BC Business
We assess how different people/things and, of course, businesses fared this week.
What does “getting back to normal” mean?
Well, it means restaurants and bars, haircuts and professional sports. All things we’re seeing now, even if they are altered slightly (haircuts with masks) or dramatically (Major League Soccer—and soon the NHL—with no fans).
But if you want something that signifies a return to how things used to be and really hasn’t changed at all, we’ve got something for you: political bickering.
Yep, after months of mostly ceasing fire for the perceived greater good of handling a pandemic, our provincial politicians are now back in full-on war mode.
And it’s kind of awesome.
Here’s what else made the grade (and what didn’t) this week.
The Vancouver food delivery company is making moves, having acquired apparent U.S. rival (here’s where we cop to never having heard of them before) Chewse.
(Top three things we would have guessed Chewse was:
But it’s a big deal for Foodee, which is putting its recent $13-million fundraising round to good use.
First, kudos to the CBC on the headline here. That’s first-rate clickbait, and since the broadcaster depends on getting every bit of revenue it can from online readers, it’s super important they phrased it like that.
In seriousness, it’s great news for the local economy that Osoyoos is bumping these days. “Our businesses are certainly getting some business” is a real quote in the CBC article, and who can argue with that?
But yeah, if you’re going to visit a smaller community, wear a mask.
What would we be if we weren’t giving some cred to other report cards out there? Here’s one from Insights West that estimated Premier John Horgan’s approval level at 68 percent, higher than for any B.C. political party leader since the outlet began tracking eight years ago.
Disasters of any kind can usually lift up a government if they act in any way responsibly (see Ontario and Doug Ford a few months ago), but it’s admittedly been hard to fault Horgan even a little bit (and we love getting pedantic) for his government’s response to COVID-19.
Which of course brings us to…
It’s over, folks. The grace period in which the two major political parties in this province decided to put down the swords and work for the good of residents is apparently only a thing during a global pandemic.
Sure, some of has been that trickling out, like BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson asking, “Where’s John Horgan?”—ostensibly because he had nothing else to complain about when it comes to the BC NDP’s COVID response.
But lately, things have taken a major turn. Let’s go over some recent headlines from the parties’ own websites, shall we?
“John Horgan’s NDP offers dire economic forecast ”“NDP says addictions can be helped with a cup of tea'”“Andrew Wilkinson lies to people of Surrey about Budget 2020” “B.C. Liberal Leader Wilkinson’s budget math off by $25 billion”
Don’t look now, but we’re (at most) less than a year and a half away from an election, baby! Let’s go.