The top 10 most fascinating Kamloopsians of 2011

Right about now, you’ll start reading and hearing about “the biggest story of 2011” in the media, including ours.

What makes for “big news,” of course, depends very much on individual palates. My vote would go to Ajax, but I’ll take a different approach — instead of talking about news stories as such, let’s consider the 10 Most Fascinating Kamloopsians of 2011.

Behind every story, after all, is at least one person. This is a list that could have numbered 100, but lists of 10 are so much easier. We shall begin, in order, from 10th place and work our way up.

10. TINA LANGE — She’s gone from selling newspaper ads to running a bistro to managing a hotel and being a civic politician, but the real reason she makes the list is because she uttered the quote of the year just a couple of weeks ago. “The sentiment is good that we’d like to help people but quite frankly it’s not our job,” she said during a council meeting. She said it In the context of a discussion about energy efficiency, and didn’t mean it literally, of course, but the fact a politician actually said it at all is, well, fascinating.

9. RICHARD WAGAMESE — His story is one of conflict between the man he wants to be and the one that is. He’s an author and a poet, having, among other things, received an honorary doctorate from TRU, and a national Aboriginal achievement award. And last month he was handed an 18-month conditional sentence with house arrest in the latest chapter of his conflict with the law. His criminal record of more than 50 offences goes back to the 1970s, but he uses his ongoing troubles to tell stories about native life.

8. TERRY LAKE — No one questions his occasional short temper and abrasiveness. What I like about him, though, is that he is without fear. He wasn’t afraid to run for mayor, then dump that job in favour of a chance at being an MLA and, later, cabinet minister. He’s decisive and doesn’t back down in front of a hostile crowd, of which he’s faced a few. Anybody who can’t take criticism from the public or the media, and who can’t hold his own respectfully in the face of it, shouldn’t be in politics. We don’t need whiners in politics. Lake has backbone.

7. VIOLET — Every list should have at least one dog, especially a purple one. Violet hit the news after she was found tethered to a fence by the SPCA. There followed a bizarre series of twists and turns to the story of how she ended up purple and abandoned, but it’s all working itself out. A close second in the animal category goes to Arundel, Aragon and all the other wild horses of the Deadman Valley who were saved from slaughter.

6. CARL ANDERSON — Entrepreneur, activist, just a guy who’s trying to help others. All those labels can be used to describe Carl Anderson, who hit upon the idea of opening a pot shop on Tranquille Road to provide medical marijuana to his clients. Things went along fine until the cops moved in and shut him down, making him the poster boy for the public-policy battle over access to medical pot.

But you’ll have to wait until Thursday for the top five.