http://www.canada.com/life/Signing+away+individual+freedoms/4181678/story.html
Never having had much interest in politics, administration, academic philosophy or law in my younger years, I was rather surprised at how this article made me mull over some of those big important terms I've always avoided such as: The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Constitution, civil law and common law.
Sure, I've always known they're important. But always thought of them as something only truly understood by lawyers, professors and smart people who use big words. It gave me a brief introduction to the history and current standing of the charter, while also spewing out a bit of juicy contriversy over Trudeau's policies around the origins of the human rights commission.
Can "the people" really have confidence in a commission who's goal is to protect human rights from infringement from things like companies, other people, and especially, the government; when this commission was created by the government? How far away is "arms length" really?
On another level, is the commission's current work truly helpful to society at this point? No doubt, they've done some important work. But does it make sense when a commission rules that a 400lb woman was discriminated against because another resident in her 60's with medical injuries refused to give up a parking spot close to the door? The commission ruled that: her neighbours and her condo board had discriminated against her by failing to accommodate her handicap. The commission ordered the neighbour to give the complainent her parking spot. It also ordered the 35 other owners in her complex to get together and pay Ms. Myrand $10,000 for being insufficiently sensitive to her disability.
The author of the article made an intersting point: Sure, the commission solved the dispute. But, is their someone else's responsibility to solve that problem? Or should it really be our own responsilibity first and foremost? It looks at ideas in "Civil law, whereby rights are granted by the state -- unlike in the common law tradition, whereby rights are seen as something natural that pre-existed the state. If you believe the state is the original granter of rights, I suppose it also makes some sense to believe you can put the state in charge of protecting rights."
Hmm..interesting! If the complainent hadn't been able to go to the commission so quickly to solve her problem, would she have been "forced" to find a different compromise? Perhaps something that would be less damaging to human relationships. I can only imagine what the rest of the condo owners feel about their neighbour after being slapped with a fine and then "labelled" as having "discriminated" against their neighbour. Ouch.
So, civil law or common law? Is the commission fundamentally biased and/or a necessity?
Just some food for thought that made me think!
Sunday, January 30, 2011
HST Recall Status
It appears that the recall campaign to remove Ida Chong from office has slowed down. It's the last week before the process completes and the last status update, provided a few weeks back, was that only about 8,000 signatures were accounted for in the petition. The petition requires just over 15,000 signatures in order for it to be successful. Since then, the count has been undisclosed and although it may appear unsuccessful at this point, there is still the benefit of the doubt until it is finalized.
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Chong+recall+team+tally+deadline+looms/4190407/story.html
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Chong+recall+team+tally+deadline+looms/4190407/story.html
Monday, January 10, 2011
NDP Leadership candidates
Happy New Year all! Ok, it's been a good holiday, but I need to get out of this languid mood and back with the watch on what's happening with the NDP leadership race. Below is a list of recent candidates who have emerged and have entered to be the next leader of the NDP. Harry Lali, Dana Larsen, and Nicholas Simons:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/01/07/bc-ndp-leadership-candidates.html
John Horgan has also announced that he will be joining the competition today:
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/John+Horgan+launches+campaign+leadership/4088541/story.html
Also read that the next NDP leader has to be a woman unless a male president or treasurer steps down. This is an NDP gender stipulation that ensures gender equality ought to be represented in the jobs of party leader. This does certainly add to the complexity of how the leadership plays out. Seeing how the current candidates are all male, Moe Sihota, current president or Bob Smit (treasurer) will need to step down and be replaced by a female representative. This would balance the party leadership and meet the gender rule. If a woman is elected though, than Sihota and Smit can remain in their current stead.
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/leader+woman+according+obscure+rule/4049617/story.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/01/07/bc-ndp-leadership-candidates.html
John Horgan has also announced that he will be joining the competition today:
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/John+Horgan+launches+campaign+leadership/4088541/story.html
Also read that the next NDP leader has to be a woman unless a male president or treasurer steps down. This is an NDP gender stipulation that ensures gender equality ought to be represented in the jobs of party leader. This does certainly add to the complexity of how the leadership plays out. Seeing how the current candidates are all male, Moe Sihota, current president or Bob Smit (treasurer) will need to step down and be replaced by a female representative. This would balance the party leadership and meet the gender rule. If a woman is elected though, than Sihota and Smit can remain in their current stead.
