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2 B.C. councillors reflect on combined 100 years in local politics as they prepare to retire – CBC.ca

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When you’ve been in local government for a half-century, what does retirement look like?

“I’m just going to keep on doing what I’m doing. I just won’t be on council, that’s all,” said Harold Steves — first elected as a councillor in Richmond, B.C., in 1968 — as he promised to continue his advocacy for farmland preservation. 

Lois Jackson, first elected as a Delta, B.C., councillor in 1972, said her son recently asked her: “Mother, are you ever going to grow up?”

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“I said no. I’ll just be part of the local scene,” said Jackson, who was mayor for 19 of her years serving the city. 

Both in their mid-80s, the two longest serving municipal politicians in British Columbia decided not to seek re-election this October. 

Their departure brings to mind how much their respective communities have changed in the past half-century — Delta has more than doubled in population and Richmond tripled since the pair were first elected — and how much local politics has as well.

Jackson stands outside the North Delta Recreation Centre, which was expanded in 2016 while she was mayor. (Justine Boulin/CBC)

‘People didn’t know how to fight city hall’

“It was very strange having a woman at the table, I’ll tell you,” said Jackson with a laugh, remembering being the first woman elected to Delta council 50 years ago. 

She said when she started, she formed a strategy of getting her main ally on council to put forward the motions or amendments she wanted passed, knowing some of the councillors wouldn’t respect her ideas.

But she also believed one of the reasons she kept getting elected was being a mother in a rapidly growing city with plenty of young families and young mothers who wanted someone on their side. 

“We didn’t have arenas, we didn’t have playing fields … we had so many children and they needed so many things to keep them safe and happy,” Jackson said.

Harold Steves smiles as he sits on a stool on the beach.
Harold Steves says preventing Garry Point from becoming an oil tanker facility is among his proudest accomplishments in local politics. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

The grandson of one of the first settlers in Richmond who lived in Steveston — the waterfront neighbourhood named for his family — Steves had no such issues gaining respect at the council table. 

At the same time, his push for preserving the city’s farmland and parks frequently led him into conflict with much of the city’s establishment — beginning with his first campaign in 1968 as a member of the Richmond Anti-Pollution Association, which sought to stop an oil port planned for Garry Point. 

“People didn’t know how to fight city hall back then,” he said.

“Today if you do something that people don’t like, they’ll organize and campaign and write petitions and attend council meetings and sometimes they’ll change council’s mind, and that’s the role I played for the last 50 years … I think about half the parks in Richmond came due to public protest.”

Focus on the environment

Steves and Jackson are different politically. He was an NDP MLA in the 1970s, while she was periodically recruited by centre-right parties and is passionate about balanced budgets.

A headline from an old newspaper. It shows a young Harold Steves. The headline reads 'What the wafflers want from the NDP'. The article details Harold Steves' dissatisfaction with the B.C. NDP.
Steves has been a ‘dedicated socialist,’ as the Vancouver Sun put it in 1970s, for his entire political career, focusing often on environmental and farmland issues. (Newspapers.com)

But championing agricultural land is an issue that has long united them, beginning in the early 1970s when Steves helped create the Agricultural Land Commission.

“They actually put it to the councils of the Lower Mainland: What do you want to do with your farmland? What do you want to protect?” said Jackson.

“We wanted to emphasize keeping the farms and the land as big parcels as possible, because that makes for a far better base for the farm.”

Jackson says the purchase and preservation of Burns Bog as an ecological conservancy area in 2004 was one of the most satisfactory moments of her time in local politics. (newspapers.com)

For Steves, the preservation of so much of Richmond’s farmland is a cause for celebration and optimism for the future, and a sign that politics has changed for the better. 

“On social media you get a lot of unnamed people, trolls or whatever, that attack you … but by and large it’s a good way of communicating and spreading the message,” he said. 

Jackson is somewhat more circumspect about the future, worried about more development ruining the environment and social media further polarizing people. 

“This whole electronic age has brought a very different dynamic to everyone’s life,” she said.

“We have to slow down and be more contemplative, appreciate what we have, help others. Those used to be the mantras of the day many years ago. Of course, I can say this because I’m way older than all of you.”

‘I guess I felt I could do more at home’

Jackson and Steves are far from the only long-serving local politicians stepping down this October. 

In Burnaby, councillors Dan Johnston (first elected in 1993) and Colleen Jordan (2002) are retiring, while the longest serving councillors in Victoria (Geoff Young, first elected in 1983) and Prince George (Murray Krause, 1996) are also calling it quits. 

The job has become more demanding as decades have gone on, with more avenues for public input than ever before, and more areas of jurisdiction less funded by higher levels of government than in the past. 

There are also more political parties than ever before, and running for council is now a four-year commitment instead of just two or three. 

