Armchair Archives

ARMCHAIR ARCHIVES – Is a return to big institutions the answer to street problems?

April 28, 2023 // 2 Comments

The following column was originally published on Oct. 2, 2021. THERE WAS A TIME when the streets weren’t full of homeless, addicted, and unstable people. A time when you [Continue]

ARMCHAIR ARCHIVES – ‘International law’ is just political convenience

April 14, 2023 // 0 Comments

The following editorial was first published on March 11, 2014. HYPOCRISY IN POLITICSs is as old as politics itself, but the crisis in Ukraine is taking it to a new level. On [Continue]

ARMCHAIR ARCHIVES – Have a nice day… seriously

April 7, 2023 // 0 Comments

The following column was first published in The Kamloops Daily News on Feb. 22, 1985. ‘SHOOT! SHOOT! You lousy!” This is the gentleman sitting one row up and a couple of [Continue]

ARMCHAIR ARCHIVES – Violence, nudity and coarse language in the movies

March 24, 2023 // 0 Comments

The following column was first published in The Kamloops Daily News on Nov. 18, 1983. A COUPLE OF NIGHTS AGO, I scanned the movie ads. The line-up went like this: some very [Continue]

ARMCHAIR ARCHIVES – Doctors’ closed-door strategy has its flaws

March 10, 2023 // 1 Comment

Concerns over the healthcare system aren’t new. Twenty-five years ago, B.C.’s doctors took a day off over a money issue. This column was originally published on Saturday, [Continue]

ARMCHAIR ARCHIVES – In quest of the magic formula of being positive

March 3, 2023 // 0 Comments

I foolishly neglected to mark the date on this clipping but, given the references to Expo, it was written in 1986. It puts the lie to those who claim I have gotten grouchy [Continue]

ARMCHAIR ARCHIVES – Announcing the Bad News Awards for 1975

February 24, 2023 // 0 Comments

For this week’s edition of Armchair Archives, we go back to 1976. The following column was published in The Kamloops News on Jan. 30, 1976, not long after I returned to [Continue]

ARMCHAIR ARCHIVES – It’s not the politicians who run the governments

February 17, 2023 // 2 Comments

The following column was published in The Kamloops Daily News on Jan. 7, 1983. THERE’S A MISTAKEN IMPRESSION among many members of the general public that Kamloops [Continue]

ARMCHAIR ARCHIVES – And so then I said, ‘Martin, I love your work’

February 10, 2023 // 0 Comments

Kamloops folks are used to seeing film productions in town nowadays but, back in 1989, it was a new and exciting thing. That was the year Martin and Charlie Sheen were in [Continue]

ARMCHAIR ARCHIVES – When Christ wants to be anonymous, something is wrong

February 3, 2023 // 0 Comments

A man dressed as Jesus Christ was arrested for unknown reasons (although some reports say he spent the night in the drunk tank) at a heavy metal concert in Penticton last [Continue]

ARMCHAIR ARCHIVES – Homelessness arrives in Kamloops but so far so good

January 27, 2023 // 1 Comment

Homelessness is nothing new in Kamloops but, back in the ‘90s, as I wrote in this column published May 7, 1994 in the Kamloops Daily News (under the headline, “On the [Continue]

ARMCHAIR ARCHIVES – What’s in a name? Money, when it comes to arenas

January 20, 2023 // 2 Comments

The following is an editorial published under my byline in The Kamloops Daily News on Aug. 8, 1996. History confirms my opinions on the matter did not prevail. [Continue]

ARMCHAIR ARCHIVES – Don’t be fooled by the hocus locus of pro rep math

January 13, 2023 // 1 Comment

The following column was originally published Oct. 6, 2018. It’s specific to the B.C. referendum on the electoral system but it outlines the fundamental flaws of [Continue]

ELECTION 2022 – The loneliness (and stress) of the civic election candidate

September 9, 2022 // 0 Comments

This is nomination deadline day for local-government elections in B.C. I wrote the following column in 2014 as the election campaign wrapped up and I was reflecting on my [Continue]