THE JAGER REPORT： Leadership Battles and Global Uprising
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Summary
Jared Yeager takes a look at the B.C. Conservative leadership race, and what it means for the future of the party and its chances of defeating the New Democrats in the next election. He also talks about a new candidate, Daryl Jones, and why he should win the election.
Transcript
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Hi, I'm Jared Yeager, multimedia journalist for the Western Standard and managing editor
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of the West Coast Standard. Now, in today's political climate, there's so much hate and division,
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it's hard to find things that really bring people together. Well, one Vancouver city councillor
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managed to do just that by introducing a motion that tackles one of everyone's biggest pet peeves.
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But before we get into that, let's take a look at what's going on in the B.C. conservative
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leadership race, shall we? Here's a snapshot. I'm a conservative. You're a liberal. No, I'm a
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conservative. You're a liberal. All jokes aside, it has been a pretty busy week. On Tuesday,
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another candidate entered the already packed field, former Save on Foods president Daryl Jones.
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Now, if you've lived in B.C. at any point during the past 20 years or so, you've undoubtedly seen
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him on TV serving up Daryl's deals. Well, he's traded groceries for politics. And at his campaign
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launch event in Surrey, he tackled all the big issues from DRIPA to the economy to crime and
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addiction. Afterwards, I caught up with him and asked what he thinks the government can do to lower
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grocery prices. Here's what he had to say. This government has, they've been part of higher costs
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for fertilizer, for feed. Fertilizer prices are up 100% in the last five years. The cost of fuel
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to take products from one place to another is up massively. Crime. They have to solve the crime.
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Crime in the stores today is three or four times what it was before. And with crime, when people
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steal things, then prices end up going up. So all of the issues that we have in pricing in the food
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business are the same reasons we have price increases everywhere. Because the government
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is not doing the job that it needs to do to eliminate bureaucracy, eliminate red tape,
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and figure out how to make companies process and do their work as effectively and as efficiently
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as possible. And that's how you lower prices. Now, as I mentioned earlier, it's a pretty packed
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field. Among those who have already announced their candidacy are businessmen Yuri Fulmer and
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Ian Black. The latter actually served as an MLA for the BC Liberals back in the day. Political
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commentator Caroline Elliott, contractor Warren Hamm, and a couple insiders, MLA Sheldon Clare
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and Peter Milobar. Now, everyone's kind of taken a similar approach, trying to paint themselves as
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the true conservative candidate while still billing themselves as someone who can bring the party
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together and unite everyone under the Big Ten. And it's been successful to a degree. But this week,
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we really started seeing the attacks come out. And most of those attacks centered around
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candidate history, either with the BC Liberals or supporting policies that don't align with the
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conservative party of today. Caroline Elliott, for example, she was targeted by Yuri Fulmer
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for having donated to the BC Liberals and BC United. While Fulmer was attacked for his company's
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stance on land acknowledgements and the coastal First Nations, which Fulmer and co invested in a few years ago.
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Now, if 2024 is any indication, if the BC Conservatives want to have any chance of defeating the BC NDP,
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I think there needs to be a focus on, yes, maintaining true conservative values, but doing so in a way that
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doesn't alienate people. And Caroline Elliott, she told me the way she plans to do that is to convince
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people that, what was her phrase, our values are normal people values. Now, it's going to be interesting
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to see how that plays with BC Conservative voters, and whether it's enough to outweigh some of the attacks
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against her. But bigger picture, you know, this time, it's a little bit different, because in 2024,
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it was essentially the BC Conservatives versus the BC NDP. Since then, Dallas Brody has launched one BC,
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which has taken some pretty hard-line stances on issues that the BC Conservatives have kind of danced
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around, because they are, you know, trying to build up a bigger coalition. Well, whereas one BC,
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they're more, this is us, this is what we believe, take it or leave it. And so whoever becomes the leader
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needs to figure out whether or not they want to, I'm not going to say pander, but
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move in a direction that appeals to that crowd as well, or whether they just, you know, move more
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mainstream and let one BC kind of fill that niche. It's interesting, because we're kind of seeing the
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same thing on the opposite side of the spectrum as well with the BC Greens. Under the new leader, Emily
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Lowen, they have similarly taken very strong, hard-line stances on some of the issues that the BC NDP
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has maybe gone back and forth on, or tried to appease both sides on.
