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Opinion: He was branded the candidate of the status quo and the old style of politics during the final scheduled debate of the campaign.

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VICTORIA Former provincial cabinet minister Kevin Falcon got a rough ride this week during a televised debate with rival candidates for the leadership of the B.C. Liberal party.

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Falcon was branded the candidate of the status quo and the old style of politics during the final scheduled debate of the campaign, broadcast Tuesday night on Global TVs BC1.

He was also accused of making backroom deals and turning a blind eye to abuses in signing up new members to the party.

He was even faulted for lacking a seat in the legislature if he wins the leadership on Feb. 5, it would stick the party with a delay of up to a year to line up a seat for him in a byelection.

Falcon turned around the charge of being yesterdays man, framing himself as the candidate of experience, who has held the major cabinet jobs (finance, health, transportation) and who knows his way around governing.

On the membership issue, Falcon gave as good as he got in the sharpest exchange of the night with MLA Michael Lee, who faulted him for not joining the others in flagging membership irregularities.

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Instead of standing with all the candidates here on this debate stage to ensure that members can have the confidence in the process to elect the next leader of our party, charged Lee, you accuse the party of racism and you use racialized members of our party as a shield, which is just another example of the old style of politics that you have.

Falcon fired back that Lee had failed to produce any evidence of fraud in membership signups.

There were some administrative errors and mistakes made, which, by the way, is not uncommon for new people getting involved in the party, he said. Just because people have trouble filling out some forms does not mean they should be dismissed as members of this party.

Falcon twice denied the insinuation of backroom dealings from Val Litwin, the former CEO of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce.

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Litwin cited no evidence.

But as with the alleged membership abuses, the mere making of the charge will raise suspicions in some quarters.

Whether B.C. Liberal supporters welcomed Tuesdays rough stuff, it surely was welcome grist for the mill with the New Democrats.

Take Falcons dated characterization of NDP MLAs as mere time servers: This is the best job theyll ever have, and theyll hang onto it like a drowning person with a life raft.

The NDP research department pounced on that one immediately.

What kind of jobs is Falcon mocking? the New Democrats fired back in a mid-day media release. B.C. NDP MLAs have worked as teachers, firefighters, bus operators, farmers, small business owners, police officers, engineers, millwrights, nurses, flight attendants, social workers, and more.

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The New Democrats then riffed on Falcons statement that the return to politics from his current executive position with Anthem Capital Corp. would mean a financial sacrifice for him.

The leader of the official opposition makes $166,536 a year, said the NDP release.Kevin Falcon might think only rich real estate developers have worthwhile jobs, but most British Columbians would disagree.

When he mocks B.C. NDP MLAs for having regular jobs, he mocks all working British Columbians. Hes showing hes in it for people at the top and would make everyone else pay the price.

The attacks on Falcon confirmed his status as the presumed front-runner for the B.C. Liberal leadership.

But the gang-up also indicates why Falcon may stall on the way to winning the balloting.

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Leadership candidate Gavin Dew highlighted the challenge when he asked party members to support him or make me your second choice.

The B.C. Liberals use a preferential ballot in their leadership contests.Members can mark first, second, third choices, and so on.If no candidate wins a majority on the first count of the ballots, the lowest vote-getter is dropped.

Members second choices are then added to the tallies of the remaining candidates.The process is repeated until one candidate assembles a majority.

The transfers mean that a candidate who is behind on the first ballot can put together a win in subsequent rounds.

Nor is that a hypothetical outcome, as Falcon well knows.

The co-chair of his leadership campaign, former Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, was in first place on the first count of the ballots in the 2018 Liberal leadership race.

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But not that far ahead. She had only 25 per cent support, with the remainder split among five other candidates.Watts remained in first place through three subsequent rounds, only to lose on the fifth count to MLA Andrew Wilkinson.On the first count, Wilkinson had been in third place, six percentage points behind Watts.

The determining dynamic of the 2018 leadership contest was the outsider Watts versus Wilkinson and three other current and one former B.C. Liberal MLAs.

When the MLAs dropped out, more of their alternative choices went to Wilkinson than to Watts.

If this weeks gang-up on Falcon is any indication, a similar dynamic could emerge in the current leadership.

The most likely beneficiaries would be incumbent MLA Ellis Ross, the former chief councillor of the Haisla nation, or Lee, who finished third in 2018.

On that basis, Falcon probably needs to win on the first count of the ballots in February, or be so far ahead that the others cant catch up on later counts.

vpalmer@postmedia.com

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Vaughn Palmer: Kevin Falcon the B.C. Liberal leader front-runner, but it's not in the bag - Vancouver Sun

Six of Saskatchewans largest unions, representing 113,000 front-line workers, are demanding stricter COVID-19 regulations.

