Daily Archives: October 25, 2020

OTTAWAWhen it comes to what matters in the York Centre byelection, Rina Camarra has a lot on her mind.

She has worked at Mastros Ristorante on Wilson Avenue since it opened more than 50 years ago. Now manager, she is running the business through the tumult of the COVID-19 pandemic, navigating shutdowns and the myriad government programs designed to help her Italian eatery survive the crisis. But its not enough.

Its been very, very difficult extremely, Camarra told the Star on Friday. All kinds of challenges, because you have the expenses but you dont have the income.

Camarra also sits on the York Centre Seniors Steering Committee, a group advocating for construction of a new seniors village on vacant land near Downsview Park. She wants whoever wins the byelection in her riding to stand up for seniors like her, especially in light of how her demographic has been hit hard by the pandemic.

At one time they were so used to going out, and going to the different places like community centres and churches and so on And now, theyre all locked up inside their homes, afraid to go out, she said.

For everybody, in one way or another, this sucks right now.

Its one voters perspective among tens of thousands across the inner suburb riding of York Centre, which stretches across a swath of North York that includes York University, Downsview Park, and the neighbourhoods of Bathurst Manor and Clanton Park. Paul Di Prospero, project co-ordinator of the Wilson Avenue Business Improvement Area, has lived in the area his whole life, and describes it as a diverse mix of cultures Italian, Filipino, Black, Jewish and more that is typical of life in Canadas largest city.

A majority of the ridings 104,000 residents are immigrants, with about 48,200 identifying as visible minorities, according to Statistics Canadas 2016 census profile of York Centre.

Its a beautiful community its underrated, said Di Prospero. There are lots of nice suburban homes and families around there, but theres also lots of different cultures and communities.

The community is now choosing its next MP, after Liberal incumbent Michael Levitt who held the seat since 2015 resigned this summer to take over as head of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies. Its one of two Toronto byelections set for Monday, and could be considered the more competitive race, given how the riding is held by the Progressive Conservatives at the provincial level and was represented by federal Conservative Mark Adler from 2011 to 2015.

If were going to take anything from these byelections, it may be a better indicator of how more suburban swing voters are feeling about things right now, said David Coletto, chief executive officer of the polling firm, Abacus Data. Coletto said it would still be a surprise if the Liberals lose, since before Adler won in 2011, the riding was held by the Liberals for decades.

If they lose this seat it would signal perhaps that the Liberals are in trouble, he said.

One wild card in the race could be Maxime Bernier, Coletto said. Bernier is the former Conservative MP from the Quebec region of Beauce who created the right-wing populist Peoples Party of Canada. He decided to run in York Centre, announcing at his campaign launch that he wants a moratorium on immigration until unemployment returns to pre-pandemic levels. Echoing the rhetoric of U.S. President Donald Trump and fringe anti-maskers, Bernier also accused the Liberal government of instituting socialist policies and called COVID-19 lockdowns a frontal attack on our fundamental freedoms.

Coletto said he will be watching to see if Bernier can earn more than a few per cent of the vote on Monday, which would be an indicator of interest, most likely at the expense of Conservative support.

Julius Tiangson dismisses the possibility. After running unsuccessfully in Mississauga in the 2015 election, the 57-year-old father of three is now trying again for the Conservatives in York Centre. In an interview with the Star, Tiangson said Bernier is not a factor in the race, and that he thinks he can convince voters to return to the Conservatives in part because of concern over the massive deficit in Ottawa after the Liberal government spent hundreds of billions so far on programs during the pandemic.

He also said the Liberals have failed to implement rapid testing across the country.

People are worried, said Tiangson, who moved to Canada from the Philippines in 1985. Many small business owners that I have connected with are very concerned.

Based on the ridings history, Tiangsons main opponent in the race is the Liberal candidate, Yaara Saks. Saks, a single mother with two daughters, owns a yoga studio in York Centre and runs a mental health charity. She told the Star recently that she wants to join Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus team in Ottawa to try and create better supports for people during and after the pandemic. That includes setting up a national child care and early learning system, as the government promised in its throne speech on Sept. 23.

Her time working in the office of the mayor of Jerusalem during the second intefadeh a sometimes violent Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation prepared her for complex challenges, she said.

This is a time for ambitious thinking and for thinking out of the box and putting smart investments where they matter, said Saks.

Di Prospero, the project manager from the Wilson Avenue BIA, said there are also pressing local issues the next MP will need to be attuned to. The status of Downsview Park, which is federal land, is a perennial concern, he said. Theres big parcels of land around the park, in particular the Bombardier (facility), which is leaving the community in a few years The big issue around this is what will happen to that land.

For Camarra at Mastros, the status of land near the park is the deciding issue. And while shes open to voting for whoever she likes best, regardless of party, shes going with the Liberals in Mondays byelection. Saks stopped by Mastros to chat for almost an hour, and seemed open to Camarras ambition to see a new seniors village built near the park.

Loading...Loading...Loading...Loading...Loading...

But no matter who wins the byelection, Camarra expected them to have a full plate of immediate obligations from the distinctly local, such as land near the big park, to the decidedly national, like federal programs during the pandemic.

That person actually has a lot, a lot, a lot to do, she said.

The work, for whoever it will be, starts Tuesday.

Read more:

In York Centre byelection, will Maxime Bernier spell trouble for the Conservatives? - Toronto Star

Aslan Shand

The changes that the National Party have demanded to the Koala State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP), that passed in the NSW Legislative Assembly (Lower House) yesterday, will ensure that koalas are extinct in the wild by 2050, say experts in the field.

The Inquiry into Koala Populations and their Habitat in New South Wales recognised that the 1994 Koala SEPP had failed to adequately protect koalas and their habitat and that the regulatory framework for private native forestry does not protect koala habitat on private land.

During yesterdays debate local Ballina MP Tamara Smith said, It is the such a shame to see what I regard as the most idealogical bill I have seen during the six years I have been in this place before the Parliament. It is a perfect example of the term un-logic, which has been described around the world. It is not ignorance or stupidity; it is reason distorted by suspicion and misinformation. It is an Orwellian stat of mind that arranges itself around convenient fictions and ignores established facts [the] science is being sidelined and replaced by negotiation and politics. It is a tragic day. Our iconic koalas are headed towards extinction and thats whats at stake.

