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Opinion

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...

PARKER: A good walk rescued by beer and new shoes

My boyfriend turned to me and asked why I was crying. “I always cry before I play sports,” I sniffed at him. This is actually quite standard behaviour for me. It’s not like the temper tantrums I throw when I’m too poor to buy that doggy in the window, it’s more like a quiet, blubbering...

JONESIE: Bring on the World Cup, just not the games

I’m trying with this World Cup soccer, er, football thing, really I’m trying. I only care because I have a few English friends and this seems somehow important to them. Or, well, it was important to them. And because, well, the same way the world ignores soccer when Canadians play it on ice with sticks...

GOG: Be afraid, very afraid… unless you read this

I hate it when cars nag. They bleep at you to turn off your lights or put your seat belt on or take your keys with you. Nowadays they even nag you when they need a service, as mine did this week. So of course I obediently drove to the dealer like a lamb to...

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...

PARKER: Finding a sense of certainty from an uncertain future

Nine years ago, I teetered across a stage filled with my hooting and hollering peers in a pair of strappy silver stilettos and my mother assured me I would fall.  The voice of my principal boomed over everyone in the crowd and said I was going on to pursue a bachelor’s degree, that I had...

JONESIE: I bet no one’s thought of this before

Lock and load, baby: Dad’s got a new weapon. And I needed one. I’ve been shooting blanks for months, firing away at the kids, aiming for wisdom and evidently missing the mark. I needed some new ammunition, something to make them pay attention. Because I have the answer to that age-old question: If a man...

Rescuer still searching after 50 years

VERNON - After a 50-year run with search and rescue, Vernon’s Pete Wise has a quick answer when asked if he’s ready to retire. It’s a negative. Wise, 66, is as ready as ever to drop what he’s doing to drive out to the middle of nowhere as he was when he was 16. “It’s...

GOG: If the Git says you’re going slow, you are way too slow

On Monday I tried driving fast down a fast road in a fast car. This sort of summer driving should be fun. Get the old girl’s top off (I’m talking convertibles here, but you can imagine whatever you want,) stomp on the loud pedal and head for the open road. Alas, nothing but frustration awaits....

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...

PARKER: A twenty-something’s guide to being glamourously poor

What is it about being poor that makes a person immediately want to buy a bottle of wine? I just don’t think it’s very fair to be tested like that, you know? Because, yes, I’m well aware I should probably spend my last $10 on some sort of starch but, in the battle of Great...

West Kelowna school gets last stop on cross Canada tour

WEST KELOWNA – Students in West Kelowna will be treated to a special presentation Friday as a reward for their help in getting a school built in Kenya. Mt. Boucherie Secondary will host the final performance of the Spencer West “We Create Change” tour. The tour includes a presentation by humanitarian Spencer West, a performance...

GOG: You win this time, horrible package! Oh, probably next time too

I had to buy a pair of scissors this week so I could trim the cat. My scissors came encased in an impenetrable cell of hard plastic that could only be breached by scissors. Three days later they are still taunting me from inside their impermeable plastic fortress, while the cat remains disgracefully unkempt. Somewhere...