menu_open Columnists
Kirk Lapointe

Kirk Lapointe

BIV

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Kirk LaPointe: Lessons from John Horgan still echo after his passing

Kirk LaPointe: Lessons from John Horgan still echo after his passing

I feel as though I have finally had that beer I wanted to have with John Horgan. Maybe two or three. It has taken a posthumous book — one long...

15.09.2025 10

Times Colonist

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Metro Vancouver taxpayers left in the dark over ballooning sewage plant costs

Kirk LaPointe: Metro Vancouver taxpayers left in the dark over ballooning sewage plant costs

Let me pretend to withhold judgment—to play the polite columnist—while every nerve in me is screaming. And, if I may be frank at the outset, let...

12.09.2025 3

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Lessons from John Horgan still echo after his passing

I feel as though I have finally had that beer I wanted to have with John Horgan. Maybe two or three. It has taken a posthumous book—one long series...

05.09.2025 4

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Integrity commissioner slams Vancouver mayor and council for breaking open meeting law

Vancouver just received the kind of report no city should be proud of. Its Integrity Commissioner has found that Mayor Ken Sim and (what were then)...

26.08.2025 5

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Poilievre is back in Ottawa but his second chance won’t be easy

Nail-biter it was not. The midnight oil need not have burned to learn late Monday that Pierre Poilievre would banish the 213 candidates running...

21.08.2025 5

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

German soccer star signed

Performance in sports humbles predictions. This year I have been wrong on the misfortunes of the Vancouver Canucks and BC Lions and good fortunes of...

17.08.2025 6

Castanet

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Müller signing redefines the frugal Whitecaps

Performance in sports humbles predictions. This year I have been wrong on the misfortunes of the Vancouver Canucks and BC Lions and good fortunes of...

16.08.2025 2

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Call to fix long-term care

Lost in recent days amid the swirl of shock and uncertainty here and abroad was a report in our own backyard with revelations about long-term elderly...

14.08.2025 4

Castanet

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: B.C.’s long-term elderly care crisis is the cost of political procrastination

Lost in recent days amid the swirl of shock and uncertainty here and abroad was a report in our own backyard with revelations about long-term elderly...

09.08.2025 5

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Metro Vancouver skirts transparency by pausing probe into sewage plant

There are times politicians do their best to not get to the bottom of things. Like when it might be embarrassing or impede their careers. To wit: the...

30.07.2025 5

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Eby crafts a double standard

It is a sign of true political mismanagement when a government can offend and alienate even its base of support. But David Eby’s BC NDP...

26.07.2025 7

Castanet

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Fiscal restraint a 'one-way street' for Eby government

It is a sign of true political mismanagement when a government can offend and alienate even its base of support. But David Eby’s BC NDP...

26.07.2025 6

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Trump’s tariff tactics rely more on psychology than economics

Much has been written, spoken and thought about U.S. President Donald Trump’s approach to trade with our country—specifically, what the hell to...

19.07.2025 8

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Threat to journalism

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this column. Not sure how you found it, because a new threat arising from artificial intelligence’s...

16.07.2025 5

Castanet

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Google’s AI is delivering a blow to the newsrooms it's built on

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this column. Not sure how you found it, because a new threat arising from artificial intelligence’s...

12.07.2025 4

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

A tale of two party leaders

The tale of the two main national political leaders requires a seasonal update of the file. Metaphors are in order, data comes in handy. First, it is...

08.07.2025 5

Castanet

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Carney resonating with Canadians as Poilievre retools for relevance

The tale of the two main national political leaders requires a seasonal update of the file. Metaphors are in order, data comes in handy. First, it is...

05.07.2025 4

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

World Cup cost rising

The world is full of surprises. The least of them is that the FIFA World Cup games in Vancouver will cost more than anticipated even months ago. Such...

01.07.2025 3

Castanet

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: World Cup windfall fades into fantasy as costs keep climbing

The world is full of surprises. The least of them is that the FIFA World Cup games in Vancouver will cost more than anticipated even months ago. Such...

28.06.2025 4

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Carney and Eby push speed over scrutiny in power-grab legislation

Speed in government is a virtue — until it becomes a vice. It has been disheartening to see Prime Minister Mark Carney and British Columbia Premier...

24.06.2025 4

Times Colonist

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Carney and Eby push speed over scrutiny in power-grab legislation

Speed in government is a virtue—until it becomes a vice. It has been disheartening to see Prime Minister Mark Carney and British Columbia Premier...

21.06.2025 7

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Ferries to be built in China

Principles. Policies. Timing. Context. Optics. They all matter in politics. Into this bouillabaisse we present to you today the curious case of the...

15.06.2025 5

Castanet

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: BC Ferries deal with China torpedoes government's own messaging

Principles. Policies. Timing. Context. Optics. They all matter in politics. Into this bouillabaisse we present to you today the curious case of the...

13.06.2025 6

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Pay more or expect less

We live in a country with Scandinavian tastes and a North American tax code. And in case you haven’t noticed, the cost of everything is rising, our...

08.06.2025 9

Castanet

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: The big tax reckoning is coming for Canada

We live in a country with Scandinavian tastes and a North American tax code. And in case you haven’t noticed, the cost of everything is rising, our...

07.06.2025 6

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: B.C. is drowning in debt and no one’s throwing a rope

The grand plan by Prime Minister Mark Carney is to make Canada’s economy the best in the G7. King Charles said so; his delivery of Tuesday’s...

