Call for help by British Columbians for BC-STV (Updated)

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Friday April 24, 2009 · 1:11 PM PDT

2009/04/24 · 13:11

For Canadians (and Americans) interested in electoral reform, British Columbia is having a (second) referendum in May to decide whether to switch from the outdated first-past-the-post system to a version of Single Transferable Vote.

In the first referendum on electoral reform, held in 2005, a majority voted in favour of change -- but the "Yes" side did not meet the necessary 60% threshold set by the provincial government in order for the reforms to be passed. Hopes are high that this time the proposal will be successful.

But there's some well-funded resistance to change circling the wagons. So the British Columbians for BC-STV (who are also being supported by Fair Vote Canada) are asking for help in countering the anti-reformers' ad campaign.

Wisewood

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Wednesday January 07, 2009 · 11:20 PM PST

2009/01/07 · 23:20

About a week ago, JohnnyRook posted a diary which touched on the death of 500 ducks, earlier this year, in one of the tailings ponds at a bitumen-extraction site in northern Alberta, Canada. The mine is run by Syncrude, which is one of the larger operators in the Athabasca tar sands.

The death of those ducks made national (and international) headlines, and came at a bad time for the Albertan provincial government, which had just launched an expensive "greenwashing" PR campaign to try and improve the tar sands' poor environmental image. The death of those ducks arguably helped to derail the province's effort at spin, and in a very public way.

But, now, it looks like there's to be further public scrutiny of the World's Dirtiest Oil because of our feathered friends.

Wisewood

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Thursday November 27, 2008 · 9:00 PM PST

2008/11/27 · 21:00

From the Associated Press;

Canada's opposition parties said Thursday they will vote against the Conservative government's economic plan, a move that could trigger an election despite a national vote just last month.

The opposition Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois said they cannot support the government's updated fiscal plan because it offers no stimulus package to deal with the economic crisis.

That's not the half of it, though.

Wisewood

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday September 28, 2008 · 6:16 AM PDT

2008/09/28 · 06:16

There's an election going on up here in Canada, right now. Current Conservative PM Stephen Harper, perhaps feeling pressure on environmental issues from the Green and New Democratic parties, recently made a promise to 'restrict' the exports of raw bitumen, which is the primary product of the Athabasca tar sands projects;

"If re-elected [a] Harper government will prohibit the exportation of bitumen outside of Canada for upgrading in order to take advantage of lower pollution or greenhouse gas emissions standards elsewhere," the Conservatives said in a statement. "We cannot allow companies to increase exports of raw bitumen simply in order to avoid Canadian emissions standards as they are strengthened over the next few years. Nor can we afford to export the jobs and spin-off industrial opportunities by the upgrading of bitumen."

Currently, the only country currently receiving exports of raw tar sands bitumen is the United States - Which could prove a problem for the World's Dirtiest Oil...

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Call for help by British Columbians for BC-STV (Updated)

World's Dirtiest Oil to go on Trial

Canadians may go to the polls... again.

Turning off the tap on the World's Dirtiest Oil?