View from the Top

It's been a few days since I've found the time to blog, what with Christmas, walking, skiing, shoveling snow.... Even the usual nonsense that often is BC politics seems to have gone away for awhile. So nice.

A few days ago, though, a small group of us took the day to break a trail up to the Ski Club's cabin and get in a couple of runs at the same time. Snow conditions were surprisingly good right from the road (pretty much at Lake level) and got much better (and deeper) as we gained altitude. In fact, the snow got good enough that the usual 1-hour snowmobile trip took 2.5 hours, what with getting stuck and all. The hour-long ski to the cabin went well and we took two runs down the "North Bowl" before heading home. The picture is from the top of the North Bowl looking at low fog banks over the north end of Kootenay Lake and Duncan Lake. We could even see Howser Spire in the Bugaboos.

Snow conditions in the sub-alpine were OK - about 1.4 meters of snowpack, but more snow is needed - there were too many little trees and stuff to ski around, things which are usually buried. The weather word is to expect more snow tonight.

The trip down was slow as well and it was pitch dark before we arrived at the highway and the vehicles. Mind you, it's pretty dark here shortly after 4 pm....

Today we are experiencing what must be a Kootenay chinook. It's +5C and "almost" sunny. I'm busy chipping ice off the driveway so we can actually get the vehicles up the drive. That and a walk to deal with the post-Christmas stomach....

Reality Check: The Scale of Things

One of my FB friends posted this yesterday. If anyone out there is having trouble figuring out where we fit in the grand scheme of things, have a look.

Fatwas ... Canadian Style?

Full disclosure here: I haven't gone to Wikileaks to read all the latest gossip, but I have been following the story, sort of. My take on what we've learned? The Iraqi government is corrupt, some "world leaders" are on power trips and the USA thinks Canadian TV shows demonstrate a degree of anti-Americanism. Yawn.... When do we get stuff we "don't" know already?

So it was was with a certain degree of shock that I hear of a U of C professor calling for the assassination of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. The good professor is a political scientist at the U of C and was Chief of Staff for Stephen Harper several years ago. He's been called a Conservative "strategist".

Even for a political strategist, I'd say this gaffe was poor strategy. It was certainly in poor taste and seems to have outraged many Canadians who, quite rightly, seem to believe such statements are...ummm...outrageous.

To Mr Flanagan's credit, he apologized the day after, but I wonder if that's good enough? Even if he was just trying to be funny, jokes of a certain kind are poorly tolerated these days - just recall offhand remarks made by some people on FB, jokes made in airports that security folks don't find funny....there are many examples. What surprises me is that even after so many such mis-steps by so many people...there seems to be a learning opportunity that's being missed here.

But the story doesn't end there. A Toronto woman sent a note to Flanagan to chastise him and, apparently, received the following response: "Better be careful, we know where you live". I think I'd be worried, and I hike in the woods where there are bears. Maybe if he'd added a smiley face?

So there you have it. A fatwa, Canadian style. When Iranian clerics issue fatwas, we might dismiss them as part of the lunatic fringe, but when they come from seemingly respectable Canadians with a public image, it's a bit harder to square with what we think we know about our country.