Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER – School dress codes are needed but they’re hard to get right

February 27, 2021 // 4 Comments

NOTHING LIKE A DRESS CODE to make for a good controversy, especially if it’s got to do with schools. As the Kamloops-Thompson School District mulls over changes to its [Continue]

ROTHENBURGER: Nothing like a night in ER to make us appreciate health care

February 20, 2021 // 0 Comments

IF YOU HAPPENED to spend the night on a gurney in the Emergency Department hallway recently, you would have gotten a pretty good idea of the challenges faced by our [Continue]

ROTHENBURGER – Solution to disappearing shopping carts remains elusive

February 13, 2021 // 2 Comments

GOING ON FOUR YEARS after shopping carts became a high-profile issue, there’s still no solution. In 2017, RCMP embarked on a crackdown on shopping-cart theft, seizing carts [Continue]

EDITORIAL: We should vaccinate for one Olympics and boycott the other

February 9, 2021 // 1 Comment

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger. HERE’S A TALE of two Olympics. If all goes well, Tokyo will host the 2020 Summer Games later this year. Not far away, Beijing is preparing [Continue]

ROTHENBURGER – Who was the best Kamloops Member of Parliament ever?

February 6, 2021 // 0 Comments

NOW THAT CATHY McLEOD has announced she won’t run in the next federal election, the pundits are busy speculating about who might chase after the Conservative nomination. [Continue]

ROTHENBURGER – Let’s not point fingers at those on the front lines

January 30, 2021 // 0 Comments

LET’S TAKE INVENTORY on COVID-19 in Kamloops. The picture isn’t pretty. The big topic of pandemic conversation right now is Royal Inland Hospital, where upwards of 60 [Continue]

ROTHENBURGER: Keystone XL makes Ajax, TMX reviews look flawless in comparison

January 23, 2021 // 0 Comments

ONE OF THE VERY FIRST THINGS Joe Biden did after being sworn in as president was to kill the Keystone XL pipeline. He and Justin Trudeau had a phone chat about it Friday but [Continue]

ROTHENBURGER – Arjun Singh’s valiant, short-lived plan to get something done

January 16, 2021 // 6 Comments

THERE ARE ALWAYS GOOD REASONS not to do something. Coun. Arjun Singh heard a lot about that this week. Singh put together a notice of motion asking City staff to look into [Continue]

ROTHENBURGER – Here’s to journalists who bravely bear witness to mayhem

January 9, 2021 // 1 Comment

THERE WAS A CERTAIN IRONY in finding a copy of The Epoch Times in my mailbox this week on the anniversary of the closing of The Kamloops Daily News. The Epoch Times is a [Continue]

ROTHENBURGER – Frootloops council meets to slash budget before Christmas

December 19, 2020 // 0 Comments

Frootloops council elves settle in for their last meeting before Christmas, oops Holiday Season, fiddling with their Zoom audios and visuals as His Wordship Ken [Continue]

ROTHENBURGER – City’s nuisance properties bylaw is proving its worth

December 12, 2020 // 1 Comment

IT’S A BIT RICH, to say the least, that the Kamloops Accommodation Association is grouching about the City’s crackdown on nuisance motels on Columbia Street West. That [Continue]

EDITORIAL – Complaining about COVID rules shouldn’t cost you your job

December 8, 2020 // 5 Comments

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger. THE GUY WHO SINGS for the Vancouver Canucks is out of a job. His name is Mark Donnelly and, up until last weekend, he was employed by the [Continue]

ROTHENBURGER – We’ve got to suck it up and obey the rules even if it hurts

December 5, 2020 // 0 Comments

I WAS STRUCK THIS WEEK by the story of Kamloops dance instructor Krista Faraday. One day, she wasn’t sure if she’d have a business left. The next, her studio was filled [Continue]

ROTHENBURGER – Interior Health ducks, weaves, obfuscates on parking

November 28, 2020 // 3 Comments

INTERIOR HEALTH HAS A PROBLEM it doesn’t want to talk about — a shortage of proper parking for Royal Inland Hospital staff. This might not seem like a big deal unless [Continue]