Last week I spent three days in Spokane at the Pacific Northwest Economic Region meetings.  Over 600 legislators, business people, and other interested folks from BC, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Yukon and Northwest Territories gathered to talk about issues important to this region....

As much of the world burns, with deadly wildfires raging in Greece, and significant fires devouring portions of California, Oregon, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Australia, Portugal, Siberia, Western Russia, and Finland -  not to mention BC’s Okanagan – and as the summer moves into hotter and drier days, some...

The Rossland Council for Arts and Culture (RCAC) will be presenting Celebrate! 20 Years in the Making. This is a juried visual art exhibition in celebration of the RCAC’s 20th Anniversary. 20 Years in the Makingis both about what the RCAC has accomplished in their 20 years of supporting arts and culture in Rossland and a...

Last year, several hikers were alarmed and dismayed by signs in the old Columbia Cemetery announcing that a nearby native shrub – Oregon grape -- had been treated with herbicide.  They wondered why a harmless native plant was being sprayed, in a City with a policy of not using herbicides except in unusual circumstances...

People in Canada discard about 57 million plastic drinking straws every day. In my hometown of Vancouver, we toss out 2.6 million disposable cups every week. It’s a global problem. Plastic products are choking landfills and waterways and causing devastation in the oceans. In 2014, scientists even found a new kind of stone in...

Seasonal allergies can make summer, spring, and fall much less enjoyable for anyone who experiences them; however, there are some simple things you can do to help.  Many people with seasonal allergies (also known as hay-fever or allergic rhinitis) experience symptoms such as itchy eyes and nose, runny nose, stuffy nose, post...

Starting at noon Pacific time on Thursday, July 26, 2018, campfires will be prohibited throughout the Southeast Fire Centre, to help prevent human-caused wildfires and protect public safety. This campfire ban will remain in place until further notice. The Southeast Fire Centre is currently experiencing hot and dry conditions....

There are large, loud and expensive ads urging people to vote against Proportional Representation in this fall’s referendum.  Are the points made in those ads valid? As citizens, or even just as residents, we should all care deeply about how well our government serves the public interest.  We need to get it ...

A Traveller’s Chaos, A Writer’s Coherence This month’s column is about travel, time, and identity. I have just returned from a four-week trip by car across the nation to Ontario and back. It is not the first such trip of my life; I have logged tens of thousands of miles since my first cross-continent drive in 1973,  many of...

Greyhound’s announcement that it will be pulling all its routes out of western Canada at the end of October came as a surprise, and for many it was more serious news.  It left them wondering how they were going to travel to work sites, to visit relatives and friends, or to go to university in the fall.  For them, the bus isn’t...