Appeared in the North Shore News – March 24, 2016 It’s asking a lot, but suspend your fascination with West Vancouver politics. Go light of foot and heart to La Cucina, where the food and the unforced atmosphere of an intimate European restaurant are draws enough, its regulars confiding its lure only to reliable friends…
No opinion on LNG, says non-stick Pam
Appeared in the North Shore News – March 11, 2016 You’d think the local member of Parliament would have an opinion on the Woodfibre LNG project, wouldn’t you? Or am I being naïve again? I’ve sent several unsuccessful emails to Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, our woman in Ottawa as MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country,…
Hotel, casino could lure fun-loving to West Vancouver
Appeared in the North Shore News – February 26, 2016 I interrupt a half-written diatribe on the West Vancouver waterfront for a different diatribe. Here are three money-spinning strategies for West Vancouver revival. Sure to alienate some faithful readers, all seven of them. And free. If I had a lot of professional initials after my…
Self interest fuels real estate Wild West
Appeared in the North Shore News – February 12, 2016 Who didn’t know that Vancouver real estate prices are outrageous – even possibly inciting future civil violence by young generations shut out of ever owning a home in the city of their birth? What’s new – what’s news, thanks to a print reporter who proved…
Edible jewels unearthed amid pricey produce
Appeared in the North Shore News – January 29, 2016 Ignore terrorism in Vancouver – exploding home prices. Forget the media watch on Justin Trudeau’s fading honeymoon. Pass by Wall Street to Your Street, where real people, even most on-shore West Vancouverites, live. I stopped dead at a store’s scrawled sign: Cauliflower 2/$4. Surely a…
Sailing club a lightning rod for waterfront debate
Appeared in the North Shore News – January 15, 2016 Amy Baird grew up going to the Hollyburn Sailing Club every summer. Her mother, Anne, was its first woman commodore. “As a young girl I was so proud of her. Still am,” Amy says. The club was “a great way to meet new kids and…
New West Vancouver MP talks LNG, arts and Ottawa
Appeared in the North Shore News – January 1, 2016 In snooty West Vancouver, where we think foreign relations begin at the North Vancouver border, it is novel to have a bona fide parliamentary secretary for the federal foreign affairs minister. “I got to Ottawa on the Monday and found I was going to be…
Cheers to Potters and Scrooges of our day
Appeared in the North Shore News – December 18, 2015 At Christmas, our hearts should go out to those who are all too easily ignored throughout the year. They are the invisible people of our society. In our busy day-to-day lives we seldom give them a thought. When they come to our attention in the…
When an election promise isn’t a promise
Appeared in the North Shore News – December 4, 2015 In a less Justin-besotted Canada, a “Trudeau promise” would enter the language – an oxymoron, like “military intelligence.” You’ll recall that in November Liberal leader Justin Trudeau bid up compassionate Canada’s offer to accept Syrian refugees – handily out-caring rivals Thomas Mulcair and Stephen Harper….
Trudeau losing his post-election lustre
Appeared in the North Shore News – November 20, 2015 I’d say Justin Trudeau fell from the honeymoon bed. Possibly a matter of coitus interruptus in his post-election love affair with an adulating public and media. The CBC must be heartbroken. Even Mother Corp’s loyal radio arm noted Trudeau’s awkward pauses answering questions at the…