Before the Black Summer fires in 2019/20 northern NSW koala numbers had declined by 50 per cent over the previous 20 years. The Black Summer fires burnt approximately 30 per cent of likely koala habitat according to North East Forest Alliance (NEFA).

Yet the NSW Liberal Party have put forward the Local Land Services Amendment (Miscellaneous) bill 2020 that is not only a massive step backwards for koala protection in NSW, but also removes many other critical environmental protections on private land, according to Greens MP and Chair of the Inquiry into Koala Populations and their Habitat, Cate Faehrmann.

This bill isnt a compromise on the new koala policy. It takes koala protections back 25 years, at a time when we need to be strengthening laws to protect koala habitat. We lost maybe 10,000 koalas in NSW in the Black Summer fires. If this bill passes, the government may as well sign their death warrant, said Ms Faehrmann.

The updated Koala SEPP has been years in the making, but now all that hard work has been scrapped to appease the National Party and the powerful timber and farming lobbies.

NEFA spokesperson, Dailan Pugh, says that the NSW government has introduced a bill which, if enacted, will condemn the koala, and many other species, to extinction. On the North Coast 61 per cent of high quality koala habitat occurs on private property, pointed out Mr Pugh.

These proposed changes are clearly intended to make the Koala SEPP ineffective and remove most of the few hard won gains made over the past 25 years.

Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive, Chris Gambian, points out that, Nothing in this bill helps ensure koalas survive beyond 2050. But it does mean property developers could bulldoze koala trees without needing an approval.

Analysis of the bill by the Environmental Defenders Office has found that the bill allows for: unregulated land clearing of koala habitat not already identified in rural areas; the prevention of expanded koala habitat protection on private farmland into the future; and the exemption of Private Native Forestry operations from important development consents, with their durations doubled from 15 to 30 years.

After making a great song and dance about standing up to the Nationals, it seems the NSW Liberals have backed down completely, said Evan Quartermain, head of programs at Humane Society International (HSI).

All members of parliament are being called on to use their conscience and vote the bill down.

We need to try to convince our local parliamentarians to vote against it (or at least abstain), said Mr Pugh.

At a time when koala populations are crashing, with climate change induced droughts and fires decimating survivors, and predictions of extinction in the wild by 2050, it is reprehensible that the Berejiklian government is changing the rules to remove protection for core koala habitat so as to allow it to be logged and cleared indiscriminately, says Mr Pugh.

The National Party stopped north coast councils from rezoning land for environmental protection in 2012, they stopped the Byron and Tweed Coastal Koala Plans of Management being approved in 2015, and now National Party MP Ben Franklin has promised the Shooters [and Fishers] that e-zones will not be created in relation to any koala plans of management.

Thanks to the Nationals, councils are not allowed to protect koalas or protect anywhere from logging.

It is the height of hypocrisy for Byron Bay-based National Party representative on the koala inquiry, Ben Franklin, to find [as part of the Inquiry] that the regulatory framework for private native forestry does not protect koala habitat on private land and that it is unacceptable that land identified as core koala habitat can be cleared because of departmental delays in approving koala plans, to now to claim in parliament that there is no need to protect core koala habitat from logging and clearing. Ben Franklin needs to be held to account.

Conversely his colleague in the koala inquiry, Ballina-based Liberal, Catherine Cusack, needs to be supported in her stance against National Party bullying and encouraged to vote down these draconian measures intended to reverse protections for koalas and hasten their extinction.

Keeping the community together and the community voice loud and clear is what The Echo is about. More than ever we need your help to keep this voice alive and thriving in the community.

Like all businesses we are struggling to keep food on the table of all our local and hard working journalists, artists, sales, delivery and drudges who keep the news coming out to you both in the newspaper and online. If you can spare a few dollars a week or maybe more we would appreciate all the support you are able to give to keep the voice of independent, local journalism alive.

Follow this link:

NSW Liberals betray koalas and back down to National Party - Echonetdaily

Bob Marshall has found another culprit in his endless search for Louisiana's coastal loss. It took a while, and many articles to find the truth, but finally it has come out: Blame it on the Republicans!

According to Marshall, the appointment or Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is the final piece that will doom all of us south of U.S. 90. If liberal politicism were a science, Bob Marshall would be the head professor.

I agree that greenhouse gases do play a part in our climate, but he should be directing his criticism at the dozens of so-called "developing nations" that have been given a pass to "pollute at will" by world leaders. The United States has been chastised for dropping out of the Paris Climate Accord, but the truth is we were just the cash cow suckers that were expected to pay the lions share with money and regulations on our economy. President Donald Trump saw through this scam.

Now for the true, main reason for Louisiana's coastal loss, which Marshall never seems to mention. It can be summed up in one word: levees.

What took Mother Nature hundreds of centuries to build, has been destroyed by man-made levees in a span of two centuries. Pouring billions of dollars into freshwater diversion projects is like dropping a teaspoon of dirt into a barrel of water. The only real solution, which would anger most of the residents in South Plaquemines Parish, is to either remove all of the Mississippi River levees south of Belle Chase, or miles-long sections connected by elevated roadways like the one over the Laplace spillway or the ones connecting the Florida Keys.

This is not a political issue. It is not about Republicans or Democrats, which is what Marshall would like you to believe. It is about commonsense and Mother Natures ability to fix a problem, if she is given a chance.

DAVID PALMISANO

retired communications worker

Marrero

Read the original post:

Letters: Coastal land loss is not the fault of Republicans, as Bob Marshall says - The Advocate

Indigenous issues in B.C. and the Stikine electoral district are important and complex. The historical treatment of Indigenous peoples has resulted in socioeconomic inequality, over-representation in the correctional system and other social and health impacts that reverberate through generations.

Very few treaties have been signed in B.C. and when the Province joined confederation it did not recognize Indigenous title. However, in 2019, B.C. enshrined the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) in a step towards reconciliation.

