National
Former BC Premier John Horgan passes away at 65

From Resource Works
He will be remembered as a principled, pragmatic, and honest man, and a popular premier during uncertain times.
John Horgan has passed away at 65 after a courageous third battle with cancer.
A born-and-raised Vancouver Islander, Horgan was a tough and resilient man who will be remembered as a popular, pragmatic premier who brought principles and honesty with him while navigating a changing economic and political landscape.
Regardless of partisan affiliation or belief, there is no question that Horgan truly loved his home province of BC and cared deeply for its people and their future.
Horgan’s path to the premier’s office took him across Canada and beyond, first from Victoria to Ontario, then on to Australia, before returning home to Vancouver Island. Between attending university as a young man, Horgan worked in a pulp mill in Ocean Falls, a small community on the Central Coast of BC. This experience provided him with real insight into the province’s resource sector and the communities that depended on it then—and still do today.
From the 1990s, Horgan worked for the BC New Democratic Party in various staff roles before starting his own business after 2001. In 2005, he returned to politics by being elected as the MLA for Malahat-Juan de Fuca (now Langford-Juan de Fuca). Horgan was re-elected five times by the riding’s voters.
In 2014, Horgan became the leader of the BC NDP, and in 2017, he became Premier of BC, the first NDP premier in 16 years. Once in the premier’s office, Horgan championed pragmatic, progressive policies that strove to balance economic growth with sustainability. His work in developing the province’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector was invaluable.
From the outset, Horgan recognized LNG’s potential to modernize the BC economy and make it a key player in global energy markets, and he worked hard to attract investment to the sector. In 2018, he unveiled a new LNG framework that paved the way for LNG Canada’s $40 billion investment in a project that would bring thousands of jobs to northern BC.
Horgan was confident that the LNG sector could coexist with his government’s climate goals and that BC would play a role in reducing global carbon emissions. His pragmatic, forward-thinking vision centered on the ambitious goal of exporting LNG to Asian markets to help them reduce their reliance on higher-emitting energy sources.
Forestry was another sector where Horgan made his mark. Having once worked in a pulp mill, Horgan recognized the importance of forestry to both the province’s history and economy. His approach emphasized sustainability and partnerships with First Nations, while increasing domestic production and reducing log exports. His attempts to modernize forestry had mixed results, but there was no questioning the honesty and good faith he brought to the table.
Another notable aspect of Horgan’s leadership was his commitment to the rule of law, even when it aroused frustration from fellow progressives. In 2020, during the Coastal GasLink protests, Horgan made it clear that the court rulings in favor of the project meant it would proceed regardless. That same year, Horgan acknowledged that the Trans Mountain pipeline project, which his government opposed, would move forward after another court ruling mandated its completion.
It should also be noted that court rulings were some of the only defeats he ever faced as premier, as he led the NDP to a historic victory in the 2020 election. Horgan was also unafraid to take responsibility for policies that went awry, such as stepping back from an unpopular $789-million proposal to rebuild the Royal BC Museum and accepting the blame for it.
Horgan’s leadership of BC during the COVID-19 oubtreak is another part of his legacy that will not be forgotten, especially his trust in British Columbians to be responsible, leading to some of Canada’s most relaxed restrictions during the pandemic.
In 2022, Horgan stepped down after beating cancer for the second time in his life, saying, “While I have a lot of energy, I must acknowledge this may not be the case two years from now.”
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of Horgan’s legacy was that he was a well-liked politician across the political spectrum. While many disagreed with him over policies, few could question that he was an honest and principled leader when it came to steering economic change, respecting the rule of law, and taking responsibility for his actions as premier.
Horgan was a fair, honest, and open-minded man—qualities shared by the best people we meet in life and ones we can only hope all politicians will emulate. We will miss John Joseph Horgan and send our heartfelt condolences to his family, especially his wife and two children.
