Throw the Bums Out

Posted on October 20, 2015 by JeanEB

Last week, a week of glorious sunny fall days, we were in Vancouver walking, shopping, eating and generally expanding the perimeter. The excuse for this city hit was a medical appointment where a strange thing occurred. For the very first time my blood pressure read as elevated. “Take 3 more readings over the week when you get home, then call your family doctor”, said this new specialist to my astonished self.

I choose to blame this on the election campaign. Mornings would find me sipping my cappuccino and scanning my Feedly newsreader, checking out the latest bon mots from our fearless leader (as well as some lesser ridiculous pronouncements from a wanna be), unleashing torrents of outraged profanities on my part like you wouldn’t believe. Oh. Wait. On second thought I’m sure you’d believe it.

Well last night was an absolute BLAST! I can’t remember having such a good time on election night as the results came in showing Justin Trudeau completely cleaning his clock. Then came Harper’s last speech and we got to watch the backside of him, exiting stage right. Good riddance.

Will this lead to a kinder, gentler Canada? Stop the Northern Gateway pipeline? Stop throwing our kids in jail for smoking pot? Stop the fear mongering, the racism, the divisiveness, the negativity? Stop the environmental degradation? Stay tuned. Justin Trudeau’s acceptance speech spoke of change, positive energy and a brighter future. Today I feel like a great weight has lifted. Our new Prime Minister’s message of hope has been a long time coming.

Talking to Strangers

Posted on October 8, 2015 by JeanEB

On a recent trip to Victoria, I was walking along the seawall of the outer harbour enjoying the sights – float planes landing and taking off to Seattle or Vancouver, water taxis, whale watching boats, pleasure cruisers, the Seattle passenger ferry. Glorious day, sun shining, water sparkling, stateside mountains in the distance. I passed quite a few people on that pathway – dog walkers, joggers, strollers and it didn’t take long for me to notice something very strange about all these people.

No one made eye contact, no one talked to anyone. At all.

So what is strange about that? Well here in small town British Columbia if you were to walk a similar route along our beach, or anywhere else for that matter in our town, people are always making eye contact, always saying hello, and sometimes even stopping to chat with total strangers. Admiring a pet dog often leads to hearing their entire life’s story. It’s a very noticeable difference to street life in the city. Which makes sense I guess – in the city if you were to say hello to everyone you passed as is the norm in small town, you would be exhausted by the end of the block and perhaps even arrested. Different world.

However there are people who do speak to you on the city streets. Continue reading →

Sober Second Thought

Posted on March 22, 2014 by JeanEB

It would appear that the Judge read yesterday’s post and agreed with me. Later in the day Federal Court Judge Michael Manson granted a temporary injunction against the government, allowing those with a personal production licence to continue to grow medical marijuana, pending the outcome of a constitutional challenge still to be heard. The April FOOL’s legislation is now stalled.