was sitting 20 points behind the NDP—an unsurmountable gap, or so we thought at the time. You’d been completely written off—by media, pundits, even some in your own party. I was completely taken aback that day by your optimism, your confidence in the face of pretty overwhelming odds. Where did it come from? Were you putting it on?

A: I never doubted that we could win the election because I knew how important it was. I knew that if we did succeed, we’d have the chance to shape the future for a generation. So I was so committed to it, and when you’re really committed to something it helps you believe. I had a great team—they gave me their hearts. Think of the candidates we recruited—people who came on board when everybody was telling them they were going to lose: [former Vancouver mayor] Sam Sullivan, [three-term Langley mayor] Peter Fassbender, [high-profile, former Vancouver city councilor] Suzanne Anton—these are fantastic candidates. Peter Fassbender was running in an NDP-held riding! We all were seeing something that the media wasn’t seeing; that certainly, pollsters weren’t seeing. We saw it. We knew that the economy was going to be the central question. And we knew that we had a good plan for the economy. And I knew in my heart that once we had a chance to talk to people about the economy, about our vision, that we’d start to see a few heads nodding. I knew I’d get the chance in the election, and the TV debate.

Q: A strange thing happened after the TV debate. Going into it, pundits said that all NDP leader Adrian Dix had to do was show up, and not embarrass himself. He did both those things and was roundly declared the winner. But, as polls later that week showed, the TV debate changed a lot of minds in your favour; it was clearly a turning point. Why do you think you were declared the loser?

A: People didn’t say that; the media did. There are two schools of thought: you’ve got to get the knock-out punch. The other is my school of thought: you’re not talking to the media.

Q: How did media and pollsters get this election so wrong?

A: There was a well-established narrative—that I wasn’t going to succeed, that I couldn’t succeed, that I was a certain kind of person. I don’t really understand that. Maybe their bosses will have to ask them in their performance reviews this year.

Q: Three days ahead of the vote, your internal pollster had you at 48 seats—a comfortable majority [Clark would go on to win 50 seats, while the NDP won 33].

At that point, did you finally allow yourself to relax?

A: I never knew what the polls were saying; and I never asked.

Q: Not even internal polling?

A: No, I never knew.

Q: Really? Was that a deliberate tactic?

A: Not really. I’m not superstitious about that kind of thing. I just didn’t think it was relevant. Twenty-eight days is hard… Every day you have to be at the top of your game. Because you’re trying to communicate important things to people through the media; and you don’t get many chances to do this, so every one of those opportunities matters. And so what did it matter what the polls said? No, I mean really: what does it matter? If we were up or down I was still going to work hard, I was still going to keep doing exactly what I was doing—talking about the issues, talking directly to British Columbians about what I wanted to do to protect our economy. And also let them see who I was as a person; I think people vote on character as much as they vote on issues. I just didn’t see the polls as very relevant.

Q: Many believe this election was a referendum on the economy, and that you’ve been given a mandate to substantially increase natural resource development. Do you believe you’ve been given that mandate?

A: Absolutely.

Q: Is that was the next four years will be about?

A: That’s exactly right. That is the core of our plan: grow the economy. British Columbia has always grown its economy based on the natural resource sector: mining, forestry, natural gas. They’re big, export-oriented sectors, and we have huge opportunities in China and India that we are going to pursue. One of the important threads in the campaign I really wanted people to connect with is how our resource economy drives our urban economies, how interconnected we are in Vancouver with Fort Nelson. Now, we need to drive the technology sector, the creative sector. But the tech sector is intimately connected with the resource sector. Technology is a huge part of natural gas extraction, and it’s big in mining. There are some natural synergies we’re going to build on as well.

Q: When it comes to natural resource development, you’ve got a good partner next door in Alberta. But you and Alberta premier Alison Redford have had a famously ugly relationship in the last 12 months. There are early signs that’s changing; is there a warming of relations?