Despite all that, Jackson looks back at time in local politics with satisfaction — and content that she never ran for provincial or federal office. 

“I guess I like the local flavour. I like the neighbourhood. I guess I felt I could do more at home,” said Jackson.

“In Ottawa, it’s the party you have to support. I have a problem with that. I don’t like people telling me how I have to think.”

It’s a similar story for Steves, as he prepares for an active retirement in Steveston. 

“There’s so much more you can do at the local level on all the issues,” he said.

“So I bought into the slogan … think globally, act locally.”

The Early Edition9:06Metro Matters — Richmond councillor Harold Steves and Delta councillor Lois Jackson are retiring after 50 years each in local politics

Our own Justin McElroy talks about the legacies of Harold Steves in Richmond and Lois Jackson — and how their cities and politics have changed over time.

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Larry David shares how he feels about Trump – CNN

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Larry David shares how he feels about Trump

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Larry David shares how he feels about former President Donald Trump and the 2020 election. Watch the full episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” streaming March 29 on Max.


03:21

– Source:
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Trump's claims on crime rates clash with police data – NBC News

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Surging crime levels, out-of-control Democratic cities and “migrant crime.”

Former President Donald Trump regularly cites all three at his campaign rallies, in news releases and on Truth Social, often saying President Joe Biden and Democrats are to blame.

But the crime picture Trump paints contrasts sharply with years of police and government data at both the local and national levels.

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FBI statistics released this year suggested a steep drop in crime across the country last year. It’s a similar story across major cities, with violent crime down year over year in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.

NBC News analyzed crime data to evaluate Trump’s assertions about the topic.

U.S. and big city crime rates

Trump’s campaign often refers to crime levels, regularly pointing the finger at Biden.

“On Joe Biden’s watch, violent crime has skyrocketed in virtually every American city,” the campaign said in a news release published this month on its site.

Trump himself has made similar remarks.

“Four years ago, I told you that if crooked Joe Biden got to the White House, our borders would be abolished, our middle class would be decimated and our communities would be plagued by bloodshed, chaos and violent crime,” Trump said in a speech last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “We were right about everything.”

Government figures don’t support that characterization.

Reported violent crime dropped 6% across the board when comparing the last three months of 2022 to the same period in 2023, the FBI reported.

The reported drops were especially pronounced in the big cities that Trump often assails, many of which have Democratic mayors. Violent crime dropped by 11% in cities with populations of 1 million or more, according to FBI data, while murders dropped by 20%, rape was down 16%, and aggravated assault fell by 11%.

Reached for comment, the Trump campaign pointed to other reports indicating that certain types of crimes increased in specific cities.

At the national level, the reported rate of violent crime in 2022, the most recent full year with comprehensive FBI data, was 380.7 offenses per 100,000 people. That’s lower than the overall reported violent crime rate from 2020 — the last full year Trump was in office — when the figure was at 398.5.

The lowest reported violent crime rate of Trump’s presidency was in 2019, when the metric was at 380.8 — in line with the 2022 rate.

The FBI said it will release more comprehensive 2023 crime data in October, just before the election.

The Trump campaign, reached for comment, cited certain categories of violent crime, such as motor vehicle theft, as having increased during the Biden administration, according to FBI figures.

“Joe Biden is trying to convince Americans not to believe their own eyes,” campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, adding that “Democrats have turned great American cities into cesspools of bloodshed and crime.”

New York City crime

Trump, who was born and raised in New York but now lives in Florida, often rails against what he portrays as an increasing crime rate in his former hometown.

Those references to soaring violence have only increased as he faces criminal charges in New York accusing him of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump, who has pleaded not guilty in that case, must also post a $175 million bond to prevent state Attorney General Letitia James from collecting the judgment from a New York civil fraud case.

“I did nothing wrong, and New York should never be put in a position like this again,” Trump posted on Truth Social about the civil judgment in all capital letters. “Businesses are fleeing, violent crime is flourishing, and it is very important that this be resolved in its totality as soon as possible.”

In a separate post, he claimed that “murders & violent crime hit unimaginable records” in the city.

However, major crimes in New York City are down this year by 2.3%, according to police department data comparing year-to-date figures to the same period in 2023.

Those figures for last year were also far below the highs from recent decades. In 1990, more than 527,000 major crimes were reported, compared to more than 126,000 last year, according to New York police data — a drop of more than 75%.

In 2001, more than 162,000 major crimes were reported in New York. The figure dropped by more than 20% over the next two decades.

At the same time, New York City data indicates that the number of major crimes increased in the past few years, though reported violent crimes like murder and rape were down last year from previous years.

‘Migrant crime’

Trump’s dehumanizing language about migrants has become a mainstay of his political speeches since he first sought office in 2015.

In a news release this month, his campaign said the “border Crisis has created a tragic surge in violent crime against innocent American citizens at the hands of some of the world’s most violent criminals.”

