British Columbia

B.C. judge muses 'life imitates art' before describing a failed class action lawsuit as a repeat of deceptive marketing practices carried out by the Duff Beer company in a 'notorious' Simpsons episode

Summary

• British Columbians overwhelmingly favour the provincial foreign buyer tax and the federal two-year ban on foreign real estate purchases, a new poll shows. But developers, experiencing a bitter downturn, are pushing the government to ditch policies that curb foreign investment. They say they desperately need investors to return to the market.

• According to a recent paper, in the 1980s, the government opened its doors to wealthy migrants with the Business Immigration Program that allowed about 200,000 people, mostly from East Asia, into Canada, until it was shelved in 2012. Instead of spurring entrepreneurial activity and stimulating the economy, wealthy migrants invested heavily in property.

• After much reluctance, the B.C. Liberal government finally responded with a 15 per cent foreign buyer tax in 2016. It was too little, too late for the party, and the next year the NDP took over the government and increased the tax to 20 per cent. They also introduced other demand-side measures, including the speculation and vacancy tax, which requires citizens to declare if they are paying Canadian income tax and if the home is a principal residence.

• There are signs that in the current market downturn, the development community would like to reopen those doors to outside money. Condo marketer Bob Rennie said racism is driving the pushback against foreign investor buying.

• Rennie recently spoke on an real estate industry panel hosted by Postmedia. He said he’d been talking to Mark Carney about opening rental housing development to foreign investment. Mr. Rennie also said he was opposed to the foreign buyers’ tax from the start, and believed it was a racist policy.

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Milokay says that bears who have been habituated to human food can try to rip open garage doors and break windows once they want to get their reward.

She admits starting a political party from scratch is difficult — and expensive. But it was the only option after Kirkpatrick realized the B.C. United board was not willing to push Falcon out as leader, making it impossible to rebuild the party.

A special committee of the B.C. legislature will look at electoral reform including proportional representation in B.C., but don't expect another referendum.

"I'm not planning and I don't think we are planning on a referendum," Government House Leader Mike Farnworth said in discussing the special committee mid-Wednesday afternoon.

The Special Committee on Democratic and Electoral Reform was announced Wednesday (April 9). Consisting of seven members, it will make recommendations around increasing democratic engagement and voter participation with a report due back Nov. 26. The committee will also review the last provincial election based on the official report from Elections BC with a final report including recommendations for improvements due May 14, 2026.

Province-wide referendums on electoral reform failed in 2005, 2009 and 2018. The first two came during the government of former B.C. Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell, the third during the minority government of late premier John Horgan, whose party had campaigned on the issue in 2017.

The first two asked British Columbians whether they wanted to replace the current first-past-the-post system with a single-transferable-vote system. The third essentially amounted to a multiple-choice test when voters had to first decide between the current system and proportional representation, then decide between three versions of proportional representation if they wanted a new system.

Farnworth said looking at different electoral systems could be one way to improve democratic engagement, pointing to declining voter turnout. It was around 58 per cent per cent in 2024, up from 2020 (53.8 per cent) but below 2017 (61.18 per cent). In 2001, voter turnout was almost 71 per cent.

"The Premier (David Eby) has acknowledged that the question in the last referendum was pretty much indecipherable. So the work of the committee will be to have a further look at electoral reform, including proportional representation, but we could look into the way in which to frame a question or path forward."

He also pointed to one possible way to raise democratic engagement: lower the voting age of 16, a move that has already happened in several jurisdictions.

A letter typed on B.C. legislative assembly stationery signed by Conservative Party MLA Anna Kindy and several other elected officials that backs a controversial federal election candidate has raised concerns about the ethical implications of sending out a partisan message from the legislature.

Source

The 2 big parties make up 88% of the vote.