Mid-Island Focus is launching its ongoing coverage for the Oct. 21 federal election. The objective is to capture the important questions people want answered, and get them to the politicians before it’s time to mark our ballots.
The list may change, but here’s some questions we’d like candidates in the Cowichan-Malahat-Langford riding to respond to in the coming weeks:
As these questions are formulated and posted, you will see a tick appear next to the items in the bulleted list, along with a link to the original explanatory posting. A running list of all questions will also be maintained for quick reference.
As candidates respond, their party affiliation will be noted next to the topic area, along with a link to their responses. The idea is to add to a running tally of candidates’ and parties’ views on matters that concern you.
If you want to be notified as information about the 2019 Federal Election becomes available, check out the ways you can Connect with MiF. If you feel something needs to be added to the list, or coverage could be improved in any way, let MiF know…
So, who wants to think ‘federal election’, when summer’s just warming up – it’s the season for barbecues and suntan lotion, not hobgoblins and ghosts, isn’t it?
Well, we all should be looking hard and asking questions of the candidates who are running for office Oct. 21. Thanks to a broken promise after our last trek to the polls, we’re still focused too much on parties and party leaders, instead of real issues and opportunities. But flawed or not, our democratic process is the best option we’ve got for making a difference.
Word has it amongst the experts in such things, that it’s going to be a real down and dirty campaign, with tons of mud (to use the polite term) flung around to obscure anything resembling intelligent dialogue and debate. As is becoming increasingly usual, the objective will be to smear your opponent, rather than expose yourself to ridicule with a clearly defined and articulated platform.
Love him or hate him, there aren’t too many politicians out there who haven’t been paying close attention to what’s going on south of the border, orchestrated by the maestro of the outrageous and the controversial (to make a very short list of his virtues) Donald Trump. The populist surge is still in full-freshet, and we can be certain there will be politicians north of the 49th, who will be pulling pages out of the ‘Great Again’ manual.
There’s only so much local media can do to change the tenor and tone of a federal election; but it’s important that we do what we can to raise the profile of Mid-Island candidates, and the implications of their parties’ positions on the issues of the day. Look for increasing coverage in MiF over the coming weeks, and participate by commenting on the stories and suggesting ways MiF coverage can be improved.
Every election is important, but it’s not an overstatement to tag this as the most important a majority of Canadians have faced in their lifetimes. Eighty-two days is not a lot of time to get informed, let’s use it wisely so we’ll know who we’re voting for and why when we go to the polls Oct. 21.
When are we going leave the climate change deniers behind, and start taking serious action on what should be the most urgent file on the desk of every government on earth?
When, to put it another way, can we put commentary from the folks who don’t think there’s a problem in the same category as we would arguments from the Flat Earth Society?
That local governments, including The City of Duncan and The Municipality of North Cowichan, are responding to the crisis is a good sign (as reported in onecowichan.ca). We need more good signs at a higher level, and to insist on clear commitments from federal politicians vying for our votes Oct. 21.
The International Panel on Climate Change has given us 12 years to effect the massive transformations that need to be made to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of global warming; that global warming is already happening, and that it’s due to human activity is not a question that can seriously be asked.
Says the IPCC report, in its level headed language: Human activities are estimated to have caused approximately 1.0°C of global warming above pre-industrial levels, with a likely range of 0.8°C to 1.2°C. Global warming is likely to reach 1.5°C between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to increase at the current rate. (high confidence)
Here’s the graph:
Leave the climate change deniers to their convoluted, dangerous logic, and let’s get on with concerted action to stop global warming – as has been agreed to in the 2016 Paris Climate Accord. We can’t afford to squabble anymore about the urgency of the situation.
The flat earther’s can go around proving their theories from now to eternity, and nobody’s really going to get hurt. No matter how far they wander in their zany speculations, no-one is going to actually fall off the edge. Climate change deniers, on the other hand, are preventing us from facing up to the greatest crisis that has ever faced civilization, and being innovators in the new economy that has to emerge, if we are going to avoid disaster.
