BCBusiness Report Card: Justin Trudeau looks to the Greens with envy

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

Welcome to another edition of the BCBusiness Report Card.

After last week’s doozy, which the B.C. government brought up in the hallowed halls of the provincial legislature, we’ve realized that every week is not always going to bring obvious patsies.

So if you’re waiting for us to roast someone or something… well, OK, you’ll still get that.

Maybe what we’ve really come to recognize is that if you deserve a bad grade, you’re going to get one. But the same goes for the other way around.

Here’s what we thought passed the mark this week. And what didn’t.

Green Party of Canada

Grade: A+ 

Elizabeth May recently got a partner in life, and now she’s got a partner in the legislature. Get it, girl. 

But in all seriousness, this party is generating some serious traction. There are even rumours that former Liberal MPs Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott will jump to the Greens.

Combined that with green parties gaining ground, not just in B.C. but in places like P.E.I., and it all adds up to an encouraging sign for the upcoming federal election.

Trulioo

Grade: A

The B.C.-based identity verification service introduced a front-end tool called EmbedID that smart tech people are calling a “game changer.”

It will reportedly enable businesses to instantly verify customers in real-time across multiple markets by adding a snippet of code to their websites. In particular, it will be used to help with sign-up or registration forms.

The company is proving that it’s not just a pretty space.

New Westminster

Grade: A– 

Anytime you can get rid of a statue of a racist person, that goes down as a big win. Kudos to the city for doing it, even as some voices in the community insist on being wrong about the issue. Of course there’s still a street in New West that bears Matthew Begbie’s name, as well as an elementary school in Vancouver. Baby steps.

B.C. breweries

Grade: B+

You’ll likely see plenty of familiar names and flavours on this list, and that’s a good thing. B.C. breweries won 51 prizes at the Canadian Brewing Awards earlier this week, coming second only to Ontario, which took home 58. The next closest were Quebec and Alberta, at 25 and 17 respectively.

And, you know, Ontario has way more people, so we pretty much won.

Luxury cars

Grade: C– 

Yooooo, you mean rich people have turned from laundering money in casinos to doing so in luxury cars? Shocking news.

At least the cops found that money wasn’t being laundered at the other main subjects of the investigation, the Hastings Park and Fraser Downs horse racing tracks. Thank goodness millennials can still go in good faith and pretend it’s the Kentucky Derby.

But since it seems the RCMP are going after anything that’s popular with dirtbaggy Vancouver males, the entirety of the Granville Strip better be on notice.

Liberal Party of Canada

Grade: D

There’s spin, and then there’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau trying to make the Green Party’s byelection win into a positive sign for his party because it shows “Canadians are preoccupied about climate change.”

Uh, I mean, sure. Not sure that relates to your party, though. 

Remember when Trudeau said the Liberals were going to beat Jagmeet Singh in the Burnaby South byelection? 

Oh, and another Liberal MP announced she wouldn’t be running this week. Is this starting to feel like 1993, just the other way around?

Our institutions

Grade: F

Look, luxury cars and casinos are one thing. But this is just sad.

BREAKING – Independent report finds more than $5 billion was laundered in B.C. housing market in 2018. The criminal activity alone increased housing prices by at least 5% and could be higher but there isn’t data available. #bcpoli

— Richard Zussman (@richardzussman) May 9, 2019

Something is clearly rotten in the province of B.C. We slammed the BC Liberals last week, and they obviously take some blame here as well. But it also falls upon the safeguards that are supposed to be embedded into our systems.

Realtors and lawyers alike should take a hard look in the mirror. And we don’t mean to make sure their hair is perfectly in place.

Whether they do is another question. It’ll probably take years to fix what’s clearly a broken system.

Of course, the Liberals, according to most sources on the matter, had a good idea this was going on or really should have.

As Mark Ruffalo’s intrepid reporter says in the film Spotlight: “They knew, and they let it happen!”