The 2013 BC Provincial Election: What Just Happened??

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - I wish I could just recap this whole past election in song to spice it up a little, but that’s not really feasible. But here’s the gist, for those of you British Columbians who just emerged from their stasis pods. This whole election race, the NDP were touted to win, by a large margin. The BC Conservatives, led by Sith Lord John Cummins, had scooped up 20% popular support. The Greens were making many friends. And everyone was getting downright sick of the BC Liberal party. There were talks of them changing their name. They came out with strategies to garner votes, which unfortunately got leaked to the public. Scandal after scandal, horrible comments, belligerent MLAs abounded…and from within the Liberal Party’s own ranks, a small resistance group coined “The 801 Club” existed in anonymity, allegedly ready to pounce the minute after polls closed at 8:00 pm and oust Clark as leader.

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The Dove Backlash

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Social media has been bombarding me with various points of view for as long as I’ve been a member of Facebook (2006). There’s a reason I try to avoid Twitter, Google+, Reddit, or whatever – it’s because I’m transfixed by social media. I find the collage of opinions and views, not to mention the interactions between people, deeply fascinating.

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The Most Horrifying Argument I Ever Heard

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Sometime ago, I was perusing Facebook, as I am prone to do, when I saw plans being made by an acquaintance to protest a protest at an abortion clinic. Well, okay, sure, why not? I realize on some level this fellow was organizing it to be glib and make a point of some kind, but I’ll be honest: I didn’t actually care either way. But something he did say stood out to me: he had a definitive argument against the pro-life movement. One so astoundingly amazing that no one could possibly counter it. He had sat down with professionals and intellectuals who helped him form this argument. And was now the ultimate authority on the subject.

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Self-Discipline: Why Doing Nothing Isn't a Victimless Crime

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - When I was a young whippersnapper, my first dream was to be what I called a "digger." What that meant to my four year-old mind was someone who operated excavators. From there, my dream transitioned to becoming a professional hockey player, largely the result of the Vancouver Canucks reaching the Stanley Cup Championship in 1994. That lasted for a few years, resulting in me taking up competitive ice hockey, naively hoping that it would lead to a future in the NHL. That didn't happen.

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Bus Etiquette 101: Ten Tips for a Better Transit Experience

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Okay, so many of us at one point or another have used the bus to commute. We all need to get from point A to point B and sometimes public transportation is your best or only option. Many of us even use the bus on a daily basis. I am one such person; I have been using Vancouver's transit system regularly since 2004. And over this course of time, there are number of things that people do on the bus often that really rub me the wrong way. People can be really inconsiderate or at the very least naive about how their actions affect everyone around them. Public transit is just that: public. It is a shared system and if you follow a few simple rules, then everyone can get where they need to go happily and quickly... quicklyish anyway.

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