2025 Federal Election
Mark Carney: Our Number-One Alberta Separatist

By George Koch
While envisioning Carney as an intentional saboteur is probably the stuff of parody, one can seriously state that were he trying to bring about Canada’s destruction, he could hardly fashion a more devilishly effective policy platform, nor a more toxic mode of practising federalism. If he doesn’t alter course dramatically as Prime Minister, he’ll be practically goading Alberta to launch a bid for independence.
You probably need no reminding of how cringeworthy Mark Carney’s professions of devotion to Alberta – “I grew up here” – or his “regular guy” stunts gliding shakily around the ice in an Oilers jersey have been. After rolling our eyes, most of us Westerners instead focused on the Liberal leader’s policies, which would devastate Canada from coast to coast but most particularly the energy-producing West – and which some tried to warn would once again
enflame Alberta separatism. The state-subsidized Laurentian media, however, scoffed at these potentially nation-cleaving risks.
But what if Carney is being true to his word in both cases? What if the Oxford PhD and former governor of both the Bank of Canada and Bank of England is a loyal Albertan to his very bones, his carefully curated persona as bespoke globalist climate-cult prophet an elaborate illusion; but that, at the same time, his policies are intended to wreck Canada, thereby rekindling a Prairie fire of separatism? Imagine that this is precisely Carney’s plan.
Imagine, in other words, that Mark Carney is some kind of Manchurian Candidate or 21 st century Scarlet Pimpernel, a deep-cover sleeper agent, sent East into the very heart of darkness – Ottawa – by a cabal of crafty Albertans intent on gaining independence. His secret mission: to worm his way deep inside Laurentian Canada, gaining the trust of Canada’s immensely arrogant yet not terribly bright Eastern elites, becoming both the manager of an enormous multi-billion-dollar investment fund and the secret right-hand-man of the Prime Minister himself, instructed there to wait until the right opportunity arrived.
And in January 2025, with Justin Trudeau’s resignation, that moment was at hand. Carney was given his ultimate mission: to gain the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada and then to win electoral office with the mission of so misgoverning Canada as to bring about its dissolution and trigger the separation of Alberta.
This might all seem a bit far-fetched, possibly even satirical. But seen this way, certain strange things do begin to make some semblance of sense. Not just Carney’s weird lines about Alberta, but the sheer, wanton destructiveness of his policies.
Think of the $225 billion in federal deficits Carney intends to run over the next four years. Or his hapless responses to U.S. President Donald Trump. His unwavering advancement of the net-zero madness, capable of wrecking Canada’s economy from coast to coast. The equanimity towards Communist China.
Closer to (our) home, the contemptuous dismissals of Premier Danielle Smith who, as premier of Canada’s last remaining truly productive province, is someone whom logic and self-interest would suggest Carney should keep on his side. Instead, he ignores Smith and on the key issues of approving new energy pipelines and ditching the oil and natural gas emissions cap, he speaks out of both sides of his mouth.
While envisioning Carney as an intentional saboteur is probably the stuff of parody, one can seriously state that were he trying to bring about Canada’s destruction, he could hardly fashion a more devilishly effective policy platform, nor a more toxic mode of practising federalism. If he doesn’t alter course dramatically as Prime Minister, he’ll be practically goading Alberta to launch a bid for independence.
Creating a Manchurian Candidate/Scarlet Pimpernel named Mark Carney would be nefarious, devious, conspiratorial and downright evil. The way the CBC, Globe and Mail and various Liberal/NDP/Bloc politicians tell it, of course, there’s no shortage of such people in Alberta. So is it truly impossible? Or perhaps simply moot, Carney’s stated policies being so destructive as to render them indistinguishable from those of a spy.
Post-election, what would signal a looming crisis of national disunity? It’ll begin with the predictable political noise: soaring poll results for Alberta separatism, calls from surprising quarters – such as formerly-complacent corporate leaders – that the province get out from under Ottawa, perhaps a burgeoning independence party challenging Smith’s governing UCP.
