Description: Dan Levitt had been working in the field of Senior’s Health Care for many years and he recently visited a marvelous new program in the Netherlands that he thinks points the way to the future for us here in Canada. It’s all about dignity.

Recorded: January 8, 2015

Episode Number 140: Mark LaLonde

Description: Between attacks in Quebec, Ottawa, Sydney and now Paris, among other places, we are now confronting world-wide terrorism in at least two recognizable forms: The Lone Wolf and the Dedicated, Trained and Organized Terrorist. Mark LaLonde, Director of International Operations for ckrglobal, travels the globe consulting on security issues for governments, business and NGOs.

Recorded: January 14, 2015

Episode Number 141: James O’Rourke

Description: James O’Rourke, Executive Director of VisionQuest Recovery Society, runs one of the biggest, toughest and best drug, alcohol and ex-con rehab programs in B.C. Why then, when he has signed contracts with ministries of the provincial government, (incidentally, saving us millions each year by keeping people out of expensive and useless prisons), does he have to keep waiting for his cheques to arrive and run up deficits.

Recorded: January 21, 2015

Episode Number 142: Jordan Bateman

Description: Jordan Bateman is the BC Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and he has become the face and voice of the “NO” vote in the upcoming plebiscite on a new transportation tax.

Recorded: February 4, 2015

Episode Number 143: Wesley Mussio

Description: ICBC has gone to BC Supreme Court, The Supreme Court of Canada and the BC Court of Appeal in a fruitless attempt to stop a small non-profit website from calling itself ICBCadvice.com. ICBC has lost all three cases. Wes Mussio is a claims lawyer familiar with the issues.

Recorded: February 11, 2015

Episode Number 144: Bob Mackin

Description: Bob Mackin has been covering the Translink story as long and as thoroughly as anyone in local journalism. He writes for the Vancouver Courier, the Georgia Straight, The Tyee and he can be seen and heard regularly on TV & radio. The simple question is: Should Translink in its present form and with its current track record be entrusted to spend a few billion dollars more of public money?

Recorded: February 18, 2015

Episode Number 145: Alym Amlani & Ronald Rensink

Description: Do we really have free will and freedom of choice? What about all those ‘hidden persuaders in public and business life? Alym Amlani is a Professor of Accounting at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Ronald Rensink is a Professor of both Psychology and Computer Science at UBC. It doesn’t hurt that Amlani is also a magician. What he shows us is AMAZING…
SEE ALSO: http://alym.com/ and http://www.psychologyofmagic.org

Recorded: February 25, 2015

Episode Number 146: Monica McGovern & Irene Lansinger

Description: ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) and the B.C. Federation of Labour combined efforts recently in getting the provincial government to rescind their decision to claw back child support payment to people on disabilities. This was a rare and major achievement for poverty advocacy groups. The two organizations now continue their efforts to raise the minimum wage in B.C. from $10.25/hr to $15.

Recorded: March 4, 2015

Episode Number 147: Gwen Barlee

Description: We are spending way more on advertising and marketing our parks here in Beautiful Supernatural BC than we are on maintaining and protecting them. Can that make any fiscal sense? Gwen Barlee, the Policy Director for wildernesscommittee.org. thinks not.

Recorded: March 11, 2015

Episode Number 148: Brenda Plant

Description: Turning Point Recovery Centre would like to open a nine-bed facility for men in the Parkland neighbourhood in North Vancouver and some residents are not very welcoming. Brenda Plant, the Executive Director of Turning Point, explains what the program is and how it works and attempts to allay any fears or concerns.

Recorded: March 18, 2015

Episode Number 149: Saleema Noon

Description: Saleema Noon is a sexual health educator who is regularly invited into schools, usually by PACS, parent advisory councils, to teach kids from Kindergarten to Grade 7 the basic information about this subject.

Recorded: March 25, 2015

Episode Number 150: Noel Herron

Description: With over 2,000 BC children coming to school every day hungry, Noel Herron of the Justice Not Charity Working Group would like to see the Provincial Government adopt social policy that provides for universal education, including meals for those who can’t afford them. Liveable wages are a better program than donated socks and canned goods.

Recorded: April 1, 2015

Episode Number 151: Dr. Sue Hughson

Description: Can you be good without God? That is one of the many questions posed by people who have chosen to call themselves ‘humanists’ and live without the certainties offered by the world’s familiar religions. Dr. Sue Hughson is the President of the B.C. Humanists Association. bchumanists.ca

Recorded: April 8, 2015

Episode Number 152: Connor & Duncan Fesenmaier

Description: Not all kids in B.C. smoke pot. Twin brothers Connor & Duncan Fesenmaier, Surrey high school students, are active members of SAM – C, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which advocates neither legalization nor heavy jail sentences for casual users. Challenging the status quo, however, can be both dangerous ad costly.