Union leaders in the healthcare and education sectors are demanding the province implement a gathering limit of 10, creation of a new public health order to limit non-essential contacts, establishing a consistent bubble, and enforce reducing non-essential travel between communities.

Tracy Zambory, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, says workers are stretched thin and health-care facilities dont have staff or space for more patients.

Involved organizations include the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, Saskatchewan Teachers Federation, Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, Saskatchewan Government and General Employees Union, and the Service Employees International Union West.

Saskatchewans chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahad said a peak in cases could come in the next two weeks, in light of record-high positivity.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe denounced lockdowns last week, and continues to provide justification for that decision. He caught COVID-19 the next day.

ICU admissions and COVID-19 related deaths remain significantly lower than other provinces that have strict lockdown policies in effect, said Moe on Twitter.

Omicron is spreading across Canada and around the world, whether there are lockdown policies in place or not, so we are not going to impose new restrictions and lockdowns that cause significant harm for no clear benefit.

Moe pointed out there have been zero COVID-19 deaths in the province in nearly two weeks, compared to more than 700 COVID-19 related deaths in Quebec this month.

Saskatchewans current hospitalization rate is 16 per 100,000 population and our current ICU rate is 1.5 per 100,000 population, said Moe.

Quebec has had the most extreme lockdowns policies in Canada since before Christmas, and their current rates are about 40 hospitalizations and 3.3 ICU admissions per 100,000 population more than double Saskatchewans rates.

The Saskatchewan government has not responded to the union demand or updated restrictions since January 12.

Ewa Sudyk is a reporter with the Western Standardesudyk@westernstandardonline.com

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Liberals removed tax breaks, 86% of middle class will see higher income taxes - Western Standard

THE BC Liberals on Thursday said they were renewing their calls for the NDP to focus on increasing housing supply something the Housing Minister has only recently conceded is critical to improving affordability as the cost of housing in British Columbia continues to soar to new heights.

After more than half a decade of blaming B.C.s housing crisis on speculators, Attorney General and Minister Responsible for Housing David Eby hasfinally begun to acknowledgethe need to get serious about increasing housing supply, said Ben Stewart, BC Liberal Critic for Housing. We have beensounding the alarm on this for years, but the NDP were too busy scapegoating andblaming everyone but themselves for the problem, wasting precious time that could have been used to fast-track the construction of housing that is desperately needed in B.C. We need to see a massive investment in building new homes in this province from affordable rental units, to new homes for sale but unfortunately, the NDP has built lessthan 5 per cent of the housing units they promised in their 10-year plan.

The BC Liberals pointed out that in 2017, the NDP promised to build 114,000 new homes over 10 years. Four years later, only 5,269 units have been completed, and 1,109 of those were first announced by the previous BC Liberal government. In the current market, the National Bank reports it would take 34 years to save for a down payment on a home in Vancouver and renters are paying $2,532 more per year under the NDP versus 2017. Meanwhile, inflation was up 3.9 per cent year over year in December, marking six straight months of elevated inflation above 3 per cent.

The NDP has spent years talking while taking no real action on housing affordability and its gotten worse under their watch. They chose instead to levy new and higher taxes that haveactually contributed to declinesin available housing, and broke their promise of a $400 renters annual rebate that would have provided relief to families, said Mike Bernier, BC Liberal Critic for Finance. Like theminister himself recently said, new taxes are not going to put a roof over the head of someone in need, whats needed is to actually build homes. I sincerely hope we are going to see a shift in NDP policy, but Im not getting my hopes up. Four years under the NDP has only produced higher rents, increased unaffordability, and record low levels of housing supply. We need real action to get affordable housing built in this province, but that has yet to be seen under this NDP government.

The NDP twice promised voters a $400 annual renters rebate, first in 2017 and again in 2020. As of today, people are still waiting for that relief.

Original post:
NDP admit their housing plan is a resounding failure: BC Liberals - Voiceonline.com

Thursdays meeting could endorse Mr Judah, who was the Liberal candidate for Bentleigh at the 2018 state election, overturn the result and order a fresh preselection, or wait for further information.

Last week upper house Liberal leader David Davis, representing Opposition Leader Matthew Guy, and Sarah Henderson, representing federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, spoke in favour of the status quo.

State party president Robert Clark recommended that the partys constitutional committee examine the vote.