Craig Spence, Editor
INTERESTING NEWS FOR INTERESTED MID-ISLAND READERS
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May 8th is a special day for World War II veteran Fred Durrand. Not only is it his birthday, but it’s also the day Germany surrendered, ending the war in Europe; and it’s the day he got married to his war bride Josie, the love of his life.
So not to many squares on the calendar can match May 8. But July 23, 2019 might be in the running for a prize too, because on that day he was honoured by the Naden Band, in front of a packed audience at the Chemainus Band Shell in Water Wheel Park.
Fred is among the few WWII veterans still alive, but his memories of the war years are keen. He hadn’t strayed very far from his hometown of Revelstoke, B.C., when he boarded a train for Calgary to enlist in the Canadian armed forces in October, 1942 at the age of 18. It was a different man who returned home, via Vancouver in 1946.
The second biggest birthday gift Fred can remember in his 95-year history was VE-Day on May 8, 1945; the biggest, his marriage to Josie – the beautiful young Dutch woman he met as a soldier in Amsterdam, and married in Revelstoke on May 8, 1947.
Fred served with the 8th Brigade, in the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. As a signals dispatch rider, he delivered vital information to commanders advancing from the beachhead in Normandy, through Brussels, and on to Amsterdam.
His experiences of war have made Fred a fervent advocate for peace as the only sensible way of resolving global conflicts.
Mid-Island Focus also does commissioned coverage of events, celebrations, launches and news in the region. Video, plus story, plus online distribution at a rate you can afford. Find out more under the Services link, or connect by email.
We’ve got an election coming on in three months time, and like every other election, it’s the most important in our history… only this time I really mean it.
The people we put in power will likely be governing for the next three to five years. That’s a quarter to third the time the International Panel on Climate Change and a long list of organizations, scientists and environmentalists have allowed for the world in general, developed economies in particular, to get their acts together and treat climate change as the crisis it’s become.
There will be lots of issues to think about as October 21 approaches, but I ask you to give the parties’ leadership on climate change the most weight when you mark your ballot, and to spend time between now and then getting up to speed on the complex issues involved.
As a certified senior, I fear for the futures of my children and grandchildren – global warming is an unacceptable threat. But I won’t be around to experience the worst catastrophes that will result, if we continue in the profligate lifestyles my generation has brought into vogue. If you’re a young voter, you will be.
It’s your future we’re talking about here. So by all means, blame my cohort for the place we’re at; but take full responsibility for the direction we’re going to take as the second quarter of the 21st Century approaches, before it’s too later that it already is.
MiF will be doing federal election coverage from a Mid-Island perspective between now and Oct. 21. If you have suggestions about what we should cover, or questions you would like candidates to respond to, please get in touch…
Assembling the Intex Explorer inflatable kayak is pretty easy. As a portable, storable boat for use on calm waters, it’s a pretty good buy.
Okay, so I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to kayaking… not the sleek, fibreglass, never-let-your-hull-scratch-a-barnacle type snob; more like the plastic, every-scrape-and-scratch-is-a-notch-of-experience sort. Faint praise is appropriate when it comes to my status as a kayaker.
And I’ve even had a comeuppance from that modest rank on the paddler’s index, from a 14 footer stroker, to frequent use of what my partner and I refer to as ‘tubbies’, six foot boats that wiggle through the water like some erratic species of beetle – a trade off required so we could fit our yaks into our camper.
But now circumstances have reduced us to the very lowest of the low form of paddling, a mode best suited to crowded holiday beaches or even water parks, and which any self-respecting kayaker would laugh off the water: an inexpensive – dare I say ‘cheap’ – inflatable.
We’re planning a long trip, and bedding down surreptitiously in unauthorized parking spots with tubbies outside The Tortoise simply isn’t an option. The only solution is an inflatable we can stuff into the head cum storage locker when we’re parked, and catching our required 40 or 50 winks.
So, as an experiment, I bought an Itex Explorer for $200 at Cabela’s in Nanaimo. There’s no denying our Intex looks more like a puffy platform you’d float around on with a beer in one hand and a mobile in the other, soaking up the sun and drifting wherever wind and current take you; a floatie that could just as well come in the shape of a duck or an inner tube.