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/leader+woman+according+obscure+rule/4049617/story.html
Friday, December 24, 2010
Merry Christmas!
Hi all,
Just wanted to apologize for not being as active as of late. With the holidays fast approaching, it has been difficult to find time to make a post. If there's one thing I've discovered quickly about having a blog is that, it requires quite a bit of work. But I promise to make the time and will strive to stay committed. My original intentions were to make this blog interactive and thought that there would be more content contributors/authors. It has now been about a month since I've started this and I have come to conclusion that this may not be the case. In any event, I do plan on keeping this going by seeding it with more articles I find about what's happening with government services in the news. I hope those of you who have been following and have been involved will continue to do so as I have found your opinions helpful.
This Christmas, I am tasked with hosting a dinner for my in-laws. Instead of cooking a turkey, I have challenged myself to try a prime rib roast dinner. To some it may not be, but to me it's a big undertaking as I've never done it before. Fortunately, I have been able to acquire an awesome recipe from a close set of friends of whom I've had the pleasure of experiencing this dinner during a recent visit. It's my first prime rib roast so I'm a little nervous but I am excited about making this work. Cross my fingers and will let you know of the outcome. Hopefully nothing gets burnt, I've invested in a good meat thermometer to prevent this from happening.
In the meantime, I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that you are able to spend quality time with yourself, your family and friends, cause really, that is truly what it is all about :)
Just wanted to apologize for not being as active as of late. With the holidays fast approaching, it has been difficult to find time to make a post. If there's one thing I've discovered quickly about having a blog is that, it requires quite a bit of work. But I promise to make the time and will strive to stay committed. My original intentions were to make this blog interactive and thought that there would be more content contributors/authors. It has now been about a month since I've started this and I have come to conclusion that this may not be the case. In any event, I do plan on keeping this going by seeding it with more articles I find about what's happening with government services in the news. I hope those of you who have been following and have been involved will continue to do so as I have found your opinions helpful.
This Christmas, I am tasked with hosting a dinner for my in-laws. Instead of cooking a turkey, I have challenged myself to try a prime rib roast dinner. To some it may not be, but to me it's a big undertaking as I've never done it before. Fortunately, I have been able to acquire an awesome recipe from a close set of friends of whom I've had the pleasure of experiencing this dinner during a recent visit. It's my first prime rib roast so I'm a little nervous but I am excited about making this work. Cross my fingers and will let you know of the outcome. Hopefully nothing gets burnt, I've invested in a good meat thermometer to prevent this from happening.
In the meantime, I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that you are able to spend quality time with yourself, your family and friends, cause really, that is truly what it is all about :)
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Support Independent MLAs - An alternative?
These are definitely uncertain times politically, and voters are probably thinking, who do we vote for in the next provincial election? The 2 articles below describes that maybe it wouldn't be a bad time to vote for independent MLA's who represent the community. Party structures like the NDP and Liberals have party disciplines that an independent representative is not obliged to. The first article provides some information on Vicki Hungtington who is an independent MLA representing Delta South.
The second article discusses the potential for independents, like Bill Bennett, Bob Simpson, Blair Lekstrom, Vicki Huntington to get together and discuss whether they have similar interests. If so, could there be an opportunity for a new formed party?