But Indigenous rights and title is still far from a settled issue in the province and projects like the Coastal GasLink pipeline illustrate that there is still much to be resolved. The outcome of the 2020 provincial election will impact the course of reconciliation into the future.

Christian Heritage Party of BC candidate Rod Taylor thinks that the wrongs of the past need to be acknowledged fully for meaningful reconciliation to take place.

The first aspect of reconciliation must be a full and frank admission, confession, I guess, of whats taken place in the past, he said. We cant sugar coat that. There was mistreatment and disrespect shown. Its a root that needs to be dealt with and hopefully it can be dealt with because it requires grace on all sides; it requires everyone to have a full grasp of history and we have to come together and say what are we going to do now as Canadians.

Taylor points to the damage caused by policies and the generational impact of breaking the family, and that every effort needs to be made to keep children under the care of their parents.

We cant undo the things of the past, those are things that are part of history. It cant be completely done away with, but we can acknowledge it and offer resolution of the errors of the past.

Rural BC Party candidate Darcy Repen and Liberal candidate Gordon Sebastian both advocate education as a method to move forward with reconciliation.

I think the key for me is in our region and throughout the province and throughout Canada, that we need to begin to acknowledge the fact that our foundational cultures in the places that we live are the Indigenous cultures, Repen said.

The problem I think is that while those foundational cultures have always been there the dominant culture has not been the Indigenous culture, its been the colonial English culture.

Repen said that there is much to be learned from the variety of Indigenous cultures in the region.

As a representative I would try to drive the uptake in what theyre offering and trying to get the people that most need to hear those messages and most need to hear the history of the wrongs that have been done, get them in and get them exposed to it because I think that will potentially heal a lot of the open wounds when the people that still retain a really negative perspective start to learn how painful its been for the people on the other side.

Sebastian thinks education and training for non-Indigenous and Indigenous people alike is critical.

This is an opportunity now for us to step up and really hit a three-bagger, really make a good shot that this is time for education in the schools to really focus on the students when you teach them, racism, youre not born that way, its taught, he said.

He pointed to recent examples of racism in healthcare settings and that reconciliation means training in the history and issues for professionals. He also said that Indigenous people have a role to play too.

We have to step up, we have to be accountable, we cannot sit back and protect our children and not allow them to be disciplined in school and go there and raise hell with the teacher, we have to step up and be accountable and make sure our children get there and get their education and at the same time we have to educate the professionals whether it be teachers, health care people, educate them, the First Nations really are different.

BC NDP candidate Nathan Cullen said UNDRIP is a step in the right direction but more needs to be done.

Fundamentally it means marching further down the path of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, it means changing the way we make decisions, moving from top down Victoria or Ottawa to much more local and co-management with Indigenous communities, he said.

It means doing what we are doing in part with the Wetseweten, affirming, reaffirming rights and title that preexisted far before Canada did and finding a new way to be together because as the Supreme Court has said no ones going anywhere, we need to find that path that requires a lot of patience and humility and practical changes on the ground so peoples lives improve and we get along much better than we have in the past.

The Coastal GasLink project has highlighted unanswered questions surrounding rights and title, as well as the role of hereditary chiefs and elected band councils.

Rod Taylor said the dual system of elected band councils and hereditary chiefs is a barrier to resolving such an issue.

One of the troublesome aspects of negotiating in this broken system we have with broken lives and broken relationships is that both federal and provincial governments and businesses like Coastal GasLink, they dont know who theyre dealing with. They have the band councils that are a result of the Indian Act with all its flaws and then theres the hereditary chiefs and the two do not always agree.

He believes that it is up to the Wetseweten people to decide once and for all who should govern them and negotiate on their behalf.

It has to be a clear decision that all sides can recognize and work with in the future.

Gordon Sebastian said if he was asked to be involved in negotiations under a Liberal government he would include band councils in a supporting role, but true authority resides with the hereditary chiefs.

The Wetseweten hereditary chiefs actually are the ones that actually have jurisdiction over the lands and their families, he said. We will get right down to figuring out who has the history of this territory and how was it used, and I would say sometimes we find that the connection has gotten weak over the years or the connection has gotten stronger, but we will look at all of that stuff rather than ignoring it.

Were talking about humanity here, were not talking about two lawyers arguing about rights and title, this is humanity were talking about. People who have had their families live on the ground and buried in that ground, thats what we have to talk about.

Nathan Cullen blamed the previous Liberal government of ignoring the role hereditary chiefs play in Wetseweten governance and pursuing a divide and conquer strategy. He said the NDPs work on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Wetseweten is a step in the right direction.

This government has set up the MOU table, the rights and title table, which is probably going too slow but making some progress and I generally prefer dialogue and conversation over conflict and I think thats what weve seen for the most part since January, February once this table was established, he said.

I think we need to redouble our efforts and reaffirm those rights and how we are going to be working together in the future, because thats the reality, we have to work together in the future in a better way than we have in the past.

Repen put the blame on both the Liberals and the NDP. He said that he has been frustrated watching the process and feels like he could have contributed something more meaningful to discussions.

I definitely understand where the [Office of the Wetseweten] and the hereditary chiefs are at right now, he said. Theyre really feeling that theyve been disrespected and theyre absolutely right. Both the NDP and the Liberals have always tried to work their way around free and prior informed consent and to try and manipulate the Indigenous people in those negotiations.

Its really tough, though, when you have these projects landing and theres not been any preliminary discussions of use of the land base and how to do things right and then all of a sudden the government is under the pressure from the corporations and from their own budgets to get these things done and really it causes them to become quite manipulative in their interactions with the Indigenous leadership.

Aside from the Coastal GasLink project, there are much broader negotiations surrounding rights and title in the Stikine riding. Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people have expressed concern with a lack of transparency in the process.

Gordon Sebastian said that money being involved in negotiations is a major reason people are concerned.

The reason why people are suspicious is that all the government and proponents do is put money on the table and then people wonder oh was there more money handed out, why are we so docile, why are we accepting this, whats happening? he said.

Youd be suspicious if your brother gave someone your ride and he received money, youd want to know how much money he received, especially if hes using your car, so people are quite suspicious of that kind of a process.