But let’s give her a chance. Let’s blow her up, take her out on the water, and see how she handles.
Getting the Explorer out of its bag and inflated is pretty self-explanatory. It took us about half-an-hour, but I figure with practice can be done in 15 minutes or so. Deflating it, and getting it back into the bag takes about the same amount of time. Couple of hints:
if you’ve taken on water during your sortie, turn the yak upside down and empty it before deflating;
roll it from stern to bow to squeeze the air out of floor panels and pontoons before you fold it for wrestling back in its carry bag;
watch for barnacles or sharp rocks, when you’re on the water. Cabela’s won’t take back a defective or punctured Explorer – once it’s out of the box, you have to deal with Intex..
Our maiden voyage took place July 22, a perfectly calm summer day with nary a wave in sight. We launched from Cook Park in Chemainus, headed for Kin Beach. The Explorer handled reasonably well when we were paddling in tandem. But if one of the paddlers stopped, it quickly took on the navigational characteristics of a beached walrus.
Paddling at a relaxed pace, with the stern paddler sweeping or deflecting to keep on course works reasonably well, but the Explorer – because it is light and short – has a mind of its own. I wouldn’t want to test her out in a stiff wind or with any serious wave action.
To sum up: If you’re looking for a ‘kayak’ that will fit into a manageable bag for stowing in a camper, or for lugging down to an inaccessible lake, or for lounging around on a family beach, the Intex Explorer is an option; if you want to get serious about paddling any kind of distance, or in any kinds of wind or waves, look for something the snobs won’t laugh at quite so hard.
Clocks with feathered hands, birds that ‘could be’ crows with four legs and stiletto beaks… Morgan Bristol, who will be featured artist at Rainforest Arts for the months of July and August, gets lost for hours at a time in a world of insightful whimsy, where he discovers art that delights and informs.
“I like to have a bit of character, comedy, in there so that people may have a little laugh, or see something in there that they can identify with,” he said at his studio, next to La Petite Auction House at 9686 Chemainus road, which he and wife Dawn Geddie operate.
To the uninitiated Bristol’s modest work space seems a combination repair shop, of some sort, and painter’s studio. That reflects his dual artistic persona: as a metal artist on the one hand; painter on the other, the painter in him only having emerged in the last year-and-a-half.
“I was trained as a metal artist, a jeweller” he explained, “and everything was sort of tactile and 3D, so this is kind of a new venture for me and I’m thoroughly enjoying it,” he said of his 2D debut.
There’s a sense of joy in most of his works, be they three-dimensional, or two. Clocks aren’t meant to measure time, really, so much as to make light of it; crows – if indeed the birds depicted in his recent works are of the Corvine family – aren’t meant to fly, so much as make us ask how flight is even possible.
Purposeful whimsy might be a good phrase to capture the spirit of Bristol’s work.
He’s especially excited to have his paintings featured. For someone who picked up the brush and spatula such a short time ago, he has created pieces that are innovative and captivating. You can’t help trying to imagine the world these creatures might inhabit – a world that’s an expression of Bristol’s own imagination.
“I seem to channel something when I’m painting,” he said. “It’s something that happens, and I can lose two or three hours in a second, and almost come-to and it’s done. It’s all intuitive in that sense.”
Intuitive, but worked with an almost sculptural passion. For Bristol the process is as important as what emerges out of it. “As far as the paintings go, I was never a lover of flat images. I always wanted to do something to those flat paintings, so that said, in this batch, I work in texture.”
His paintings are built up in many layers, Bristol explained, using just about any material that comes to hand. He listed paint, caulking material, gyprock mud, even tar as ingredients he uses to change the ‘contours’ of his paintings ‘until I get something that I like.”
Morgan Bristol’s art will be featured at Rainforest Arts, 9781 Willow Street, Chemainus, in July and August. The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. More information at RainforestArts.ca or info@rainforestarts.ca.
