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Opinion General
BEPPLE: How should that tax money be spent?
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is a not-for-profit group dedicated to ‘lower taxes, less waste and accountable government.’ The federation sends out press releases commenting on federal, provincial and local governments across the country. They also campaign against taxes. For example, they campaigned heavily on the ‘No’ side of the recently defeated Metro Vancouver transit referendum....
LOEWEN: From ‘Two Solitudes’ to a new Canada
Happy Canada Day from the searing shores of the Okanagan! Perhaps yesterday’s brain-fryin’ at Kickinee Provincial Park under the relentless sun has me thinking goofy today, but I have decided Canada is a state-of-mind, a feeling as much spiritual as it is geo-political. I’ve never been a huge lover of outlandishly-proportioned displays of national “pride.”...
ANDERSON: A big fat socialist tragedy
Margaret Thatcher was right when she opined that the problem with socialism is eventually running out of other people's money. It's a fact Greece is finding out today, because it will almost certainly miss a debt payment to the Eurozone and face significant economic distress. A last minute deal may appear as it has so...
PARKER: Squad Goals for the win
There were two hashtags that broke the Internet this week and for once, they seemed to play for the same team. #LoveWins was the chosen representative of the legalization of same-sex marriage in all 52 states. Powerful and to the point, the love wins hashtag became home to many celebration sentiments, heartfelt 140 character memoirs...
BEPPLE: Celebrate Canada with new Canadians
The Canada Day celebrations at Kamloops Riverside Park have to be some of the best in the country. With a pancake breakfast, free cake, Art in the Park, live music all day, and ending with fireworks, there is something for everyone. The water park and river to cool off in, which we will totally need...
HELSTON: The Canadian Ski Patrol’s legacy is something that’s never leaving
It takes a certain kind of person to be a volunteer, and we’d be lost without them. From the search and rescuer who misses dinner with his family to help find a missing hiker, the listening ear on the other end of the crisis hotline, or the ski patroller who spends her weekend not knowing what kind of emergency she might be called to next — they are here for us, not for money, not for credit, but to help.
POULSEN: We are drier than before the big fire in 2003
These early worries about a bad forest fire season are well founded. The Okanagan is drier now than it was previous to the Okanagan Park fire in 2003. Here are the Kelowna airport precipitation figures in centimetres for April, May, and through June 23, 2003, compared with the same period for this year. 2003: 80.6...
LOEWEN: From Stormfront to your front: When hate gets a free ride
“Things are slowly getting better, politically, in Canada,” said “WhitePridePatriot.” “(H)ats off the (sic) Steven Harper and the Conservatives for Finlay (sic) scarping (sic) this "law"! Hats off to Ezra Levant and Mark Styne for challenging this and making this more widely known. Most importantly, hats off to unsung heroes Paul Fromm, Mark Lamiere, Doug...
ANDERSON: A tale of two scandals
To hear the mainstream Canadian media talk about the so-called Senate "scandal," one would think the Auditor General took it upon himself to clean up the Senate and in doing so caught the Tories doing... we're-not-sure-what-but-it's-probably-bad. This popular narrative is highly misleading. Moreover, it deflects from a truly egregious scandal, and one that the media...
PARKER: Snapping out of it
Over the past two weeks I have followed everyone from Justin Bieber to Kylie Jenner on Snapchat. Three weeks ago I didn’t even know celebrities used Snapchat, but this week, everywhere I look someone famous is announcing they use the medium and I can’t help but pay attention to how. Snapchat is the infamous App...
BEPPLE: The mainstage of politics
Politics, whether at the federal, provincial or municipal level, is all about theatre. That’s not to say that politicians are not genuine. It’s just that what people say, and how they say it changes dramatically when they are in the public eye. At least in certain circumstances. Take for instance this week’s council meeting. Council...