He said that money is problematic because it is impossible to put a dollar-value on peoples history and connection to the land.

Repen and Taylor both called for more transparency.

We need to be getting together and collaborating and being open, all parties at the table, business interests, First Nations, the other people living in our region. This approach and this way of negotiating, theres no way that it ends well. Somebodys going to end up feeling like they werent heard or that they didnt have a seat at the table, Repen said.

He said both the NDP and Liberals have been reactive, instead of collaborating and planning with everyone in the area about what the future of the landscape should look like.

One thing thats not a huge secret is what kinds and what volumes and what types of natural resources and other opportunities we have in our region. Im all for diversification of our economy, but thats really kind of fallen by the wayside. We put so much energy into battling over things and very little energy into coming together and establishing a plan and an approach thats beneficial for everyone thats here.

Rod Taylor agreed that negotiations should be more transparent.

I dont like any kind of secret negotiations, he said. If Mr. Trudeau and the Canadian government claim to represent all Canadians, not just non-indigenous, but all Canadians, we should all be aware of whats on the table and where the negotiations are going.

He also believes that the land that is now Canada is very different than it was before colonization, and that reality should be reflected in the future.

I think when were looking at the specifics of the Northwest here, and the failure of governments in the past to come to agreements, to make realistic and just treaties with the peoples that lived on this land before European encroachment, I think we have to look at where are we now as a nation, he said.

Is it realistic to return to 630 individual nations with boundaries like other world nations or are we one nation with a bunch of people from different backgrounds, including Indigenous people and Europeans, including people of African descent? I think my desire would be to see all Canadians operating under the same set of rules and if there is land belonging to families and clans and tribes thats legitimately recognized as theirs, I think it should be decided once and for all where those lands are.

Cullen said this election is important to determine the future of Indigenous rights and title in B.C., and that it is appropriate to have community engagement throughout the negotiation process, not just engagement at the end. He said that work was paused when the writ was dropped in September, but would resume under a re-elected NDP government.

Well get started up, I believe if the NDP are re-elected, if not then I actually dont know, the Liberals have called the [hereditary chiefs] a fringe group and their leader has called them irrelevant so Im not sure that the same level of interest and dialogue exists within the Liberal party so I dont know its future, he said.

I think this is a critical election for that reason if nothing else, but if we want to continue down a path of dialogue and reconciliation its really going to depend on the outcome of what happens on [Oct. 24].

With files from Thom Barker

@BenBogstieben.bogstie@terracestandard.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

BC politicsBC Votes 2020

Read more:

Reconciliation at the heart of 2020 election: Stikine candidates - Terrace Standard

Marie BurgeGuest opinion

The Coalition for the Protection of P.E.I. Lands is concerned that the District 10 byelection on Nov. 2 seems to be under the radar with minimal public interest or media coverage. However it could be a game changer in P.E.I. politics. It happened once before when Premier Alex Campbell, tottering on the edge of power, was able to form a majority government only because of the Liberal win in the July 11, 1966 byelection in First Kings. The current byelection is important because it could radically change the face of the P.E.I. legislature. However, even more importantly the election results could have a deep effect on what the P.E.I. government does in the near future about the protection of P.E.I. land.

It is likely not intentional that the District 10 byelection is being held at the same time as the public consultations around the P.E.I. Lands Protection Act. Really, not many people even know that there is a current review of the act.

Even with the lack of visibility of the review process, there is in the wider Island community a growing anxiety about how land is increasingly owned and controlled by a few large and powerful corporations and their numerous off-shoots, some of which are clearly interlocking.

What most everyday people know, but what seems hidden to many politicians, is that the power and the octopus outreach of these industrial enterprises is greater than any government. This is a reality regardless of the political stripe of the government. It is incredibly juvenile for any politician, party, or government to act as though they can go head-to-head with the kind of power that resides in the transnational corporate board rooms. Although political power is no match for economic power, parties and governments, if they chose to, have the advantage of calling into play the full force of the law. The laws they make and enforce are the source of the governments power and authority. Government with strong legislation exercises its authority over the land, how it is owned, controlled and used.

The Lands Protection Act was designed precisely to keep farmland out of the hands of industrial agriculture. It is meant to keep land available for individual bona fide P.E.I. residents and for non-industrial family corporations. That purpose remains constant. There have been serious problems with the enforcement of the act because of the lack of political will and lawyers skill in manipulating loopholes.

If there is any hope for the protection of P.E.I. lands and water at this critical time it must be found not only in impressive statements during election campaigns. What is needed now more than ever is a strong and united legislature ready to speak out for the land and for the people. To get back to the quiet byelection in District 10: whoever is elected will be part of the legislative assembly of Prince Edward Island and must represent the interests of the whole Island. We need to hear from the four parties running for that position.

The Coalition for the Protection of P.E.I. Lands and our associates will be watching for a rapid response in the print, electronic and social media. Islanders deserve to hear your answers. We will watch with interest how the new MLA takes up the role as a serious legislator for the land in the fall session of the P.E.I. legislative assembly.

Marie Burge is a member of Cooper Institute which is an organizational member of the P.E.I. Coalition for the Protection of P.E.I. Lands.

See the rest here:

GUEST OPINION: Land matters and District 10 byelection - The Journal Pioneer

WELCOME TO KTW'S COVERAGE OF THE 42ND PROVINCIAL ELECTION. THIS RUNNING BLOG WILL INCLUDE ALL THE INFORMATION FROM TONIGHT'S RESULTS:

-- This election has 87 seats up for grabs. At dissolution, the NDP and Liberals were tied with 41 seats. The Greens held two seats, there were two Independents and one seat was vacant.

-- A party needs 44 seats to form a majority.

-- DID YOU KNOW?The NDP formed a minority government in 2017 with support from the Greens after finishing on election night with two fewer seats than the B.C. Liberals, while the Greens won three seats and held the balance of power. The last time B.C. had a minority government before that was in 1952 and the NDP's rise to power in 2017 ended a 16-year span outside government. The B.C. Liberals were in power from 2001 to 2017. The NDP was in power from 1991 to 2001 with four different party leaders during its time in office. Andrew Wilkinson became leader of the B.C. Liberalsin February 2018, replacing Christy Clark. John Horgan was acclaimed NDP leader in 2014 and first won a seat in the legislature in 2005. Sonia Furstenau has been on the job for about a month, being elected to lead the Greens on Sept. 14.

