Universal pharmacare is a hot topic on Parliament Hill these days.  The concept is simple—a single program that would ensure that all Canadians had free access to prescription drugs.  Canada is the only country in the world with universal health care that doesn’t include the cost of drugs in its coverage. And that doesn’t...

The Selkirk College Students’ Union has launched a manual for students’ union organisers. The Fundamentals of Students’ Unionism provides student activists and organisers a framework to understand students’ unionism and the student movement. “Students are more in debt now than ever in the history of British Columbia and...

Are we learning anything? Are we trying to solve underlying problems? It's what I've been thinking about as the rinse and repeat cycle of terrorism and mass shootings continues. So many good, innocent people lost. Dreams and legacy unrealized. I don't think it's good enough to just report it anymore with sense of shock, or ...

Last Friday, I tabled my Private Members Bill, C-363, in the House of Commons.  This bill would patch a large loophole in the Species at Risk Act, or SARA, that has allowed previous governments to wilfully ignore scientific advice as to which species need protection in Canada. SARA is designed to be transparent and timely. ...

The headlines should have read “B.C.'s Wild West reputation laid to rest.” Instead, British Columbians woke up to “Taxpayers would give millions to political parties in NDP plan,” all thanks to an ill-advised decision to slide two unexpected provisions into the government's campaign finance reform package: a transitional...

British Columbians are facing a crucial test in the coming weeks – reaching an opinion on the planned Site C dam. Currently estimated to cost $8.8 billion, the hydroelectric dam on the Peace River is the single most expensive public infrastructure project ever proposed in B.C. history. Originally put forward along with a...

A couple of weeks ago, students returned to colleges and universities across Canada after a long summer break.  They have been working hard for months to earn enough to pay for their education, but these days those summer wages don’t go very far.  Housing costs have been skyrocketing across the country in recent years,...

For the first time in 16 years, B.C. workers have much to celebrate on Labour Day. Both the B.C. NDP and the B.C. Green Party campaigned for a government that would make life more affordable, fix the services people count on, create jobs, act on climate change, and build a sustainable economy that works for everyone. Now,...

The tenuous nature of the recent election in British Columbia has increased political and policy uncertainty to the highest levels since 2009, which could drive away business investment and slow the economy, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank....

Eileen Delehanty Pearkes has been researching and writing about the history and politics of water in the upper Columbia Basin since 2005.  Her book on the Columbia River Treaty, A River Captured, was released in 2016. Recently, her travelling exhibit on the Columbia River Treaty, curated for Touchstones Nelson, won a national...