Well, it’s official. BC now has a Premier. Christy Clark lost the confidence vote and John Horgan of the NDP was asked to form a government in a confidence and supply arrangement with the Greens instead of calling a new election.
Is that good or bad?
Given what the NDP was like the last time they ran the province (corruption scandals and deficits aplenty) I am not encouraged, but was also not impressed with the direction the Liberals were taking us: socially it was going backwards and you don’t warm my fiscally conservative heart by risking the entire economy on a single commodity (Clark was/is obsessed with LNG). Plus, they were starting to think that they were the natural ruling party, and I am never in favour of those kinds of ideas.
It’s also still a minority government and the agreement could break down which would mean a new election. Right now, I guess it’s just wait and see.
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Congrats!
I lurve the NDP! 
Might be because i live in Jack’s riding and the man knocked on my door in his final election and I swooned.
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Well, Horgan is a different creature than Layton.
Like I said, last NDP government we had was riddled with corruption, including stealing from charity. Horgan was part of that government.
I like the kind of NDP that hearkens back to it’s ccp roots and thinks to the future with things like universal health care and BC’s Agricultural Land Reserve which means BC can survive in a future where shipping food becomes prohibitively expensive. I am not a fan of the NDP which uses it’s status as one of only two major parties just to play games. BC’s NDP is closer to the US Democratic party than anything like what the NDP banner would suggest.
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Be interested to hear people’s view of the Khadr settlement.
I don’t condone what he did, but he was a freakin’ kid, and we let him sit in fucking Gitmo. Child soldiers are supposed to get special treatment for a reason. Hell, if he committed murder in Canada, he would have been tried under the YOA and we wouldn’t even know his name. The whole thing has been a mess, start to finish.
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I’m with you. I’m confused as to why this one soldier, a single child soldier, was so severely punished for tossing a grenade in the middle of a civil war. And I’m not sure why this American soldier’s death is so much more high-profile than the other hundreds of NATO soldiers who were killed or injured in Afghanistan.
When all is said and done I’d much rather no-one tossed any grenades and no-one went overseas to fight in wars. But if they do, I’d like the Geneva Conventions and other rules of engagement be followed.
This stinks of old-fashioned revenge-mongering run amok.
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In other news, a provincial state of emergency has been declared in BC as a large portion of the province is on fire and the heat is not letting up.
ETA: 180 fires and 10,000 hectares burnt. This is not good.
ETA2: It’s been 14 years since the last State of Emergency. This is really not good.
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Reeks of it, especially with Harper’s yapping about it and how he was willing to spend more than the settlement amount fighting it in court. Hate to break it to him, but that’s not Conservatism. Nor is it exactly following the teachings of Christ that he purports to be so in love with. IIRC it was “turn the other cheek” not “burn and salt the earth”.
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Is Rob F… nevermind.
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Yikes. Hope it rains soon.
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Not in the forecast. 
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Aw jeez. Stay safe. The next story after that video was about gas supplies running short in those communities 
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That is from a book called “fuck you carthage we won.” By A. Roman.
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Well, none of those are in my region, which I seriously hope holds true. We’re a lot more urban and harder to evacuate than even the larger cities in the region that is currently burning. The losses people are suffering is already bad enough – I haven’t heard of any reported deaths, yet, but it’s a long way from over.
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Holy shit!
Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba are flooding, sending you some water-thoughts!!
(It just rained this morning too)
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Isn’t this always the case?
Next climate change denier I run into…
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…drop 'em on the highway between Mackenzie and Prince George, and make 'em hitchhike home. They might be able to avoid the fires… maybe… but dodging the FF press gangs might be harder. (I’m assuming that firefighters still impress able-bodied people into service when the fires get bad enough. They did when I was a young man.)
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Some incendiary news from Quebec:
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