-- Elections BC has sent out about 700,000 vote by mail packages and has received about 500,000 as of Oct. 23. Those ballots will not begin to get counted until Nov. 6. They will likely comprise 30-35% of all ballots cast. Election day and advance poll ballots will be counted tonight.

-- In Kamloops-North Thompson, there are 107 ballot boxes. In Kamloops-South Thompson, there are 97 ballot boxes. After one ballot box reporting, B.C. Liberal Peter Milobar is leading in Kamloops-North and B.C. Liberal Todd Stone is leading in Kamloops-South.

-- After four ballot boxes counted, Milobar leads with 45 votes, followed by Sadie Hunter of the NDP (36), Dennis Giesbrecht of the Conservatives (13), Thomas Martin of the Greens (5) and independent Brandon Russell (2).

-- Kamloops-South Thompson B.C. Liberal candidate Todd Stone is at the North Kamloops office he shared throughout the campaign with Kamloops-North Thompson B.C. Liberal candidate Peter Milobar.A night during which candidates are typically surrounded by many supporters, the campaign looks different amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Joining Stone and Milobar tonight are their spouses, a limited number of campaign staff and media.Normally, we would be at a hotel ballroom and the place would be packed, Stone said. There would be all this nervous energy and everybody would be, you know, making small talk, waiting for the results to pour in. Much smaller group. I think theres only about eight of us, not including a couple of media.Steps have been taken, however, to include more people safely from a distance. A big screen television is set up in the campaign office. Supporters from both ridings will join the candidates for a Zoom call as the results start coming in. Stone said they felt it was important to share the excitement of the evening with people who have shown up day in and day out through this campaign to help us.Stone said his voice went a bit hoarse after spending Saturday making many phone calls to thank supporters and ensure voters turned up at the polls. He said despite technology and innovation, elections are won and lost based on who shows up to vote.We really just worked the phones as hard as we could, Stone said.Asked his thoughts on election night, Stone said he has butterflies, just as he did during the previous two elections in which he ran.Im certainly anxiously awaiting the results coming in, just like British Columbians are, he said. Im really proud of the campaign Peter and I ran together. We put a whole bunch of local priorities front and centre, items that were going to fight for and advocate for for our respective communities. At the end of the day, its a team Kamloops approach and I think it was very well received during this campaign.Provincially, Stone said he does not know how the results will shake out but that he is proud of the effort put forward in the Thompson valleys.

-- With 5 of 107 ballot boxes reporting in Kamloops-North, Milobar has 90 votes, followed by Hunter with 73, Giesbrecht with 36, Martin with 20 and Russell with 3. With 2 of 97 reporting in Kamloops-South, B.C. Liberal Todd Stone has 126 votes, followed by Anna Thomas of the NDP with 63 and Dan Hines of the Greens with 33.

-- After 13 of 107 ballot boxes counted in Kamloops-North, Milobar leads with 385 votes, followed by Sadie Hunter of the NDP (316), Thomas Martin of the Greens (110), Dennis Giesbrecht of the Conservatives (96) and independent Brandon Russell (12).

-- With 17 of 107 ballot boxes counted in Kamloops-North, Milobar leads with 474 votes, followed by Sadie Hunter of the NDP (422), Thomas Martin of the Greens (141, Dennis Giesbrecht of the Conservatives (118) and independent Brandon Russell (15).

--With 5 of 97 ballot boxes counted in Kamloops-South, Stone leads with 213 votes, followed by Anna Thomas of the NDP (95 votes) and Dan Hines of the Greens (60).

-- With 21 of 107 ballot boxes counted in Kamloops-North, Milobar leads with 567 votes, followed by Sadie Hunter of the NDP with 527, Thomas Martin of the Greens with 161, Dennis Giesbrecht of the Conservatives with 134 and independent Brandon Russell with 17.

-- With 12 of 97 ballot boxes counted in Kamloops-South, Stone leads with 502 votes, followed by Anna Thomas of the NDP with 364 and Dan Hines of the Greens with 233.

-- At 8:55 p.m., the CBC has called a NDP government victory.

-- With 30 of 107 ballot boxes counted in Kamloops-North, Milobar leads with 926 votes, followed by Sadie Hunter of the NDP with 783, Thomas Martin of the Greens with 251, Dennis Giesbrecht of the Conservatives with 213 and independent Brandon Russell with 22.

-- With 21 of 97 ballot boxes counted in Kamloops-South, Stone leads with 1,188 votes, followed by Anna Thomas of the NDP with 638 and Dan Hines of the Greens with 375.

-- Its early into the night and B.C. Liberal Kamloops-North Thompson candidate Peter Milobar is watching the polls come in alongside his wife and son and fellow B.C. Liberal candidate Todd Stone at their shared campaign office.Due to the pandemic, its different than years past, with volunteers joining the celebration over Zoom. Members of the media are popping in, coming and going as well.Its definitely different with COIVD, thats for sure, Milobar said.With early returns showing less than 30 ballot boxes reporting. Milobar said the results were expected to be close 41 per cent of the vote compared to NDP candidate Sadie Hunters 35.Hopefully, well stay on the right side of the ledger and well see here we land, Milobar said, noting the glut of mail-in ballots still to come.He said it was expected to be a tighter race for him, especially with a Conservative candidate on the ballot.

-- With 40 of 107 ballot boxes counted in Kamloops-North, Milobar leads with 1,521 votes, followed by Sadie Hunter of the NDP with 1,365, Thomas Martin of the Greens with 402, Dennis Giesbrecht of the Conservatives with 368 and independent Brandon Russell with 29.

-- With 28 of 97 ballot boxes counted in Kamloops-South, Stone leads with 1,698 votes, followed by Anna Thomas of the NDP with 982 and Dan Hines of the Greens with 583.

-- At 9:12 p.m., the CBC is calling an NDP majority government.

