Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, most of us have been living in a landscape defined by unknowns. This lack of certainty about how the world around us can change at any moment shows no sign of abating in the foreseeable future.   Dealing with the unknown is not something our modern society is used to or comfortable with. Over...

Dropping Out It is a dismal truth that democracy can die from lack of use, and the technologies of electronic communication and mental distraction now in use are potent foes of a self-governing, self-disciplining citizen. We might be amusing ourselves to the death of our own government. Dropping out of political engagement ...

By Victoria Wagner, Christopher Fernandez-Prada, and Martin Olivier, from The Conversation Leishmania is a flesh-eating parasite that affects millions of people each year, in 98 countries and territories — but isn’t native to Canada and the United States. So why are veterinarians starting to report Leishmania here, so far...

I have been honoured to represent the West Kootenays as MLA since 2005 and for the last three years as British Columbia’s Minister of Children and Family Development, as well as Minister Responsible for the Columbia Basin Trust, Columbia Power Corporation and the Columbia River Treaty. I have had a variety of jobs which have...

I don’t usually go into the “inside baseball” minutiae of backroom politics on Parliament Hill—the battles over make-up of committees, opposition motions with poison pills, and filibusters—because, frankly, most Canadians aren’t concerned about these details.  They just want parliament to work for them, especially when so...

In its throne speech, the federal government committed to exceed Canada’s 2030 climate targets. The need for new, more ambitious targets and a plan to meet them couldn’t be more urgent. The UN’s annual “Emissions Gap Report 2019” found Earth is headed toward 3.2 C warming based on current and estimated emissions trends — a ...

Material contributed by “Stop the Spray BC” When a forest regrows after logging or fires, it can be and should be a paradise for wildlife including bees, moose, birds, and beavers, with a large selection of food including fireweed, poplar (aspen), birch, willow, grasses, berries and many other plants that are necessary for ...

The West, the Rest, the Best? Other cultural paths have their democratic elements no doubt, but it is the West that has come to lay the foundation of a global economy, and of a global order in the UN and World Court. This world is a community where the lingering effects of the great age of Euro-American imperial, colonial, ...

It’s easy to become cynical about provincial and federal politicians and governments. All one has to do is pay attention:  to the promises made pre-election, and what happens – or doesn’t happen – after the election. And, sometimes to see the lobbying efforts of industrial and corporate giants result in legislation basically...

To save wild salmon, Discovery Islands fish farms must go During their miraculous but perilous journey from inland spawning grounds, down rivers, out to sea and back again years later, Pacific wild salmon often must pass open-net coastal salmon farms. Here they swim through waters that can harbour parasitic sea lice and harmful...