30.05.2025 7

Times Colonist

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: B.C. is drowning in debt and no one’s throwing a rope

The grand plan by Prime Minister Mark Carney is to make Canada’s economy the best in the G7. King Charles said so; his delivery of Tuesday’s...

30.05.2025 5

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: B.C. needs political backbone to fix Metro Vancouver governance

Over 52 pages that took a swift four months to produce, the Deloitte Canada management consultancy has confirmed comprehensively what we have seen and...

24.05.2025 5

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

New federal cabinet

Few prime ministers have arrived needing a great cabinet quite like Mark Carney. What became evident Tuesday was that, despite a towering résumé and...

18.05.2025 4

Castanet

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Carney’s Cabinet is built to stabilize, not to soar

Few prime ministers have arrived needing a great cabinet quite like Mark Carney. What became evident Tuesday was that, despite a towering résumé and...

14.05.2025 4

Times Colonist

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Carney’s Cabinet is built to stabilize, not to soar

Few prime ministers have arrived needing a great cabinet quite like Mark Carney. What became evident Tuesday was that, despite a towering résumé and...

14.05.2025 5

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Whitecaps surging, Canucks fans sulking

If the world seems upside down right now, it isn’t because you’re a forlorn Pierre Poilievre supporter or distressed Donald Trump romantic. You...

09.05.2025 5

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Not strongest political hand

Same song, probably a different dance partner. We went to bed Monday sending Mark Carney into the lion’s den as an elected Liberal prime minister to...

03.05.2025 5

Castanet

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Canada flinches at giving Carney the mandate he was hoping for

Same song, probably a different dance partner. We went to bed Monday sending Mark Carney into the lion’s den as an elected Liberal prime minister to...

30.04.2025 5

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Vancouver tragedy demands more than quick fixes on mental health

The extraordinary tragedy we absorbed over the weekend—the 11 to die and the dozens injured from an SUV plowing through a celebratory Filipino block...

29.04.2025 5

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Poilievre’s pen packs a punch, Carney’s signature keeps things calibrated

As a child, I had a hobby of graphology, the inexact science (to be kind to it) of analyzing handwriting. It was useful as a parlour game. As a...

26.04.2025 10

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Trump's tariffs aimed at all

Wednesday was Donald Trump’s proclaimed Liberation Day in the United States. It was the day his administration’s senses were liberated as they...

05.04.2025 3

Castanet

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Trump's shot off the bow more like a shot in the foot for trade

Wednesday was Donald Trump’s proclaimed Liberation Day in the United States. It was the day his administration’s senses were liberated as they...

04.04.2025 5

Times Colonist

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Trump's shot off the bow more like a shot in the foot for trade

Wednesday was Donald Trump’s proclaimed Liberation Day in the United States. It was the day his administration’s senses were liberated as they...

04.04.2025 20

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

What's at stake in election

It is a personal, visceral fight neither Pierre Poilievre nor Mark Carney can afford to lose, and an election the country cannot afford to get wrong....

29.03.2025 8

Castanet

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Canada at a crossroads as Carney, Poilievre clash

It will be a personal, visceral fight neither Pierre Poilievre nor Mark Carney can afford to lose, and an election the country cannot afford to get...

25.03.2025 4

Times Colonist

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Canada at a crossroads as Carney, Poilievre clash

It will be a personal, visceral fight neither Pierre Poilievre nor Mark Carney can afford to lose, and an election the country cannot afford to get...

25.03.2025 4

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Our democratic leaders are suddenly too eager to test our democratic limits

Anti-democracy is all of a sudden in style. Ain’t it grand? All around, far and near, we are witnessing the rise of Triple-A governments:...

22.03.2025 10

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Canada's new PM

There aren’t many among us today in Canada who can thank U.S. President Donald Trump for an improvement in their station in life but new Liberal...

12.03.2025 7

Castanet

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Trump's shadow looms large over Carney's path forward

There aren’t terribly many among us today in Canada who can thank Donald Trump for an improvement in our station in life. Mark Carney is one.  His...

11.03.2025 7

Times Colonist

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Trump's shadow looms large over Carney's path forward

There aren’t terribly many among us today in Canada who can thank Donald Trump for an improvement in our station in life. Mark Carney is one.  His...

11.03.2025 10

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: B.C. budget can't dodge economic beating as tariffs land heavy punches

Well, woe is us, eh? We went to war, of sorts, overnight. And with our best customer, no less, because its best customer, us, was being treated like a...

06.03.2025 5

Times Colonist

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: B.C. budget can't dodge economic beating as tariffs land heavy punches

Well, woe is us, eh? We went to war, of sorts, overnight. And with our best customer, no less, because its best customer, us, was being treated like a...

06.03.2025 5

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Rustad's biggest test will be proving he's premier material

BC Conservative Leader John Rustad was supposed to bathe Saturday in the success that comes from reviving a party barely breathing two years ago to...

05.03.2025 7

Times Colonist

Kirk Lapointe

Kirk LaPointe: Rustad's biggest test will be proving he's premier material

BC Conservative Leader John Rustad was supposed to bathe Saturday in the success that comes from reviving a party barely breathing two years ago to...

05.03.2025 9

Vancouver Is Awesome

Kirk Lapointe