In early November, as BC’s southern interior got cold enough to be life threatening, a group of community service organizations operating shelters sent a joint letter to municipal officials, Interior Health, and BC Housing essentially withdrawing their services. The letter calls BC’s response to the homelessness crisis “an exercise in futility, at best” and went […]
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Are we here for a good time, Dave Barrett the new Premier asked at his first cabinet meeting. The answer was yes! Fifty years ago in the fall of 1972, the first NDP government in BC set to work on a powerful program of change to improve life for most in BC. A Landslide Victory […]
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The New Democratic Party (and its pre-1961 predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation) was once a party with relatively healthy internal democracy and a relatively active membership. While never more than a social-democratic party, it kept its base engaged through riding association meetings, workplace activity through unions, and literal kitchen-table talks in big cities and small […]
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Written by BC Public Sector workers. Only a slim majority of BCGEU’s members voted to ratify the recent agreement with the BC government. According to the union, 71 percent of the 32,600 members voted and only 53.4 percent voted Yes. The difference between the number of yes and no votes is around 1,500 members. This […]
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What started out as a very confusing election ended up with a clear result. A triumph for a new right-wing party – ABC. ABC’s mayoral candidate, Ken Sim, won an absolute majority of the votes cast, 51 percent, 85,732 votes compared to former Mayor Stewart’s 49,593 votes. All ABC’s seven council candidates were elected, as […]
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Doug McCallum was defeated as Surrey Mayor, losing to former colleague Brenda Locke. Locke has promised to reverse the establishment of a separate Surrey police force, which will add further burden Surrey’s budget. Neither the RCMP nor Surrey Police is the answer, what is needed is democratic control over the police. Locke on other issues […]
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The Coalition for Progressive Electors (COPE) – Vancouver’s political party for renters and workers – hosted a Rally for Rent Control, on October 2. Incumbent city councillor Jean Swanson (COPE) shared a platform with Seattle’s Socialist Alternative city councillor, Kshama Sawant and other COPE candidates. Jean offered “huge thanks” to “Kshama for the solidarity she’s […]
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Written by BC Public Sector workers. Two years ago, public sector workers, unable to work from home, were praised by the BC government as heroic, frontline, essential workers ensuring services, health care and K-12 education in the face of a deadly pandemic. Today these same workers are being offered contracts that will see their real […]
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One unelected Supreme Court judge has overturned the democratic decision of the City of Vancouver. The ruling backs the greed of landlords over the need of people. In November 2021, Vancouver council agreed, with only one vote against, to implement rent control on Single Room Accommodation (SRA). These small units, about 100 square feet and […]
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Workers Win Pay Raise and Cost of Living Agreement After 136 days, the strike of transit workers in the Whistler area ended on June 14. The lack of any public transit in the area caused real hardship, especially for low-paid workers, as well as to the 80 striking workers. The workers took strike action on […]
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