There’ll be even more intense courtroom efforts by Alberta to resist federal overreach and unconstitutional laws and policies. Increasingly pointed warnings from Smith that the political situation could spiral out of control. Frequent invocation of Alberta’s Sovereignty Act to deflect abusive federal actions; perhaps even open defiance of the most illegitimate of these.
Alongside that, increasingly concerted measures to prepare the province of Alberta to become the self-governing nation of Alberta. The until now incremental steps to decouple Alberta law enforcement from the RCMP will be sharply accelerated. The so-far somnolent plod to unshackle Albertans from the bloated, under-performing and increasingly woke-driven Canada Pension Plan will be rattled into a sprint.
Alberta’s Department of Finance will be tasked with setting up a branch to start collecting – and keeping – federal taxes. Reports might trickle out of Alberta mapping the outlines of an intelligence service and armed defence force. Emissaries will be quietly sent to pitch First Nations that they’d be better off as Albertans.
Among the world’s currently 195 recognized states, an independent Alberta would have:
The 52 nd largest global economy as measured by its 2024 GDP of $351.4 billion (US$256.2 billion);
A population (4.96 million as of January 2025) larger than those of 70 other sovereign nations;
A land area greater than those of 155 other nations;
Per-capita GDP (US$53,834 in 2024) among the world’s 20 most prosperous nations; and
A GDP sufficient to finance a military approximately as large and effective as Norway’s, a full NATO ally that already flies the F-35 stealth fighter.
In short, Alberta would be as politically and economically viable as Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand and other small but advanced countries.
Note too that these already-favourable statistics assume “all other things remain equal.” But all of those numbers would improve once the great financial anvil of Ottawa was lifted from around Alberta’s neck. This in turn would enable large cuts to income taxes, pension and EI premiums, and other fiscal burdens, sending Alberta soaring far beyond any Canadian province and making it competitive with the best-run U.S. states.
Meanwhile the under-performing remnants of Canada would be cast adrift to sink further towards Third World status. “Canada” would drop several rungs on the ladder of global economies and world population. The more appropriately renamed “Laurentia” might be sent scuttling out of the G7. An impoverished Quebec might depart in a huff as well.
It would take a man of almost preternatural internal fortitude, unquenchable zeal and unwavering focus to bring about such an evident calamity, throwing the fortunes of tens of millions of mostly innocent Canadians onto the flaming pyre for the good of a few million Albertans. But setting aside all satire: with his widely predicted electoral majority in hand, Prime Minister Mark Carney will have free rein to impose his devastating array of policies, systematically undermining the economy, Canadians’ remaining sense of nationhood, individual hope and social stability.
I doubt any free-thinking citizen of Alberta would believe the outlandish tale of how Carney wrecked Canada in order to bring about the glory of independence. And so in a final and bitter irony, ostracized and alone, the man who sacrificed everything for his beloved province –career, reputation, perhaps even his very soul – will not only be shunned from running in the first Presidential Election of the Republic of Alberta, he will likely be denied even the ceremonial role of Ambassador to the impoverished, embittered remnants of Canada, Laurentia.
The original, full-length version of this article was recently published in C2C Journal.
George Koch is Editor-in-Chief of C2C Journal.
2025 Federal Election
Nine Dead After SUV Plows Into Vancouver Festival Crowd, Raising Election-Eve Concerns Over Public Safety

Sam Cooper
In Vancouver, concern about public safety — particularly assaults and violent incidents involving suspects previously known to police — has been a longstanding civic and political flashpoint
In an evolving mass-death investigation that could have profound psychological and emotional impacts on Canada’s federal election, Vancouver police confirmed Sunday that nine people were killed Saturday night when a young man plowed a luxury SUV through a festival block party in South Vancouver, leaving a trail of instant deaths and horrific injuries, with witnesses describing convulsing bodies and wounded toddlers in the aftermath.
The driver, a 30-year-old Vancouver resident known to police, appeared to be shaken and apologetic, according to eyewitness accounts and video from the scene. Authorities stated the case is not being treated as terrorism.
