Skagit River Bridge that collapsed Thursday night. Photo: Courtesy King 5.

The four lane Washington I-5 bridge spanning the Skagit River near Mount Vernon, Wash. collapsed Friday evening, sending a number of cars into the river below.

One section of the Skagit River Bridge completely collapsed, cutting off traffic on both sides of the river.  The Washington I-5 bridge  collapse occurred at about 7 p.m.

So far, reports show that three people have been pulled from the water following the Washington I-5 bridge  collapse.  Whatcom County Emergency Response Specialist Marcus Deyerin says authorities are searching downstream by boat and helicopter for more victims.

There are no estimates on how many people are in the water or whether there are any injuries or deaths.

Calgary couple Erik Langberg and Janet Annesley are on vacation in Washington and narrowly missed the accident. Langberg says they travelled over the Skagit River Bridge Wednesday without incident and Thursday were travelling to Burlington, just four minutes north of Mount Vernon, and took the Riverside Bridge, which runs parallel to the collapsed Washington I-5 bridge.

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“Ironically we were in the train wreck pub when the waitress told us the news,” said Langberg. “The mood in the place turned sombre and we are happy that reports so far are that no one was hurt.

“It goes to underscore that anything can happen. Its going to make it incovenient for many people over the memorial day long weekend.”

Langberg says the couple is headed to Oregon Friday and plans take the Mukilteo ferry from nearby Whidbey Island to avoid the I-5, which will be busier than ever for the Memorial Day long weekend.

Xavier Grospe, a 62-year old man who lives near the river told the Associated Press he could see three cars in the river, each car carrying one person.  He added the vehicles were sitting still in the water and were partially submerged and partly above the water line.  Drivers were seen either sitting on top of their vehicles or on the edge of open windows.

“It doesn’t look like anybody’s in danger right now,” Grospe said.

Crowds of people came to the river to view the spectacle.

The Skagit River Bridge is located between neighbouring Burlington and Mount Vernon.  It is about 100 kms north of Seattle and approximately 130 kms south of Vancouver, BC.

The bridge was built in 1955 and according to bridgehunter.com, the deck condition was satisfactory while the superstructure condition was rated fair.  Its sufficiency rating was 57 out of 100.  Sufficiency ratings indicate a measure of the ability of a bridge to remain in service.

An average of 71,000 cars travel over the bridge every day.

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Rob Ford in action after a Toronto City Council meeting. Photo: Youtube screen capture.

Poor Rob Ford. The Toronto mayor can’t get no respect, not in Canada and not in the United States after comedian Jon Stewart eviscerated him on Tuesday’s The Daily Show.

I have to admit, it never gets old watching Ford walk into the lens of a TV camera. Here he comes, lumbering toward the camera, looking up and – Pow! – right between the eyes.

Ed. – Watch the Stewart clip at the end of this story.

Stewart played the clip over and over because, well, who wouldn’t? You couldn’t script that scene.

Then there’s the clip of Ford catching a football and awkwardly falling on his face at what appears to be an Argonauts game. Stewart showed that clip, too, to much hilarity.

I get it. The mayor’s pratfalls are pretty funny. The guy’s obese and top-heavy, so he tips over easy and he’s ungainly.

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But laughing at the fat kid is mean-spirited and kind of un-Canadian. Are we really that spiteful? Sure, we expect an American like Stewart to mock Ford, but Rick Mercer wouldn’t stoop that low, right?

And yesterday Ford lost one of his life’s passions when the Don Bosco Catholic school of Etobicoke fired him as the head coach of its football team. School board authorities say the termination had nothing to do with recent reports of a video showing Ford smoking crack with drug dealers.

“This decision was based on what is best for our students, our school and the Don Bosco community,” said Bruce Rodrigues, the director of education.

Yeah, fat chance. (Oops, sorry for the pun)

Thanks to Stewart and the attention of the Canadian media, Ford’s personal and professional life is unravelling in public at warp speed and it’s not a pretty sight. The Mayor has refused to address the issue. Doug, also a GTA councillor, says he has been assured the crack smoking video is not credible and blames the media, particularly Rob Ford’s old nemesis The Star, for his brother’s problems.

One gets the feeling that more revelations are just around the corner. Judging by what’s come before, it promises to be ugly.

At this point, I’m feeling a tiny bit sorry for poor Rob Ford. He wouldn’t be the first hard working, public-spirited politician ruined because of a personal indiscretion or six.

Jesus said he who is without sin cast the first stone. Might even Rob Ford be worthy of redemption?

I spent some time on Youtube searching for the answer.

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How about the clip from Stewart’s show in which Ford yammers on in City Council chambers about the “Orientals?”

“Those Oriental people work like dogs. They work their hearts out. They are workers non-stop. They sleep beside their machines…The Oriental people, they’re slowly taking over.” How very un-politically correct of the mayor. The Orientals are taking over? Seriously?

Then there was the media scrum in which a reporter, quietly under his breath, called Ford an “asshole.” Ford went ballistic, chased the guy down a hallway, down the stairs and out into the parking lot, all the while screaming at him.

Or how about his ridiculous outbursts in Council? Or his reaction to Mary Walsh and her little “ambush” in the name of comedy outside his home for This Hour Has 22 Minutes?

You get the picture. And there are a lot of them on Youtube.

I’ve never met Rob Ford, but the video evidence that he’s a nasty bit of work is fairly compelling. My impression is that he’s a blowhard and a bully. Not someone I’d care to break bread with or share a pint at the local pub.

I didn’t arrive at my conclusion after reading Rob Ford screeds in The Star or some other “liberal” media. I watched him in action, listened to his words, the aggressive, bullying tone of voice. That was the most damning evidence available.

As Beacon columnist Bruce Stewart points out in today’s column, Ford has lost the moral authority to be mayor of Canada’s largest city.  

Maybe he lost his moral authority because he’s a jerk.

Tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

Port Alberni sexual assault under investigation by RCMP.

A 16-year old girl was airlifted to Victoria General Hospital after suffering serious injuries in a vicious sexual assault near Roger Creek Park in Port Alberni.

The attack occurred at around 5 p.m. yesterday near the railroad tracks in the area of Gertrude and Roger Streets.

The girl managed to call 9-1-1 after the attack.  When RCMP and BC Ambulance Services paramedics arrived at the scene, she was treated and then rushed to hospital.  From there she was quickly airlifted to Victoria General Hospital where it is believed she remains in serious condition.

Police are unsure if the victim knew her attacker, so at this time, police are urging citizens to be vigilant of their surroundings and to take extra precautions to ensure their personal safety.  Cst. Shelley Schedewitz of the Port Alberni RCMP says “Walk in groups, stick to well travelled routes and seek help immediately if you witness anything suspicious or concerning”.

The suspect is described as a First Nations Man in his early to mid 20′s.  He was wearing dark clothing, a red coloured ball cap and was carrying a back pack.

The Port Alberni RCMP have called in the Port Alberni Major Crime Unit, RCMP Forensic ID Section and the RCMP Police Dog Service.  The West Shore RCMP are assisting the Port Alberni investigators by offering support to the young victim.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Port Alberni RCMP at 250-723-2424 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

Mayor Gregor Robertson announces the City Council’s approval of plans for 355 new and affordable rental housing units across the City.

City Council has approved 355 new units of Vancouver affordable housing on four City-owned sites as part of recommendations from the Task Force on Housing Affordability.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson says a minimum 273 housing units will be built and rented out at significantly lower rates for Vancouver residents and mental illness patients.

“Vancouver has an urgent need for more affordable housing that fits with our neighbourhoods and makes our city more livable for seniors, students, and young families,” said Robertson.

“With 355 new units of secure and affordable rental housing, this proposal represents a significant step toward meeting that need. It’s encouraging to see such strong and early progress after the work we’ve done to enable innovative affordable housing solutions throughout Vancouver.”

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Robertson says key efforts to lower the costs of housing in Vancouver include:

- Approving a record 1,021 new rental housing units in 2012
- Launching a Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability
- Approving the development of an arms-length Affordable Housing Authority
- Approving Vancouver’s first-ever co-housing project
- The opening of Vancouver’s first Rent Bank, to support renters in crisis with short-term loans
- The creation of the Rental 100 Program, which provides incentives for the development of new, 100 per cent rental buildings
- The launch of the online Rental Standards Database, which will enable renters to search out buildings that have current safety issues
- Hosting the ‘re:THINK Housing’ international ideas competition to solicit ideas from around the world on how to create new affordable housing

“Confronting the challenge of housing affordability has been a top priority of my work as Mayor, and I urge all of City Council to join me in supporting this unique opportunity to make our city more affordable for those who live and work in Vancouver,” said Robertson.

More Vancouver affordable housing

Also receiving approval from the City Council is a new five-storey mixed-use building at W. Broadway which will offer 83 affordable rental housing units as part of the City’s Rental 100 program as well as a new 15-storey building in Downtown South which will offer 81 units of social housing and four floors of social service space for Positive Living BC and AIDS Vancouver.

“Vancouver has a pressing need for more supportive housing and more affordable rental housing, especially for seniors, students, and young families,” said Robertson. “These projects build upon the City’s consistent work to support Vancouver renters, provide urgently needed housing for our most vulnerable residents, and make Vancouver more affordable for residents of all backgrounds.”

With a target rent of $1,325 per one bedroom, the 83 units will offer cheaper alternatives to apartments.

Half of the new units of the 15-storey building will be dedicated to residents receiving social assistance, while the rest will serve residents at the lower income brackets.

B.C. residents, tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

Hope man charged after counterfeit currency passed off at Hope gas station.

Cory Burger, a 34-year old man from Hope has been arrested and is facing charges after allegedly passing off counterfeit currency at a business in Hope.

On May 1, Hope RCMP were called to the Flying J gas station on Flood Hope Road when staff discovered the alleged fake U.S. $10 bill.  Cory Burger was arrested and charged with possession and uttering counterfeit currency.

Cpl. D.J. Rennie of the Hope RCMP says the arrest led police to the execution of a search warrant at a location where police allegedly found computers and counterfeit money.  Investigators also allegedly found evidence relating to the production of counterfeit cash.

Rennie says “the fake bills were US $10 bills with a serial number of IE70080723A.

Cpl. Rennie adds “I would like to thank the business community for their assistance and cooperation into this investigation”.  He says “the phony US $10 bills were passed throughout businesses in Hope and the Fraser Valley”.

So far, Buger has been charged with possession and uttering counterfeit currency, but the police investigation into the matter continues.

Charges against Cory Burger have not been proven in a court of law.

Senator Mike Duffy. Photo: Handout.

If the recent Senate expense scandals have taught Canadians anything, it’s that Parliament of Canada officials will take advantage of the rules to pad their pockets if they can.

Senator Mike Duffy has become the poster boy for Parliament of Canada abuse of expense guidelines but he’s hardly alone. Like Mike Duffy, former Conservative senators Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau are now sitting in disgrace as independents.

Will more senators join them before this mess is properly sorted?

And what about the misguided tweet from newbie Calgary Centre MP Joan Crockatt? Anyone who follows the former Calgary Herald editor, as I do, is familiar with Crockateer’s tenuous grasp of facts and logic. Like this whopper from Monday, in which she forgets there are three former Tory senators, not two, and bizarrely tries to spin the scandal enveloping the Red Chamber: ”Our govt has the highest ethical standards demonstrated by 3 resignations: 2 from Senate caucus & the PM chief of staff.”

Tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

Crockatt’s now infamous tweet has inspired columns by national political pundits, outrage on social media networks, and plenty of head shaking by ordinary Canadians. What it hasn’t inspired is any indication from the Harper Government that substantive reform of the Senate’s free spending ways is on the horizon.

Vacuums have a way of being filled, which is why I wasn’t surprised to find a release from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in today’s inbox. Director Gregory Thomas is calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to introduce an Accountability Act 2.0, “to put an end to expense fraud by Senators and restore the confidence of Canadians in Parliament.”

The CTF proposal has five parts:

• Mandatory online reporting of office, travel, and hospitality expenses for all MPs and Senators (including receipts),
• Annual random audits of MPs and Senators by the auditor general
• Applying the Access to Information Act to MPs and Senators
• Scrapping pension entitlements for those convicted of stealing from taxpayers
• Ability to recall parliamentarians

“When the Conservatives were elected in 2006 they brought in the first Accountability Act in response to the sponsorship scandal, now it’s time for the Accountability Act 2.0 to clean up the senate expense scandal,” said Thomas, who points out that as of this past fall Alberta requires all elected officials, political staff and senior bureaucrats to post expenses and receipts online.

Beacon reporter Christopher Walsh wrote in a February news story that Alison Redford’s government brought in the new rules partly because of lavish spending on the part of Alberta Health Services, which was using public money to buy Calgary Flames tickets, for instance.

Government, it seems, has become big business, but without the spending controls that usually accompany successul private enterprises. Thomas and the CTF say it’s time for the Canadian government to emulate the Prime Minister’s home province.

“Had these rules been in place for the Parliament of Canada two years ago, Senator Duffy’s receipts would have shown that he wasn’t spending much time in PEI while claiming a housing allowance,” said Thomas.

Thomas says Senators and MPs convicted of filing fraudulent expense claims should lose their generous pension entitlements, much like the law recently passed in Nova Scotia by the NDP government.

“There needs to be a cost associated with ripping off taxpayers,” said Thomas. “Otherwise this is never going to stop.”

Indeed.

And given the precedent of at least one province requiring online reporting of expenses, which demonstrates that it can be done without a lot of muss and fuss, the Canadian government should implement this program immediately for all Members of Parliament, senators, and deputy ministers.

Prime Minister Harper says he’s a fiscal conservative, let him behave like one.

Tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

Don’t blame pollsters for the BC Election 2013 results, says the University of Calgary’s Jean-Sébastien Rioux.

By Jean-Sébastien Rioux

Another election; another “shockwave” and another round of mea culpas. The May 14 election in British Columbia caused consternation among the punditry and, coming just a year after a similar surprise in the Alberta election results, led to another round of calls for pollsters to explain themselves and to account for their (alleged) incompetence. Not just pollsters, but political scientists and pundits too: all these talking heads who predicted an NDP government led by Adrian Dix should be ashamed of themselves, right?

I am a political scientist – and a political junkie. I confess that I never went on television to speak about the election in my neighbouring province. Moreover, a good friend of mine is a pollster and I would regularly ask him how things are going in BC – he never personally conducted any polls there, but he is a guy I turn to for these things. But Twitter and Television were calling for “our” heads last night.

To all, I say this: I am taking a stand, and the pollsters are not to blame, for their job is not to elect the politicians. Instead, why not congratulate the thousands of BC Liberal Party volunteers who worked on getting out the vote (GOTV)? Why not acknowledge that Christy Clark travelled more and impressed the voters (and editorial boards) more than Dix did? And why not acknowledge that somewhere around four or five percent of the voters simple decided, in the last days, that economic stability was more important than “throwing the bums out”, the baby and the bathwater as well?

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I say again: the pollsters were not the ones electing the candidates. Yet, pundits in the media profession seem to interpret polls that way. Polls are a snapshot of citizens’ attitudes and mood at a given time; and not all citizens either: online polls don’t sample older folks as well as they should, given their voting behaviour; land line phone surveys don’t capture all the under-35s who don’t and never have had a land line at home; and we all hate robo-surveys and we might not be giving the right information when the robots call.

Pundits and political scientists are not entirely to blame, either. Media need to fill 24 hours of news chatter each and every day, and they ask these folks to comment on the horse race – and many if not most political scientists have never been to the racetrack, so to speak. I don’t know many university professors who have run for public office, who have worked the phone banks, or who have door-knocked or “main-streeted” with politicians (although Yours Truly and a few others such as my colleague Dr. Ted Morton actually do). They usually don’t know much about political operations and war rooms on a personal level. They read the polls; infer what they can, and try to satisfy the Media Beast’s hunger for on-air punditry.

