Why not confront the demons we travelled with in the 2010s with a roadmap for dealing with a changing global climate landscape?
A new decade calls for new ideas. How about entering the 2020s with the clear vision and noble spirit that comes with embracing change? Why not confront the demons that we travelled with in the 2010s with some new, reconstructed and rethought vigour? Let’s revise our goals and refashion our strategies for their attainment. How…
Whales, glorious sunsets, warming fires, close-knit family, a hand-cut tree, elaborate toasts – and plaid!
The humpback whales were still breaching and blowing as we crossed by ferry from Little River to Powell River on our way back to Skelhp after a week with friends. In mid-December, the big ocean visitors begin their travels south, and once again the local orcas and sea lions become the dominant residents of the…
Is the affordability crisis – and the lack of government intervention – a metaphor for something much worse?
I want to describe Vancouver’s awful housing market as a metaphor for something else. I’ll reveal the ‘something else’ later in the column. For now, let’s just stick with Vancouver, the city I grew up in. When I was a little boy, our Dunbar neighbourhood had a broad cross-section of residents. Our family’s cleaning lady…
As much as we may wish to avoid the obvious, there’s increasing likelihood of the death of treasured old pals, neighbours and work associates.
All of us born in the baby boomer era – the period signalling the end of the Second World War – are now in our 60s or early 70s, and sailing into the zone of no return. As much as we may wish to avoid the obvious, there’s increasing likelihood of the death of treasured…
The rising interpersonal venom on the Internet is a distressing sign of the times
If you’re middle aged or better and have a sense of life before the Internet, information technology and all of the associated foofaraw, you may also remember the value of polite speech. It was extremely rare in my youth to witness profanity first-hand in what might still be called polite society. That included family relations,…
The rising interpersonal venom on the Internet is a distressing sign of the times
If you’re middle aged or better and have a sense of life before the Internet, information technology and all of the associated foofaraw, you may also remember the value of polite speech. It was extremely rare in my youth to witness profanity first-hand in what might still be called polite society. That included family relations,…
Think of Venice as a metaphor for humanity’s tepid response to the swelling climate crisis
In the last week of September, I spent an interesting hour talking with an Italian doctoral student in ecology on the banks of the Venice lagoon. She wanted to know why I had come to Venice and what I knew of its insular yet urban environment. “Did any aspect of the Venetian lagoon’s environment draw…
The days are increasingly short and grey, but nature is on full display everywhere we look
I’m looking out of our living room window on a predominantly grey sea and landscape. The eye first trips over some close-in treetops before it encompasses five km of Jervis Inlet, leading to Scotch Fir Point in the mid-distance. The bulk of Texada Island beckons in the further background, hiding whatever it wishes behind its…
There’s already a strong engineering, finance and transportation capability in the province. We need to build on that in the new economy
A new study related to abandoned coal mining in the United Kingdom and the movement of displaced workers offers insight for Albertans. Not many of us read the online peer reviewed academic journal Nature Human Behaviour. That’s why occasionally perusing the back pages of The Economist makes sense. The Oct. 26, 2019, Economist reviews an…
A weekend rigorously scheduled, egalitarian, task-focused and bathed in a bonding humour
The chainsaw, sledge and wedges are back in the woodshed. The winter wood is split and stacked. Steve and Dave have headed home to their busy lives; Johnnie and James have promised to redouble their efforts to attend next year. And I’m once again pondering the strength of a growing tradition: Wood Camp at Skelhp.…
The diversity and complexity of Canadian federal politics echoes through the 2019 general election results
So I voted Liberal. What did that accomplish? The 33.1 per cent of the 66 per cent of Canadian voters who managed to vote in the 2019 federal election gave the Liberals 157 seats, or 46.4 per cent of the 338 seats in the House of Commons. Clearly first past-the-post system has its advantages. The…
The government has an impressive team, a strong record of legislation and has raised our international standing
Aided by corrosive social media, omnipresent angry groups and the need for climate tempering, the countdown to the federal election has been divisive and grouchy. While many viewed at least one of the leadership debates, I sense Canadians understand that there’s much more at stake than individual party leader street credentials in this election. Some…
The Canal Grande Hotel in Venice, Italy, offers all visitors a free trip from its canal-side breakfast balcony to the Vetreria Artistica glass factory Monday through Friday at 10 a.m. It's all part of the seduction. A sleek mahogany-hulled water taxi pulls up to the hotel, and the interested guests are carefully guided by the…
How many of us think of the Venetian lagoon and its imperilled circumstances when we imagine a trip to Piazza San Marco?
Venice has been a feast of art, archaeology and escape for tourists since it began to attract them in the 15th and 16th centuries. But it is under attack. One of the world’s first cities to be founded almost exclusively on the conduct of financial transactions, its promotion of mercantile capitalism led the way to…
Imagine golden sand, 25C with a blue sky in May, and the cleanest blue-green ocean you’ve ever seen. Add boardwalks stretching for kilometres and fabulous food
Imagine golden sand, 25C with a clear blue sky in May, and the cleanest blue-green ocean you’ve ever seen. Add boardwalks that stretch for kilometres across salt marshes and sand dunes. Every so often, include colonies of beach lounge chairs, arrayed under stretched blue canvas canopies. Add swirls of swallows and gulls above, and cue…
A new decade calls for new ideas. How about entering the 2020s with the clear vision and noble spirit that comes with embracing change? Why not confront the demons that we travelled with in the 2010s with some new, reconstructed and rethought vigour? Let’s revise our goals and refashion our strategies for their attainment. How…
