Out There: Looping Through the Selkirks
As a kick-off to my long weekend staycation (which for me means staying at home being a home-body), my dad and I decided to go on a road trip from Rossland, to Creston, and then over to Nelson. The Salmo-Creston-Nelson part of this route now has an actual name, as evidenced by the signs I […]
Why the BC Liberal government doesn't value your life
There are many instances I've come across in the past number of years which suggest to me the Campbell/Clark Government places no real value on the lives of its citizens - this despite Premier Clark's "families first" motto. That's a bold claim, I know - which is why I'm going to state my case here, drawing on several specific...
A NOBLE PURSUIT: The deplorable HST decision
There’s still time to submit your harmonized sales tax (HST) referendum vote – but as far as how one should vote, now that’s a more complicated path to tread (ballots my be in the mail or returned in to a Service BC office by Friday, August 5). It is my opinion that there are only […]
NDP needs to launch a culture war
Back in April, 2010, EKOS pollster Frank Graves got into a lot of trouble in the neo-con blogosphere for advising the Liberal Party to “invoke a culture war” on the Harper Conservatives. “I told them that they should invoke a culture war. Cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, secularism versus moralism, Obama versus Palin, tolerance versus racism and […]
The heat is not on, or why a police presence in the Mountain Kingdom would be a good thing
Over the last little while, I’ve heard the following statement from visitors and newbies to Rossland: “Rossland is great! There are no police here!” I reacted both times I heard this with a bit of dismay. Sure, we’re in general a peaceful town with a sense of sleepiness and not a lot of overly nefarious activity going on. And...
ATAMANENKO: Genetically Engineered Salmon, not worth the risk to health or the environment
Aquabounty Technologies (AT), headquartered in the US, has genetically modified (GM) a faster growing Atlantic salmon by inserting a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon and genetic material from the eel-like ocean pout. The company’s business plan is to produce genetically modified salmon eggs in Prince Edward Island...
Energy poverty – heating or eating
By Michael Jessen A life without lights and a house without heat; that’s the definition of extreme energy poverty. While it might be common to think of energy or fuel poverty as a problem in developing countries, it exists in some shape in our communities. It is a big issue in African and Asian countries […]
The Vancouver Riot: Establishment 'cheerleaders' won’t identify real causes
The City, Vancouver Police and provincial appointees, former Olympic czar John Furlong and former Nova Scotia deputy justice minister Doug Keefe are all busy investigating what went wrong and led to Vancouver’s latest riot: they will fail. The problem is they all have a lot in common: they all are or have been members of the public establishment, now investigating […]
Can the NDP Help restore Canada’s reputation?
Why is it that our collective social intelligence on so many critical matters falls dramatically short of our individual citizen intelligence? It is amazing that our society can function as well as it does, given that we are in a state of continuous denial about so many things we do as a society. It feels […]
OP/ED: MLAs challenged to live on welfare rates, but decline
At the end of May, an anti-poverty group called Raise the Rates, which is a coalition of over 25 community groups and other organizations, challenged British Columbia’s MLAs to live on the province’s welfare rate of $610 for one month. The last increase in welfare rates was in 2007 when the housing allowance was raised […]
