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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw

Vancouver Sun

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Rob Shaw: NDP's cost-savings plan for health care starts with $400K salary

There’s great irony in government launching a cost-saving review by appointing a new person with an almost $400,000 salary to oversee it. But if...

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Fixes to Eby's controversial tariff bill don't go far enough, say business leaders

Premier David Eby’s decision to back down on the most contentious clause of his anti-tariff legislation has deflated what was a crisis situation...

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby's power grab collapses under mounting pressure

Premier David Eby backed down on his controversial anti-tariff legislation Friday, after a chorus of critics, including two former premiers, an...

sunday 30

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: B.C. business leaders push back against NDP’s power grab

Pressure is rising on the BC NDP government to separate its move to eliminate interprovincial trade barriers from a contentious bill that seeks to...

26.03.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: NDP weighs changes amid backlash to Eby’s emergency powers bill

Stung by criticism that its new tariff response legislation is undemocratic, the BC NDP government is considering changes to try and bolster flagging...

25.03.2025 20

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Mo Money, Mo Massey, Mo Problems for BC NDP

Did the B.C. NDP government turn down hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to help pay for its new George Massey tunnel replacement?...

23.03.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: BC Conservatives slam Eby’s ‘dictatorial’ emergency powers

Opposition BC Conservatives are swinging for the fences over the NDP government’s new emergency tariff legislation, saying it makes Premier David...

20.03.2025 4

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: NDP defends BC Hydro rate hikes while sidelining regulator

The B.C. government’s communications shop tried to frame the province’s new electricity rate increases as “in response to the economic and trade...

19.03.2025 5

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Carbon tax is dead, but B.C.'s budget mess is just beginning

The consumer carbon tax may be dead politically, after Prime Minister Mark Carney eliminated the federal version last week. But the financial fallout...

18.03.2025 20

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby pushes 'sweeping' economic powers to fight tariffs

Premier David Eby has for months been using wartime imagery to describe the threat of American tariffs, calling it “declaration of economic war”...

16.03.2025 30

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby's carbon tax flip-flop collides with political reality

British Columbia does not want to increase the price of the carbon tax on April 1, and has unsuccessfully researched ways to try and get out of the...

12.03.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Rustad's Conservatives at a crossroads as culture wars erupt

Watching the BC Conservatives in action the past few months, it’s clear there are two competing movements inside that party: Those that want to do...

11.03.2025 20

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby plays patriot as Rustad struggles to control Conservative chaos

What a difference a week makes in provincial politics. BC Conservative Leader John Rustad started on a high after a strong endorsement at his...

08.03.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Blaming Trump won’t fix B.C.’s budget mess

Premier David Eby was running late from his hotel on budget day, and trying to grab some eggs from the continental breakfast, when an older woman at a...

06.03.2025 6

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Hiring freeze? Not for BC NDP insiders

B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey continues to point to a government “hiring freeze” as one of the ways the province is saving money to protect...

05.03.2025 5

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: B.C. bracing for one of its weirdest, wildest budgets in history

B.C.’s provincial budget is shaping up to have three broad takeaways: A big new record-setting deficit, large pots of unallocated cash to respond to...

04.03.2025 5

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: While Eby fixates on Trump, B.C. struggles with a health-care crisis

The BC NDP government started and ended the week preoccupied by the looming tariff threat from U.S. President Donald Trump. But it was the moments...

01.03.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: David Eby's green goals at odds with his plan to fast-track B.C. mines

27.02.2025 10

National Post

Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: BC Conservatives learn how not to handle a Trump controversy

There’s an old saying about politics that rookie BC Conservatives might want to brush up on: “If you’re explaining, you’re losing.” Five...

27.02.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: B.C. ships dirty American coal but NDP scoffs at leveraging it

On paper, it sounds like something a BC NDP government would support: A financial penalty against dirty American coal being shipped across the border...

26.02.2025 7

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Delta health-care crisis reveals cracks in province's housing push

Anger and fear rippled through Delta, Ladner and Tsawwassen over the weekend after a doctor shortage led to the closure of Delta Hospital’s...

25.02.2025 20

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: NDP drug policy reversal proves politicians never say sorry

If you’re ever in trouble for royally screwing up at work, try this neat trick: Don’t admit you did anything wrong, just look your boss straight...

22.02.2025 9

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Time to break B.C.'s empty throne speech habit

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: The B.C. government delivered a throne speech to open the legislature that was big on rhetoric, low on...

20.02.2025 9

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby’s $1.8B grocery rebate was for tough times until tough times killed it

Was the marquee promise of the BC NDP’s election campaign a big, fat, whopper of a lie that the party could never fulfil but nonetheless dangled...

15.02.2025 20

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: The premiers went to Washington and still don't know what Trump wants

No one knows what it will take to sway the president

14.02.2025 10

National Post

Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Tariff-wary premiers descend on D.C. as Trudeau's time ticks away

They are, for better or worse, Canada’s last best hope against Donald Trump’s tariffs — 13 provincial and territorial premiers, many of whom...