Friday, December 10, 2010
NDP and Liberal party leadership watch
Well it's been a busy week for myself and for what's been happening in the news! Since my last update, there has been tons of political upheaval. To recap, NDP leader Carol James has resigned and now the party needs to work on a leadership convention to find the next party leader. The 13 dissidents (so-called Bakers Dozen) within the NDP party has caused enough turmoil and infighting which ultimately influenced Carol James' to discontinue as their leader. To Carol's credit, she boldly made this decision in the best interest of the people. She believed that her party was not going to accomplish anything by continuously fighting with each other and if she stepped aside, the NDP would hopefully sort things out between themselves and be able to re-unite and strengthen the party again. Next blog post will focus on the NDP leadership race. Below is a link to Carol James resignation:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/12/06/bc-carole-james-challenge-leadership.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/12/06/bc-carole-james-challenge-leadership.html
As for the Liberals, Christy Clark, has joined the race to be Premier. A survey was performed to see if she would be a good Premier, and apparently the public opinion result scores her highest amongst the other candidates. One of her primary objectives is to keep the NDP out of power. Her plan to kill the HST does not seem to be popular move within the Liberal party. I think this is a good strategy to win back votes for the liberal party.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
BC Politics - Changes on the Horizon
BC Politics has never been more fascinating to follow. To date, we have the Liberal Party who are currently seeking backfill of the Premier's seat. Current candidates for this leadership are George Abbott, Mike de Jong, Kevin Falcon and Moira Stillwell. Christy Clark is said to still be considering in joining the race. The new leader will be selected February 26, 2011 and will replace Gordon Campbell. Check out this link to see each leader's platform:
The NDP party seems to be in turmoil and divided in the support of their leader Carole James, and request for a leadership convention has been raised by Jenny Kwan, a longtime respected NDP member:
An emerging party, called the BC First, is gaining in momentum in providing British Columbians an alternative party to vote for. Chris Delaney has joined the BC First party, you may have seen him as the HST organizer who fought alongside Bill Vander Zalm. Below is an article that explains why Mr. Delaney has opted to leave the BC Conservatives to join BC First:
Some questions and thoughts I have brewing:
What if NDP's do not run a leadership race as suggested, would members who do not support Carole James defect to the BC First? What about former Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum - Bill Bennett, who was let go recently by the Liberals, would there be an interest for him to join BC First? This would make for very interesting politics..
The NDP party seems to be in turmoil and divided in the support of their leader Carole James, and request for a leadership convention has been raised by Jenny Kwan, a longtime respected NDP member:
An emerging party, called the BC First, is gaining in momentum in providing British Columbians an alternative party to vote for. Chris Delaney has joined the BC First party, you may have seen him as the HST organizer who fought alongside Bill Vander Zalm. Below is an article that explains why Mr. Delaney has opted to leave the BC Conservatives to join BC First:
Some questions and thoughts I have brewing:
What if NDP's do not run a leadership race as suggested, would members who do not support Carole James defect to the BC First? What about former Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum - Bill Bennett, who was let go recently by the Liberals, would there be an interest for him to join BC First? This would make for very interesting politics..
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Elections BC approves petition for Recall
The anti-HST movement, led by Bill Vander Zalm, had begun late November 2010 by starting with recalls to 2 MLAs. A recall for one MLA, was temporarily delayed (by 5 days) due to technicality of Elections BC's recall application process. In order to remove a Member of the Legislative Assembly from office, a recall application needs to be submitted to the Chief Electoral Officer of Elections BC. The recall application was initially rejected as the application exceeded its required limitation of 200 words. The technicality, determined by the Chief Electoral Officer, was acronyms such as MLA and others needed to be spelled out fully. Since then a new recall application has been resubmitted and a petition will be issued early December.
This article had me curious as to how the Elections BC recall process worked, so I thought I would investigate a little. In researching the Elections BC website, I found that the Chief Electoral Officer administers the Recall and Initiative Act. The act enables registered voters to petition to remove a Member of the Legislature Assembly from office. It's interesting that the recall process only applies to British Columbia and no other province, so it appears other provinces do not have a system such as this to grant their citizens the freedom of removing their members of government.
Historically, since 1995, 20 recall applications had been dealt with in Elections BC. Nineteen of the recalls failed as there were insufficient collection of valid signatures. The last remaining recall was halted in the process as the MLA resigned.
