My last column gave examples of referendum procedures with less than democratic consequences and of a two-stage referendum process which conforms to the principles of the Yukon’s Municipal Act. In this column we will examine the rationale for the Act’s exclusion of two politically sensitive issues, budget and taxes, from the...

IntegrityBC is issuing a challenge to every party leader in B.C.: attend at least one all-candidates' meeting in your constituency in advance of the May 14th general election. The organization issued the challenge following Premier Christy Clark's decision not to attend any all-candidates' meetings in her riding of Vancouver-Point...

UPDATE: Since publication of this story this morning, yet another oil spill has come across the wire - a CP Rail spill from a derailment in northern Ontario - raising the total of spills this past week to SIX. It's been another appallingly bad week for proponents of pipeline safety and new oil infrastructure. If the industry's...

British Columbians will soon notice they are paying less for many of the generic prescription drugs they need for their health. Starting April 1, a new drug pricing regulation will reduce the price of generic drugs to 25 per cent of the brand name price, from the current rate of 35 per cent of the brand name price. The price...

A majority of British Columbians support a ban on corporate and union donations to B.C. provincial political parties, according to a public opinion survey commissioned by IntegrityBC and conducted by the Mustel Group on their BC Omnibus. When asked: “Do you believe that corporations and unions should be prohibited from donating...

In my last column we examined the referendum and its role in a democratic local government. When talking about referendum we cannot afford to ignore the importance of the rules that govern the referendum’s application. As with elections, the rules determine the efficacy of the referendum. Efficacy for the purpose of this...

March 22nd is World Water Day – established by the UN as a day to contemplate the importance of access to water for life on earth. On World Water Day nearly 2000 children around the world will die from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation – just like every other day of the year. It is almost impossible to...

At a time when public confidence in government is at historical lows, the B.C. government should follow Ontario's lead and have the expense claims of senior government employees reviewed by an independent office to ensure they meet both the government's guidelines and the public's smell test, according to IntegrityBC. IntegrityBC...

Reports about the behaviour of some Senators have once again unleashed a flurry of demands to either abandon or at least reform that venerable institution. Defenders refer to the Senate as the “Chamber of Sober Second Thought.” It is not how the Constitution defines it, although sobriety may have been a consideration in the...

They're off. The start to B.C.'s official pre-campaign period for the 2013 election campaign is well underway.    Day one of the pre-campaign would have been an easy miss, coming as it did on the same day a meteor crashed to earth and the Canucks fell to the Dallas Stars.    Heck, Elections BC didn't even post a news release...