Opinion

Eleven days ago, our country began welcoming the flights of Syrian refugees into its National airports. Churches, non-profits, businesses, caring individuals and community organizations began to put together settling-in baskets filled with the necessities that would be getting these people through the first few weeks ahead. My family had been following the news closely; waiting...

The provincial government wants to untap the economic potential of the Sunshine Coast by building a fixed crossing to it. Transportation Minister Todd Stone is seeking input from the public on possible routes from the Lower Mainland to Sechelt, Gibsons and the other parts of the Sunshine Coast. I would agree that building a fixed...

I haven't carried cash for almost a year and it didn't poppy up as a problem until just last month when there was no script nor coin in my wallet for the Remembrance Day donation box. The march toward a cashless society is humbugging on-the-spot charitable causes to the point that some Salvation Army kettle...

As a kid growing up in Winnipeg and Waterloo, it didn’t matter what the season was. When my Dad’s mania for wandering came upon him (and it was pretty much daily), it was usually his youngest who was called upon to accompany him. Often enough I was able to finagle my way out of these...

Yesterday, my favorite self-acceptance guru announced to the Internet that for Christmas she gave herself a boob job. I got the notification on my phone immediately after she posted her explanatory blog and I proceeded to ignore my husband throughout brunch as I read — with great care, interest and (I’ll admit) judgment — about...

There are two pictures of artwork on this page. One is a sculpture donated by the Westbank First Nation to Big White last week. It was done by native artist Smoker Marchand and depicts a grizzly bear, coyote and Ogopogo. The other is a sketch of what was to eventually come from Penticton artist Johann...

Yesterday marked the thirty-fifth anniversary of the gunning down of my childhood hero, John Lennon, a man I commemorated in these pages at this time just last year. It was 1980 when Lennon was murdered. I was a sixteen-year-old Winnipeg high school student with a part-time job at a local record store. December 8th was...

There have always been charlatans trotting about on the fringes of believability making loads of money off gullible people. Deepak Chopra has been accused of being one such individual, misusing scientific terms with wild abandon and tossing out alleged profundities that make no sense at all, claiming for example that "consciousness may exist in photons,...

There is an annoying post floating around on Pinterest that, for whatever reason, I like each time it comes into my vision. On a plethora of holiday colored backgrounds — most likely one dollar Canva stock — floats the following quote: too blessed to be stressed. The words usually swirl around each other in beginner’s...