Asked if the birds depicted on his canvases were crows, Bristol replied, “Could be,” and laughed. “It’s a hybrid, definitely a hybrid, open to interpretation.” Come see for yourself and take some flights of serious fancy interpreting his works. His July 1 opening will feature live music and, of course, Bristol himself.
Cabins at Piper’s Lagoon, Nanaimo, one of my special Mid-Island places
Community journalism is having to adapt to the exciting possibilities of the 21st Century: digital production and distribution of print, imagery and video through a host of channels and technologies that didn’t exist a quarter-century ago. Mid-Island Focus will look for opportunities to engage audiences through new media – I want to explore what kinds community perspectives can be shared in the digital age.
In a sense, this is going against the grain. Increasingly people are overwhelmed by tsunamis of information funnelled at them from all over the world – a deluge of random facts, figures, memes, causes, and so on. The underlying principle of MiF is community, using the new media to present cohesive views of people-in-place – more specifically, of people in places that are tangible, real and meaningful to Mid-Islanders.
My centre of gravity in the Mid-Island is Nanaimo-North Cowichan, and for now much of the material you will find on this site will be inspired by the people and places of that locale. But the coverage area isn’t fixed. There are too many fascinating stories in the broader region that need telling, and we’ll venture up and down the coast from Mill Bay to Campbell River frequently, following ledes. Over time, my hope is to partner with other journalists, broadening the scope and intensifying the coverage of Mid-Island Focus in more consistent ways.
Thanks for tuning in; I hope you’ll follow MiF and suggest how I can do a better job bringing you Interesting news for interested Mid-Islanders.
The Cowichan River, near Stutz Falls. Photo by One Cowichan
(Due to its urgent nature, Mid-Island Focus is printing this release from the Cowichan Watershed Board in its entirety. If you have questions about this report, please contact or subscribe to MiF, and we will look for more answers in a followup story. Craig Spence, Editor)
(Duncan BC) Concerns are rising in the Cowichan Valley as the iconic Cowichan River faces a strong likelihood of running out of water by August unless there is heavy and sustained rainfall. The Cowichan is major salmon producing river, including Chinook which are a critical food source for the endangered Southern Resident orca population. Located on Eastern Vancouver Island, adjacent to the Salish Sea, this river is the heart of the Cowichan Tribes First Nation’s territory, and a favourite recreational destination. It also supports major employment for the region, through fishing, tourism, and the Catalyst Paper mill.
“We’ve been on the knife’s edge several times in the past fifteen years,” says Tom Rutherford, Cowichan Watershed Board Executive Director, “but this is the worst forecast in living memory. Unless we get a lot of rain, there is simply not enough water stored in Cowichan Lake to keep the river flowing to the end of August. Our salmon and the whole ecosystem depend on that water and it’s not there. We are all losing sleep thinking about what lies ahead.”
This is primarily a climate change impact. For sixty years, a meter-high, seasonally-operated weir at Cowichan Lake has been used successfully to hold back enough winter and spring run-off to feed the river through the dry summer and fall seasons. A schedule of minimum water flow rates, set by the Province of BC, has been maintained by the water license holder, Catalyst Paper, in return for rights to extract a portion of that water downriver to supply its pulp mill at Crofton. Over the past fifteen years, however, much drier spring and summer weather combined with lower snowpack has left insufficient water supplies in Cowichan Lake to meet those minimal flows in most years. This impacts fish survival, First Nations constitutional rights, recreation, tourism, the 600 workers of PPWC Local 2 at the Catalyst mill, and more.
This year an emergency measure is in place allowing Catalyst to pump water out of the lake into the river when the lake storage is depleted, but this is an expensive stop-gap response. While it could help keep the river flowing at minimal levels, it would result in drawing down the lake below historic levels. This could impact other fish, riparian habitats, and lakeshore residents, and is only viable as a short term remedy. Often the fall rains don’t return until October.
“It’s all hands on deck,” says Rutherford. “Local organizations are doing everything we can here.” A partnership of Cowichan Valley Regional District, Cowichan Tribes, Catalyst Paper and the Cowichan Watershed Board were recently invited to apply for major funding to begin the next phase to replace the weir. If successful, engineering and impact analysis will begin this year to build a structure capable of storing more water.