A: Well I talked to her yesterday, and we had a really nice chat. We’re hopefully going to meet in the next couple of weeks. We have a lot more in common than we do differences: we believe in a strong private sector economy; we are resource-based economies; we believe in low taxes and paying off debt. I talked to her yesterday about all the things we have in common and how we can build on the partnership we have. I think we will have a very constructive relationship. And yes, we have had a very public disagreement about the Enbridge pipeline and heavy oil movement. But you know, everything is resolvable. I know it’s been public—but that’s a really small part of our relationship, overall. It’s like a marriage: you might fight about who takes out the garbage, but you still sit down and have dinner together, and plan a future for your kids.

Q: What do you make of the latest senate scandal?

A: I don’t think the Senate is a particularly relevant body. We’ve brought forth legislation in B.C. to elect a senator. The highjinks there—to me, it’s a bit of a distraction. What happens in the Senate really doesn’t matter. It just doesn’t. When I look to the rest of the country, what I’m thinking about is: How do we build our economy in B.C. so that we are big contributor to Confederation? We have a chance with natural gas. When you think of the contribution Alberta makes to our economy—we are going to make exactly the same contribution to our national economy. B.C. has never pulled its weight in Canada and we are finally in a position to start doing that. The country really needs us right now. Things aren’t good in Ontario and Quebec, and in other parts of the country. We’re going to step up.

Q: The NDP had crafted a campaign plan they were sure would bring them a majority; it flopped pretty spectacularly. What went wrong?

A: You’re going to have to ask them. I just focused on trying to do the best job that I possibly could. We didn’t make a lot of extravagant promises, money-wise, but we are going to build that prosperity fund; we are going to start paying off our debt. We’re going to keep that budget balanced, and we’re going to start freezing and lowering taxes as soon as we can.

The world discovers Rob Ford: ‘Perspective … it ain’t good’

By macleans.ca - Saturday, May 18, 2013 at 7:13 AM - 0 Comments

Frank Gunn/CP

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10 Things People with Cottages Like to Tweet About

By macleans.ca - Friday, May 17, 2013 at 8:16 PM - 0 Comments

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Our View from the Hill: What’s next for Mike Duffy?

By macleans.ca - Friday, May 17, 2013 at 6:32 PM - 0 Comments

What’s next for Mike Duffy? And what’s next for Nigel Wright? John Geddes and Aaron Wherry consider the questions of the day:

Related stories:

• The line from Harper’s office on Wright and Duffy.
• Mike Duffy: Now what?
• Pamela Wallin quits the Conservative caucus

Forest fighters

By Chris Sorensen - Friday, May 17, 2013 at 11:18 AM - 0 Comments

Tobin Grimshaw

Rachel Plotkin is well-acquainted with the Valhalla Inn in Thunder Bay, Ont. A science-project manager for the David Suzuki Foundation, Plotkin has spent more days than she cares to count holed up in one of the hotel’s meeting rooms with representatives from local logging companies and fellow environmental groups. They are trying to hammer out a conservation plan for a four-million-hectare section of boreal forest in northwestern Ontario, and the thousands of woodland caribou that call it home.

Their work represents a sliver of the sweeping Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement signed in 2010 by 21 forestry companies and nine non-governmental organizations, or NGOs. In a bid to put decades of pitched battles behind them, the two sides pledged to jointly develop conservation and sustainable land-use plans for 76 million hectares of mostly untouched forest that stretches from Quebec to British Columbia. But progress has been painfully slow. With the agreement’s three-year anniversary barely a week away on May 18, the two sides have yet to offer much in the way of concrete results.

Angry with the glacial pace, two of the original signatories, Greenpeace Canada and Canopy, have dropped out of the pact, blaming the forestry companies for dragging their feet. The industry, on the other hand, accuses Greenpeace and others for being impatient and unrealistic with their demands. “We understand that this is very complex,” says Plotkin, who remains hopeful a breakthrough will be reached. “But our patience is wearing thin.”

