Earlier this week, our Minister for Natural Resources, the Hon. Joe Oliver, went to Washington on what the Canadian media mistakenly insists on calling a "charm offensive." It really cannot be described as having anything to do with "charm" when the minister, fresh from having told La Presse that scientists...

Imagine you have this avuncular Uncle Joe. He doesn't read much about climate science, but he looks at the websites that tell you the whole thing is overblown and there's really no risk. It would become annoying. It would cast a shadow on the predictable dinner conversation at family gatherings...

I don't know Mr. McCullough, but in reviewing his blogs he seems to have embraced the weary cynic style of punditry. The strange attack on me as a pointless entity, "The Stonehenge of Canadian politics" as he would have it, is riddled with the kind of errors that...

This is a larger, more esoteric blog than merely defending my use of North Korea and Canada in the same sentence. But, okay, I am also defending my use of North Korea and Canada in the same sentence.

Some of the Twitter comment reminded me of something one of my...

Harper’s public relations and spin team hit Vancouver last week to unveil their super-duper enviro-protection plan for pipelines and tankers. Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver and Minister of Transport Denis Lebel described their new regime for oil spill safety against the backdrop of the Port of Vancouver. On...

Greens favour a cooperative strategy in the next federal election. We need to move away from First Past the Post (FPTP), to a voting system that will ensure every vote counts and that the popular vote will be reflected in the proportion of seats held by each party in the...

While there were some nail-biter moments, the overall trend of election night was one of increasing confidence that Barack Obama would hold on to the White House. However, no one can mistake the difference in tone and mood of Obama's 2008 victory night for "hope and change" and the 2012...

Welcome to the new British Columbia edition of HuffPost. And welcome to B.C., HuffPost!

The hot news of the country is increasingly tilting west. The epic struggle to keep our coast line oil-free is dominating the headlines and who knows it better than experts like economist Robyn Allen...

Yesterday in British Columbia, Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried to sound a note of reason on the subject of the increasingly unpopular proposal to build 1,100 kilometres of pipeline through the northern British Columbia wilderness between the Alberta oil sands and a proposed super tanker port in Kitimat,...

The budget omnibus bill was best "described by Terry Glavin recently as a "statutory juggernaut that introduces, amends, or repeals nearly 70 federal laws."

What Canadians are beginning to realize is that the budget omnibus bill, or Bill C-38, is an outrage. There is much in...

The Harper Conservatives have dropped any pretense that they care about Canada's natural environment, and have reduced the federal government's oversight role to miniscule proportions. Their justifications to chip away at Canada's Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) are inaccurate and should be corrected.

According to the Canadian...

In July 2010, I wrote a column for my local paper, Island Tides, on the government's decision to buy 65 F-35 fighter jets. Now that the Auditor General has confirmed what everyone knew -- that the planes were wildly over budget and that we were being...

Lately, a lot of allegations have been made that there were election irregularities and some outright crimes committed in the 2011 election. What we do not know is who was responsible.

But we may be dealing with a serial offender, or offenders. When one thinks about the election skulduggery of...

No doubt the Harper Conservatives are strategic -- even clever. The major national media seems to take the budget as somehow "less" -- less awful, less ruthless, less impact than they had expected. Even changing retirement age from 65 to 67 had lost its shock value with the prime minister's...

Confession: I am a pack rat who rarely throws out files. Last night I found the environmental assessment [EA] from the first EA process in which I participated. The Wreck Cove Hydroelectric Project EA was mailed to me on April 28, 1977. So that makes 35 years experience in environmental...

It is proving more difficult than I had expected to pick one event worthy of the superlative "Biggest Story of 2011." The May election brought many changes to the face of Parliament. Each party was historically transformed -- to their joy or despair. The two parties that suffered the most,...

I am just back from Durban and COP17. So is Peter Kent. Only he came back and announced that Canada will strike a blow at the fragile agreement that was just produced. As I am sure you have heard, Canada has filed the legal paperwork to withdraw from Kyoto.

Never...

The reality is that the U.S. president is not all powerful....