-- Kamloops-South Thompson B.C. Green candidate Dan Hines is at home at the RareBirds Housing Co-operative in South Kamloops, along with a couple of people from the housing community, his campaign manager, 2019 federal Green candidate and Kamloops lawyer Iain Currie and wife Lisa Steele.John Kidder, who is the partner of Elizabeth May, dropped by for a visit.Hines said he is closely watching the number of Green candidates leading early in the results.That number is more interesting to me than the orange and red boxes, he said, calling the B.C. Green Party the most interesting story of the night.Hines ran in the 2017 provincial election. Asked if election night feels strange amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he said there is no comparison.Both in the way the whole election cycle was just condensed and now not being able to have a full get together with our volunteers and our team and have a celebration tonight is very muted. Were all here in masks, were all careful. Its just a very different energy.On Saturday, Hines spent the day on the phone to get people out to vote, writing people back who reached out to thank them and also cooking chilli. He said he feels very good about the Green party campaign. He said the party communicated well. The party leaned heavily on social media. He noted the party collaborates well and has long-term vision.Theres also an openness because of the pandemic to a third option and to creative new possibilities, Hines said.

-- Kamloops-South Thompson BC NDP candidate Anna Thomas is watching the election results with her immediate family at home in North Kamloops. Her first time running for public office, Thomas said with a laugh that she doesnt know any different.Usually Im on the other side but this year Im behind the scenes, Thomas said. Front row, actually.Thomas said it is exciting. Looking back on the campaign, she called it an amazing experience and she said it went well.I have awesome volunteers, Kamloops-South Thompson committee worked so hard, Thomas said. They did such an amazing job guiding me anyway they can. It made it a little easier. I dont know how easy [laughs].Earlier on Saturday, Thomas spent time with friends, met her North-Thompson BC NDP running mate Sadie Hunter and waited for her sister to arrive from Calgary, to join in on the festivities.She said she tried to make her day as normal as possible.Im feeling really good, she said. Its all been a learning process. Im just thankful. Its just really exciting to be part of the NDP movement and carve space for other women such as myself or people that have similar life experiences as me that, you know, I got to do this. Im out here doing it.

-- With 53 of 107 ballot boxes counted in Kamloops-North, Milobar leads with 2061 votes, followed by Sadie Hunter of the NDP with 1,797, Thomas Martin of the Greens with 532, Dennis Giesbrecht of the Conservatives with 471 and independent Brandon Russell with 42.

-- Kamloops-North Thompson Green candidate Thomas Martin was married earlier today and is indisposed on election night, devoting the day to his new bride, wtih whom he celebrated in a small ceremony that included their parents in Kamloops.Green representative Matt Greenwood fielded the call from KTW in his place. Hes been checking in periodically online as the results roll in.Its not quite as exciting an event as it has been in years past, Greenwood said.As for Martin, hes completely in the wedding zone right now, Greenwood said.Greenwood said the Greens were hoping to have a decent showing in Kamloops-North Thompson.Early returns are showing the Greens with 10 per cent of the popular vote, which is much lower than the 20 per cent they had in the riding in 2017, but Greenwood noted that year involved a fully mobilized campaign, with time to organize.Greenwood said he wouldnt be surprised if the Greens come out with a little less in the popular vote for KNT this time due to the election being called on short notice, but hopes they will at least garner 10 per cent of the popular vote the amount required to get an election expenses rebate.

-- Kamloops-North Kamloops Conservative candidate Dennis Giesbrecht is downtown, watching the polls come in on a television at Frick and Frack with his wife, campaign manager and press secretary.He said while they arent getting the seat counts they wanted, the 19 Conservative candidates provincewide are getting a decent amount of the popular vote despite not having candidates in 68 ridings.Of his own 10 per cent of the vote, Giesbrecht said that while one always wants more, COIVD-19 posed challenges and they adapted with more online presence.

-- While B.C. Liberal Todd Stone secured re-election early in Kamloops-South Thompson, the picture in Kamloops-North Thompson is not as clear.With 76 of 107 ballot boxes counted in Kamloops-North, B.C. Liberal candidate Peter Milobar leads with 3,103 votes, followed by the NDPs Sadie Hunter with 2,663 votes, Thomas Martin of the Greens with 781 votes, Dennis Giesbrecht of the Conservatives with 762 votes and independent Brandon Russel with 55 votes.With Elections BC having sent out 5,744 mail-in ballots, which wont start to be counted until Nov. 6, the race between Milobar and Hunter remains up in the air.

-- With 83 of 107 ballot boxes counted in Kamloops-North, Milobar leads with 3,621 votes, followed by Sadie Hunter of the NDP with 2,966, Thomas Martin of the Greens with 930, Dennis Giesbrecht of the Conservatives with 889 and independent Brandon Russell with 67.

Here is the original post:

Live BC Election 2020 coverage for Kamloops - Kamloops This Week

From Oct. 19 through Oct. 24, http://www.yorktonthisweek.comwill be publishing a series of articles by Brian Zinchuk - Local Journalism Initiative Reporter (Estevan Mercury) interviewing party leaders on issues of interest to rural Saskatchewan.

Dundurn Liberal Party Leader Robert Rudachyk feels the Saskatchewan Party government only pays lip service to rural Saskatchewan issues, and he wonders why people keep voting for them.

That was part of his response to a series of questions on rural issues in this election.

Between Oct. 16 and Oct 19, all six party leaders were asked the same set of five questions focusing on issues facing rural Saskatchewan. Rudachyk responded by phone from his acreage near Dundurn on Oct. 16.

Municipal Infrastructure

Asked about the infrastructure deficit facing rural municipalities and towns, given depopulation is a continuing trend, Rudachyk said, Well, to be very honest, there's vast amounts of federal money that have already been offered for these sort of programs that our current government has not tapped into.

But, as you know, if we were the ones who were in government hypothetically, we would be doing what we can to match that spending and to open up those areas because I live in a rural area, I know the quality of the roads are garbage. I know the internet connectivity is garbage. And this is something that we, as a province, have to start focusing on. I know that our power grid is very outdated and, in many places, obsolete so that we're suffering multiple blackouts. I get one regularly out of my place all the time.