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Mike Duffy: Now what?

By Bruce Cheadle, The Canadian Press - Friday, May 17, 2013 at 6:25 AM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Mike Duffy has always been a larger-than-life character in political Ottawa, a chortling bundle of affable good cheer, prodigious appetites, nudge-wink insider gossip, political acumen, relentless name-dropping and unvarnished ambition.

He’s also been an unapologetic bridge-burner.

The 66-year-old, who cultivated his title as Senator Duffy as early as the 1980s when still a working a journalist, always aspired to a seat in the upper chamber.

He told ­ CBC’s Peter Gzowski in a 1985 radio interview that some newly appointed Liberal senators bedevilling then-Finance minister Michael Wilson “haven’t learned that this is a place where you’re supposed to sip scotch quietly and not cause too much of a ruckus.”

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Mike Duffy: ‘I have decided to sit as an independent Senator’

By The Canadian Press - Friday, May 17, 2013 at 4:36 AM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Senator Mike Duffy resigned from the Conservative caucus to sit as an independent Thursday night amid a controversy over his housing claims, leaving a trail of unanswered questions about the expenses and why the prime minister backed him for so long.

The employment status of Stephen Harper’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright, remains unchanged — despite his secret gift to Duffy to help repay the improper expenses.

Duffy resigned before what would have been a humiliating showdown for him next week. Conservative sources said the vast majority of his Senate colleagues had signed a petition calling for his ouster from caucus and they were prepared to confront Duffy with that petition at a meeting next Tuesday evening.

It’s a stunning change of attitude for the Conservatives, who for the past four years have used Duffy at myriad party events to raise money, promote candidates and slag the opposition.

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The B.C. pollster who got it right — and those who didn’t

By Nancy Macdonald - Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 8:34 PM - 0 Comments

Andy Clark/Reuters

For pollsters, the B.C. election was a cock-up of epic proportions.

Today, some offered mea culpas.

“This is a blow to the industry,” said Steve Mossop, president of Insights West.

“Clearly we missed some of it pretty badly,” said Ekos Research Associates vice-president, Frank Graves.

But others are digging in their heels.

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What we know about Mike Duffy and the $90,172 repayment

By The Canadian Press - Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 7:14 AM - 0 Comments

OTTAWA – Conservative Sen. Mike Duffy submitted expense claims while Parliament was dissolved during the last federal election, reporting he was on Senate business on days he appeared to be campaigning for the party.

The full extent of Duffy’s Senate expenses during the writ period remains a mystery — the Conservative government is refusing to reveal the full breakdown of the senator’s claims and his repayment of $90,172.24.

But independent auditors at the firm Deloitte listed Duffy as being in Ottawa on Senate business and claiming a daily expense for seven days in April 2011, a month that was dominated by campaigning for the May 2 vote.

He was also listed as being on Senate business at an “other location” on another six days. Using cellphone records, Deloitte managed to catch one inappropriate “other location” claim from 2012 while Duffy was in Florida.

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Why full-day kindergarten doesn’t work

By Charlie Gillis - Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 6:00 AM - 0 Comments

Bob TyWhmczyszyn/St. Catharines Standard/QMI Agency

Weekday mornings at P.L. Robertson Public School in Milton, Ont., are unlike anything most of us remember from school. For starters, there are the valets—a team of seven early childhood educators kitted out in orange reflector vests, opening car doors and holding backpacks to ensure a phalanx of minivans dropping off little people rolls apace. Then there are the “pens”: a network of fenced yards where kindergartners, who arrive in a seemingly endless flow, can play safely while they await the morning bell. “We use the word ‘pens’ lovingly,” says principal Wendy Spence. “But we might as well call them what they are.”

