Opinion

Continuing the tale of my trip on Via Rail’s The Canadian, from Vancouver to Toronto in January, on a Tuesday-to- Saturday train. Not real time dispatches because of lack of cell and Wi-Fi. I am also goofing off.

Late on June 26, 2012, with just a few days left in the school year, the B.C. Teachers Federation reached a surprise deal with the government. It ended a year’s worth of labour headaches in schools.

Re: “Storm sewers carry pollution,” editorial, Jan. 19. The editorial clearly identifies the public health concern for the many rainwater drains around the coastline of Greater Victoria.

Some Canadians seem puzzled by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s expedition to Israel last week. They wonder what benefits Canada or Israel got from it.

Canadian household debt is at an all-time high, with the ratio of debt to annual household income at more than 163 per cent. Going into debt is considered the norm. It gets a lot of people into trouble.

A familiar pattern has set in lately in the realm of popular culture, social media and the 24-hour news cycle. It goes like this. An individual, either a celebrity or a complete unknown, says or posts something outrageous.

Harry Swain has my sympathy for his little outburst at the hearings into the notion of building another dam on the Peace River. He’s the chair of the joint review panel going over all the evidence about the Site C dam proposal. And he’s suffocating.

One of the buzzwords in urban planning these days seems to be “people-friendly streetscapes.” The intent is to transform the car-centric corridors that crisscross our region into spaces that focus on people, not vehicles.

One thing Americans and Canadians can agree on is that we don’t want each other’s health-care systems. In truth, most Americans don’t know how Canada’s system works, and Canadians don’t know much about the U.S. system.

Continuing the tale of my train journey on The Canadian from Vancouver to Toronto. Latest installment delayed by lack of cell service. Even though I am not doing much, the time is flying by.