Recorded: April 22, 2015

Episode Number 153: Anne McMullin

Description: Does Vancouver actually have a City Plan? Does the city work well with developers? Should we worry about land parcels being bought for re-development? What about people vs. profits, or mid-rise vs.hi-rise? All of these concerns and more are addressed by Anne McMullin, President of the Urban Development Institute here in Vancouver.

Recorded: April 29, 2015

Episode Number 154: Barry Growe

Description: The Little Mountain Housing project, which for many years was home to over 200 low-income families, has been sitting barren and deserted for a long time now. The story of how this community was pulled apart by bad government policy and a bad land deal is shameful. Barry Growe represents C.A.L.M., Community Advocates for Little Mountain.

Recorded: May 6, 2015

Episode Number 155: Herbert Chandra Spencer

Description: The Residential Tenancy Act is supposed to protect both landlords and renters, but it doesn’t have many teeth and the provincial government is not showing a lot of enthusiasm for real oversight. Opposition NDP MLA for Vancouver West, Herbert Chandra Spencer, is asking the party in power to step up to the plate.

Recorded: May 20, 2015

Episode Number 156: Dan Levitt

Description: Government cutbacks to care for seniors who are living in their own homes point to more and more elderly citizens being shipped off to residential care homes or, worse, hospitals. This doesn’t seem to make a lot of fiscal sense. Dan Levitt is the Executive Director of Tabor Village Seniors Care Home in Abbotsfrd and an Adjunct Professor of Gerontology at Simon Fraser University.

Recorded: May 27, 2015

Episode Number 157: Pam McColl

Description: Pam McColl of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, Canada has published a new book of essays called “On Marijuana.” She explains that she is not trying to rid the earth of pot, only that she thinks we should resist the current push to normalize and legalize pot. She fights this somewhat lonely and valiant fight on many fronts.

Recorded: June 3, 2015

Episode Number 158: Melanie Graham

Description: What is Canada? What are our core values and for what do we hope in the near future? These are the kind of questions that Melanie Graham will be putting to Canadians all across the country as she begins what she calls the “mother of all road trips.” Definding Canada will emerge as a book and a video piece and a film and who knows what else. Support it.

Recorded: June 17, 2015

Episode Number 159: MARIO CANSECO

Description: MARIO CANSECO, Vice President of Insights West, Public Affairs, takes a hard, honest and informed look at what all the noise is about in the Vancouver housing market, and what, if anything, is to be done. Then a quick survey of other top-of-the-headlines issues like the upcoming federal election, and the transit plebiscite.

Recorded: June 24, 2015

Episode Number 160: DR. WILBOUR KELSICK

Description: The scandals of corruption, money laundering, bribery and nepotism continue unabated in the world of high level international sport. Dr. Wilbour Kelsick, a local sports chiropractor, has been working with elite athletes his whole life in countries around the world and he confirms that corruption is commonplace.

Recorded: July 8, 2015

Episode Number 161:ADRIAN MASTRACCI

Description: The economic collapse in Greece and the dip in Chinese markets may have some scurrying for cover. But Adrian Mastracci, Portfolio Manager at KCM Wealth Management, says stick to your basic investment strategies.

Recorded: July 15, 2015

Episode Number 162: JORDAN BATEMAN

Description: Dr. No is alive and well in Vancouver. His name is Jordan Bateman and he is the B.C. Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He led the ground swell that resulted in a decisive victory for the NO side in the recent transit tax levy plebiscite.

Recorded: July 22, 2015

Episode Number 163: GORD BYLO

Description: Gord Bylo’s son, Brian, changed almost overnight in his late teens from being an elite athlete, a first class student and the most popular kid in school to being schizophrenic, a user of cocaine and other substances and a petty crook. As if that weren’t challenge enough for the boy and his dad and his mom and siblings, everyone now had to deal on a daily basis with the unmanageable bureaucracies of corrections, the police, the courts, health care, mental health and addictions. This is a compelling, maddening and true story.

Recorded: July 29, 2015

Episode Number 164: IGLIKA IVANOVA

Description: Is $10/day universal day care really possible in this country at this time.? A major new study by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Senior Economist, Iglika Ivanova, argues that yes it reallyis and we must do it for women, for children, for equality, for education and for the economy.

Recorded: August 5, 2015

Episode Number 165: NDP MLA BRUCE RALSTON

Description: It was two years ago that, with considerable fanfare, the provincial government announced the passing of Bill 12: The Community Safety Act. But as recently as two months ago, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Suzanne Anton, admitted that this initiative has stalled completely because there is no money for it. NDP MLA Bruce Ralston is not satisfied and wants to know when and how the citizens of his district of Surrey-Whalley can feel safer in their community.

Recorded: August 12, 2015