Nanaimo – North Cowichan New Democrat MLA Doug Routley said it’s going to take time, consultation and public support to stop the logging of B.C.’s remaining unprotected old-growth forests, and he urged a gathering of about 30 protestors at his constituency office in Southgate Mall to work with the NDP, getting legislation in place that will give government the controls it needs to implement sustainable practices.
Sierra Club Conservation and Climate Campaigner Mark Worthing said a halt to old-growth logging is well overdue, that he and other spokespersons for environmental groups have been put at the ‘kid table’ when it comes to negotiating an end to what he sees as destructive logging practices in B.C.’s ecologically vital old-growth forests, and that he’ll believe the government’s commitment to ending old-growth logging when he sees incremental signs of action.
“I feel deeply violated, I feel deeply disappointed, and I feel that I have been lied to,” Worthing said to supporters, just before Routley arrived to listen to their concerns and speak to them on behalf of his party. “I feel that I have been tricked, I feel that I have been swindled, by this illusion of government management or mismanagement of the forests.”
Routley cautioned the protestors about simplifying a complex issue, and assuming everyone on Vancouver Island feels the same as they do about harvesting old-growth. Unless people ‘buy-in’ to a process for protecting trees, and shifting to other sources of timber, passionate advocates for ancient forests could end up driving voters whose livings are derived from forestry, to supporting organizations and parties that don’t want to see any constraints on logging.
“What we need to do is collaborate,” he urged. “This is a complex problem. Communities up and down this coast do not support your position, and they have a right as well.” That drew an angry response from the protestors, but Routley insisted. “That is true. There are many different views on this issue.”
Worthing said he is not convinced the NDP is doing all it can to end old-growth logging and challenged the government to take interim measures to save what forests can be protected now. When Routley pointed out that a moratorium on old-growth logging – which some of the protestors called for – would be challenged legally, and that some First Nations do not want to see a ban, Worthing argued the government should end the practice in areas where there is a strong consensus.
It’s not difficult to figure out how quickly B.C.’s remaining old-growth is vanishing Worthing argued. “Twenty-two years – at the current rate of cut, all the old-growth is gone,” he said. “So, there’s your deadline. So, you just basically work backwards from that, and figure out: How much do we want left? What’s the line?”
Routley empathized with the protestors demand to end old-growth logging, but said the government has been hamstrung by changes to legislation and regulation that were put in place by the previous Liberal government during its tenure. “They had 16 years… to disarm the ability of government to intervene in the industry; we have had a year and a half to restore all that.”
Progress on issues like forest management is frustrating, because passing legislation is a grindingly slow process, Routley reminded. “If any of you was elected as a government, say all of you were cabinet ministers, you would not be able to go in and very simply do what you’re saying. It would be a complex, difficult task that takes a long time.”
He pointed out that the risk of throwing B.C. back into the control of a less progressive government is real and immanent, and asked again the protestors to work with the NDP despite their impatience. “As Jason Kenny gets elected to the east of us, as we have Trump to the south, as we may have conservatives federally, we have conservative governments all over Canada, we are the only government of this kind. So, while we’re not perfect, I would ask you to take the spirit here of: what do we do to make this happen?”
June Ross, Chairwoman of the Vancouver Island Water Watch Coalition, said she takes “partial hope” from the dialogue that took place during the protest. “I hope that he hears that we need to sit down collaboratively. I want First Nations at the table, I want the Sierra Club, the Ancient Forest Alliance, the Wilderness Committee, and some community groups, like the one I head up. We all need to be at the table to talk to them.”
In an interview after the protest was winding-down, Routley and Worthing committed to further dialogue. “I’m here to let the B.C. government know that they’re need in this solution to old-growth logging,” Worthing said. “It’s really encouraging to hear MLA Routley say that he’s willing to be part of that solution.”
Routley repeated: “…the only way that a solution will be sustainable, is if people buy-in.”
