Opinion General

Politically-speaking, the Okanagan Valley is one of the “safest” ultra-conservative regions in Canada. Enlist as a political candidate a dog with a Conservative Party of Canada or a B.C. Liberal sign around its neck, and the pooch will be invariably barking happily towards the backbenches of the nearest parliament or legislature come election time. Even...

PREPARING FOR BATTLE AGAINST GENERATION Z When was the last time you put in a hard day’s work? Like, I don’t mean you busted your ass at CrossFit and did 57 kettlebell swings. I mean, when was the last time you put in a hard day’s work for someone else? Millennials seem to have a...

Last weekend I made a ghastly mistake, one that will affect my life forever. I went to the beach.  I should have known better, but it was stiflingly hot at home and I thought an afternoon at the beach would be one of pleasure and relaxation. My mistake began to become apparent when I tried to...

“Fun.” Is there possibly a more risible and contemptible three-letter noun in the contemporary lexicon? Fun: it’s everywhere these days. It’s there on the margins of whatever screen you happen to stare into. It’s calling you over the airwaves of whatever radio station you’re currently dialed into. And television, of course, is awash in Fun,...

I met a woman once who told me every time she found a box in her home that hadn’t been opened in two years, she would throw it away without looking inside of it. The idea of this propelled me into a panic attack faster than discovering a new imaginary body part. What if it...

Oh, what I wanted to do to this guy. Waiting at a light in traffic, I watched him, waited to see if he’d do it and he didn’t disappoint. Smoke billowing out the windows of his SUV, he took one last drag of his cigarillo and casually dropped it, still smoking to the street. It...

I do not pretend to understand persons of the opposite sex any more than I pretend to understand quantum physics or other equally impenetrable mysteries of the universe. And the one thing that baffles me every time is their bizarre behaviour around babies. To a rational observer there is nothing less attractive than a mewling,...

“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...

My entire life I have strived towards being a Yes Person. You know the kind — the one who bungee jumps off bridges in Portugal without understanding a word of the waiver forms, the one who went scuba diving with unknown species of sharks, the one who took too many drinks from too many strangers...