If the committee members loyal to Mr Clark decide the electoral irregularities are too great, then the preselection would be overturned by a vote of 10-9.

Party state secretary Sam McQuestin is yet to give a recommendation to the committee.

Over the summer the party secretariat, who have been installing a new membership database, took to calling members in an attempt to ascertain their eligibility, which is determined by residence of an electorate, length of party membership and payment of membership dues.

In October the independent Electoral Boundaries Commission created the new seats of Ashwood, taking in Burwood and Box Hill, and Glen Waverley after scrapping the eastern seats Burwood (held by Labor), Ferntree Gully (Liberal), Forest Hill (Liberal) and Mount Waverley (Labor).

Analysts say the new seat is nominally held by Labor on a margin of 2.1 per cent. Burwood was held by Labor on 3.3 per cent.

The Liberal Party, which replaced Michael OBrien with former leader Matthew Guy in a September coup, must win back lost eastern suburbs seats, such as Ringwood, to have a chance of winning the state election in November. The Coalition has 28 fewer seats than Labor, and is behind in the polls.

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The Victorian branch has been mired in factional infighting for years. The controversial preselected candidate for Ringwood, Cynthia Watson, was overwhelmingly formally endorsed by the administration committee last week.

Moderate faction members had wanted to dump the former mayor of Boroondara, a Mormon, because of her conservative and religious views.

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Liberals in a lather over preselection irregularities for newly minted seat - The Age

Healthy, delicious school food could soon be on the plates of millions of Canadian children after the federal government recently committed to tackling the issue at a national level.

In December, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tasked the ministers responsible for agriculture and children and social development with creating a national policy for school food. It is the first time the federal government has committed to supporting school food programs. These programs typically provide free or heavily subsidized breakfasts and lunches to all students, and have been shown to improve public health, support learning, and boost economic growth.

Canada is the only G7 country without a national school food program, ranking 37th out of the world's 41 wealthiest countries when it comes to feeding schoolchildren, according to a 2017 UNICEF study. The situation is particularly dire in Qubec and the Western provinces, where only a fraction of schools have food programs. In contrast, almost all schools in the Atlantic provinces and the three territories have meal programs, according to 2021 research from the University of Guelph.

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After the pandemic hit, "school food was revealed to be essential" as food-insecure children who previously relied on schools to eat at least one healthy meal a day were left hungry, explained Debbie Field, executive director for the Coalition for Healthy School Food. The non-profit organization has spent the past several years advocating for a national school food program, but the health crisis was an "epochal moment" enough to spark major change.

Researchers studying school food on a global scale say a lack of nutritious meals for students has a negative impact on all children, not only those who are food-insecure. Eating enough healthy food is vital for brain development, making it essential to help kids get the most benefit from their education, explained Donald Bundy, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

"It's not actually about feeding children, it's about making sure that (their) nutrition is right at a time that determines the rest of their lives, what they achieve in the rest of their lives."

School meal programs also promote community building and food education, and can be an important market for local farmers, fishers and food processors, the University of Guelph study noted.

For instance, Prince Edward Island implemented Canada's first universal pay-what-you-can school meal program in 2020 with the intention of supporting the province's students and farming community. Moreover, several Indigenous governments from Haida Gwaii to Yukon are using school food programs to bolster cultural, language and land-based education, Field said.

While developing a federal school food program will take time, Field said support for pre-existing programs in the next federal budget would be a good start to tackling the issue. In their 2021 election platform, the Liberals pledged $1 billion over five years to help the provinces, territories and Indigenous governments implement school food programs. If the funding comes through, it will be the most ever spent on food policy in Canada.

The Coalition for Healthy School Foods estimates a well-crafted school food program would cost about $2.6 billion, or "about $5 a day per kid," Field said. Yet even if the government ends up spending less, it would be a "great first step."

Helping schools build kitchens and other infrastructure is key, she added. So is ensuring that existing programs follow the 2019 Canada Food Guide not just by putting healthy meals on children's plates but by teaching students about food and cooking.

Strengthening Canadas food system, with a particular emphasis on developing a National School Food Policy and working towards a national school nutritious meal program is a priority for the Government of Canada," said a spokesperson for Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau. They did not provide a timeline or details on how much the government plans to spend on the issue.

Still, Field is hopeful the pandemic has encouraged the government to take on this issue. She wants to see the Liberals act swiftly in the next budget to ensure kids have food universally available at school.

"It will make a big difference," she said. "During COVID and during high food prices, it's important to roll it out soon and not spend the next 20 years talking."

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Finally, Liberals are putting school food programs on the menu - National Observer