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And that seems to be working. You know, at the BC NDP AGM earlier, or last year, I should say,
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there was a lot of talk about the BC Greens and, you know, the risk that they pose to,
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especially the youth wing of the BC NDP, taking some of those votes away. I guess the main takeaway
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is this is going to be a really interesting next few months in BC politics, as we watch the BC
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Conservatives try to grapple with staying true to their Conservative values and appeasing the base,
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while still bringing in enough people to have a chance of winning the next election.
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As far as the timeline goes, candidates have until February 15th to meet the requirements for entry,
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which include 250 nomination signatures from members across at least five regions,
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and a $5,000 application fee. On top of that, once you're approved, they have to pay a total of
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$110,000 plus a $20,000 deposit, which will be used to cover fines in case anyone breaks any rules.
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Voting is set to begin on May 9th and run until May 30th, at which point the party will announce the
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new leader at a convention. Each rating is worth 100 points and the lowest candidate will be eliminated
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after each round of voting, and the first one to clear 50% plus one will be the new leader.
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If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that headlights have become too damn bright. Now,
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you would think in a country like Canada, where pretty much everything is regulated,
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that there would be limits to how bright your headlights can be.
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Nope. There is a legal minimum, but no legal maximum.
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Well, last week, Vancouver City Councillor Sean Orr decided to take action
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by introducing a motion that would call on the federal government to address one of the biggest
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issues of, well, maybe not the biggest issue of our time, but definitely the most annoying.
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Now, to give you a sense of just how universally hated these things are,
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Sean has introduced around 15 motions to Council, all of which have been defeated.
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This one passed unanimously. And it wasn't just his usual opponents on Council that applauded the move.
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On social media, those who vehemently disagree with everything Sean has ever said about anything,
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I hate to admit it, but I agree with you. See, this can bring us together.
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And, you know, it makes sense. This is something that all of us have to deal with on a daily basis,
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whether you're a driver, a cyclist, a pedestrian, or just looking out your window. They're always there.
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You know, who was it that decided our cars needed to be able to see into the future
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at the expense of everyone around us? Well, it all started back in the early 2000s,
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when car manufacturers decided to move from halogen bulbs to LEDs. Now, halogen bulbs,
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they gave off a pleasant warm glow that illuminated the road without blinding those in front of or behind
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you. And LEDs on the other end of the spectrum are bright white, almost blue. And the beam is more
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concentrated. Now, as humans, we're more susceptible to the to the white, brighter lights,
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meaning when we're driving, even if we try to ignore them, even if they're in our periphery,
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we still see them. And, you know, they're very, very distracting. Now, obviously,
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regulating headlight brightness falls outside the city's jurisdiction. And so what Sean's motion does
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is it submits it to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for consideration at the next
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annual conference. And it calls on the federal government to do three things. Establish clear
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and enforceable limits on headlight brightness, beam pattern and mounting height, strength and
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oversight of adaptive and high intensity lighting technologies, and improve regulation and enforcement
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related to non-compliant aftermarket vehicle lighting. Now, the second two points are very
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important because, you know, we talked about new vehicles with the LEDs that come standard, but
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a lot of those super bright lights you see out there are people who've bought aftermarket parts and
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maybe installed them incorrectly. Or, you know, guys in their big trucks thinking they own the road
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with their lights way up here. And I don't need to, I don't need to fix the beam. I can see fine.
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Meanwhile, you know, you know, the light of God is shining into your into your car.
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And, you know, this isn't just a Canadian problem. All over the world, people have complained about
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super bright headlights. Over in the Netherlands, for example, the Royal Dutch Touring Club did a
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study that found 78% of road users said they were regularly or always blinded by the bright lights
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of other road users. Now, just over 20% described it as unbearable, while 71% said it was simply annoying.
