Pipeline approval shows Trudeau is no visionary
When Prime Minister Trudeau stepped in front of the media yesterday to announce the decision to approve the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline, he personally owned it. Trudeau didn’t send out some sacrificial cabinet minister. Give him credit for...
Trump fact-less claims cause problems for journalists
In the era of modern journalism, reporters have operated on a few professional standards -- like detachment and objectivity -- and some ethical values -- like fairness and balance. But what’s a reporter to do when she’s assigned to cover a potentially dangerous...
Not as green as we think we are
Before Victorians and other west coast residents start congratulating ourselves for producing fewer greenhouse gases per household than most other Canadians, we should pause to acknowledge that this environmental fame may be fleeting. Because if Premier Christy Clark...
Shakesides: Comox erases lively murals
With the popular summer festivals coming up this weekend in Comox -- Filberg Festival and Nautical Days -- the town likes to get all gussied up. Plants watered and weeded. Streets swept and lines repainted. Lawns mowed, and so on. But this annual beautification...
The IRS won’t stop me from voting for Hillary
After watching the Republican and Democratic party conventions this week, I’m glad that I haven’t given up my right to vote in U.S. federal elections. This election is too important for the whole world. But, in the last six years, many American citizens living abroad...
Our hope for U.S. politics: Make America Think Again
The message of the Republican convention, repeated in a thousand ways over four days, was simple: be afraid; be very afraid. Here’s the executive summary of four days of fulmination: Our country is falling apart. The Black Lives Matter movement is destroying the...
Dr. Chris Pileou: Valley’s eminent ecologist
BY MAINGON LOYS A few days ago, the scientific world, Canada, the Comox Valley as a whole and Comox Valley Nature (CVN), in particular, lost a 5-foot 2-inch giant. Nobody is ever likely to replace Dr. Chris Pielou. I knew her long before I came to the Comox Valley. I...
Director calls for Valley-wide sewer plan
When elected officials and the community they represent achieve a certain level of synchronicity, good governance and good outcomes usually result. So a reasonable person might expect that after voters strongly rejected a Comox Valley Regional District sewerage system...
Project Watershed files complaint against Town of Comox over Cape Lazo rip-rap
By Jennifer Sutherst Project Watershed has filed a natural resource violation complaint with the province against the Town of Comox for the work they are undertaking along Lazo Road in the Point Holmes area. The town has chosen to install rip-rap (large angular rocks)...
Make Shakesides a community project
By voting unanimously last week to demolish Shakesides, the home of noted Canadian naturalist Hamilton Mack Laing, the Comox Town Council has failed to recognize a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build community cohesiveness. Hamilton Mack Laing was a naturalist,...
Was Shakesides’ advisory process flawed?
When he died in 1982, well-known Canadian naturalist Hamilton Mack Laing left his possessions, his property and house,and his money to the Town of Comox. His Last Will specified that some of the money be used to create a natural history museum in his house and to...
Concerns over handling of Laing trust aren’t new
Questions about the Town of Comox's handling of the Mack Laing Trust are not new. Citizens expressed concern many years ago, including Comox Valley Citizen of the Year Ruth Masters. In April of 2001, she wrote to then Mayor George Kirkwood and councillors asking for...