On this episode of Journal, we try to untangle the complicated, twisted world of transit.

I think most would agree that good transit makes for a liveable city or region and also helps with affordability. So when Translink announced that by June of this year, they would be running a $600 million deficit and would have to start cutting service, it got my attention.

Already there are some routes where the bus is full by the first stop, and others where service is too infrequent to be useful. So more people, less service – and a huge deficit.

Even more surprising was trying to figure out who is actually driving the bus. Who is responsible for a regional transit plan? Is there one? Since the business plan is obviously broken, who has the authority to fix it?

TransLink – the organization that announced it was in trouble – has its own board of directors but it isn’t exactly independent. The Mayor’s Council on Regional Transportation over at Metro Vancouver must approve their budget. But – and it is a big BUT – they can’t tell TransLink how to spend the money.

Ultimately it comes down to the provincial government. In an attempt to stanch the bleeding, the Eby government promised $312 million in operations funding, which will give TransLink stable funding for 2 years. At best, this has been described as a bandaid and not a long-term solution.

Mayor Brad West is the Chair of Metro Vancouver’s Mayor’s Council on regional transportation. He is very aware of the weaknesses inherent in this overlapping governance model and has some thoughts on the need for a long term solution.

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On this edition of Journal: in the midst of political turmoil on all fronts, we take a look at how democracy is holding up as a governance construct. Too often, the phrase thrown at political adversaries is that you or your party are a threat to democracy – overused, in my opinion.

As Paul Wells says in one of his thoughtful commentaries, “Democracy is supposed to be a conversation.” But what happens if one of the sides stops talking? For instance, by proroguing parliament because no business could be done while the prime minister refused the Speaker’s order for him to produce requested documents?

Or what happens when the Emergencies Act, a powerful last resort to maintain the security of our nation, is enacted over a messy, noisy truck convoy? The courts eventually found this action to be unreasonable, not justified, and violated the Charter right to freedom of expression.

Or when Bill 7 is written enabling the Premier of British Columbia to override regulations and rules without engaging the legislature, all in the name of Trump tariffs? Public outcry forced Premier Eby to remove the most egregious Clause 4.

What is going on?

We, as a community, as a country, trust in the idea of democracy. We trust our elected leaders to not take advantage of their power position, to not ignore the rights of legislatures or parliaments to be part of the discussion.

So are honking horns and threatening trade tariffs on the same level of national security? I think not.

Clearly, democracy takes vigilance and work. Dr. Stewart Prest, a lecturer in political science at UBC joins me to consider these trends.

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On this edition of Journal: a postmortem on our federal election.

Wow, what a ride! What started out as an expected pounding of then-prime minister Justin Trudeau by the Conservative Party under Pierre Poilievre ended up with a Liberal Party win for political novice Mark Carney, our new prime minister.

Mind you, there were a few bumps along the way – or rather, one big bump: President Trump. If you were writing a script that said, “Out of the blue, an American President will take over the ballot question for a Canadian federal election,” no one would believe you. But he did, by calling Canada his “cherished 51st state.”

All of a sudden we woke up, elbows up, and said, “NO WAY! No way you’re taking our water, no way you are dissolving what you call an ‘artificial line’ that we call a border. No way you are going to bully Canada with threatened tariffs and penalties.”

And so the ballot question became, “Which leader would be stronger in standing up to President Trump?” While there will be lots of finger pointing going forward, the people decided – Mark Carney.

Whatever happened to the anticipated issues: cost of living, inflation, housing, economic blues? All important, all real – but all put aside in the name of national pride. So very interesting.

To help us understand the undercurrents and consequences of this federal election, we are joined by Rob Shaw, senior political correspondent for CHEK-TV. Rob had a front row seat as he covered the drama of this surprising election with his daily reporting insights. What does it all mean for Canada going forward?

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Carole Taylor's Journal is a public affairs dialogue that digs deep into the most pressing issues of our times. For more, see our website at http://www.caroletaylorsjournal.ca.

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On this edition of Journal, we look at how we can’t avoid the escalation in violence against police in British Columbia – police who take an oath to serve and protect us, no matter the cost to themselves.

In just the last 3 months, there have been 35 assaults on Vancouver police officers.

In one horrific attack – one I’m sure we would all like to “unsee” – an officer was doused in a flammable substance and set afire. In this case, the assailant had ten outstanding warrants. In a rare show of emotion, the spokesperson for the Vancouver Police Department said that these attacks were enraging to our officers who are just trying to do their job: protecting us.

So we circle back to the question of why these dangerous individuals are out on our streets. Time and time again, they are repeat offenders, frequently with complex co-occurring mental health and addiction issues.

So how is our system letting all of us – including the police – down?

Is it bail reform that is needed? I mean, really – how can someone come before a judge thirty or more times and still be released?

Is it a lack of mental health support or a lack of involuntary care for those with deep, deep problems?

Is it an addiction treatment model that just doesn’t work?

These are some of the questions Elenore Sturko has been asking in the Legislature as the Conservative Critic for the Solicitor General and Public Safety.

Her passion comes, in part, from her thirteen years experience as an RCMP officer, seeing first-hand the devastation our current approaches have wreaked.

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On this edition of Journal, we look at how inflation and higher costs for just about everything, especially housing, are affecting British Columbians.

Right at the pointy end of the stick are our food banks. They are among the first to sense when something is going very wrong. Usually when you say something has had a record-breaking year, it is a good thing. Not so with food banks.

In the last 5 years, visits to food banks in our province rose 81%. One month topped 100,000 visits, the most ever seen since food banks first started some 40 years ago in this province.

Even more concerning is the change in who is coming through the front door. More and more often, it is someone with a job, but a job that can no longer cover the costs of food and housing in BC. Towards the end of the month, many turn to our food banks for help in feeding their families.

As well, according to Dan Levitt, BC’s Seniors Advocate, many older British Columbians are feeling the squeeze, trying to pay their rising bills on a fixed income. Sadly, it is often the cost of food that is one bill too far – thus they turn to our food banks as well.

Food Banks BC is the provincial association of food banks; over a hundred hunger relief agencies belong. As executive director, Dan Huang-Taylor supports the mission to not only meet the emergency short term needs of British Columbians, but also work with others towards a hunger free community – a monumental task to take on.

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On this episode of Journal, we try to understand the complexity of our interprovincial trade barriers – those infamous barriers everyone is now talking about. One man who knows something about this is Colin Hansen, one of British Columbia’s most accomplished politicians.

In Gordon Campbell’s governments, he served as Minister of Health, Finance Minister, Minister of Economic Development, Minister responsible for the Asia Pacific and the Olympics, back to Finance after I left, and then was named Deputy Premier.

One of his most challenging assignments was to tackle the interprovincial trade barriers between BC and Alberta.

Today we have the prime minister, most premiers, and many business people responding to Trump’s ever-changing tariff threats by recognizing that it’s sometimes harder to trade with our own provinces than it is to do business with the United States – thus, the renewed call for free trade within Canada.

Sounds good. I’m all for it, but it is not easy. I watched Colin Hansen struggle in 2006 trying to get a free trade agreement with just one province, Alberta.

Why can’t our doctors, nurses, engineers, etc. automatically have their credentials accepted in every province?

Whose standards for food safety or environmental requirements will be accepted?

I remember during Colin Hansen’s negotiations, there was a moment when we ran into a roadblock – literally – over the size of truck tires, which are different in each province.

So I applaud the words that are being said. It is the right thing to do. But turning those words into action will not be quick. Every province will have their own list of non-negotiables.

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On this edition of Journal, we take a close look at something we all take for granted: water. That is, we took it for granted until President Trump started talking about taking it away from us.

This is particularly important for British Columbia since he has focussed on the mighty Columbia River, whose headwaters are north of Cranbrook.

This is the faucet that the president suggests could be opened so that more of Canada’s water could flow to the US, helping with the drought and wildfires of California. Experts shake their heads at his concept – there is no faucet and the Columbia River doesn’t flow near to California. But politicians are paying attention.

In 1964, after some pretty heavy negotiations, Canada and the United States signed the Columbia River Treaty, giving the two countries shared management of the river. Canada would build dams to control water flow, thus preventing flooding in Washington State. In return, Canada received 50% of the profits from the hydroelectric power produced downstream.

Interestingly, Senator Jack Austin, who was involved in those negotiations, says that Canada got more than it deserved in that Treaty.

As it stands, more than 40% of US hydroelectric power comes from this Columbia River system. So you can see why it has caught the President’s attention.

The Treaty was due to be renegotiated last year but try as they might, to have a new deal ratified before the change in presidency, it didn’t happen. As a result, there is plenty of uncertainty about how aggressive the US will now be to change the deal to their advantage.

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On this edition of Journal, we take a look at the dramatic changes we have seen in policing in the last few decades through the eyes of retiring Chief Constable of the Vancouver Police Department, Adam Palmer.

1987 was the year Adam joined the VPD, becoming Chief Constable in 2015. He leaves as the longest serving Chief in the department’s history. Just imagine how the streets have changed over those four decades.

In ’87, Vancouver was coming off the high of Expo ’86. There was a feeling of pride in our step; after all, we invited the world to our beautiful city. Of course there was a darker crime story as well, but not like today. Now, we are experiencing new and seemingly intractable and overlapping problems. Despite recent data indicating violent crime is actually declining, that’s not how it feels. We have an area of Vancouver that is almost a no-go zone, with homelessness exacerbated by drug addiction and mental illness.

How has our police department had to adapt to these challenges? How has their mandate expanded? What should we be thinking about from a public policy point of view going forward?

Sir Robert Peel, thought to be the father of modern policing, believed in the principle that “we don’t police the community, we police WITH the community”. That has been a hallmark of Adam Palmer’s time as Chief Constable.

At his retirement announcement he said, “This career is full of ups and downs, various crises, challenges, laughter and tears, but it’s also incredibly rewarding and I would do it all over again, in a heartbeat, without thinking twice.”

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