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Rob Shaw: BC NDP insider's contract set to keep ballooning

When the BC NDP government quietly hired former cabinet minister George Heyman to help with public sector bargaining, it was adamant he’d earn no...

yesterday 5

Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby's tariff task force ends in a shrug

B.C. has quietly disbanded the task force that was once the centrepiece of its response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats. The...

06.11.2025 3

Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Eby’s softwood summit just a photo op in disguise

Was Premier David Eby ever really serious about running anti-American softwood lumber ads? Maybe, briefly, back when nobody cared about $100,000 worth...

05.11.2025 5

Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Richmond owners unite to fight taxes on land caught in Cowichan dispute

A group of Richmond property owners have started a sweeping appeal of their property taxes in the wake of a Cowichan Nation court ruling that has...

04.11.2025 10

Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: NDP has only itself to blame for eroding faith in reconciliation

The B.C. government’s bungled, confusing, contradictory response to the Cowichan Nation title ruling has left the public increasingly concerned...

01.11.2025 4

Rob Shaw

Price of strike settlement

Premier David Eby has spent weeks telling British Columbians the province couldn’t pay striking government workers anything more than it had already...

30.10.2025 3

Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Behind closed doors, BC NDP sounds a lot different on Aboriginal title

The contentious issue of the Cowichan Nation court ruling brought out all three faces of the B.C. NDP government on Tuesday: the one that talks tough...

30.10.2025 6

Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Vancouver park board drama shows how bad things have gotten with NDP

There’s a chill in the air in Vancouver these days, and it’s not just from the fall weather. The relationship between the city and BC NDP...

29.10.2025 10

Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: Union deal helps Eby's political fortunes, bruises B.C.'s finances

Premier David Eby has spent weeks telling British Columbians the province couldn’t pay striking government workers anything more than it had already...

28.10.2025 4

Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw: B.C. taxpayer cash fuelling condos, documentaries and cushy new jobs

Money is tight for most British Columbians these days. But you wouldn’t know it from the way some politicians are burning through your cash over at...

26.10.2025 3

Rob Shaw

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....

23.10.2025 30

Rob Shaw

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...

22.10.2025 10

Rob Shaw

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 20

Rob Shaw

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

Rob Shaw

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

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

Rob Shaw

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

Rob Shaw

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

Rob Shaw

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

Rob Shaw

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rob Shaw

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

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

Rob Shaw

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rob Shaw

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

Rob Shaw

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

Rob Shaw

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