Once a recall meets the requirements of the application process, a petition is issued within 7 days to the applicant (aka proponent). The applicant has 60 days to collect 40% of the registered voters' signatures of that member's electoral district and once the petition is submitted, the Chief Electoral Officer has 42 days to verify the petition. If verification and application fees meet the requirements, then the member is held from office and a by election would need to be called within 90 days. The recalled member would still have the opportunity to run in the by-election. Keep your eyes out for the outcome of the BC recall results to watch the process in action.
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Elections+approves+petition+recall+Gordon+Head+Liberal+Chong/3907001/story.html
This article had me curious as to how the Elections BC recall process worked, so I thought I would investigate a little. In researching the Elections BC website, I found that the Chief Electoral Officer administers the Recall and Initiative Act. The act enables registered voters to petition to remove a Member of the Legislature Assembly from office. It's interesting that the recall process only applies to British Columbia and no other province, so it appears other provinces do not have a system such as this to grant their citizens the freedom of removing their members of government.
Historically, since 1995, 20 recall applications had been dealt with in Elections BC. Nineteen of the recalls failed as there were insufficient collection of valid signatures. The last remaining recall was halted in the process as the MLA resigned.
Once a recall meets the requirements of the application process, a petition is issued within 7 days to the applicant (aka proponent). The applicant has 60 days to collect 40% of the registered voters' signatures of that member's electoral district and once the petition is submitted, the Chief Electoral Officer has 42 days to verify the petition. If verification and application fees meet the requirements, then the member is held from office and a by election would need to be called within 90 days. The recalled member would still have the opportunity to run in the by-election. Keep your eyes out for the outcome of the BC recall results to watch the process in action.
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Elections+approves+petition+recall+Gordon+Head+Liberal+Chong/3907001/story.html
Monday, November 29, 2010
Health Canada Bans Lead from Childrens toys, paints, and coatings
As an uncle for 2 nieces and nephews, I feel better knowing that the federal government is taking action on making children’s’ toys safer. Lead in children’s toy products, if ingested or swallowed, can cause permanent brain damage when exposed over time. Health Canada is amending its regulations to lower lead levels in paints and surface coating materials also. Health Canada’s new regulation is among the world’s strictest.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
BC to disclose more private sector contracts after being ordered to release details on IBM deal
The world has changed drastically over the last 2 decades as the internet provides an environment for people and organizations to share as much information as possible. There are also more expectations and demands from people researching the internet to help gather and make decisions. This expectation poses a problem for government who has the challenge of determining what information to (or not to) share. From government’s perspective, there are privacy concerns. From the public’s perspective, especially as a taxpayer and government’s employer, government needs to be more transparent. Below is an article that indicates how difficult it can be to have government disclose information. The Freedom of Information and Privacy Commission has been trying to acquire out-sourced contract information relating to the IBM's Workplace Services contract worth $300 million, but has been fighting to get a full un-edited contract for 6 years. Transparency promotes trust, it’s interesting reading the comments at the bottom of the article on how most citizens feel about the whole situation:
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Breaking Traffic Gridlock in Victoria, Langford, Colwood to Nanaimo
Traffic has become a huge issue on Vancouver Island especially in Victoria, Langford, Colwood, and Nanaimo. Check out the below story to get a good comprehensive perspective on what government plans are for dealing with these problems. I think the E&N Rail will be a great solution to breaking the traffic gridlock. There is already work underway to get things rolling! With this change, I am more open to the idea of one day moving to areas like Colwood and Langford.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Liberals cave to Big Pharmaceutical Companies
Looks like the liberals are letting go of BC’s only independent drug review agency. Therapeutic’s Initiative evaluates new drugs on the market and was a good initiative that saved taxpayers millions annually as they helped source cheaper alternatives. This makes drugs more affordable to British Columbians. Apparently Therapeutics’ program had a huge return on investment as it generated 50 million worth of savings on a 1 million dollar operation. The initiative saved lives and now has no further role as funding has been terminated. Not getting a fuzzy feeling that this was the right move. The media has a way of spinning their stories so I suppose it's worth researching into this story a bit more. I will see what I can find.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Surgical Wait Time
Here are a couple of websites that was provided by a classmate that I thought was very useful. Most of us probably knows someone who is waiting for some type of surgery. Knowing the Ministry of Health's initiative to engage citizens about surgery waitlist times can help us make better informed decisions. By navigating this site, you can look across all regions on surgical waitlists, if you notice there is a shorter waitlist within a region other than yours, you may be able to ask your doctor to refer you to that region:
http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2009-2013/2010HSERV0073-001421.htm
http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/swt/
BC Government's direction seems to be moving toward more information sharing. This is something I am in support of.
