Thumbs Up - To Luigi the Lovebird and his owner, Mary McQueen of Victoria, for securing a $10,000 investment from David Chilton of the CBC television show Dragons' Den. Luigi has a fondness for shredding paper, which McQueen turns into greeting cards. Chilton's investment will help market those cards.
Thumbs Up - To Gordy Scutt of the Olympic View Golf Club, for winning the Vancouver Island Professional Golf Tour championship for the second year in a row.
Thumbs Down - To the federal Employment Insurance Commission, for demanding paybacks from 2,000 B.C. hospital workers who received money as part of an $85-million settlement from the province. After the workers lost their jobs when the B.C. government gutted health contracts 10 years ago, the Health Employees' Union took the province to court, and the effort eventually resulted in the settlement. But the EIC claims the money was income and that the workers who received EI benefits were overpaid.
Thumbs Up - To Victoria-based carver Rande Cook, for being awarded the commission to create an eight-metre totem pole that will go on display next month as part of a major display in the Netherlands.