Trump has also focused his energy on high-profile cases such as the death of Laken Riley, who was killed in Georgia while jogging. The suspect is a Venezuelan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally in 2022.

“Every day, innocent citizens are being killed, stabbed, shot, raped and murdered because of Biden migrant crime,” Trump said in a video posted to his campaign’s X account last week.

However, there is no evidence of a migrant-driven crime wave in the U.S., according to local police department data.

Crime reports have decreased in several major cities targeted by Texas’ Operation Lone Star, a program backed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that flies or buses migrants from the state to Democratic-run cities across the U.S.

Several of those cities — New York, Chicago, Washington and Philadelphia — have had decreases in year-to-date reported crime totals compared to the same period last year.


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Federal government promising a 'renters' bill of rights' in upcoming budget – CBC.ca

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government will introduce new measures — including a new “bill of rights” — that he says will help protect those who rent their homes as part of the upcoming budget.

Trudeau said the new measures are specifically geared toward younger people, who are renting more than previous generations.

“It’s about changing the rules of the game in a way that meets young people where they are,” he said on Wednesday.

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Ottawa will work with provinces and territories to develop a “renters’ bill of rights” that would introduce a national standard lease agreement and implement requirements for landlords to disclose an apartment’s pricing history to allow tenants to negotiate their rent.

The new measures will also include a $15-million fund for provincial legal aid organizations that help tenants fight against “renovictions” and landlord abuse.

The Liberals are also proposing to change federal rules so that making rental payments on time will count toward someone’s credit scores, something Trudeau said is meant to help renters looking to one day buy a house.

“If you look at someone who pays a $2,000 [per month] mortgage, they’re getting recognition and credit for that from their bank as part of their credit score,” the prime minister said.

“But if you’re paying $2,000 a month on rent, you get no kudos.”

Typically the government doesn’t discuss what is in an annual budget until it is introduced in the House of Commons. But the announcement was made weeks prior to the release of the Liberals’ next budget, which is slated to drop on April 16.

Releasing tidbits from the budget ahead of time is part of a new communications strategy for the Liberals, sources told CBC News. Trudeau and his ministers are expected to make a number of similar announcements in the run-up to the budget, the sources said.

WATCH | Trudeau says new measures aim to help tenants: 

Liberals promise ‘renters’ bill of rights’ to fight housing crisis

5 hours ago

Duration 2:07

The Liberals are looking to create a ‘renters’ bill of rights’ to help deal with Canada’s housing crisis. Justin Trudeau says the plan is geared toward younger people suffering from a rising cost of living. The Conservatives call the measures meaningless.

Before revealing the planned rental measures on Wednesday, Trudeau took a moment to plug the April 16 fiscal plan, saying that the budget will be about “fairness.”

“For Canada to succeed, we need everyone to succeed,” he said.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland joined Trudeau for his announcement and hinted about further announcements ahead of budget day.

“Over the coming days and in the April budget, we are going to launch a no-holds-barred plan to wrestle down the cost of owning and renting a home,” she said.

Wednesday’s announcements came on the same day that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released a report that found a surge in new apartment construction drove housing start increases in several major Canadian cities last year.

But the report also cautions that demand continues to outweigh supply.

The opposition Conservatives, who have enjoyed a healthy lead in recent polls, have made housing — and other cost-of-living issues — a key point of attack against the governing Liberals.

Following his announcement, Trudeau was asked whether he thinks he bears any responsibility for people feeling left behind in the current economy and whether the new measures would be enough to convince younger people to support him in the next election.

In response, Trudeau suggested that a recent rise in the cost of living is not unique to Canada.

“Young people who are key to our present, and obviously key to our future, are seeing a system that is stacked against them. That’s true in Canada but also true elsewhere around the world,” he said. “What we’re focused on now is making sure that young people can see their success in the economy.”

Opposition parties criticize Liberal announcement

Scott Aitchison, the Conservative housing critic, said Wednesday’s announcement was Liberal posturing that won’t get results.

“Today’s photo op is just another set of meaningless measures that won’t result in building the homes Canadians need,” he said in a statement.

NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan criticized the announcement for not going far enough.

“The Liberals are so out of touch with what Canadian renters are experiencing that they keep offering half-measures instead of a real action,” Kwan said in a statement.

The NDP is calling on the government to invest more in affordable housing while temporarily preventing for-profit firms from buying designated affordable-housing spaces.

WATCH | Liberal government promises better protections for renters in upcoming budget: 

Liberal government promises better protections for renters in upcoming budget

9 hours ago

Duration 11:39

The Liberal government unveiled three new proposals Wednesday to better protect renters in Canada. Power & Politics speaks to Marci Ien, minister of women, gender equality and youth, about the proposed protections.

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