George Baker

Should Food Cost More?

A little bit of news from Pete Fry: he’ll be recommending that sole ABC Vancouver councillor Mike Klassen be reappointed to the Metro Vancouver board. “Mike has a lot of experience, so I’ll be leaning on him.” Also announces that Sean Orr will be the deputy mayor “for the next bit going forward.”

NEW: BC Conservatives brought in a priest to exorcise bad spirits before election night at Rocky Mountaineer Station. Same venue where Kerry-Lynne Findlay was crowned leader months ago, right before her disastrous run. Divine intervention clearly worked. #bcpoli #cdnpoli

Last Vancouver council meeting of the Ken Sim administration. Every four years, there’s a wrapup meeting that takes less than an hour, and is quick administrative things and goodbye speeches. Always a surreal last day of school feeling.

Conversely, I imagine Chip Wilson is peachy today.

All politicians who worship at the altar of low taxes are fundamentally unserious people.

looks like this BC election had the most dismal turnout in provincial history — preliminary results are around 48%, compared to the last low of 54% in 2020. elections.bc.ca/resources/re...

Lorne Doerkson is speaking to media this morning and honestly so far this could be a Premier David Eby speech

Very much this.

This will be the general mood in Vancouver for a bit.

One of the most vocal Alberta separatist leaders weighs in on Wainwright and let’s see what he says… oh

No retired police officers will sit on council this term.

If you're looking for a one-hour show capturing what happened in last night's municipal elections, CBC has you! Just past 8, I'll be on an hour of North by Northwest with Margaret Gallagher and Tanya Fletcher looking at what it means, taking calls, and hearing comments from some of the victors.

I imagine Chip Wilson is not super pleased this morning.

Getting blocked by a pro athlete is pretty hilarious. Likely, the guy has emotional regulation issues and flips out at any inconvenience.

My favourite reddit trope is a thread about someone getting parole. Then the comments are, "why isn't there vigilante justice?" Redditors as Batman is too much. www.reddit.com/r/britishcol...

So they shouldn't put this product out there. That's how it works. AI IS NOT AUTONOMOUS. IT WAS CREATED BY PEOPLE. STOP SAYING IT IS GOD. IT IS A FUCKING MACHINE.

When I decided my dog and cat were my best friends. I was 40. This is anti-social behaviour.

Helen Branswell was an absolute superstar of health reporting, and (through that) journalism on public policy in general. She did globally important work in the COVID-19 pandemic. A Canadian treasure.

NEW: We got consent from 7 unhoused people sheltering along Pandora Ave to hide Apple AirTags in their possessions. This is after years of City of Victoria denying allegations from unhoused ppl & witnesses who said bylaw don't follow their own policies. Now we have proof. Part 1 of 2 stories ⬇️

Baseball players being paid to do sports betting commercials while other baseball players are being federally charged for sports betting is, uh, definitely a choice

New: Here’s what went down behind the scenes 2 years ago when Vancouver Police changed their press release to make it look like my reporting in @thetyee.ca was false, and then launched an attack on X. Thanks to @policeoversight.ca for asking me to write about this bizarre series of events!

and there was no real avenue for DULF to get approved to operate legally through s. 56 of the CDSA. she finds s. 7 of the charter was violated and that declaring s. 5(2) of the CDSA is unconstitutional.

Prime Minister Mark Carney will be in Vancouver tomorrow to highlight "an historic investment in Canada's energy industries" 👀

An individual in Canada used ChatGPT for eight months to plan one of the country’s worst mass shootings. Yet, if you listen to politicians and media, the real threat of AI is a fantastical scenario where it might wipe out humans in ten years. They need to stop getting fooled by tech deceivers.

Just to catch up on AI: People using AI can: --create child porn -- learn how to create efficient killing scenarios -- make deep fake versions of real people -- hack into health systems -- seek therapy advice from chat agent that scrapes responses from reddit

SOGI is friggin high stakes for me. 1) I want my trans grandchildren, and all children, to be protected from bigotry 2) it's a slippery slope for all queer kids 3) it's a slippery slope for EVERYONE. First they came for the trans kids ...

How many own cybertrucks!?

I dunno if the BC Conservatives and One BC will come together at all to form a conservative block, but they do agree with scrapping SOGI 123, which is probably low stakes for voters at this point.

Breaking: British Columbia Premier David Eby calls snap provincial election for October 24

Seniors who were protesting Mark Carney’s Bill c39 and fast tracking of environmental reviews arrested and charged with trespassing on Parliament Hill.

Last weekend, conservatism was dead in BC. Today, progressive politics is on the ropes! Tomorrow, an election shall be called.

My plan was to tally how many "crisis pregnancy centres" had lost charity status or beefed up disclosure of their anti-abortion stances since tighter restrictions were announced in 2024. Instead I discovered the Liberals had quietly abandoned this promise. theijf.org/article/otta...

I am back on Blue Sky after taking a break. Here is what I learned: