Peadar O'brien

Cahir Castle in Ireland is one of the best-preserved medieval castles around. Sitting right on the River Suir, it’s got massive stone walls, a cool tower, and a history full of battles and power struggles.

The latest Moody's downgrade of British Columbia's credit rating from Aa1 to Aa2, with a persistent negative outlook, is a damning indictment of the NDP government's fiscal recklessness under Premier David Eby. This isn't some external shock or unavoidable crisis it's the direct result of years of unchecked deficit spending, skyrocketing debt, and a refusal to prioritize responsible management over ideological priorities. Let's be clear: When the NDP took power, they inherited a balanced budget and relatively low debt levels (around $91-92 billion in 2022/23). In just a few short years, they've turned that into projected record deficits—$13.3 billion for 2026/27 alone, followed by $12.2 billion and $11.4 billion in the following years. That's nearly $37 billion in red ink over three years, with total provincial debt ballooning toward $235 billion by the end of the decade. Interest payments on that debt are now eating up a growing chunk of revenue (projected to hit 8.2 cents on every dollar spent by 2028), crowding out actual services and forcing future generations to pay the bill. Critics from think tanks like the Fraser Institute, business groups such as the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade (which gave the 2026 budget a dismal "D"), and opposition voices have hammered this point home: The NDP has a spending problem, not a revenue one. They've ramped up per-person program spending to near-record highs (inflation-adjusted), poured billions into healthcare, housing, and social programs without corresponding revenue growth or efficiency gains, and shown no credible path back to balance. Moody's explicitly cited "provincial policy choices" leading to "a continued weakening in governance and fiscal and debt management" and "entrenched" deficits, code for saying the government is choosing to spend beyond its means and lacks discipline. The fallout is already here: Higher borrowing costs for the province (which means taxpayers foot even more of the bill indirectly), eroded investor confidence, and a signal that BC is slipping from its historically strong position among Canadian provinces. This downgrade follows multiple prior ones from Moody's and S&P, each time pointing to the same root cause, reckless NDP fiscal policy. As one opposition figure put it bluntly on X, "The BC NDP MLAs couldn't pass an ECON 101 class." Meanwhile, everyday British Columbians face the consequences: New and hidden tax hikes (including bracket creep and broad-based increases), public sector job cuts (15,000 projected), delayed projects, and no real relief on affordability despite all the spending promises. The NDP talks about "protecting core services" and "investing in people," but when you're running structural deficits larger than many provinces' entire budgets and debt-servicing costs explode, that's not investment, it's unsustainable borrowing that will force tougher choices later. This is textbook bad governance: Spend wildly in good times (or pretend they're good), ignore warning signs from rating agencies, and leave taxpayers holding the bag. British Columbia deserves better fiscal stewardship something the current NDP leadership has repeatedly failed to deliver. If this pattern continues, expect more downgrades, higher costs, and even less room to maneuver when the next real economic challenge hits. #cdnpoli #bcpoli bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

A 7-year-old autistic girl from Canada and her mother were "detained" by ICE in Texas after a border checkpoint stop, despite having valid documents, and are now being held at the Rio Grande Valley Central Processing Center.

Iranians saying the ships taken out on the northern Caspian coast of Iran were loaded with Russian drones and weapons. This would explain the lighter than average drone attacks on Kyiv the past month.

I have said it once before and I will say it again. This NDP government isn't even capable of running a lemonade stand within budget!!! Now, BC has received a credit downgrade 4 years in a row as David Eby drove our debt & deficit to record levels. This is just more proof of the NDP's horrendous fiscal mismanagement, making the quality of life worse for British Columbians. vancouversun.com/news/downgrade…

After the McDougall Creek wildfire devastated Lake Okanagan Resort in 2023, the NDP made promises to affected residents. And then walked away. Almost three years later, property owners still have no reliable potable water, no building permits, and no path to rebuilding their homes and lives. We are demanding that the Province use its own powers under the Emergency and Disaster Management Act to restore clean water and essential utilities so reconstruction can finally begin, and these residents can rebuild their lives. The tools are in the NDP's hands. They've just chosen not to use them. Lake Okanagan Resort families deserve better than hollow promises and years of government abandonment. #bcpoli

I’ve been very supportive of POTUS on Iran & believe getting rid of Maduro was good. But I’ve been appalled by this Admin's tone, rhetoric, tactics & strategy toward Europe. Denigrating our allies has been terrible. Weakness communicated to Putin has caused grave damage. Passive-aggressive communication toward President Zelenskyy is embarrassing. I hear from our allies about the damage this has done & it’s going to take time to repair.

