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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw

Vancouver Sun

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Rob Shaw: B.C. lowers the bar for driver's licences and calls it progress

Rob Shaw: B.C. lowers the bar for driver's licences and calls it progress

There will soon be a new shortcut to a full driver’s licence in B.C., one that doesn’t require you to drive, pass a test or even start your car....

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Rustad deepens Conservative divisions with attack on departing MLA

Rob Shaw: Rustad deepens Conservative divisions with attack on departing MLA

“I think we are now seeing the real John Rustad,” Penticton MLA Amelia Boultbee says. She’s sitting in an empty office in the basement of the...

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Rob Shaw: Rustad turns up pressure on Eby after Cowichan ruling shakes Richmond

Rob Shaw: Rustad turns up pressure on Eby after Cowichan ruling shakes Richmond

Opposition Leader John Rustad is calling on the B.C. government to immediately halt “all negotiations” with First Nations until Canada’s top...

21.10.2025 3

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Condo marketer Rennie dishes tough love to tone-deaf sector

Rob Shaw: Condo marketer Rennie dishes tough love to tone-deaf sector

One of B.C.’s most prominent real estate marketers is calling on Premier David Eby to cash in a little of his political capital to promote the kind...

19.10.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Even Eby’s critics are siding with him on softwood

Rob Shaw: Even Eby’s critics are siding with him on softwood

B.C.’s forestry sector put aside its growing frustration with the NDP provincial government on Tuesday to unite behind the premier on a common call:...

16.10.2025 7

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: B.C. government bets big on a digital overhaul with no new money

The B.C. government wants to merge all its many digital services into a new entity, with the goal of giving people a single place to access everything...

15.10.2025 6

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: NDP moves to scrap second road test without proving it’s safe for B.C. roads

Rob Shaw: NDP moves to scrap second road test without proving it’s safe for B.C. roads

Are young drivers really safer behind the wheel if they get fewer driving tests? B.C. politicians wrestled with that issue this week, as part of...

11.10.2025 9

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby takes a beating at hostile developer luncheon

Rob Shaw: Eby takes a beating at hostile developer luncheon

It didn’t take Premier David Eby long to realize he was facing a hostile crowd during his recent appearance at the Urban Development Institute....

08.10.2025 4

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Damage control defines fall legislative session for Eby and Rustad

Rob Shaw: Damage control defines fall legislative session for Eby and Rustad

It’s not often political leaders look to the combative environment of the B.C. legislature for safety. But given the alternatives facing Premier...

07.10.2025 4

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Another firing leaves Rustad battling fresh divisions in BC Conservatives

Rob Shaw: Another firing leaves Rustad battling fresh divisions in BC Conservatives

After a fake membership scandal, a tepid leadership review and the ouster of his top MLA, BC Conservative Leader John Rustad found himself in the...

04.10.2025 4

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: NDP keeps finding cashing for consultants while ordering others to cut back

When the B.C. government announced the appointment of yet another Downtown Eastside advisor this week, it was careful to make sure he was surrounded...

02.10.2025 4

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Poilievre joins calls to overturn Cowichan decision on private property rights

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is the latest politician to wade into the precedent-setting Cowichan Nation court ruling, appealing to...

30.09.2025 6

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Rustad's plan to axe Metro Vancouver still looks bold next to NDP inaction

As policy proposals go, it would be charitable to call BC Conservative Leader John Rustad’s plan to scrap Metro Vancouver half-baked. There’s no...

27.09.2025 4

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Bailey dodges deficit timelines as B.C. finances unravel at speed

The B.C. government is not ready to announce when or how it will balance the budget, says the finance minister, despite a damning presentation Tuesday...

25.09.2025 8

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Ousting star MLA won’t fix Rustad's leadership crisis

When BC Conservative Leader John Rustad convinced Elenore Sturko to defect from the BC United party last year, he insisted she was joining a “big...

24.09.2025 4

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Mayors descend on Victoria demanding help as province pleads poverty

Mayors and councillors from across B.C. head to Victoria this week to try and squeeze help for health care, crime, street disorder and infrastructure...

23.09.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

'Balanced' a forgotten word

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...

20.09.2025 8

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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...

18.09.2025 7

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Rob Shaw

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...

17.09.2025 20

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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

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

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 5

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Rob Shaw

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

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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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

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

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

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

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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Rob Shaw

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

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

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

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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Rob Shaw

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

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

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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