Thomas Beyer: Incoming Guest Editor

Hello. I am the pricetags editor for the week.
Like so many Canadians I am an immigrant and came to this fine country in 1986 to do my MBA at the UofA in Edmonton, AB, where I met my now wife Lynda. We moved to Burnaby in 1988, and then lived in many places like Munich, Toronto, Calgary, Canmore before returning to Vancouver area in 2009. We live at UBC. I blog here, at a real estate focused blog (REIN) and on my facebook page. I have written a book on my journey from software engineer to real estate career under the name of “80 Lesson learned on the road from $80,000 to $80,000,000” as I co-own and manage residential rental property assets in BC, AB and TX, owned by Prestigious Properties and managed in many cases by a property management firm I chair and co-own.It is available for those interested on Amazon, Kobo and as 3 e-books for Kindle.
As you know from my (too?) many blog entries I like small government, responsible citizens, low taxes and less of a handout mentality. I love solar and clean energy but only if they are not government subsidized. I also like honesty, so often lacking in the political process. I also do not believe in all the hype surrounding man-made climate change and prescribe to a philosophy here more along Bjorn Lomborg or Judy Curry. I like more pedestrian zones, more walkable cities, less car use, thus far higher parking fees, road tolls and subways, all three sadly missing in Vancouver (more on this in another blog post).
Hound me here for global warming and climate change views, if you must. Call me a skeptic if you like.
I also was on the municipal like council for the 10,000 or so UBC residents, called UNA for 3 years as a vice-chair and its VP Finance/treasurer. I learned that governance is not easy, very time consuming, in many cases compromises have to be made and that many citizens are utterly unaware of costs of certain demands they place on their government. Politicians also do not say no enough or explain what is actually affordable. We spend frequently far too much and borrow to much, pushing costs onto our kids and grandkids.