The NDP promised a housing revolution. Instead, the construction sector lost 6,900 jobs in a single month. Real estate, finance, rental and leasing sectors lost another 5,400 jobs on top of that. The construction and real estate numbers are bad. But they are part of a much larger and worsening picture. BC lost 20,200 jobs in February alone, accounting for a quarter of jobs lost across the entire country last month.

Trump, the most embarrassing president of all time.

The Irish PM defending the British PM… in the White House… from the US President. You couldn’t script this better.

UPDATE on the beautiful little warrior Maya. From her mom Cia: “She has come a long way since the beginning. And now she is aware of herself and surroundings. I made 2 Paddles "yes" and "no" she can stare at one to answer questions.. Where she hurts. Whats wrong.. Shes aware shes in a body that's broken right now. I should be celebrating these milestones. But I just look at her, looking at me, with sadness in her eyes. I tell her "we will get there sweety, and ill be here every step"... I try so hard to smile at her while I look at her.... looking at me.. All I can think though, is how completely unfair this world can be, and how she deserves so much better.. My Maya bear, my Maya moon, my biggest baby girl.. Please dont give up, we have so much work to do. Love you Maya Gibs to the moon and back and all the stars in the sky XO Maya's Path of Resilience” Please continue to pray for the strongest little girl in Canada ❤️🙏🏻

May 16, 1963. Gordon Cooper was orbiting Earth alone inside a capsule barely big enough to turn around in, moving at 17,500 miles per hour. He had been up there for over a day. Then the warnings started. First a faulty sensor screaming that the ship was falling — it wasn't. He switched it off. Then something far worse: a short circuit knocked out the entire automated guidance system. The one that kept the capsule steady. The one that was supposed to bring him home. Without it, reentry was nearly impossible. Too shallow an angle and the capsule would bounce off the atmosphere back into space. Too steep and it would incinerate. The margin for error was razor thin — and every computer that was supposed to hit that margin was dead. Down on the ground, NASA engineers watched the telemetry in silence. They could see everything going wrong. They could fix nothing. Cooper didn't panic. He uncapped a grease pencil and drew lines directly on the inside of his window to track the horizon. He looked up at the stars he had spent months memorizing and used their positions to orient the ship by eye. Then he set his wristwatch. Because when you have no computers left, you become the computer. At exactly the right moment — calculated in his head, confirmed by the stars outside — he fired the retrorockets. The capsule shook. The sky turned to fire. For several minutes, no one on Earth could reach him as plasma swallowed the ship whole. Then the parachutes opened. Faith 7 hit the water just four miles from the recovery ship — the single most accurate splashdown in the entire Mercury program. The man with a wristwatch and a few pencil marks on a window had outperformed every automated system NASA had. We talk a lot about technology saving us. And it often does. But Cooper's story is a quiet reminder that behind every machine, there still has to be a human being who can look out the window, think clearly under pressure, and decide what to do next. The final backup was never the software. It was him.

British Columbia is going broke under the NDP. Five credit downgrades in just four years and the NDP still won't change course. Bond rating agencies are giving this NDP budget the equivalent of an F. And BC families are the ones paying the price. A leading global credit rating agency is now forecasting BC's debt will hit $230 billion in just two years, with interest costs surging 68%. Money that should be going to roads, healthcare, and services for British Columbians now just goes to pay for interest on our debt. It's time for a new plan: one that gets spending under control and builds a province our kids can actually afford to live in. #bcpoli

🚨Breaking: Moody's downgrades British Columbia's credit rating, again. "Shifting British Columbia from having one of the lowest debt burdens to having one of the highest among regional peers." Population is dropping, economy is shrinking & wait till they figure out the impact of the impact with its land surrender to First Nations...

B.C.'s credit rating downgraded after record deficit projected vancouversun.com/news/downgrade…

Incredible gauche man. The Leader.

I’m speechless. If only I could tell you how heartbreaking it is to read such news while being in Ukraine, in a city that was struck several times today by russian drones.

Canadian PM Carney visited PM Takaichi in Tokyo, treated his host with respect, and signed a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Japan. Trump sat with Takaichi in the White House, blathered like an imbecile about Pearl Harbor, and damaged U.S. relations with Japan.

Markets are reinforcing what people can already see: the NDP have run the ship into the rocks. It’s time for a new government and a plan to restore confidence in our future.

A sincere thank you to all countries that have supported the Kingdom of Denmark militarily, thereby helping to prevent a military takeover of Greenland by the President of the United States. Sincerely, Greenland 🇬🇱