I will be a minority holding the opinion I do about polling, pollsters and the political pundits: most journalists and citizens will demand answers, better methodologies and mea culpas. These analyses won’t hurt, and improving polling models and methodologies will contribute to better social science. But Economists get GDP predictions wrong all the time; meteorologists get tomorrow’s weather wrong as often as not; sports experts predict the wrong winner of various NHL playoff series on a regular basis; and what to say about today’s Horoscope – should I buy that lotto ticket or not? So why pick solely on the pollsters? The other night, the voters elected the politicians, and the voters got it right.

Adrian Dix and BC NDP must rethink the party after humiliating defeat to BC Liberals last week. Photo: BC NDP/Facebook.

By Dermod Travis  

The great thing about political punditry is the ability to be right and wrong at the same time and get away with it, which is why the pundits who were no better at predicting the outcome of the BC election shouldn’t be expected to be any better at interpreting the results.

It’s quite simple: the BC Liberal party set out to win at all costs and did. They ran the better campaign, got their vote out and won. They were even willing to throw a candidate or two under the bus to do it, as witnessed by two full page ads in Victoria’s Times Colonist extolling the virtues of Green party leader Jane Sterk paid for by none other than the BC Liberal party.

Fault them for their tactics, but not even the huffing and puffing of political observers over those tactics seems to resonate long with the voters who ultimately decide elections.

What should be of concern though is the emergence of an almost constant pool of voters in BC and an equivalent block of non-voters.

Employment for women – new opportunities on Canadian oil rigs. Read it today!

In 2009, 1.65 million voters cast a ballot. In the 2011 HST referendum, 1.61 million mailed-in their vote. And last week, 1.63 million made the trek to the polls, although that number will rise slightly when absentee ballots are tallied.

Looked at another way: close to half of the province’s eligible voters continue to turn their back on the ballot box. That’s not a good thing.

And what lurks beneath these numbers should worry BC NDP operatives.

In 1979 at the crest of its support, Dave Barrett and the BC NDP won 46 per cent of the popular vote or 646,188 votes out of 1.4 million cast. They still lost the election. Last week, Adrian Dix and the BC NDP won 39.5 per cent of the vote or 643,399 votes out of 1.63 million cast.

Over 35 years, the BC NDP has seen its share of the popular vote steadily decline and its actual vote stall, despite an electorate that has nearly doubled in size over the same period.

Parties that don’t grow their base lose and risk withering away.

While the Liberals grew their vote marginally over their 1979 Socred brethren, they don’t have too much to boast about either. In 1979, the Social Credit party won 677,607 votes. The B.C. Liberals pulled in 723,618 votes.

BC voters are opting for “anything but” BC NDP

So who was the real winner in the voter sweepstakes last Tuesday? Anything but. In 1979, 81,282 voters opted for anything but the Socreds or the BC NDP. Last week that number more than tripled to 262,405.

As a share of the popular vote, the percentage choosing “anything but” grew from 5.6 per cent of the popular vote to 16.1 per cent.

But it’s not just the province-wide numbers that are telling. As the Liberals showed on election night: “it’s the ridings that count stupid.”

Twenty-five of B.C.’s 85 ridings had a turnout of less than 50 per cent and 19 of those were in the Lower Mainland. The award for most apathetic riding: Richmond-Centre at 38.9 per cent.

Only seven ridings saw a turnout of over 60 per cent and of those the top three had one thing in common: races that engaged voters.

In Oak Bay-Gordon Head, the Green party won its first ever seat in the legislature; in Delta South, Vicki Huntington was re-elected – the first independent to be so in B.C.’s history; and in Saanich North and the Islands, the BC NDP may very well have eked out a victory in the province’s tightest three-way race.

Of course, there were the Wednesday morning quarterbacks who tried to bend the votes of other parties so far out of shape as to claim that such-and-such a party cost such-and-such a party the election.

It may provide comfort to the defeated, but it’s an argument based more on wishful thinking than political acumen. Vote tallies can easily be moved from column-to-column after the fact, voters aren’t so easily moved before the fact.

But the message for the BC NDP in all these numbers is ominous and it’s not just about Adrian Dix.

The BC NDP has been nothing if not short of leaders. In the last 9 elections, no less than seven have been put to the electoral test.