Keeping agriculture a priority

With the continuing trend toward fewer rural residents, what will the Liberals do, if elected, to ensure agriculture remains a priority for the government?

Rudachyk said that seeing all the abandoned farmsteads is heartbreaking. I would like to see as a reversal of that trend and bringing back the smaller unit family farms, by being more diverse in the agricultural products that we can develop, that we can produce, and also to try to bring this bring back those rural communities. I mean, I hear what you're saying and I know that it's a big problem and the problem is that the corporatization of firms makes it virtually impossible. But I see I see a lot of real estate listings for quarter sections, for half sections, for full sections and all of these are land spaces that could be developed into residential small family farms once again.

He said the Saskatchewan Partys $4 billion irrigation plan is only going to increase the number of larger corporate farms, because irrigation benefits those that can afford to set it up.

The government focuses on those members of the agricultural community that are there, for lack of a better term, their corporate donors. These large corporate firms are paying donations to the Sask. Party so that they can get the irrigation system set up that will benefit them. The rest of us the small people, they're not listening to.

He added, We want to set it up in a way that every farmer, every rancher, every First Nations reserve could be farming renewable energy as a cash crop on their land and selling it to the grid or storing some of it for their own use.

Bolstering rural healthcare

With regards to keeping rural emergency rooms open and having sufficient doctors in rural facilities, like Preeceville, Rudachyk said that one of the biggest challenges is very few of our doctors that we train at the university stay here, or stay in Saskatchewan.

While the Liberals dont have a policy on it, he suggested the province should offer student loan forgiveness for doctors who stay in Saskatchewan, as well as improved financial incentives.

He noted how a Rosthern doctor was one of the first in Saskatchewan to come down with COVID-19, having brought it back from a curling bonspiel in Edmonton. That resulted in closing a large portion of Rosthern Hospital and its ER. And that shows just how precarious situation is in Saskatchewan. I mean, it was unbelievably lucky. It was just plain blind luck that we didn't have a major outbreak in Rosthern, Rudachyk said.

He thinks the Saskatchewan Health Authority needs to mandate a minimum number of doctors to work in rural areas to help those working in the rural areas avoid burnout. He also said when doctors from other parts of the world come to Saskatchewan, greater efforts should be made to make them feel welcome and part of the community.

Rural connectivity

With internet access still painfully slow in for substantial portions of rural Saskatchewan, amplified by the need of children to do school work from home during the pandemic, how would they improve rural connectivity? Rudachyk said of SaskTel, Instead of taking all the profits from Mobility and flipping them into general revenues to make the provincial finances look that much better, we need to be investing that money into improving our connectivity. We need to be investing in finding solutions to these problems.

He noted upcoming satellite-based internet shows some promise, and should be investigated further.

Rudachyk lives just two kilometres from a cell tower, near Blackstrap. When summer comes and the campground fills, he noticed, my connectivity went absolutely through the floor, like it was just awful. Because you can barely connect some days, and usually on the days where the weather was bad and you can tell everybody was inside their trailers, playing on the internet rather than being outside doing stuff that shows the provincial government has failed utterly in keeping up with the demand.

Internet is actually a critical infrastructure. Now, in this country, and in every modern technological society. It is a critical infrastructure, and it must be maintained by through better standards and if that means we have to make money and invest into the future.

He said it would be better to put money into this than $1.6 billion into carbon capture and sequestration, because this is a higher priority.

Its an embarrassment, is what it is.

Improving rural environment and water quality

Rudachyk said, We have to set minimum standards for what we feel is sufficient for water quality and stuff like that. If we're not meeting those standards then, like the federal government is doing with the First Nations reserves that have water quality issues, we need to invest that money into it. I mean, there has been little to no investment on improving water quality in many rural communities for a long time.

He said the Sask. Party relies on the fact that people are sued to having to suffer through things like low water quality.

He recalled how Regina used to have very low-quality water, and it took a near revolt to drive improvements in its quality. We have the technology and ability, and the cost got much cheaper than they did then, he said.

What's disappointing is the fact that in the rural areas, they keep voting for the Sask. Party, but yet the Sask. Party pays them only lip service on this stuff. And they're not willing to offer any solutions. They're not willing to do anything to fix the problems. So why would you keep voting for a party that's doing nothing for you? Rudachyk asked.

Part one was with Saskatchewan Party leader Scott Moe, see here

Part two was with New Democrat leader Ryan Meili, see here

Part three was with Buffalo Party leader Wade Sira, see here

Part four was with Progressive Conservative Party leader Ken Grey, see here

Part five was with Green Party leader Naomi Hunter, see here

Read the original post:

The party leaders talk rural issues: Part 6-of-6 - Yorkton This Week

A 12th century image from Dakshin Muhammadpur in erstwhile Comilla in eastern Bengal shows Ganesha and Kartikeya along with the devi, but the daughters are not there. Historians like RD Bandyopadhyay, NK Bhattasali, JN Banerjea, S K Saraswati and Enamul Haque tried their best, but could not locate a single ancient sculpture of Durga with all her four children. We find this Durga with full family theme, however, in the powerful folk literature of medieval Bengal called the Chandi Mangal Kavyas.

The second reason was that Kali was already installed as the mother in Bengal since the 8th century because of its strong Tantric tradition. This protective mother could terrify all those who threatened her children. Durga was popularised later, from the 17th and 18th centuries, by the zamindar class for agricultural prosperity and to display their pomp and power in late Mughal and post Mughal Bengal.

As the mother slot was occupied by Kali, Durga was fitted in as the daughter of the Bengali Hindus. She visited her parents, Giriraj and Menaka, just for four days a year when they poured all their love on their darling daughter, Uma. It made more sense for Durga/ Uma to take her young children to her parentss home, as she would not leave them alone.

Thus, Bengal transformed the belligerent goddess into a loving daughter that everyone simply dotes over by feasting on as many types of fish, delicious meat and mind-boggling varieties of sweets as possible. Yet, to be recognised as Devi Durga, she needed her motifs and had to be fully armed and in battle regalia, riding her lion, even on a sentimental visit home.

