Southern BC has lost all or most of its formerly numerous wild mountain caribou. Populations are crashing in the BC central interior as well. The Western Canada Wilderness Committee points out that they “were once so numerous that an entire region of BC is named after them. The Cariboo in the central interior of BC was given...

On Wednesday, October 9, J.L. Crowe Secondary School in Trail is hosting an all-candidates forum in its gym. Local citizens will have an opportunity to see and hear all five of our riding's candidates in person, if they all manage to show up. It will be brief -- the event starts at 10:00 and is scheduled to run only until...

To the Editor, The Fridays For the Future youth strike last Friday was inspiring. Around the world, millions of youth and their supporters marched and demanded real climate action from the adults. By ‘real action’ I assume the youth mean action that avoids the forecasted global catastrophe and delivers the Paris Accord goal...

Call it a reversal of fortune. Politicians had to sit and listen to voters on Wednesday night in the first all-candidates gathering in Nelson for the latest edition of the federal election campaign trail. Nearly 100 people showed up at the Nelson United Church to lend their voice to the campaign and give shape to […]

Tackling climate change means purging privilege from politics Our national political arena often seems dominated by unproductive partisan potshots and misplaced accountability, with corporate interests prioritized over people’s. Behind the noisy partisan sniping, a quiet majority — 70 to 75 per cent of Canadians — is largely disengaged from politics, according to McAllister Opinion Research. […]

Greta Thunberg’s speech to the  UN was transcribed.  Here is the full text.  For the full effect, though, listen to her speech at this link:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYqtXR8iPlE In response to the question, “What’s your message to world leaders today?” Thunberg responded as follows: Greta Thunberg:   “My message is...

Current and anticipatory grief The reality of the continuing extinction of many so species is profoundly upsetting.  Readers may wonder why old people should care.  For example, I’ll be dead in a few years myself;  it will be up to others to live their lives diminished by the loss of caribou and many other creatures, many...

By John Rapley, for Aeon Two questions: is it good or bad that professional athletes earn 400 times what nurses do, and is string theory a dead end? Each question goes to the heart of its discipline. Yet while you probably answered the first, you’d hold an opinion on the prospects of string theory only if you’ve studied...

Some Elections matter more: this should be one Canadians are about to choose a national, federal government on October 21. It is a more significant choice for our nation than we have faced in many elections, and not because Canada alone is facing some unusual circumstances: the entire human world and the non-human species...

Last week I cycled around the beautiful riding of South Okanagan-West Kootenay—436 km of rail trail and highway, 18 cafes and restaurants and lots of good conversations!  While the talk over coffee and food was wide-ranging—from caribou to craft distilleries, health care to infrastructure, agriculture to electoral reform—the...