For those who don't know who Don McRae is, he is the current in a long line of BC Education Ministers. The BC Liberal government has a habit of chewing through Education ministers which probably tells you they don't care much for the file.
You'd think Don's experience as a teacher would be useful in his ministerial role but since his appointment it has become quite clear that he can't, or isn't allowed to, think for himself. Instead all he spouts is party doctrine.
The video is a dramatization of an actual letter he wrote when he was a teacher, not a politician, to then education Shirley Bond, one of BC's worst-ever education ministers although Christy Clark and Margaret MacDiarmid were both awful too.
In the video teacher-McRae laments over class size and composition. As minister-McRae he tells teachers and parents that these aren't issues at all.
Christy Clark's B.C. Liberals may well be looking for the exit door soon.
Martyn Brown, former premier Gordon Campbell's chief of staff, doesn't think yesterday's budget holds good news for his party.
"I think the only ones jumping for joy today, really, will be the NDP because, effectively, this government has done the dirty work of saying it needs to increase corporate taxes, it needs to increase personal taxes on higher income earners, it's increasing MSP premiums."
Thank you, B.C. government, for declaring a new stat holiday. We needed one in February and my family are fortunate enough that we all have a day off work and school and can be together with friends and family.
Bonus: Federal offices are open on B.C.'s family day, making it an ideal time to get your passport renewal taken care of. No lines, no waiting, same cheerful Service Canada folks!
No thank you Premier Christie Clark for granting your approval to the millions of dollars of pro-government pre-writ election-advertising-in-disguise. I don't watch a ton of television but every time I do I'm bombarded with your ads, paid for by our tax dollars.
Such obvious partisan spending should be made illegal.
The above shot was made within a few hundred meters of a terrific view of The Lions - colour me blind but I prefer the image of the birds and fence and prefer it in black and white.
Just a pair of pigeons. Fowl vs Lions:
View of The Lions down the lake at Cleveland Dam, North Vancouver
The Enbridge and Kinder Morgan pipeline proposals, and Kitimat LNG export plant fantasy, threaten our coast for a fistful of dollars that will end up in the hands of land-locked Albertan oil companies and their shareholders.
If Canada treated its natural resources more like Norway, we'd have tens or hundreds of billions saved up in legacy funds. Maybe then we could entertain taking risks, because we'd have the money there to address spills and other disasters.
Or we'd have enough saved to address climate change which will eventually cost billions to protect and adapt communities along our coasts and across our country.
Canadian photographer Barbara Davidson, a staff photographer at the Los Angeles Times, has produced a powerful piece on the pervasive gang violence in her city, Caught In The Crossfire. Here she is speaking at a conference about her time working on the story over the space of three years.
Pulitzer price winner Barbara Davidson speaking at the Liminance conference
