Civic candidates have some homework to do

One of the common threads among civic election all-candidates’ forums is how little light they shed on what people will actually do when they get into office. This derives from the fact that the municipal government system, so tied into the provincial government, is complex and confusing.
Looking from the outside in, it’s difficult to get [...]

Bob Dylan concert a colossal disappointment

When I was 20 years old, I spent the summer working at my parents’ fishing camp at Tranquille Lake. I cleaned cabins, filled pot holes, and helped my dad build a road through the bush to nearby Saul Lake.
One of our guests that year was a 15-year-old girl from the U.S. who stayed for a [...]

Fun with Chad and Murphy on the campaign trail

Published in The Daily News, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2008
The idea of creating a ward system for Kamloops elections has been broached during this campaign, and I’m hear to advise against any such notion.
I’ll get to that in a moment, but let’s first touch on the train wreck that overcame mayoral candidate Murphy Kennedy’s campaign this [...]

Behind Closed Doors — Life At City Hall, Chapter 5

This is the fifth in a series on my experiences as the mayor of Kamloops from 1999 to 2005. I offer it for the interest of anyone who cares about civic politics and our community, and who might be wondering — as we approach a civic election Nov. 15 — what really goes on in [...]

It’s not Cathy Who anymore, it’s Cathy McLeod, that’s who

Column published in The Kamloops Daily News, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008
I have high hopes for Cathy McLeod.
I say that as a constituent, and as a newspaper editor, and I mean it sincerely.
My hope is that she’ll abandon her “I have a lot to learn” approach and knuckle down to being a student of the job. [...]

TRU’s new president a different sort of leader

I attended the breakfast for the TRU Foundation’s fundraising kickoff this morning in the Grand Hall. The vision for a new hall of learning building is spectacular in concept and in architecture and will certainly become a landmark not only for TRU but for the city.
Dr. Kathleen Scherf, the new university president, spoke, and I’ve [...]

Words and pictures tell an election story

Sometimes we are accused, as all media are, of favouring one political candidate over another in the way we write a story or headline, or take a picture. The fact is, we try very hard to be fair. Sometimes we fail, but we try.
A little after 11 last night (Tuesday), as we were heading toward [...]

The joy of victory, the agony of defeat

I’m sitting here, waiting for the final results to come in, and I’m torn between thinking there’s something seriously wrong with the way we elect Members of Parliament, and thinking everything is just as it should be.
On the one hand, I’m thinking our next MP is a complete greenhorn, whose only previous political achievement appears [...]

On days like today, I’m proud to be a Canadian

Driving to the polling station this morning, I asked my son Jacob to check the address on the Elections Canada card that had come in the mail.
He read off the address and asked, “Where’s that?”
“It’s at one of our neighbours’,” I said.
“Like, in a house?” he replied, surprised.
In his 18th year, this was his very [...]

Both our local elections will be decided in Ottawa

From a column published in the Kamloops Daily News on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2008
What a shame that both our local elections will be decided in Ottawa.
It may seem absurd to say voting in Kamloops Thompson Cariboo will be determined by what’s happening on the other side of the country, and even sillier to suggest our [...]