Islander

This column first appeared in the Victoria Daily Times on Nov. 10, 1939.

About 225 sailors and officers onboard HMCS Vancouver were in Ho Chi Minh City this past week, part of an operation called WESTPLOY 16. Vancouver’s current deployment is partly a goodwill tour of Pacific countries.

It isn’t something Darcy Hope could have predicted when he began booking exhibitors four months ago, but as it turns out the 2016 Home Expo at Pearkes Community Centre couldn’t have been better timed.

In 1989, near the end of a long and varied policing career, Ian Parsons arrived on Vancouver Island to assume the post of second in command of the Courtenay RCMP subdivision.

Calgary took me by surprise. There is public art everywhere in the city. The sidewalk beneath my feet was patterned with concrete etched in patterns of fallen leaves, in smooth and pebbled texture.

This column first appeared in the Victoria Daily Times on Nov. 4, 1939. A library publication stated recently that when a democracy is at war it ceases to be a democracy, for people cease to use the library.

It’s not too early to call upon your inner baker and start planning for the annual National Gingerbread Showcase at Victoria’s Laurel Point Inn.

The Rainbow Kitchen in Esquimalt serves 36,000 meals each year to Victorians who badly need help, but after four years in a makeshift space, the kitchen itself badly needed help. The facilities were crumbling and in some cases even unsafe.

Second helpings weren’t an option for Willie Billie during his years at residential school. It’s just one reason the friendly, outgoing diner said he’s a fan of Our Place Society’s annual Thanksgiving meal event.

This column first appeared in the Victoria Daily Times on Oct. 28, 1939.