BCBusiness Report Card: Come one, come all political party leaders

We assess how different people/things and, of course, businesses fared this week

It’s been a big week for B.C. Perhaps coincidentally but almost definitely not, it’s become The Week That Political Party Leaders Stop By.

There was People’s Party of Canada boss Maxime Bernier in Surrey, where some applauded him and others protested while he took shots at a teenage activist.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau also stopped by the city, drawing a sizable crowd. Trudeau also swung by Delta to make a few announcements.

The NDP’s Jagmeet Singh was in his home riding of Burnaby, while Andrew Scheer said he couldn’t be at the climate change rally in Montreal because he was going to be in Vancouver Friday…where there’s also a climate change rally that he won’t be attending.

Elizabeth May of the Green Party, meanwhile, was elsewhere in the country. OR WAS SHE??? Photoshop can work miracles these days, so who knows what the Saanich–Gulf Islands MP was up to. 

Here’s what we thought made the grade (and what didn’t) this week.

Political promises specific to B.C.

Grade: A

These were everywhere.

Trudeau promised tax cuts for enviro-friendly homes and, in Delta, pledged to fund the Massey Tunnel replacement project.

Singh laid out plans for a New Deal for B.C. that will target affordable housing and combat climate change.

And Bernier spoke out against a teenager and argued in favour of limited immigration.

That all seems on-brand.

Outdoorsy

Grade: A–

What happened to your insurance premium this year? It’s unlikely that you benefited as much from the new rules as Outdoorsy, a peer-to-peer RV rental marketplace. Because insurance now follows drivers and not cars, people can comfortably list their camper vans, motorhomes or rigs on Outdoorsy and sites like it.

Conceived in North Vancouver and co-founded by a Canadian, the San Francisco–based company expects to drastically increase its footprint in B.C. in the coming years.

So when you see an inflated premium on your bank statement, you can at least take solace in the fact that someone is benefiting.

Burnaby Board of Trade

Grade: B+

The BBOT’s motion encouraging and supporting more women on corporate boards passed at this weekend’s annual Canadian Chamber of Commerce AGM in Saint John, New Brunswick.

And that must have been tough. Starting a motion and getting it approved at a meeting of Canadian chambers of commerce? How many nitpicky rules and guidelines does one have to go through at a meeting like that? Sheesh. 

Props to the BBOT for putting in a motion that (ostensibly) no chamber in Canada could get riled up about.

Vancouver International Airport 

Grade: B

The province’s biggest airport has collected its share of accolades. Whenever there’s any sort of “most beautiful airport” contest around the world, YVR is always at the top of the list. But how about a ranking that doesn’t care about the nitty gritty—one that purely measures how effective an airport is?

Well, YVR finished sixth among large airports in J.D. Power’s 2019 North America Airport Satisfaction Survey.

It also scored much higher than any of its Canadian counterparts. Don’t get too comfortable, Portland International! YVR is coming for you. 

Protests

Grade: B–

The climate change rallies held around the world on Friday weren’t the only demonstrations in B.C. this week.

Did you miss the 200 logging trucks rolling through downtown Vancouver? The crew, from all over the province, was protesting the state of small-town B.C., and especially an embattled forestry industry.

They were in Vancouver specifically because of the Union of BC Municipalities meeting, but having the two events in the same week seems like the kind of irony you’d want to lick off a plate. Delicious.

Plastic Bag Association

Grade: C

The PBA (not sure that’s an official acronym, but we’re going with it) is back on its heels, as Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps is bringing a case against the Baggies to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Helps is appealing a decision by a lower court that struck down the city’s bylaw barring businesses from providing customers with single-use plastic bags.

Did you hear that one about the plastic bag court case?

They tried to carry the motion, but it ripped and broke on the street.

OK, we’ll stop.

Alberta 

Grade: D

If you needed proof that Alberta trying to “turn off the taps” on B.C. wasn’t going to work, then we’re just not sure what to tell you.