By 8:40 a.m., the kids begin filing indoors, and the enormity of Spence’s responsibility becomes clear. P.L. Roberston might be named for an icon of Milton’s industrial past (the man who invented the Robertson screwdriver), but it rests in a sea of brand-spanking new, cheek-by-jowl residential developments whose demographics skew heavily toward the young. Fully 403 of the school’s students are in kindergarten, representing nearly 40 per cent of a student body that, nominally at least, goes up to Grade 8. Four- and five-year-olds have all but taken over the place, decking the walls with their artwork and forcing older students into rows of portables while the Halton District School Board scrambles to build classrooms at neighbouring schools.

The munchkin invasion is a direct result of Milton’s status as a last frontier within commuting distance of Toronto: a young, middle-class family can still afford a home here—provided both parents have jobs. But P.L. Roberston is also a microcosm of a vast experiment in early-childhood education that school authorities across the country are keenly watching. By the fall of 2014, every family in Ontario will have access to state-funded, full-day kindergarten, sending some 250,000 kids into school for at least six hours per day. Other provinces offer all-day kindergarten to five-year-olds, but B.C. and Ontario are the first to try it at the both junior and senior levels. That means children as young as 3 now find themselves trundling off to school five days a week, staying until supper time if their parents take up the offer of fee-based child care available in about 60 per cent of schools.

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Why austerity may be wrecking the recovery

By Tamsin McMahon - Thursday, May 16, 2013 at 6:00 AM - 0 Comments

Shutterstock

As head of the world’s largest bond fund, Bill Gross has the kind of voice that can move markets. For much of the last few years Gross, who runs the $2-trillion Pacific Investment Management Co., has been warning about the day of reckoning that would befall countries like the U.S. and Britain as they buried themselves under mountains of debt. In 2010, Gross declared British bonds were “sitting on a bed of nitroglycerine” and dumped his entire holdings of U.S. Treasuries with a prediction that soaring government debts would pose the greatest risk to bondholders.

This year, Gross started buying again. His flagship mutual fund is now made up of nearly a third U.S. Treasuries. These days, Gross warns that the biggest problem facing Western economies isn’t the spectre of rising government debt, but that the sweeping budget cuts countries are using to try to repair their balance sheets are killing investor confidence. Governments “have erred in terms of believing that austerity, fiscal austerity in the short-term, is the way to produce real growth,” Gross told the Financial Times last month. “It is not. You’ve got to spend money.”

Gross is part of a growing chorus of opposition to the fiscal straitjacket being imposed on many European countries in the aftermath of the financial crisis. When they were first embraced, such policies seemed like a logical solution to the reckless spending that drove half of Europe to the brink of collapse, a necessary dose of tough medicine to clear the way for future growth. But critics argue that years of tax hikes and spending cuts have instead left countries awash in unemployment, stagnant growth and mounting debt.

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This wine looks good

By Anne Kingston - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 11:22 AM - 0 Comments

Maclean’s tells the story of Canadian wine from coast to coast in words and pictures in Wine in Canada: A Tour of Wine Country. Look for it on newsstands now. Or download the app now. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek: 

Christy Clark: Canada’s comeback kid

By Nancy Macdonald - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 8:35 AM - 0 Comments

First things first: British Columbians last night witnessed the most incredible comeback in recent political history, and the biggest choke the province has ever seen.

In the days ahead, Christy Clark’s stunning, come-from-behind win will be endlessly compared to Alberta Premier Alison Redford’s surprise win over Wildrose in 2011. But this is so much harder to believe.

For starters, Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives were actually leading Wildrose in polls right up until the election. The B.C. Liberals have essentially been trailing the NDP since 2009 (briefly, after the 2011 leadership race that saw Clark take the Liberal helm, the party moved ahead of the NDP in polls before again plunging far behind).

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How spaceman Hadfield’s sons pushed him to social-media stardom

By Peter Rakobowchuk, The Canadian Press - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 5:57 AM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield may have become a worldwide Internet sensation with his dramatic photos, tweets and musical performances from space.

But it took some convincing by his two sons to persuade him of the importance of social media in the first place.