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Perhaps more striking, though, is nearly 75% of respondents said they look away when faced with those
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lights. Now, when you're driving, that's kind of the time you want to be the most focused of what's in
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front of you. And if you're having to, you know, shield your eyes or turn your mirrors so the light
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doesn't bounce off, that's not that's not good. That's not that's not safe. And so there's definitely
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definitely something that needs to be done. Now elsewhere in the world, governments have taken
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action by adapting technology such as adaptive driving beam technology, which dims the headlights
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automatically when the vehicle senses that others are nearby. So that was adapted pretty early on
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over in Europe, while in Canada and the US regulations were only updated to allow that in 2018 and 2022
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respectively. But just because it was allowed doesn't mean that car manufacturers are including them in
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their product. And so uptake of this new technology in North America has lagged behind. But along with
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regulation from the federal government on headline brightness, headlight brightness itself, this
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technology, it's definitely something worth looking into. But hopefully with Sean's motion, this gets the
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wheels going. And yeah, the future looks bright. All over the world, those of us lucky enough to live
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with freedom have stood in solidarity with the people of Iran as they continue to fight for theirs.
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From Vancouver to London and everywhere in between, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets
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to be a voice for the voiceless. Now, unless you've been living under a rock, you've undoubtedly seen
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something about what's going on in Iran. To put it bluntly, protests that started off as economic have
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quickly turned into an all-out revolution with the goal of overthrowing the Islamic Republic regime.
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Now, the regime has responded to these unarmed protesters with military-grade weapons. And what has
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resulted is, it's a massacre. Thousands, if not tens of thousands of people have been killed by the
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regime and its forces. Now, the coverage of all this has been lacking, to put it lightly, from both
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the international and the local media. Now, nobody expects local media to stay on top of what's
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happening on the ground in Iran. But a lot of people are arguing that they owe it to the people
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fighting for their freedom to shine a spotlight on the protests happening here in town. Because what a lot
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of people don't realize is that the chants that we hear at the protests here in Vancouver, in Toronto,
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in Montreal, in London, those are merely echoes of what people are chanting in Tehran, in Mashhad.
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But the difference is, because of the internet blackout and all that, it's been hard for them to
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to get their voice heard by the international community. And so, these events that are held
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almost daily here in Vancouver, they're quite important to cover. And that's not to say there
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hasn't been any coverage. There has. But according to people I've talked to, and from chants that you
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hear out on the streets, it's just not enough. A couple of weeks ago, for example, as the protesters
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made their way down West Georgia Street, they passed the CBC building and chanted.
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So, from what I've been told by those protesting, media, do better.
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This is shaping up to be one of, if not the biggest massacre of civilians this century.
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And, you know, a lot of people, they're getting the feeling, if this was happening anywhere else in
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the world, there would be wall-to-wall coverage. But because it's in Iran, you know, people have just
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been sadly accustomed to hearing, oh, another regime crackdown. Okay. Well, that's just how things are.
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And that's not okay. And, you know, I've been told repeatedly that this time is different.
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Because you've got to understand, like, people in Iran, they've been trying to overthrow the regime
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for 47 years now. And time and time again, you know, there's support from the international
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community and then it fizzles out. And, you know, it's the people who suffer in the end.
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This time, more people have spoken out. You know, the EU, they just recently
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labeled the IRGC a terrorist organization. And, you know, from both sides of the Atlantic,
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in North America and in Europe, there have been renewed calls for an end to the regime.
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But these people, they're out in full force here in Vancouver almost every day.
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And, you know, as members of the media, whose job is to highlight the stories that matter and
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give a voice to the voiceless, I think we could be doing a lot better.
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Well, that pretty much does it for this week. What do you think? Are the BC conservatives at risk of
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becoming too liberal? Should the government regulate headlight brightness? And what role do we play as
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citizens of free countries in uplifting the voices of people all around the world as they fight against
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tyrannical regimes? Let me know. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter at WSONLINE NEWS and at