It’s actually hard not to laugh! But really, we should be crying. Finance Minister Colin Hansen stood before the cameras this week and told British Columbians he had no idea his own Finance Ministry officials were holding extensive discussions with federal counterparts in Ottawa on the HST in March, 2009 … a few months before...

 I talked to someone yesterday who came in with her son and a list of specifications for a new back-to-school computer. I started running through it and realized that we were talking about a HIGH end computer. I warned her that she was looking at a $5,000-6,000 and asked what it was for. Her son […]

Ah, the plight of rural youth. It is a tale rife with intrigue, admonition, and teenage angs-- inextricably coupled with a deep-seated need for attention. Cries for help, guidance, parental intervention fan their way over back-alleys, side streets and decrepit abandoned edifices in need of a coat of whitewash; country-fried...

 Word that the Waneta Expansion Project will go ahead is great news for residents of the Kootenays, providing many jobs and a boost to the local economy, but the B.C. Liberals made a bad deal for the long-term health of the region, say New Democrats.  “I’ve been saying for a long time that this project […]

 When Florio Vassilakakis of the Element Night Club called me, upset about a story we ran (Brawl involves 40 to 50 people outside Element Saturday night), my initial response was deep annoyance.   Oh God, I thought, Another prima donna businessman cheesed off at me for doing my job – not because my coverage was […]

 Right now, the Tamil people-smugglers are assessing Canada and, the more friendly they discover our shores for their human payload, the more ships bursting with Sri Lankans they will be able to send. It is an outcome that, under current laws, Canada is powerless to avoid. The only alternative is to modify the existing system. […]

I must admit: I have certain rules in handling responses from readers to postings on this blog.  No libel, no swearing, no racist remarks, no name-calling. But I do NOT try to kill off comments from people who disagree with me (although I wonder how could they!).  I don’t disqualify them because their submissions  have spelling ...

 Marijuana and bears and raccoons, oh my! Only in the Kootenays.   I see the humour in the story – who wouldn’t, when a cop watches a massive bear crawl onto his squad car and refers to it as a “big Kootenay hood ornament”? (Although I feel compelled to point out my heroic restraint in […]

After years of deteriorating farm income, mounting debt and ill-designed income stability programs, can life on Canadian farms get worse?  It certainly appears so. The government is forecasting that the price of many farm commodities will decline in 2010.  And despite a complete overhaul by the Conservative government, farm income programs are causing the same […]

Well, that didn’t take long!  Remember all those promises BC retailers wouldn’t use the HST to rip off consumers? And the Premier, the Finance Minister and the business community wouldn’t lie to us, would they?Been to Zellers lately?I was there today and the cashier asked, before ringing up the total for my single item, if ...