It may have more to do with the brand. Something isn’t connecting with the voters that the BC NDP needs in order to win. And that soul-searching is going to be far harder on the party faithful than a leadership race ever will be.

Dermod Travis is the executive director of IntegrityBC.

B.C. residents, tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

The Team Canada Mens U16 soccer team. Photo: Soccer Canada.

The Team Canada Soccer U16 Men’s team has arrived back in the Great White North after a successful outing in the 2013 Torneo delle Nazioni in Austria and Italy.

The 2013 Torneo delle Nazioni featured mainly teams from Europe and South America.

“Overall if was a tremendous learning experience for the boys playing against three top-quality European sides and a very difficult South American team,” said team Canada head coach Rob Gale to Canada Soccer.

“But the real victory here is the experience the players will have enjoyed over the course of the tournament: adapting to different travel conditions and playing against teams with contrasting styles.”

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Team Canada Soccer began the tournament with cold feet, losing a 3-0 game to Croatia May 1.

Though his team improved as the game wore on, Gale feels early mistakes cost it against a crafty Croatian team.

“We made two big mistakes within the opening eight minutes against Croatia – and as will happen at this level of international football – we got punished,” he said.

Team Canada Soccer bounced back the next day with a 2-1 victory over Norway, a game that put a smile on Gale’s face.

“I was very pleased with the way we responded in our second game against Norway – who played with a very direct style. It was a much better performance and we defended well and took our chances,” said Gale.

In their only other loss of the tournament, Team Canada Soccer fell to Montenegro 2-0.

Team Canada Soccer closed out the tournament in style, dominating Chile and winning a 4-1 game.

“To close out the tournament with a 4-1 win over Chile was a fantastic way to end the camp,” said Gale.

“To score four goals against Chile and to close-out the tournament with that type of performance was fantastic,” said Gale.

The tournament was used for Canada Soccer to get a closer look at their 1996 born players exclusively. It is a part of their four-year development program for the 2017 CONCACAF and FIFA U20 competition cycle.

BC Soccer director of soccer development Michael Findlay. Photo: teambc.org.

BC Soccer has announced phase two rosters for the Provincial Development Program.

“We are very pleased and excited for the players and program as we move into phase second of the 2013 Provincial Development Program. Additional scouting and recommendations for the program has yielded a 36-percent player turnover from Phase One to Phase Two,” said BC Soccer director of Soccer Development Michael Findlay in a release.

Phase two will see 160 boys and girls from across B.C. take part in high performance training, including on and off field training and game play.

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The camp will take place May 14 and will lead up to teams taking part in the Portland Timbers Cup on May 24-26 for U13-U16 age divisions.

“We have been able to expand the rosters to twenty (20) players in the first two phases to provide an even more in depth talent identification of potential high performance players,” said Findlay.

With the EA Sports BC Soccer Premier League being the main source of players to the program, phase one saw players from all over the province take part in the high performance training.

“We are also very encouraged to see every EA Sports BC Soccer Premier League Club represented within these phase one selections along with players from regions outside the lower mainland such as Vancouver Island, the North region and the Thompson Okanagan,” said Findlay.

“The program will once again provide these players with the opportunity to train and participate within an advanced high performance environment with the goal of developing themselves for the next level of play through our development partners the Vancouver Whitecaps FC and our Canadian National Youth Teams Programming.”

Development partner Vancouver Whitecaps will keep close tabs on the Provincial Development Program.

Whitecaps head of high performance Stuart Neely says the relationship between the two sides is paramount to the Whitecaps development program.

“The Vancouver Whitecaps programming would not be as effective in the identification of players in the province if it was not for the partnership between the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, EA Sports BC Soccer Premier League and BC Soccer’s Provincial Development Program. We remain committed to improving our process of scouting, screening and selecting the top talents from such a strong breeding ground,” said Neely in a release.

The main objective of phase two is to continue to educate the young players on the expectations and playing standards of competing at a high level.

Phase three will be the final phase of the program and will run July 1-28 for U13 and U14 male and females, and July 1-21 for U15 and U16 male and females.

In the final phase, 18 players from every age group will be selected to play at the National Championships.

B.C. residents, tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey.