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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw

Vancouver Sun

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Rob Shaw: B.C. NDP promise of a balanced budget turns into cringe comedy

Rob Shaw: B.C. NDP promise of a balanced budget turns into cringe comedy

Will the B.C. NDP government ever balance the budget? It’s a question Premier David Eby and his finance minister both delicately danced around this...

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: NDP blows smoke in effort to hide B.C.'s record deficit

Rob Shaw: NDP blows smoke in effort to hide B.C.'s record deficit

Finance Minister Brenda Bailey deployed smoke and mirrors to try and hide the true size of the NDP government’s growing deficit in her latest update...

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Rob Shaw: B.C. emerges as a big winner in Carney’s energy push

Rob Shaw: B.C. emerges as a big winner in Carney’s energy push

The B.C. government scored a big win on Thursday with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new list of “nation-building” projects. Not only did the...

14.09.2025 10

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Rob Shaw: BC Conservative leadership mess entirely predictable

Rob Shaw: BC Conservative leadership mess entirely predictable

Shouldn’t somebody have some sort of independent oversight into how political parties elect their leaders? It’s a question on the minds of more...

11.09.2025 9

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Rob Shaw

Premier and foreign workers

Premier and foreign workers

Foreigners are filling up our homeless shelters, emptying our food banks and taking our kids’ jobs. It’s not something many people expected to...

10.09.2025 3

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Rob Shaw: Proposed Teck merger may shift B.C.’s mining future into foreign hands

Rob Shaw: Proposed Teck merger may shift B.C.’s mining future into foreign hands

When the BC NDP government decided to embrace the mining industry late last year, Premier David Eby leaned heavily on the importance of critical...

10.09.2025 10

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Rob Shaw: Eby’s finger-pointing at immigrants is a dangerous distraction

Rob Shaw: Eby’s finger-pointing at immigrants is a dangerous distraction

Foreigners are filling up our homeless shelters, emptying our food banks and taking our kids’ jobs. It’s not something many people expected to...

09.09.2025 6

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Verification woes cloud B.C. Green party's leadership race

B.C.’s Green party is scrambling to verify whether thousands of new members who signed up to vote in its leadership race are actually real people,...

06.09.2025 7

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: NDP deficit mess isn't B.C. unions' problem to solve

The first strike day by government workers wasn’t defined by the location or size of its picket lines on Tuesday, but by the political muscle that...

04.09.2025 7

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: NDP’s patience for strikes could test tolerance of B.C. residents

As B.C. government workers launch their first day of strike action, a different kind of labour dispute affecting provincial services is playing out in...

03.09.2025 8

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Public sector unions divided as BCGEU pushes for higher wages

Divide and conquer. The BC NDP unveiled a new strategy in public sector bargaining on Thursday, pitting one union against another on the eve of a...

31.08.2025 8

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Rob Shaw

BC's housing solution

BC's housing solution

There were always supposed to be two parts to B.C.’s municipal housing strategy: the carrot and the stick. The stick has been in wide use since...

30.08.2025 2

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Rob Shaw: Rustad urges Ottawa to send Aboriginal title case to Supreme Court

Canada’s top court needs to quickly decide whether Aboriginal title overrides private property rights, or risk freezing British Columbia’s economy...

28.08.2025 4

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Rob Shaw: Bremner-Akins bets on middle lane in BC Green leadership race

The third of three columns on the candidates in the BC Green leadership race: Jonathan Kerr, Emily Lowan and Adam Bremner-Akins. Party members vote on...

27.08.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: All stick, no carrot in B.C.'s housing strategy

There were always supposed to be two parts to B.C.’s municipal housing strategy: the carrot and the stick. The stick has been in wide use since...

26.08.2025 3

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Rob Shaw: NDP insists it knows better as it brushes off B.C. city yet again

Ask the BC NDP government, and it will tell you it’s always eager to hear from local residents concerned about its housing and drug programs. But...

24.08.2025 5

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Rob Shaw: Longest ballot in Canadian history proves a point but not the one protesters intended

Protest groups that flood election ballots with hundreds of paper candidates in an attempt to confuse voters should not be allowed to hijack...

21.08.2025 20

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Rob Shaw: Brief Air Canada strike makes for easy political theatre for BC NDP

The B.C. government waded into the Air Canada strike prior to Tuesday’s tentative deal, siding with the flight attendants and using the chance to...

20.08.2025 7

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Rob Shaw: Jonathan Kerr staking Green leadership bid on pragmatism over protest

The second of three columns on the candidates in the BC Green leadership race: Jonathan Kerr, Emily Lowan and Adam Bremner-Akins. Party members...

19.08.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Emily Lowan’s audacious leadership run rattles corners of BC Greens

Emily Lowan began the BC Green leadership race as political unknown, a youth climate activist with what she freely admits was an “audacious” goal...

17.08.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Attorney general vows to defend B.C. private land ownership from legal uncertainty

B.C. must defend the province’s longstanding system of private land ownership, and cannot allow for the uncertainty left by a new BC Supreme Court...

14.08.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Court ruling on land rights

It will take time to fully understand the implications of a landmark court ruling that appears to place Aboriginal title in British Columbia above...

13.08.2025 4

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Rob Shaw: Canada’s largest shipyard ramps up fight against BC Ferries’ China deal

The largest shipyard in Canada is criticizing BC Ferries for a flawed procurement process it says was tilted from the start to award new ship...

13.08.2025 20

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: B.C. court ruling puts Aboriginal title above private property rights

It will take time to fully understand the implications of a landmark court ruling that appears to place Aboriginal title in British Columbia above...

