menu_open Columnists
Les Leyne

Les Leyne

Times Colonist

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Canadians boycotting U.S.

Premier David Eby and California Governor Gavin Newsom each gave breezy summaries of their brief video chat Monday that left the impression it was a...

19.04.2025 2

Castanet

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Refusal to explain de Jong dismissal says a lot about Conservatives' attitude to B.C.

Les Leyne: Refusal to explain de Jong dismissal says a lot about Conservatives' attitude to B.C.

The federal Conservative Party’s incomprehensible decision to reject 30-year MLA Mike de Jong as a candidate looks like it is going to haunt them....

18.04.2025 9

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Refusal to explain de Jong dismissal says a lot about Conservatives' attitude to B.C.

The federal Conservative Party’s incomprehensible decision to reject 30-year MLA Mike de Jong as a candidate looks like it is going to haunt them....

18.04.2025 2

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: It will take more than 'lots of sunshine' to lure Canadians to California

Les Leyne: It will take more than 'lots of sunshine' to lure Canadians to California

Premier David Eby and California Governor Gavin Newsom each gave breezy summaries of their brief video chat Monday that left the impression it was a...

17.04.2025 10

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: It will take more than 'lots of sunshine' to lure Canadians to California

Premier David Eby and California Governor Gavin Newsom each gave breezy summaries of their brief video chat Monday that left the impression it was a...

17.04.2025 5

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Minister says U.S. customers 'fearful' of protesting duties

Les Leyne: Minister says U.S. customers 'fearful' of protesting duties

The Trump administration’s focus on retribution against individuals and organizations that disagree with him may be curbing B.C.’s effort to rally...

16.04.2025 4

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Minister says U.S. customers 'fearful' of protesting duties

The Trump administration’s focus on retribution against individuals and organizations that disagree with him may be curbing B.C.’s effort to rally...

16.04.2025 4

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Cancelling U.S. contracts is a tightrope act

There was a colourful caution on the Canadian side in the early days of the tariff war regarding the strategies that might be used to bring U.S....

13.04.2025 10

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Hospital horror stories show attacks on health-care workers getting worse

A 20-minute litany of hospital horror stories about violence against nurses and other medical staff was recounted Wednesday in the legislature, as...

11.04.2025 3

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Hospital horror stories show attacks on health-care workers getting worse

A 20-minute litany of hospital horror stories about violence against nurses and other medical staff was recounted Wednesday in the legislature, as...

11.04.2025 6

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: B.C.’s elbows only partway up, at least in health sector

Les Leyne: B.C.’s elbows only partway up, at least in health sector

B.C. Premier David Eby took early aim at hundreds of millions of dollars worth of government procurement from U.S. sources soon after the tariff war...

10.04.2025 10

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: B.C. wants more federal help to cope with U.S. duties

Les Leyne: B.C. wants more federal help to cope with U.S. duties

Prime Minister Mark Carney started his day in Victoria on Monday talking about national parks and protected areas, but when he got to Premier David...

09.04.2025 5

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: B.C. wants more federal help to cope with U.S. duties

Prime Minister Mark Carney started his day in Victoria on Monday talking about national parks and protected areas, but when he got to Premier David...

09.04.2025 6

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Politicians bog down Team Canada approach to tariff war

Les Leyne: Politicians bog down Team Canada approach to tariff war

Imaginations are running wild in the legislature as politicians game out the implications of Premier David Eby’s bid to invent new powers for use...

06.04.2025 10

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Trump's incoherence makes responding to tariff wall tricky

Les Leyne: Trump's incoherence makes responding to tariff wall tricky

B.C. officials were guarded Wednesday about the impact on Canada of the tariff wall U.S. President Donald Trump erected around the U.S., but it...

04.04.2025 7

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Trump's incoherence makes responding to tariff wall tricky

B.C. officials were guarded Wednesday about the impact on Canada of the tariff wall U.S. President Donald Trump erected around the U.S., but it...

04.04.2025 4

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

B.C. ends its carbon tax

All but two of B.C.’s 93 MLAs supported the elimination of the carbon tax, but it still took until 1:30 a.m. Tuesday to erase it from the books. A...

04.04.2025 2

Castanet

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Overnight argument puts carbon tax to bed

All but two of B.C.’s 93 MLAs supported the elimination of the carbon tax, but it still took until 1:30 a.m. Tuesday to erase it from the books. A...

03.04.2025 6

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Overnight argument puts carbon tax to bed

All but two of B.C.’s 93 MLAs supported the elimination of the carbon tax, but it still took until 1:30 a.m. Tuesday to erase it from the books. A...

03.04.2025 4

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Eby government abandons made-in-B.C. climate policy

Premier David Eby’s credibility is likely going to drop a lot further than the price of gas did overnight. A night full of argument in the...

02.04.2025 7

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Eby government abandons made-in-B.C. climate policy

Premier David Eby’s credibility is likely going to drop a lot further than the price of gas did overnight. A night full of argument in the...

02.04.2025 4

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: B.C. Premier David Eby grabs maximum power for tariff war

Premier David Eby has been steadily dialling up the rage, as the Trump assault on Canada became an inescapable reality. His initial reactions last...

17.03.2025 10

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: B.C. Premier David Eby grabs maximum power for tariff war

Premier David Eby has been steadily dialling up the rage, as the Trump assault on Canada became an inescapable reality. His initial reactions last...