http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/news_releases_2009-2013/2010HSERV0073-001421.htm
http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/swt/
BC Government's direction seems to be moving toward more information sharing. This is something I am in support of.
Certainly something to think about
Hi all, I know this is unrelated to public administration (there is a small part about government services related to pension) although found it to be a good read as far as planning for the future goes:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/tax-matters/ten-financial-steps-to-take-before-you-die/article1812520/
We're all faced with this at some point and it's a difficult thing to think about. I am by far the last person to get any of this done, but know I need to start seriously considering this. Are any of you this prepared?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/tax-matters/ten-financial-steps-to-take-before-you-die/article1812520/
We're all faced with this at some point and it's a difficult thing to think about. I am by far the last person to get any of this done, but know I need to start seriously considering this. Are any of you this prepared?
Anyone interested in Canadian Public Administration in the News?
I recently took a Public Administration course that had a very useful discussion board that allowed me and my peers to provide and share informative and interesting news discussions on government services in Canada, particularly in British Columbia. As I found it super useful to see and understand others opinions, perspectives, and reactions to current events and issues, I started researching online to find whether there is anything similar to the discussion board we used. I feared that once my course was over that I would not have a single online site to stay connected to the people I've met and had great discussions with. To no avail on my search for a blog in my community, I was disappointed.
There certainly is a plethora of blog-related information out there, although, there was no one place I could find that I thought people would be able to post useful information on what they read in the news that could be shared amongst a community sharing similar interests.
As a result of my disappointment and frustration, I decided perhaps as it is something that I am particularly interested in, and something that does not exists, that I now have a valid reason to start my own blog.
Here is the platform of what I think should set the discussion criteria, it is the same platform used in my course:
In this blog forum, you can post the url for your news from a newspaper, magazine, online site etc that demonstrates a public administration service topic. Ensure you post a short summary and your thoughts on the topic.
I plan to open this blog site for Guest Bloggers and encourage you to post your thoughts. If you are interested as a guest blogger/author, please respond to me by posting a comment and I can add you as a participant. Apparently this site will only allow 100 authors. Bare in mind, I can assign you as an anonymous user. You can also subscribe as a reader and make comments to any topic.
I am a new Blogger so bare with me as I figure out how to configure this site.
If you are interested, please follow and share with those you know this blog. I look forward to creating a growing community of users and making this an interactive place for everyone to use.
Cheers,
Lee
There certainly is a plethora of blog-related information out there, although, there was no one place I could find that I thought people would be able to post useful information on what they read in the news that could be shared amongst a community sharing similar interests.
As a result of my disappointment and frustration, I decided perhaps as it is something that I am particularly interested in, and something that does not exists, that I now have a valid reason to start my own blog.
Here is the platform of what I think should set the discussion criteria, it is the same platform used in my course:
In this blog forum, you can post the url for your news from a newspaper, magazine, online site etc that demonstrates a public administration service topic. Ensure you post a short summary and your thoughts on the topic.
I plan to open this blog site for Guest Bloggers and encourage you to post your thoughts. If you are interested as a guest blogger/author, please respond to me by posting a comment and I can add you as a participant. Apparently this site will only allow 100 authors. Bare in mind, I can assign you as an anonymous user. You can also subscribe as a reader and make comments to any topic.
I am a new Blogger so bare with me as I figure out how to configure this site.
If you are interested, please follow and share with those you know this blog. I look forward to creating a growing community of users and making this an interactive place for everyone to use.
Cheers,
Lee
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