iN DISCUSSION: Okanagan MLA Tara Armstrong uses tragedy for political gain

This is where cold hard facts give way to the hottest of takes, mostly mine I suppose. I’m the editor, Marshall Jones.

Want to include yours? Listen, this isn’t the comment section, this isn’t social media. Discussion and debate requires context and a wee bit of bravery — we need your name and where you’re writing from. Include it in your account or email me anytime.

Why Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream MLA Tara Armstrong needs to be recalled

We all reacted in our own way when news emerged from Tumbler Ridge this week.

Active shooter, growing number of dead. Maybe you hugged your kids a little tighter, called loved ones, shared concern for survivors and the small town in which this happened.

Not Kelowna-Lake Country-Coldstream MLA Tara Armstrong.

Within four hours of learning the news, she weaponized what was a rumour at the time, just so she can keep picking on trans kids.

She stepped over warm bodies for political opportunity.

We all want answers but Tara is the kind of ghoul who fits facts to her own world view. Had she done any research at all, she’d know there’s no correlation, let alone causation between trans and violence.

Mental illness often isn’t even a factor in mass shootings, according to a Columbia University study. We are far better off addressing what they call “the epidemic of the combination of nihilism, emptiness, anger, and a desire for notoriety among young men.”

Spending any time online and you’ll find this everywhere.

Tara and fellow-cannibal Stockwell Day, who has always loved the taste of his own feet, would love to take us off track. Don’t let them.

And Tara, you are so keen to throw so much mud at others, are you prepared for when they find the skeletons in your closet?

Because I already know what they’ll find. Are you sure you’re ready for this?

We have just 65 days left before we can purge this mistake and make Tara Armstrong known for just one thing: Being the first MLA in BC history to be recalled. Let’s do this.

Marshall Jones

Managing Editor

Why it’s time to stop blaming politics for our problems

Hey, what do you get if you ask a politician for ‘the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?’

Three different answers! Ba-dum-tss.

Everyone understands the joke, right? That’s what we have thought of politicians, at least since Nixon was in office. Liars, cheats, in it for themselves. Every comedian since then has repeated it without pushback, journalists like me, too.

I have regrets because I see what it has wrought — a cynicism, a disbelief in the central characters on the stage of democracy and therefore democracy itself.

Politicians are generally misunderstood. They balance a wide array of interests across our shared lives. Arts and sports. Business and labour. Security and freedom. Etc. Every decision will be both wrong and right to someone.

They play both sides. That’s what good politicians do, and for the greater good. They compromise. Most of us never have to do that, we’re smug in our comfortable convictions, we can be distrustful of those who aren’t.

But that’s narrow thinking and wrong, too. Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas and councillor Loyal Wooldridge accused other councillors this week of “politicking” on the location of the new arts centre.

They used it as slur, not a compliment (and hypocritical at that).

Going by the average Facebook post and letter I get, we imagine a lot of terrible things about city councillors, MLAs and MPs, and they’re almost never true.

It’s certainly not the starting point.

I’ve met many. They’re regular people. With some clear exceptions, left or right, it has been in my experience a universal class of community-minded people with a legitimate interest in making lives better. They might not do it, we might disagree on what better lives look like, but properly motivated.

That last sentence describes Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson.

Trouble is, after all these years, we’re all so cynical we can’t even recognize the good ones from the truly bad ones, the grifters, the liars, the manipulators because we’ve put them all on the same bus.

We elected MLAs in our ridings a year ago who never said a word. Albertans are so adrift and politically obtuse, they’re toying with an independence vote. There’s rumblings in BC now, too. Americans don’t recognize a president trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power is unusual and disqualifying.

I’m not naive. This is all complicated stuff. Politicians have all kinds of motivations we may never know about. You should always be wary.

But we can’t just blame all our problems on them or our idea of who they are. “Because they’re all crooks” is weak and can’t be an excuse to disengage or exit the system or tear it down.

We’ll never make anything better if we confuse the problem.

Defending politicians, how’s that for a hot take? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Marshall Jones

Managing Editor

Are you into the Winter Olympics?

The Winter Olympics are funny.

It’s like they didn’t have enough sports to make it a thing so they just started making stuff up.

Skiing, skating, sure. Then they just… started hurling people down icy mountains? Face first, feet first. Little cars in groups of two or four. Add a little risk of death to keep the cheers up.

It needn’t make sense to me to be delightful but I’m really only here for the hockey. Kinda hoping for a Denmark-US game personally, but I’ll need a Canada-US game in both genders, please.

Are you into the Olympics at all? What are you watching for? Email me at mjones@infonews.ca.

Marshall Jones

Managing Editor

iN RESPONSE

iN RESPONSE to Wednesday’s newsletter opinion editorial on politicians

Most of us don’t have the time nor the inclination to understand the ins and outs of running a country, province, or city. The only advice I can offer is to ask yourself, as my cousin once said: Are you better off today than you were five years ago? If not, maybe you have to change something you are doing. :)

— Warren Caruk

iN RESPONSE to Feb. 4 newsletter opinion editorial social media ban for kids under 16

Yes, the issue is broader than banning social media for kids under 16. Their algorithms decide what we all see and read on social media. They’re designed primarily to sell our data to advertisers, and to keep us addicted to the media. They’re without conscience, and are not in the society’s best interests or public service without a lot more over site. Making the platforms themselves accountable and liable is a good step.

— Martin Matthews

Kelowna realtor who flew drone in wildfire zone looking at steep fine

Nice to see Crown Counsel taking the matter seriously. This behaviour is enormously selfish.

— William Mastop via iNFOnews.ca

iN VIDEO: Penticton man turns scrap into music one piece at a time

WOW that is so cool. It sounds great.