13.08.2025 4

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: B.C.’s budget problem is worse than the NDP will ever admit

There was precious little to brag about in the province’s year-end financials Thursday, not that it stopped the NDP government from trying. “It's...

10.08.2025 10

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Passing the buck on ferries

Federal politicians convened in Ottawa Friday for what was supposed to be a reckoning over BC Ferries’ $1-billion China shipbuilding deal. But...

07.08.2025 4

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Rob Shaw: Ottawa opens wallet for forestry, while B.C. pushes for fair share and faster fixes

The B.C. government has offered tentative praise to Ottawa’s new forest sector aid package, while also putting down an early marker that it expects...

07.08.2025 70

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Rob Shaw: Buck-passing reaches new depths in BC Ferries debacle with China

Federal politicians convened in Ottawa Friday for what was supposed to be a reckoning over BC Ferries’ $1-billion China shipbuilding deal. But...

06.08.2025 10

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Rob Shaw: City leaders, police say B.C. drug policy is failing as street disorder worsens

One week after taking a victory lap on safer streets, the B.C. government is getting yanked back into reality by municipal councils and police...

02.08.2025 10

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Eby vows to fix secret panel

Premier David Eby is pledging to reform the rare drug approval system his government spent months defending as it denied life-extending medication to...

31.07.2025 4

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Rob Shaw: From free IUDs to funded IVF, BC NDP delivering on reproductive health

Two new reproductive health programs in B.C. are not just popular, they’re positioning the province as a national leader in access and innovation....

31.07.2025 10

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Rob Shaw: Eby vows to fix secret drug panel as B.C. pleads for experts with compassion

Premier David Eby is pledging to reform the rare drug approval system his government spent months defending as it denied life-extending medication to...

30.07.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Years of warnings ignored as U.S. slaps B.C. forestry with punishing new duties

B.C.’s forestry sector would have been brought to its knees Friday by new American duties on Canadian softwood lumber, if it wasn’t already flat...

29.07.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Stats only part of the story on B.C. health care and public safety

Health care and public safety are two of the top issues on the minds of British Columbians, but new statistics this week paint differing views of...

26.07.2025 10

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Strike clouds gathering

The B.C. NDP government is facing the spectre of a late summer strike by the province’s largest public sector union, after negotiations crumbled....

24.07.2025 6

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Rob Shaw: B.C. braces for worsening budget deficit amid economic warning signs

There’s still another month before the B.C. government’s next budget update, but new data indicates it could be a fiscal bloodbath for the NDP...

24.07.2025 5

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Strike clouds gather over Victoria as BCGEU walks from talks

The B.C. NDP government is facing the spectre of a late summer strike by the province’s largest public sector union, after negotiations crumbled....

23.07.2025 4

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Rob Shaw: Island Health's ER wait times highlight tech gaps in B.C. health care

When B.C.’s health minister promised online wait times for Vancouver Island hospitals earlier this spring, the reaction from many was: finally....

22.07.2025 4

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Rob Shaw: Premier's cabinet refresh undone by a dying girl's suffering

Dogged by a series of unpopular decisions, and facing grumbling from within his own party, Premier David Eby attempted a reset of sorts Thursday. Not...

19.07.2025 6

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: NDP dodges accountability in B.C. woman's killing after provincial policies ignored

The B.C. government has been quick to point to shortcomings in the federal justice system, in response to the horrific case of a Kelowna mother...

17.07.2025 4

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Rob Shaw

Public safety report

There are secret words to watch out for from politicians that can help you decode their true message. One of them is “intent.” Governments profess...

17.07.2025 5

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Rob Shaw: NDP policy leaves dying B.C. girl depending on 'GoFundMe health care'

The family of Charleigh Pollock, a terminally ill ten-year-old from Langford, has turned to crowdfunding after the province cut off her life-extending...

16.07.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: NDP tiptoes around safety recommendations in wake of Lapu-Lapu festival tragedy

There are secret words to watch out for from politicians that can help you decode their true message. One of them is “intent.” Governments profess...

15.07.2025 5

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby pounces on new Trump threats to deflect from troubles at home

Premier David Eby wasted no time firing back at U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff threat late Thursday, taking to social media almost...

12.07.2025 5

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Rob Shaw

Rethink as EV sales stall

Once touted as a key part of fighting climate change, the provincial and federal governments are now eyeing whether to roll back electric vehicle...

12.07.2025 3

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Rob Shaw: Poilievre slams BC Ferries deal as taxpayer-funded ‘slave labour’ in China

Ottawa should cancel its $1-billion loan for BC Ferries’ to buy new ships from the Chinese government, and help the B.C. government pull out of the...

11.07.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: BC NDP doubles down on drug denial for dying girl

If you’re going to be the government that yanks medication from the hands of dying 10-year-old girl, if you’re going to watch her die a slow and...

09.07.2025 5

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Seaspan tour leaves politicians fuming over BC Ferries deal with China

Politicians from different parties toured North Vancouver’s Seaspan shipyards recently, emerging with differing opinions about the ongoing scandal...

08.07.2025 5

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: NDP forced to rethink EV targets as policy catches up to reality

Once touted as a key part of fighting climate change, the provincial and federal governments are now eyeing whether to roll back electric vehicle...

05.07.2025 7

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Supportive-housing safety on hold as B.C. launches yet another review

B.C.’s housing minister responded to more than a year of complaints by supportive housing providers this week by announcing a “review” of their...

03.07.2025 5

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