by Sean Orr | Is joke? Canada to send troops to Latvia for new NATO brigade. I guess Trudeau finally realized that the Baltics were a thing.

Blame Obama. Or rather, the Liberals’ infatuation with the only president who ever served two full terms in office while constantly being at war. “It’s Parliament not a group of 14-year-old girls having a private Justin Bieber concert”: ‘Four more years’: Canadian MP chanting for Obama draws White House reaction.

The response was so exuberant that Canadian MPs gave him a standing ovation while he was asking for more money from Canada, to meet its unreached military spending targets at NATO. Obama cleverly slid that request into a section of his speech filled with natural applause lines, about the world needing more Canada and the quality of the northern neighbour’s soldiers

Blinded by the Right: Where’s Canada’s Bernie Sanders? Where’s British Columbia’s Elizabeth Warren? Too busy being NIMBYs probably. Too busy calling millennials apathetic. Too busy hoping for a Canadian Bernie Sanders in the midst of a worldwide upsurge in class-based mobilization.

Too busy not understanding intersectionality: Black Lives Matter failed to show respect at Pride parade. Pride is political. It always has been despite bland, corporate pinkwashing. It needs to include everyone and people need to understand that black rights don’t cancel out white rights, that cop’s rights aren’t a thing and, as Nora Loretto reminds us, “don’t worry, you still have the St. Patrick’s Day parade”.

You’re doing it wrong: Prohibit marijuana for Canadians under 25? How about a hit of reality.

Young people are already disproportionately affected by cannabis prohibition, particularly marginalized youth, who account for the highest rates of drug-related offences today.

But is it really a surprise Ottawa would get marijuana legalization wrong when they’re busy shutting down kids’ lemonade stands for not having a permit?

Silly kids, if they wanted to make money they should have started an Airbnb. No permits needed! Vancouver investigates Kitsilano apartment block hosting 17 Airbnb units. “They’re SROs so they’re pretty hard to rent out the way they are,” says the property manager with a straight face in a city with the lowest vacancy rate in Canada.

Someone made a map of all the schools that are being considered for closure. Take a wild guess where most of them are located. Hint: it’s in the area that is absorbing all of the city’s densification efforts while becoming unaffordable for families at a lightning pace. You got this!

Meanwhile, Education minister interferes in the sale of Kingsgate Mall for political gain: Things that make you go Hmmmmm, Mike Bernier vs VSB edition. “Just like many parents, I am disappointed that the Vancouver School Board has put their desire to own a mall ahead of services for students”. They don’t own the mall. They own the land. The mall is leased by the Beedie Group. The Beedie Group are BC Liberal donors. Math hard. Politics easy.

So, while the BC Liberals chronically underfund education and bully school boards, I give you this 2007 opinion piece by Christy Clark telling parents to enrol their children in public schools. She then enrolled her child at a private school.

Serene austerity: B.C. parks down to 7 full-time rangers. “Seven full-time park rangers are now responsible for patrolling 14 million hectares of protected areas in the province — an area larger than the size of Greece”.

Bonus: this Labatt’s 50 commercial was shot in Vancouver, circa 1973.