During an election, pundits and political parties tend to focus on spending promises. But the attention on spending makes it easy to forget that we’ve actually witnessed an incredible shrinking of government’s role in BC over the past 15 years. Unlike the strange mist that shrinks Scott Carey in the 1957 sci-fi classic, The Incredible Shrinking Man, the cause of BC’s shrinking public sector is not so mysterious.

To further our understanding of what's accelerating climate change, here's a brand-new report from the David Suzuki Foundation about leaking of methane from fracking and other fossil fuel extraction being much greater than reported by industry and government, and how it has been measured, and why it's scary: Methane emissions...

UPDATED with corrections to the FAN presentation -- with thanks to FAN for the clarifying information.  See below. Rossland City Council meeting, April 24, 2017: Mayor Kathy Moore and Councillors Lloyd McLellan, John Greene, Andrew Zwicker, Andy Morel, and Marten Kruysse all attended; only Aaron Cosbey was absent. Public Input...

Bookstores are the fabric of Canada’s literary community. We anchor neighbourhoods.  We provide space and ideas with which to expand. We make sure that Canadian voices resonate.  On April 29, independent bookstores across the country, along with the authors we love, will celebrate Canadian Authors for Indies. Here in Rossland...

This continues a discussion begun in Part I, last week. Bad Capitalism: exploitation If there is one single thing that separates me from most Lennonesque liberals and progressives who want One World, it is not my affection for defined and qualified Canadian nationalism. It is that I am anti-capitalist, whereas the majority ...

One of Canada’s ski industry leaders will be honoured as a Distinguished Alumnus at the upcoming Selkirk College Graduation 2017 ceremony. Steve Paccagnan graduated top of the class from Selkirk College’s Ski Resort Operations & Management Program (SROAM) in 1988 and for the last three decades has made a significant impact...

Capitalists,Liberals, Nationalists, Intellectuals News about money We have been treated to the spectacle this month of a half-dozen Bombardier executives planning to split 32 million dollars among themselves as bonuses, at the same time as the corporation has announced it is about to lay off 14, 000 workers worldwide. It was...

What poses the greatest hazard to BC's endangered Southern Mountain Caribou -- habitat loss, wolves, or corporate donors?  Or are all three of those factors linked, and if so, how? This opinion piece is from DeSmog Canada.  Read and contemplate. The B.C. government is granting logging permits in critical caribou...

Chocoholics:  Is it possible to know enough about chocolate? What do we need to know, except that it tastes wonderful?  Worldwatch Institute writer Gaelle Gourmelon discusses chocolate's history and the social and ecological impacts of the way it is grown, and how all of us chocoholics can help to improve matters...

As I discussed in my last column, the federal government had an opportunity in last week’s budget to finally start closing the growing income inequality gap in Canada. But, unfortunately the Liberals chose tax breaks for wealthy Canadians and giveaways to large corporations over helping the unemployed, veterans, and Indigenous...