The View Up Here

This is it. The View Up Here Festivus Finale. Six years. Twelve seasons. More than 55,000 listens. Scandals. Whistleblowers. Campaigns. Anonymous. Occupy. Memorials. Too many Federal bills to count. Too many topics, too many rants, too many lulz. Way too much butthurt. For and against. Frans, enemies, promotions, campaigns positive and negative. Smoker Sundays. Church of the Hidden Realities. The Smarks. MMM Live on the 5's. TVUH Globals. Shows launched. Shows ended. Shows destroyed. Wars...

This final new episode of The View Up Here will try to demonstrate the irony in picking that name for the project back in 2014. After the 2008 meltdown, the opportunity existed for a brief moment in time to actually change the systemic abuse and domination by those who run the machine. A new generation with a new way of communicating were looking for change. And with this new part of society seeking to change things came new ways of organizing and taking action. The status quo lagged in...

Canadian Federal Election 43 is over. Too bad the misinformation about it isn't over as well. Unfortunately, that likely will not end. Ever. No party achieved a majority of seats, with the Liberal Party of Justin Trudeau coming the closest with 157, thirteen short of the magic number. The Conservative Party certainly made gains, from 99 on election night last time to 121 this time. But that is still regarded as a huge failure considering the problems the Liberals worked themselves into and...

Remember that excruciatingly long 2015 Federal campaign in Canada? With the one party that had that leader nobody respected outside of his ever-shrinking cult? The same party that insisted that Other Guy just couldn't handle the big chair? Well, it didn't turn out so well for that party, to most of Canada's relief. So this time around that party will have learned from that lesson, right? Right? Apparently not. The way they see it, they didn't go far enough to ensure their narrative...

A global disruption machine has been roaming the globe for some time now. Seeking political upheaval and piles of transitory revenue it's been rolling along without effective counter-measures. Until Canada. Familiar tactics and methodology have not yielded the same results to date. A level of political party collusion, be it temporary or strategic, has appeared in Canada like never before. Grievances have always existed between the Provinces and Ottawa but now they are being manufactured and...

Climate Change and the Environment are issues in this election like never before. All polling shows that Canadians across the spectrum recognize the urgency to take real action and change the way things have been done for so long. The reasons vary, from the concern for future generations to the dependency on a dying industry to the mass extinction of flora and fauna to the sheer cost on our way of life. The generational divide on this growing problem will continue to get more pronounced and...

There is no question that the behaviour depicted in past incidents by Justin Trudeau creating the "Brownface/Blackface" scandal is racist behaviour. Society changes at glacial speed and similar incidents still take place in present day. But the period of time straddling the beginning of the 21st century is not our distant past. And to his credit, Justin Trudeau said so himself when accepting responsibility for the evidence presented to an astonished global audience. The speed with which the...

It has become an assumed fact by Canadians and others that in international surveys looking at standard of living, healthcare, education, public safety or stability that Canada will be in the first five poistions. It didn't happen by accident or without decades of work by politicians and activists of all stripes to make Canada a global leader in quality of life. But standards only remain with constant maintenance, examination and the will to make necessary changes. Is it an engineered lack...

Here we go Canada. The Writ must be dropped by September 17th for General Election 43. Can you tell? In a word... nope. The same lacklustre campaigns on social media and television have maintained the same predictable messaging since Parliament rose in June. The Party primary slogans have been rolled out and the only thing they share is the simplicity and vagueness of them all. Trying to keep it simple appears to be the name of the game. Will any of them work is the question that will be...

Manitoba votes on September 10th in its 39th Provincial election to fill the 57 seats of the Legislature. But despite a fixed election date law, Premier Brian Pallister has chosen to go to the polls over a year earlier than necessary. Why you may ask? Some opinions lean towards the Conservative brand gameplan of solidifying enough Provincial governments to enable the possible amendment of the Canadian Constitution with a Federal Conservative win this October. Some opinions point to the...

There is no denying it any longer, even if the establishment in academia, media and government itself keeps on trying. Populism is alive and growing in Canada. Not all versions of populism are the same as history shows us. Some versions have had positive results but those historical legacies are not what we are seeing across the world in the so-called "liberal democracies". This 21st century trend leans toward "Ordered Populism" which feeds on authoritarianism and a moral certainty that...

Outrage is for sale or rent to any group that can afford to have it manufactured. There certainly is no shortage of what would be the manufacturers themselves. Messaging campaigns are part of every industry, including politics. And yes it is lucrative. The marketplace for outrage is a true growth industry, just look around. Once outrage has been promoted, the drum beat of repitition must be maintained or increased or softened as required. Of course if you are being told that some issue is...

There is always a degree of changeover, an attrition rate, as every Parliament ends and the election process gets rolling. History tells us that it is usual for the party in power to have fewer Members of Parliament decline to run for re-election than opposition parties. The exception being when the governing party knows their time in power is ending, as in the Progressive Conservatives in 1993 when over a third of caucus saw the writing on the wall and thought better of it. Since the...

Canada's Federal election nears and we have never seen this current level of collusion between the Federal and Provincial conservative-based political parties. On many fronts, with corporate press assistance, there is a common narrative but it is not credible to oppose the suggested targets of the overall campaign. At first, things such as a Constitutional challenge to the policy of Federal Carbon Pricing seemed legitimate, if somewhat over-dramatic. Coincidentally it was only conservative...

The Council of Federation is the official name for the 13 leaders of Canada's Provincial and Territorial governments to congregate and accomplish... nothing much. Ever. Lots of communiques and photo-ops and demands and bluster, but scant little on actual movement towards solving any of the issues they insist Ottawa is responsible for creating. Because, of course, it could never be their own doing. The most outstanding difference in this year's attendees is that they were all male. For the...

It's the Extreme Marketing Event again. Considering the history of outrageous stipulations for matches at this event, this year's edition is pretty much middle of the pack. Ballooning to TEN matches, we have EIGHT titles up for grabs with rumours about the only holdout, the Intercontinental title, somehow showing up. Well maybe, but a lot more people expect a Boss to turn up. And maybe a Beast. Or maybe not. Considering this event is in Philadelphia, plus the recent increase in the Heyman...

"When They Came For The Beach" tells the story of a group of friends living in direct proximity to what some want to become an oil tanker parking lot. There is no doubt that working, living and playing in the Lower Mainland around metro Vancouver is a unique lifestyle that, like anywhere else, can be taken for granted with familiarity and routine. But can it be taken for granted without worry anymore? Based on real events, this is the first novel from author, economist, corporate executive...

After more than two years of orchestrated panic, corporate media (mis)direction, intensive industry lobbying, legislative time-delaying and threats of litigation from industry-captured Provincial governments... Bill C-69 is now law. No more National Energy Board on new projects. No more Canadian Environmental Assessment Act 2012 pre-determining the "review process". Considering the complete failure of that regime from the Harper era that resulted in nothing other than Federal Court appeals,...

Stomping Grounds will be the inaugural event under this name and it goes in the Tacoma Dome this Sunday, June 23. When you look at the card, the overwhelming theme seems to be...rematch. Which seems counterproductive if you want to be favourable, pedantically weak creative support forcing a deja vu card if you want to be a little more...smarky. Regardless... it is what it is. Nine matches, seven for belts and a single steel cage and one triple threat thrown in that subset for effect. But...

We are in the last scheduled week of sitting for Canada's 42nd Parliament. Normal procedures would be the House rises for Summer Recess, they return for one day in early September for a Motion of Dissolution, after which the Prime Minister asks the Governor-General to dissolve the House and drop the Election Writ. However...this may not be a normal recess. The rush is on to pass legislation for Royal Assent before that election campaign can begin and both the House and Senate have extremely...