His conversion began several years ago — long before Hadfield’s mission to the International Space Station, which ended with great fanfare this week.

He initially balked when his sons began preaching the merits of Twitter and Facebook more than three years ago.

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Biggest losers in B.C. election: Pollsters

By The Canadian Press - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 5:44 AM - 0 Comments

VANCOUVER – Among the biggest losers in the B.C. election campaign are the pollsters who for months have been predicting an NDP majority.

“I think people are going to re-examine the truthfulness of polls,” Premier Christy Clark said shortly after learning her party would form the next B.C. government.

“If there is any lesson in this, it’s that pollsters and pundits and commentators do not choose the government. It’s the people of British Columbia that choose the government.”

Ipsos Reid polled samples of British Columbians on their voting intentions as far back as February and on each occasion found the NDP had at least a six-point lead over the Liberals.

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B.C. Premier Christy Clark on majority: ‘Well, that was easy’

By The Canadian Press - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 5:36 AM - 0 Comments

VANCOUVER – British Columbia’s Liberals defied common wisdom and months of abysmal polling numbers to win a majority government Tuesday, a stunning turnaround for a party and a premier written off for dead when the election started just a few weeks ago.

But while Premier Christy Clark bucked expectations around the province, she failed to win a seat for herself in the legislature. The NDP’s David Eby defeated the premier in Vancouver-Point Grey by 785 votes, leaving Clark with the awkward task of finding a riding — presumably held by a Liberal who was just elected — where she can try again.

Despite the results in Clark’s Vancouver riding, the Liberals won a decisive majority throughout the province. It was the Liberals’ fourth-consecutive victory and Clark’s first win as leader.

“Well, that was easy,” a beaming Clark joked with supporters at the Liberal victory party in downtown Vancouver.

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B.C.’s NDP left to ponder stunning election defeat

By The Canadian Press - Wednesday, May 15, 2013 at 5:32 AM - 0 Comments

VANCOUVER – British Columbia’s New Democrats are dazed and confused today, pondering a stunning election defeat that saw Premier Christy Clark’s Liberals capture a majority despite pollsters reporting the NDP leading the campaign from start to finish by as much as 20 points.

New Democrats, some in tears, others jaws gapping and walking around as if hit by a speeding truck, could only suggest their decision to run a campaign free of personal attacks needs a second look: Nice guys, it appears to them, do finish last.

Pollsters had tracked the election as a guaranteed win for Adrian Dix’s New Democrats throughout the campaign, but Clark’s Liberals defied the claims of NDP momentum and lowly polling numbers to win a majority government Tuesday, posting a stunning turnaround for a party and a premier written off for dead when the election started just a few weeks ago.

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Leona Aglukkaq on northern perspectives and whether the EU belongs in the Arctic Council

By Luiza Ch. Savage - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 11:44 AM - 0 Comments

Chris Wattie/Reuters

As she takes over chairmanship of the Arctic Council, Aglukkaq spoke with Luiza Ch. Savage on her new role, her childhood in Nunavut and her take on the European Union’s bid for observer status:

Q: As someone who is of the North, who grew up there, how does that shape the perspective you bring to chairing the Arctic Council?

A: I was so very thrilled when the Prime Minister asked me if I would consider the chairmanship. I’m from the Arctic, I work in the Arctic, I live in the Arctic. Sometimes I feel—not just at the Arctic Council but at other forums—that there are people talking about the Arctic, the wildlife, the climate, without ever having ever set foot on the ground and met the people who live there year in, year out, for years and years. I am hoping that, during my time at the Arctic Council, I would be able to bridge some of those gaps and put a voice to the people who live in the Arctic.

Q: What was it like growing up in the Arctic? I understand you didn’t have electricity until you were eight years old.

A: It was peaceful. We lived off the land. My family lived around the Thom Bay area, north of Taloyoak [in Nunavut]. We moved into the community of Spence Bay in the 1970s, and that was the first time I saw structures—buildings, power, power plants. We didn’t have cars. We didn’t have roads. We walked on the tundra from the Thom Bay area to the community with our dogs and our supplies.

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Chris Hadfield: Good Morning, Earth!

By Kate Lunau - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 10:03 AM - 0 Comments

• A sneak peek at our new ebook — available through Apple, Amazon and Kobo.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield is back on Earth after five months in space.

The first Canadian ever to command the International Space Station (ISS), Hadfield has opened a window into life in space as never before, inspiring millions to closely follow his mission. Maclean’s marks his return with a new ebook that gives an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look into Hadfield’s mission.

Since launching aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on Dec. 19, and even before then, Hadfield has been an enthusiastic Twitter user (his followers number 913,000 and counting). And yet his responsibilities stretched far beyond the songs, videos, photos and messages he shared from space. He and his crew have performed more than 130 science experiments on this mission. Crewmates Tom Marshburn and Chris Cassidy completed a five-hour spacewalk to fix a dramatic ammonia leak aboard the ISS, with Hadfield as their spacewalk choreographer. In one week, the crew finished a whopping 71 hours of research, setting a new record for the Station.

In September, Maclean’s reporter Kate Lunau travelled to NASA’s Johnson Space Center to shadow Hadfield. She was the only Canadian print reporter to attend, and watched Hadfield, Marshburn, and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko as they trained for what would become the mission of a lifetime.

For the first time, Chris Hadfield: #GoodMorningEarth brings together her reporting and never-before-seen photos from NASA, as well as Hadfield’s Twitter diary, photos, and more.

Chris Hadfield: #GoodMorningEarth includes:

• A behind-the-scenes look at Hadfield’s training at NASA’s elite astronaut facilities
• A chronicle of Hadfield’s journey as told by his tweets
• Dozens of his best landscape photos of Earth
• A glimpse into some of the science experiments—which total more than 130—that Hadfield and his crew performed aboard the Space Station
• A collection of Maclean’s writings on Canada’s first space commander

“By using the technology that’s available now, we can really make this experience alive, in real time,” Hadfield told Maclean’s earlier this year, from the ISS.

“When I look out the window and see something magnificent go by, I can immediately broadcast it, and people can ride along with me.”

Chris Hadfield: #GoodMorningEarth shows just what an incredible ride it has been.

You’ll find it on Apple, Amazon and Kobo.

Time for the CBC to fight fair

By James Cowan - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 8:56 AM - 0 Comments

Ash Mishra/CP Images

Kirstine Stewart switched in April from running the CBC’s English service to leading Twitter Canada. Plenty of self-styled media critics interpreted Stewart’s move as a high-profile defection from stagnant traditional media to a shiny digital upstart. That assessment is not just wrong, it’s backward: Twitter hired Stewart specifically to court established, traditional media outlets because it wants to establish paid partnerships with content producers; meanwhile, CBC is a dominant digital player in Canada, competing hard—and successfully—against private news, music streaming, and video-on-demand providers.

The online success of the CBC should be laudable. Its website received an average of 6.2-million unique visitors last year, making it the most popular Canadian website. Around 4.3-million people visit the CBC News site each month, besting both The Globe and Mail and Huffington Post. Adding to this success is an ambitious five-year plan that will open digital-only news operations in cities like Hamilton and Kamloops and allocate 5 per cent of the overall programming budget to digital content. Once upon a time, it was only private TV and radio broadcasters who had reason to grumble about competing with the Crown corporation; in building its online empire, the CBC is taking on everyone from newspapers to Netflix.

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B.C. election is NDP’s to lose; Liberals’ to survive

By The Canadian Press - Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 6:56 AM - 0 Comments

VANCOUVER – Voters in British Columbia go to the polls today in what was the provincial New Democrats’ election to lose.

It was the Liberals’ to survive — early polls suggested the best they could hope for was to save their party and prevent a rout in a province known for not just voting governments out of power, but sending them into political purgatory.