16.03.2025 10

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Columbia River could be the western front of Trump's attack on Canada

U.S. President Donald Trump’s war on Canada is aimed mostly at Ontario’s auto industry in the early days. Subsequent fronts will open later and...

13.03.2025 10

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Columbia River could be the western front of Trump's attack on Canada

U.S. President Donald Trump’s war on Canada is aimed mostly at Ontario’s auto industry in the early days. Subsequent fronts will open later and...

13.03.2025 10

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Latest episode confirms B.C. Conservatives' penchant for internal warfare

Ex-Conservative Party of B.C. MLAs were still venting rage at party leader John Rustad on Monday following the vehement argument that led to the...

12.03.2025 4

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Latest episode confirms B.C. Conservatives' penchant for internal warfare

Ex-Conservative Party of B.C. MLAs were still venting rage at party leader John Rustad on Monday following the vehement argument that led to the...

12.03.2025 6

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: BC Conservatives are united — in their determination to blow their chance

B.C. Conservative Party Leader John Rustad explained away some of the arguments within his party at their convention in Nanaimo last weekend. “If...

09.03.2025 9

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Despite province's 'all-front attack,' housing starts dropped last year

After sustained, monumental efforts on the housing crisis during which billions of dollars were committed, the entire zoning system was rewritten and...

07.03.2025 8

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Despite province's 'all-front attack,' housing starts dropped last year

After sustained, monumental efforts on the housing crisis during which billions of dollars were committed, the entire zoning system was rewritten and...

07.03.2025 9

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Tariffs will ravage red-ink budget

The NDP government was in the dark like everyone else right up to the provincial budget’s press time about whether the U.S. tariff threat would...

06.03.2025 8

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Tariffs will ravage red-ink budget

The NDP government was in the dark like everyone else right up to the provincial budget’s press time about whether the U.S. tariff threat would...

06.03.2025 4

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Conservatives rally in Nanaimo, fight among selves but back Rustad

The biggest B.C. Conservative meeting ever was bristling with combative energy Saturday in Nanaimo as members celebrated their surge in last fall’s...

03.03.2025 10

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: B.C. NDP stretching to stay flexible

Premier David Eby was mildly teased this week in the legislature about his hot yoga routine. It was raised to key to the question: “What is more...

23.02.2025 10

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Conservative critic forces new curbs on safe supply of drugs

Conservative Party of B.C. MLAs scored a significant win Wednesday even before they opened their mouths to start the inaugural question period in the...

21.02.2025 4

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Conservative critic forces new curbs on safe supply of drugs

Conservative Party of B.C. MLAs scored a significant win Wednesday even before they opened their mouths to start the inaugural question period in the...

21.02.2025 20

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Throne speech on instant economic growth goes against the NDP grain

The last time an NDP government devoted a throne speech almost entirely to the idea of rallying together in a crisis, it worked well. The first...

20.02.2025 7

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Throne speech on instant economic growth goes against the NDP grain

The last time an NDP government devoted a throne speech almost entirely to the idea of rallying together in a crisis, it worked well. The first...

20.02.2025 10

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: We're better off without these Victoria school trustees

A protracted grassroots effort by a determined collection of parents, frontline workers and Indigenous interests concerned about student safety...

01.02.2025 10

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Police chief 'appalled' at school trustees' draft policy regarding police in schools

Victoria Police Chief Del Manak is “appalled” by a new draft policy from the Greater Victoria School District designed to cope with “violence,...

23.01.2025 4

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Police chiefs tell minister they've lost confidence in school board

Four Greater Victoria police chiefs have notified Education Minister Lisa Beare that they have lost confidence in the Greater Victoria School Board....

19.01.2025 5

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Esquimalt Nation blindsided by school board on safety plan

The Esquimalt Nation was blindsided by the multiple versions of a school safety plan the Greater Victoria School Board filed this week and called the...

12.01.2025 20

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Victoria board won’t back down on keeping police out of schools

After an earlier safety plan was rejected by the education minister, the Greater Victoria School Board posted three more versions on Monday and...

08.01.2025 10

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Conservatives never seem to get along

I was among those gushing about the Conservative Party of B.C.’s astounding showing in the October election. From 1.9 per cent of the vote and zero...

17.12.2024 20

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Conservatives never seem to get along

I was among those gushing about the Conservative Party of B.C.’s astounding showing in the October election. From 1.9 per cent of the vote and zero...

15.12.2024 6

Vancouver Is Awesome

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: School board's supercilious condescension is what prompted minister's warning

First there was the decision to bar local police liaison officers from visiting Victoria district schools to build relationships — a bad call. Then...

08.12.2024 5

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Esquimalt, Songhees chiefs condemn school board stance against police

The chiefs of the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations are condemning the Greater Victoria School District’s shutdown of the school police liaison...

04.12.2024 4

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Rights official endorses school police ban, teachers say safety plan directive 'outrageous'

When the Greater Victoria Board of Education issued a special invitation to B.C. Human Rights Commissioner Kasari Govender to speak at this week’s...

27.11.2024 4

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: Top school executive took early retirement over police liaison officer controversy

The former deputy superintendent of the Greater Victoria School District went on stress leave for months and then retired early over the board’s...

24.11.2024 5

Times Colonist

Les Leyne

Les Leyne: School board official went on stress leave over police-liaison controversy

The former deputy superintendent of the Greater Victoria School District went on stress leave for months and then retired over the board’s...

24.11.2024 7

Times Colonist

Les Leyne