Late Saturday night, Vancouver police confirmed at a news conference that the man, who was known to police “in certain circumstances,” had been arrested.
The incident occurred around 8:14 p.m. during the annual Lapu Lapu Festival, a celebration of Filipino Canadian culture held near East 41st Avenue and Fraser Street. Thousands of attendees had packed the area for cultural performances, food stalls, and community events when the luxury SUV entered the closed-off area and accelerated into the crowd. Photos of the vehicle, with its doors ajar and a crumpled front end, indicate it was an Audi Q7 with black tinted windows.
In Vancouver, concern about public safety — particularly assaults and violent incidents involving suspects previously known to police — has been a longstanding civic and political flashpoint. Saturday’s tragedy sharpened those anxieties, potentially influencing the attitudes of undecided voters in a federal election that has focused on social disorder and crime framed by the Conservative side, with the Liberal frontrunners countering that firmer sentencing laws would undermine Canada’s Charter of Rights.
Witnesses to Saturday’s tragedy described scenes of chaos and terror as the SUV slammed into festival-goers, accelerating through the crowd.
“I thought it was fireworks at first — the sounds, the screams — then I saw people flying,” one witness told reporters on the scene.
Authorities have launched a full criminal investigation into the suspect’s background, including previous interactions with law enforcement.
The tragedy unfolded during the final, high-stakes weekend of Canada’s federal election campaign, throwing public safety and political leadership into sharp relief.
On Saturday night, before news of the Vancouver incident broke, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre posted a message on X at about 10 p.m., declaring, “This election comes down to one word. Change. Our Conservative plan will bring home an affordable life and safe streets — For a Change.”
Meanwhile, Liberal leader Mark Carney, campaigning in the Greater Toronto Area, posted at roughly the same time, “Dropped in on dim sum today in Markham. The best part of this campaign has been meeting Canadians in their communities — and hearing how excited they are about our future.”
As the scale of the tragedy became clear, both leaders shifted sharply in tone.
Poilievre posted again around 1 a.m. Sunday, writing, “I am shocked by the horrific news emerging from Vancouver’s Lapu Lapu Day Festival tonight. My thoughts are with the Filipino community and all the victims targeted by this senseless attack. Thank you to the first responders who are at the scene as we wait to hear more.”
Carney, who had posted shortly before midnight that, “We don’t need anger. We need to build,” followed with a direct statement on the Vancouver attack around 2 a.m. Sunday morning, writing, “I am devastated to hear about the horrific events at the Lapu Lapu festival in Vancouver earlier this evening. I offer my deepest condolences to the loved ones of those killed and injured, to the Filipino Canadian community, and to everyone in Vancouver. We are all mourning with you.”
Online, the tragedy quickly reignited concerns about violent crime, bail, and the rights of offenders — issues that have increasingly polarized Canadian political debate.
In response to Carney’s statement, a comment from an account named Willy Balters reflected the growing anger: “He’ll be out on bail by morning right?”
Another commenter, referencing past political controversies over judicial reform, posted to Carney, “You stood behind a podium and declared murderers’ Charter Rights can’t be violated.”
The raw public sentiment mirrored broader criticisms that Canada’s criminal justice system — and its perceived leniency toward repeat offenders — has failed to keep Canadians safe.
Just days prior, a different incident tapped into similar public anger. B.C. Conservative MLA Elenore Sturko posted, “A visitor to Vancouver was brutally attacked by a man only hours after he was released on bail for assaulting police and uttering threats. @Dave_Eby — is this the kind of welcome visitors to FIFA will have to look forward to? BTW, this violent man is out on bail AGAIN!”
That incident continued to draw heated social media on Sunday, with David Jacobs, a well-known conservative-leaning commenter, posting, “A man, while out on bail for assaulting a peace officer, violently assaulted a woman. He’s out on bail again. The Liberals put criminal rights far ahead of victim rights and community safety. Stop the insanity. Vote for change!”
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