If that was the case, then both of the province’s main political parties appear to have succeeded in a hard-fought four-week election campaign.

New Democrat Leader Adrian Dix ran a populist campaign, appealing to voters’ desire for change after 12 years of Liberal rule. There was a lot of water under the government bridge, a fact Dix reminded the electorate of as doggedly as he avoided missteps.

“They didn’t have to run a great campaign. As long as they didn’t screw up then the election was probably going to be theirs all along,” says Hamish Telford, a professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley.

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B.C. jury convicts Karl Lilgert in fatal ferry sinking

By Nancy Macdonald - Monday, May 13, 2013 at 10:08 PM - 0 Comments

Karl Lilgert, navigator of the Queen of the North, leaves the courts in Vancouver after being found guilty of criminal negligence causing the deaths of two ferry passengers. (Justin Tang, CP)

It was, perhaps, the best-known rumour in B.C.

Just days after the Queen of the North sank, on March 22, 2006, killing Shirley Rosette, 43, and Gerald Foisy, 45, word began to spread that Karl Lilgert, the officer in charge of the ferry, had been on deck with his former lover. What exactly the pair had been doing was the source of  speculation and innuendo.

The story was made all the more appalling when, for years, it seemed Lilgert, with the help of his union, would not pay for his careless actions.

First, the B.C Ferry and Marine Workers attempted to delay BC Ferries investigators from talking to Lilgert and its crew. When asked to testify at an inquiry into the fatal collision, Lilgert, with the union’s help, stonewalled. The Ferry and Marine Workers threatened labour unrest if Lilgert was sanctioned for refusing to co-operate.

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Liberal Yvonne Jones wins federal Labrador byelection

By The Canadian Press - Monday, May 13, 2013 at 8:10 PM - 0 Comments

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Conservatives urged Labrador voters to overlook spending rule violations and return incumbent Peter Penashue to Ottawa as a cabinet minister — an offer they answered with a resounding No.

Liberal candidate Yvonne Jones won the federal byelection Monday in Labrador, recapturing a traditional Grit bastion and handing the Harper government its sole byelection defeat in a Tory-held seat.

The riding became vacant when Penashue quit due to campaign overspending and ineligible contributions during the 2011 election. He finished a distant second.

Jones, a former provincial Liberal party leader and 17-year veteran of the legislature, vowed that she would be a strong voice for Labrador who wouldn’t dodge tough questions.

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Election leaders make gruelling last-minute push before Tuesday’s election

By Dirk Meissner and Vivian Luk, The Canadian Press - Monday, May 13, 2013 at 7:55 PM - 0 Comments

The leaders of British Columbia’s two main political parties sprinted to get their message out Monday, one day before the finish line would deliver one of them an election victory.

New Democrat Leader Adrian Dix was to campaign for 24 hours straight, making 15 election stops during his 1,700- kilometre tour as far north as Prince George.

He planned to continue his efforts to woo voters until 7 a.m. Tuesday, an hour before polls open.

Liberal Leader Christy Clark also had a long day ahead, with 10 events scheduled until Monday night in her home riding of Vancouver-Point Grey.

For Clark, the last full day of campaigning was similar to the first, as she warned voters about what the New Democrats could do to the provincial economy.

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Updated: Officer guilty of criminal negligence causing death in ferry sinking

By The Canadian Press - Monday, May 13, 2013 at 7:50 PM - 0 Comments

VANCOUVER – The navigating officer in charge of the Queen of the North passenger ferry the moment it struck an island off the northern British Columbia coast seven years ago, sinking and leaving two passengers missing, has been convicted of criminal negligence causing death.

The jury, which heard nearly four months of testimony, had been deliberating since Tuesday. On Monday afternoon, they returned to court to ask the judge questions related to whether Lilgert directly caused the deaths of the couple.

Lilgert will be charged next month.

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