Category: Norm Reynolds

Canadians are now less than a month from an election with more important issues on the table than I can remember. Climate change is, of course, the big one. I am hoping that Canadians will be diligent in sifting through the rhetoric to identify what party(ies) are truly committed to meaningful change. However climate change is not the only significant issue that voters need to consider.

I am sure many Tidechange.ca readers get emailed newsletters from West Coast Environmental Law, WCEL,—as I do. However for those who do not this month’s newsletter has fascinating information on the realities of the recent hype from Elections Canada about it being illegal to say anything about the reality of climate change because some party might be denying climate change and thus your speaking out could reduce the chances of the climate change denier party getting elected.

As a back drop/inspiring vision about what building the proposed foot of Sixth Street pedestrian/cycling bridge across the Courtenay River might mean to our community, I was going to describe the immense coming together of community spirit that went into building the 50’x150’ community pavilion that is now the pride and centre of community life in the Village of Pemberton.

I have received a bit of reader feedback on my last post, “The End”. All of the “input” was, in one way or the other, critical of the very thought of anyone saying that our cumulative impact on Earth’s climate has brought us to a tipping point beyond which we cannot turn back from the mechanisms rapidly pushing Earth toward a climate that will not be habitable to human beings.

All of our upbringing—well I should say all of my upbringing–has been underscored with this pervasive philosophy that one must always be optimistic and, above all else, hold-unflinchingly, onto hope. And perhaps on a sunny day I would feel different, but today—this rainy, dark day, hope seems so hard to hold.