Jeffrey Loewen
Jeffrey Loewen arrived in the Okanagan by way of Winnipeg and White Rock.
He continues to insist that Winnipeg is probably the greatest city in Canada -- even if it won't have him.
University studies in Winnipeg and Mannheim, Germany had him focusing on Literature and Philosophy.
A former haberdasher and buyer in the high-end menswear trade, Jeffrey currently sells musical instruments
and liaises with schools throughout the Interior to support their music programmes. He is a keen musician,
playing a variety of keyboards and guitars. Happily residing in West Kelowna with his perfect foil, Wendy, and
their Manx kitty, Merlin, Jeffrey can seem subdued at times. After all, his heroes are dead, and his enemies are in power.
He notes that he would brighten if Stockwell Day would return to public service, if only for comic relief.
LOEWEN: Welcome home, Marc Emery, you’re just in time
“Marc” your calendar for tomorrow’s date, folks. It’s the day that cannabis-activist and agent provocateur Marc Emery is officially released from an American federal prison and begins a brief purgatory in detention until Canadian and American bureaucrats process the paperwork that will finally see the Canadian citizen returned to his home and native land. By...
LOEWEN: A B.C. view of what Canada is and should be
Where did you spend Canada Day? If you spent the holiday somewhere in British Columbia, chances are you spent it amidst a remarkable confluence of Mother Earth and Human Industry, in a place where our forebears forged a pact with the dizzying wealth of Nature and plotted out a tract to settle into. It’s about...
LOEWEN: Woe Canada, what has he done to you?
“You won’t recognize Canada when I get through with it.” Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s 2006 election boast continues to echo in my head, more than eight long years after he uttered it. I can’t shake it, folks. His promise has become the political earworm that returns on the path of an ill-wind blowing in daily...
LOEWEN: Positivity porn and the trouble with Ted Talks
Is your Facebook “wall” covered in Positivity Porn and TED Talks? Mine is. And it’s pissing me off. Surely you know what I’m talking about — after all, there’s roughly a billion of you Facebook users out there. You’re posting nifty pics of cats and dogs (which, blush, I usually adore). You’re updating us on...
LOEWEN: The Big Questions between father and son
My Dad hasn’t had a barbershop haircut since 1968. He’s fiercely proud of the stance. It’s political. When I first heard Dad’s bald confession, I was in Kelowna for a visit and I needed a trim. My folks had recently moved here after Dad retired from his professorship at the University of Winnipeg. As we...
LOEWEN: Public education and the petri dish of B.C. politics-to-come
Christy Clark and her cadre are unwittingly shaping the voice of political leadership in British Columbia for generations to come. They don’t realize it yet. Christy Clark and her cadre are too busy sweating over a decade of political misdeeds and how these actions will hamstring them in the summer months ahead, when they’d far...
LOEWEN: Christy Clark and the price of ignorance
“Education costs money, but then so does ignorance,” — Sir Claus Moser Christy Clark does not believe in public education. If she did, her son would be enrolled in one of Vancouver’s many fine public schools. But he’s not. Young Hamish is enrolled at one of Vancouver’s many fine private schools. He’s a lucky lad....
LOEWEN: Too many churches, not enough love
I don't believe in an interventionist God But I know, darling, that you do But if I did I would kneel down and ask Him Not to intervene when it came to you Not to touch a hair on your head To leave you as you are And if He felt He had to direct...
LOEWEN: Everyone’s entitled to an opinion
'WE NEED FOLKS WITH THESE KINDS OF OPINIONS BECAUSE, FRANKLY, IF WE'RE LEFT TO THE OTHER OPINIONS OUT THERE, WELL, WE'RE SCREWED.' So with that, I thought I'd take a final walk The tide of public opinion had started to abate The neighbours, bless them, had turned out to be all talk I could see...
LOEWEN: If it ain’t one thing, it’s your mother
“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.” — Oscar Wilde May means Mother’s Day for most of us. And if you weren’t raised by a harridan wielding a strap to strafe your back with, chances are you probably have a pretty warm feeling when you think of your...
LOEWEN: Letter to a younger ‘bro’
'THEY WON'T ADMIT IT; BUT SOME OLD DUDES HATE YOU FOR THIS IN-BORN GENIUS OF YOURS' You've got to get up every morning with a smile on your face And show the world all the love in your heart Then people gonna treat you better You're gonna find, yes, you will That you're beautiful as...
LOEWEN: Exorcising the toxic manager
'TAKE HEART. IF YOU STAND YOUR GROUND, YOU'LL PROBABLY BE FINE.' I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more nah, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more Well, he hands you a nickel And he hands you a dime And he asks you with a grin If you're havin' a good time...
LOEWEN: The Return of The Messiah: The humanities reborn?
'THE MESSIAH MAY HAVE RETURNED. HIS NAME IS HARRISON ARGATOFF.' Well I've been faithful And I've been so good Except for drinking But he knew that I would I'm gonna leave this place better Than the way I found it was And Jesus gonna be here Be here soon (Tom Waits, “Jesus Gonna Be Here”)...
LOEWEN: At your service 24/7
I can't wait to get off work and see my baby she'll be waiting up with a magazine for me clean the bathrooms, clean um good oh you're lovin I wish you would come down here and sweepameoffmyfeet this broom'll have to be my baby if I hurry I just might get off before the...
LOEWEN: On Writers
'Cause I gonna make you see There's nobody else here No one like me I'm special so special I gotta have some of your attention give it to me (Chrissie Hynde/Pretenders, “Brass In Pocket”) Writers are, for the most part, a very bad lot. Full stop. The only professionals more egregiously whorish and pimpish than...