Local News

CRY FOR HELP — NDP leader Adrian Dix put a new twist on the standard appeal for money at a party fundraiser in Oak Bay this week. He compared his style with that of Dave Barrett, the colourful premier from 1972 to 1975.

The B.C. government is promising more affordable child care for parents in Tuesday’s budget, but has ruled out following Quebec’s model of a universal cap on daily fees.

As a child, Emma Fillipoff kept some of her favourite things inside a pretty locked box. A flower petal or a rock might not mean much to others, but they had special value for the shy and sensitive girl growing up outside Ottawa.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay is scheduled to make an infrastructure announcement at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt today. MacKay will speak at the A Jetty at the dockyard in Esquimalt at 10:15 a.m.

B.C.’s Liberal government is preparing to stake its credibility and political future on balancing the province’s books this week in a budget that the Opposition NDP is already dismissing as nothing more than smoke and mirrors.

Went to a taping of a comedy show for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network the other night. Lots of fun. The remarkable thing: It had aboriginal people in it. This didn’t use to be noteworthy.

There will never be a happy ending to a video with a processing plant in the final fade-out — especially if you’re a chicken.

SUNDAY, FEB. 17 Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra, conducted by Yariv Aloni, 2:30 p.m. at the University of Victoria. University Centre Farquhar Auditorium. Tel. 250-721-8480.

As firefighters worked into the dawn to finish off the smouldering remains of a blaze that killed three people in Victoria early Saturday, a lone firefighter walked away from the scene, his face scrunched with tears.

It was one freaky Friday in the world of astronomy. Not only did a meteor explode above Russia, injuring 1,100, but an asteroid came closer to Earth than at any other recorded time in history.