Last week the Minister responsible for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson, had to announce that only 13% of the sockeye the federal Ministry expected to enter the Fraser River system had actually showed up.It's another chapter in a the epic tragedy of the disappearing salmon. They said the sockeye run this year would near 5...
I write many of these posts on my handheld device. It is a powerful machine. The processing capability grows with each new release as does the storage capacity capturing and keeping huge amounts of information.These devices are a marvel of technology and they have dramatically changed the world in the past decade, putting massive computing...
The northbound exit off the Pat Bay highway onto Keating X Road has always been challenging. It’s the primary access to the Tanner Ridge neighbourhood, the Keating Business Park, Brentwood Bay and world famous Butchart Gardens. Decades ago the District of Central Saanich first raised the danger of this exit with the province as they were looking...
The other day, I invited you to think about, and maybe even share, something that you are thankful for.I am inspired by the transformative power of gratitude. If practiced consistently, it begins to rewire our minds which absorb so much negativity each day.It came to me as I was mid-morning walk that I did not share something I’m grateful for....
I will end this series of posts that hopefully has paused the regularly scheduled programming in our minds to provide a brief moment of disruption with one last aspect of Mettā. My suggestion on Wednesday was to offer yourself loving-kindness, goodwill and benevolence. On Friday my suggestion was to turn the focus toward someone who is close to...
As the dog days of summer give way to the cool dark mornings, and the leaves change with a brilliant display of colour before they blanket the ground with protection for the coming winter, I pause.On Wednesday I invited you to consider Mettā = loving-kindness, benevolence, good-will. In our modern culture expectations are high: for ourselves, for...
I am deeply saddened to learn of the devastatingly low returns of sockeye salmon to the Fraser River this summer. Federal fisheries officials predicted approximately 4.8 million sockeye would show up but just 628,000 salmon have come home to the once iconic salmon river. This is in stark contrast to the stories from people who have lived on our...
I absolutely devoured Byung-Chul Han’s Psycopolitics last weekend.It came as a recommendation to a post I did a while back about the panopticon. The idea was introduced to me in a Philosophize This! podcast episode on Michel Foucault where he discusses Jeremy Bentham’s idea of a prison layout where a single guard can visually watch a multitude of...
Emily has a deck of medicine cards. They are a powerful way to connect us with the animal world. Draw a card or do a spread to learn more about yourself through our relatives in nature. The other night we each pulled a card and read the associated description. I drew Squirrel.Squirrel reminds me to prepare for winter, to save up some energy for...
How many times will you be distracted while reading this post? Do you know how many times you check your email in a day? What are you doing for lunch? Will you be scrambling between meetings to eat the sandwich you bought from a local grocery store? Or, quietly munching on food you brought from home before taking a 30 minute walk?There is a...
If you're a regular here this blog takes a few minutes of your day. I'm thankful for every moment you spend reading my daily offerings. Today I invite you to take the time that you would normally invest in reading this post to meditate on something that you are thankful for. No doubt there is so much to be outraged about. However, there is also...
Recently, I was hanging out with a bunch of political candidates in this upcoming federal election. I was asked to share with them my experience as a candidate and now as a Member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly.We were talking about the power of storytelling and I was reminded of a beautiful example from the 2017 election.It was...
I tend to stay away from federal political stories in this blog. Mostly because there are so many provincial stories that it keep me busy enough.However, I’m a Canadian and a politician. So, I feel it’s impossible to let the latest chapter in the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau/SNC-Lavalin affair go without a comment.Like many Canadians, I’ve been...
I keep a rolling list of topics for future blog posts in the Notes app on my phone. One topic has been sitting there for quite a while, just two words: “bike lanes.”Bike lanes are a hit issue on talk radio because cyclists are an easy target for enraged drivers looking to blame anyone and anything for the inconvenience of having to slow down. The...
Increasingly, I’m having people stop me to acknowledge my blogging. I’m thankful to have the opportunity to spend a few minutes with you to discuss the content or the practice.It is really fascinating to hear which post catches your attention and why it stands out amongst the rest. It is really a forest of blog posts now growing more dense each...
For hundreds or thousands of years, the people who lived in the Salish Sea had a close relationship with the natural world. I have spoken often about it since my election. I have stood regularly in public meetings, at private coffee parties and at the spot in the British Columbia Legislative Chamber reserved for the Member representing Saanich...
Earlier this week I shared a secret with the readers of my blog. For more than twenty years, I was a smoker. For most of the last decade, I smoked exclusively in the dark shadows of my property and rarely did I smoke when I was away from my home base.It's been a year since I walked away from that addiction. I literally walked away from nearly a...
Today is our thirteenth anniversary. Congratulations to me (and Emily)! We are doing so well and even have two great kids who are the product of our work. We are proud at the fact that they are often recognized as the best kids in the world ????. Thirteen years is an accomplishment but today we are celebrating another anniversary, another...
This summer has been a particularly difficult one for people who rely on the BC Ferries. For people who just need a ferry to get home, or to a long-anticipated medical appointment, or work, or an endless number of other reasons, the excuses about a complex governance structure created by one government and maintained by another government, are...
Today is an unusual day. Each day since December 9th I've published something. I know he read each one. Often times he would drop in and leave a little note of encouragement. No longer. So, today in honour of our friendship, his dedication and support for me and the work we accomplished together, my pen will be silent. Bill - much love to you,...
Last year, the provincial government announced $500,000 worth of grants to assist First Nations communities to track down and bring home ancestral remains, “artifacts” and other items from museums and collections from around the world. The program allocated up to $30,000 to more than 20 communities to begin the work of bringing these items of...
A friend recently recommended Sean Carroll’s Mindscape Podcast to me. Carroll doesn’t capture my imagination with all of his episodes; however, his conversation with Canadian/American author, filmmaker and educator Astra Taylor sure did.The episode is titled “The Promise and Challenge of Democracy” so it was right in my wheelhouse.I’ve yet to...
We used to help build each other’s barns. When a family was in need of help the community would come together for a good ol’ fashioned barn raising.The church basement once was the main home of community social services. The doors would be open wide to host soup kitchens or a shelter when our neighbours were in need of warmth in their bellies and...
The days are getting shorter. Each morning is darker for my walk. The daylight is giving way to dusk earlier each evening and the cool air quickly chills the summer heat as soon as the sun drops below the horizon. These are the signs that Autumn is just around the corner. My kids don’t think it’s as fun as I do to talk about the start of yet...
At times it feels like I’m surrounded by bad news: stories about what is wrong with the planet, how a decision ended poorly, how a service is broken, how someone has been wronged or how an expectation has been unmet. It’s the business I’m in I guess.Without balancing that with the good that is also always happening around us, it is easy to be...
In episode 20 of The Public Circle Podcast (and the final episode of the "first season”), I chat with Hunter Lastiwka.Hunter recently graduated from my alma mater Stelly's Secondary. He is an incredibly active young man on a variety of issues which impact him and his peers.I first met Hunter a few years ago. Following my election, he approached...