13.02.2025 20

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby's unscripted moment at Invictus Games strikes the perfect chord

Premier David Eby didn’t have a speech prepared for the opening of the Invictus Games in Vancouver. He hadn’t written anything down. He didn’t...

11.02.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: NDP's safe-supply gaslighting collapses under leaked government report

Two years after saying it wasn’t happening, a year after arguing there was no evidence, and nine months after promising to maybe start tracking the...

08.02.2025 7

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: FOI system a money-wasting pit of secrecy under BC NDP

How much does it cost to get public information out of your provincial government? If you said, nothing, it should be free — oh, you witty little...

06.02.2025 20

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Trump tariffs force BC NDP into uncomfortable choices

British Columbia began pulling American alcohol from government liquor stores Sunday in a show of defiance against punishing new tariffs levelled...

04.02.2025 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: B.C. mired in partisan politics as Trump tariffs loom

The political debate in British Columbia over how to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threat continues to reach new lows, just at the...

01.02.2025 6

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: BC Greens ghosted by their own MLAs

Who wants to be the leader of the BC Green Party? Anyone? ... Anyone at all? It’s a question now rippling through B.C. politics, after Green leader...

30.01.2025 6

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: BC NDP left tiptoeing as Vancouver mayor redraws DTES playbook

Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon spent the weekend tut-tutting Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim’s new plan to halt construction of supportive housing, arguing...

28.01.2025 7

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: B.C. labour talks escalate as trade threats, record deficit test NDP

The province is broke, Americans have started a trade war, and now B.C.’s public sector unions are hinting at a whole lot of labour strife on the...

25.01.2025 6

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Diversifying B.C. trade too late for tariff storm after past NDP misfires

It starts with Kentucky bourbon, spreads to peanut butter, and is accompanied by a splash of orange juice. The Canadian response to Donald Trump’s...

23.01.2025 30

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Trump threats jolt listless NDP from post-election stupor

When Premier David Eby took the stage last week to announce the United States had declared “economic war” on the province, something remarkable...

21.01.2025 5

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby leaves B.C. families famished for relief as trade war looms

Premier David Eby backed away from a marquee promise of his election campaign Thursday, parking a $1,000 grocery rebate for British Columbians in the...

19.01.2025 7

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Severance system needs reset after obscene $279K payout to Eby's top aide

How did Premier David Eby’s chief of staff Matt Smith land an extraordinary severance package that paid him one day’s compensation for every two...

10.01.2025 7

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Vancouver court case exposes cracks in B.C.’s approach to fast-tracking housing

B.C.’s housing minister is vowing to continue forcing local approval of new housing projects, even after a surprising loss in the province’s top...

04.01.2025 6

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: 2024 redefined the rules of B.C. politics

Even by B.C.’s traditional standards for wild and wacky politics, 2024 was an extraordinarily bizarre year. In just a few months, the province saw...

24.12.2024 5

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: B.C. housing minister's threats put municipal autonomy to the test

Does the weakened BC NDP government really want to go to war with municipalities over housing? It’s a question worth watching in the tiny...

21.12.2024 6

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby’s rosy economic claims crumble under grim fiscal reality

It was hard to find any numbers worth bragging about in Finance Minister Brenda Bailey’s latest economic update Tuesday. The economy? Showing signs...

19.12.2024 3

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: BC Greens settle for small wins that keep Eby in driver's seat

The BC NDP don’t need the Greens to govern, and they showed as much in their new co-operative agreement. It’s a deal that gives the Greens little...

17.12.2024 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby cautiously steps onto Trump's trade war tightrope

The B.C. government is willing to participate in retaliatory measures against the United States if president-elect Donald Trump follows through on...

14.12.2024 8

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Don't blame B.C. businesses for being skeptical over Eby's 'reset'

Premier David Eby is promising what he calls a “reset” in his relationship with B.C.’s business community, including a government hiring freeze to...

12.12.2024 8

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Leaked letter exposes internal rifts in rookie Conservative caucus

The leak of a letter in which a group of BC Conservative MLAs targeted one of their own colleagues and challenged their leader is yet another...

10.12.2024 9

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby racing to tackle street disorder amid public exasperation

Premier David Eby says a plan to implement involuntary care for those with severe mental health and addictions issues will be ready to launch soon,...

06.12.2024 8

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Conservatives step in as Eby government dodges business leaders

Ever since it was barely re-elected, the BC NDP government has promised a renewed focus on growing the economy, creating jobs and generating new...

04.12.2024 9

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Police support crumbles for B.C.’s decriminalization experiment

British Columbia police chiefs have pulled their support for the province’s decriminalization project — a move that serves to underscore just how...

02.12.2024 10

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Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Holiday cheer on hold—Eby's $1K relief cheques won't arrive for months

If you were hoping to spend your shiny new $1,000 “Eby-bate” during the holidays, maybe to load up on Christmas presents for the kids, or top-shelf...

28.11.2024 10

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Rob Shaw