When a political party sets rules for a leadership race and tries to be all things to all members, the result can end up looking more like the proverbial camel designed by a committee than a true and fair method for members to choose a new leader. As they did in 2011, the B.C. Liberal party opted to continue with its practice...

Come the next BC election, will we have Proportional Representation (of some kind) or business-as-usual with First-Past-the-Post? A lot of ink and pixels have been swirling around the news and opinion media on the topic. It still bears more examination, given the disparate views expressed. Let’s do some examining, and...

People sometimes get bugged by insects, but we need them. They play essential roles in pollination, combatting unwanted agricultural pests, recycling organic matter, feeding fish, birds and bats, and much more. They’re the most numerous and diverse animals on Earth and form the base of many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems....

In mid-January I attended the British Columbia Natural Resources Forum in Prince George.  This is one of the biggest gatherings of resource companies, government leaders and nongovernment organizations in Canada, and is always a good place to hear the latest news from that sector. I was happy to see federal Natural Resources...

We find ourselves on different sides Of a line that nobody drew. Though it all may be one in the higher eye Down here where we live it is two. I to my side call the meek and the mild You to your side call the Word. By virtue of suffering I claim to have won You claim to have never been heard.                                                      ...

Editor's Note:  We’ve been hearing about “professional reliance” recently. In response to the provincial government’s invitation to the public to provide input on professional reliance, Rossland Mayor Kathy Moore sent a letter which is reproduced at the bottom. The deadline for submitting input was January 19th, so it’s too...

The New Year is a time to look ahead and plan for the future.  My wife and I have been talking about pensions lately.  She’s debating whether to start her Canada Pension Plan payments.  We were self-employed for much of our careers, so she doesn’t have a company pension to draw on, but we have tried to build up our RRSPs over...

Brazil has flooded large swaths of the Amazon for hydro dams, despite opposition from Indigenous Peoples, environmentalists and others. The country gets 70 per cent of its electricity from hydropower. Brazil’s government had plans to expand development, opening half the Amazon basin to hydro. But a surprising announcement...

Just today, a reader sent me a link to a news item about a young person in Indiana, USA, killed while playing in the snow – sliding down a steep, snow-covered street, right into the path of a motorist. And now dead. The reader had seen a youth in Rossland sliding down one of our steep streets, and barely stopping before...

It makes me very sad to be having to write this again, and that we once more find ourselves coping with a horrific couple of months in our region – motor vehicle fatalities and injuries, fires, unexpected deaths, community icons lost. I think the knee-jerk reaction of most good people is to want to do something, to help in ...