The Liberal leader was a victim of political framing, a critically important tool in determining which issues will gain traction with the electorate andwhich politicians will emerge triumphant on election day.

A former New Democrat MP says the Conservative government’s proposed amendments to the Food and Drugs Act come from big pharma lobbying.

The defendants in a lawsuit brought by CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. over a Vancouver Sun parody got support this week from a magazine editor who knows much about satire and getting sued.

In a recent article, the Vancouver Sun didn’t mention a close family connection between a senior college administrator and Premier Gordon Campbell. Catherine Vertesi, a vice president of Capilano College, is Campbell’s sister. Her photo and a quotation from her appeared in a laudatory Vancouver Sun piece by Gillian Shaw on May 3 about the Campbell government’s decision to grant university status to five postsecondary institutions, including Capilano College.

Even without the most first-place votes in his municipal party’s nomination race, Gregor Robertson can still win the mayoral nomination.

Marilyn McKee knows all too well who can come knocking on the doors of poor mothers raising kids on their own. A single mom of three boys, the 39-year-old East Vancouver woman recalls that she was visited in previous years by provincial child-protection officers.

As the delay in announcing the results of Zimbabwe’s presidential election stretched out endlessly, the political jokes proliferated across southern Africa.

One of Vancouver’s best-known and most popular restaurateurs is back working part-time after suffering a very minor stroke on the right side of his brain during the last weekend of April. John Bishop, owner of Bishop’s Restaurant in Kitsilano, told the Straight in a phone interview that after returning home from work on a busy Saturday night and sitting down for dinner, his left hand went numb. He went to the emergency room, where he was given low-dose aspirin and a CT scan.

The Vancouver Police Department has been ordered by the office of the police complaint commissioner to investigate the use of tasers by TransLink police.

Residents of East Vancouver’s activist heartland may not mind seeing Jarome Iginla in their neighbourhood in 2010, but they’re not so keen on baton-wielding security personnel cracking heads to stifle anti-Olympic dissent.

School trustee Allan Wong still plans to run for reelection with the Coalition of Progressive Electors, even though he’s openly supporting city councillor Raymond Louie’s campaign to win Vision Vancouver’s nomination for mayor.

Two Non-Partisan Association councillors have mixed feelings about legislation introduced by B.C.’s Liberal government that would amend the Vancouver Charter.

The strong sellers’ market appears to be nearing an end in this province. The British Columbia Real Estate Association expects more modest housing-price increases in 2008 compared with the previous year across most of the province. The only exceptions are the Chilliwack and District Real Estate Board’s and the Victoria Real Estate Board’s areas, where the average multiple-listing-service prices are forecast to rise at slightly higher rates than in 2007.

A BC Housing spokesperson has confirmed that a phased development of the Little Mountain Housing complex on Main Street, between 33rd and 37th avenues, probably won’t be possible.

Surprise, the construction costs to widen the Burrard Bridge are over $60 million [“Early critic of Burrard Bridge costs was right”, May 1-8]. In fact, the true costs are significantly more when the heritage impacts are included.