Link:

Why is Bengals Durga so different & Why she is the daughter returning home - National Herald

Hollingbury golf course is a big splodge of green bleeding into Brightons grey urban sprawl. For more than a century, its 18 holes have risen above the seaside city towards the ruins of an iron age hillfort, which is now enclosed by holes nine, 12, 13, and 14. From Hollingburys highest point, it is possible to look west on a clear day and see the hills of the Isle of Wight.

As housing has spread around the course, which is owned by the council, so has tension between golfers and walkers, who are permitted to cut across it on a network of footpaths and old drovers tracks. Relations seem calm on the autumn day I visit, but I gather Fore! is not the only four-letter exclamation to have bounced along the manicured fairways.

In late March, the awkward relationship flipped on its head when a lockdown ban on golf coincided with a yearning for green space among Britains confined households. A national campaign, supported by the Brighton MP Caroline Lucas, called for golf courses to be opened to the public to relieve crowded parks.

At Hollingbury, which has no fences and is part of the South Downs national park, residents responded like calves put out to pasture. They cartwheeled on the fairways and picnicked on the greens. It was like being in the mountains up here, with that open-space feeling that makes you feel immediately better, says Michaela Spryanova, an office administrator who lives just beyond the courses western edge.

Rachel Henson, an artist and translator, came here every day, basking in the spring sunshine and sweeping views over Brighton and the Channel. She taught her daughter to ride a bike on the sloping fairway of hole 10. We learned all the common birdsong together, she says.

But then, in June, golf was permitted once more and golfers reclaimed the course. We knew it was coming, but it was a terrible shock, Henson says as we walk with Spryanova from their childrens school after the morning drop-off. We stroll up towards the hillfort on one of the old paths to which non-golfers are again confined. It depressed me so much I couldnt come up here for a while, Henson adds.

The struggle for space at Hollingbury and a second council-owned golf course two miles to the west at Waterhall reflects a wider debate about conservation, ecology and democratic access to green space. As a pandemic triggers a revolt on many of Britains fairways, it poses a vexed question: is it time we opened up all golf courses to the public for good?

One of the joys and challenges of golf is that it requires a lot of nice green space. How much space is disputed. A common claim that Britains golf courses occupy more land than housing is based on dodgy estimates, but it is a lot of land.

The American writer Malcolm Gladwell once considered the scale of gated golf courses in Los Angeles, a city of few parks. He calculated that if you gave each player on a basketball court the space a golfer commands, the court would cover 12 hectares (30 acres); the hoops would be more than 400 metres apart. Theyd have to play on motorcycles, Gladwell wrote.

Yet this calculation depends on a course being busy. Not all courses are busy. Steve Garrioch, who has been the captain at Hollingbury since 2009, tells me he was one of significantly more than 500 members when he joined 20 years ago. There are now 122 members and about twice as many season-ticket holders.

Garrioch, a leather merchant, blames an oversupply: Hollingbury is one of six courses within five miles of Brighton Palace pier in a city of about 300,000 people. But its decline is not unusual. According to a participation report by KPMG late last year, membership of golf courses in Great Britain dropped to a low of slightly more than 850,000, down almost 20,000 in a year. In Scotland, membership has dropped by 14% since 2014. Yet the number of courses more than 2,000 is relatively stable.

Hollingbury, which opened in 1908, is not exclusive. Its for working-class people, Garrioch says. Weve got taxi drivers, builders theres nothing elite about it. Yet perceptions fuelled the debate about the role of courses in lockdown. I think a certain US president has done golf no favours, says Guy Shrubsole, a campaigner and the author of Who Owns England?. For Shrubsole, Donald Trump and the eponymous courses on which he has played out a large part of his presidency exemplifies the image of golf as a gated, gilded pursuit.

In early April, when many councils threatened to shut the gates of crowded parks, Shrubsole launched a petition at change.org calling for golf courses to be opened. More than 7,500 people signed it. Lockdown was highlighting space inequality; studies show that people in poorer postcodes not only have smaller gardens, or none at all, but also less access to smaller parks.

Pushing open the gates of golf courses began to feel like a moral imperative. Theres a sense that golf is played by a small number of people and that they are potentially quite wealthy, retired, white men who dont necessarily represent society, Shrubsole says.

It is not known how many courses opened to the public. It was a fraught process for many that did. We had nudity on the greens and kids riding bikes straight over the bunkers, Garrioch says. Elsewhere, there were reports of quad biking, horse riding and rampant picnicking. One couple were spotted playing a rather different sport in a bunker at Glenbervie golf club near Falkirk in central Scotland. This isnt Butlins, an anonymous member of the club told the Daily Record. Its frustrating that members arent even allowed to get their daily exercise by playing a round on their own in the fresh air, yet youve got locals having sex in the bunkers. Wheres the social distancing in that?

But for the responsible majority, including Henson, Spryanova and their families, the overnight arrival of new parks was a revelation. I wanted to shift debate and say there was something deeper going on here this was about our exclusion from public space and our inability to provide enough of it, Shrubsole says.

That debate was big in Brighton before the pandemic. Ten-year management contracts at Hollingbury and Waterhall were due to expire on 31 March. It came up at pretty much my first committee meeting last year, says Marianna Ebel, a German-born IT engineer who was elected as a Green party councillor for Goldsmid ward in May 2019.

Brexit inspired Ebel, 35, to enter local politics. She is now the joint chair of the councils tourism, equalities, communities and culture committee, so council-owned golf courses are her responsibility. For a while, it was assumed a new operator would simply take over the leases. But I remember looking at the membership numbers, Ebel says. I thought: Instead of continuing, how about rewilding the courses?

In October, the council appointed an estate agent to market the courses, offering 25-year management leases. But they also invited bids for other uses, including projects to restore the wildlife-rich chalk grassland on which the courses were laid.

We simply cannot miss this exciting opportunity to create a health & wellbeing sanctuary and a wildlife haven for all, read a petition launched in late December by the Brighton branch of Extinction Rebellion (XR), the environmental campaign group. Counter-petitions called for golf to be saved. Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat councillors pushed for the space to be used for affordable housing.

More than 5,000 people signed the rewilding petition, including Chris Packham, the presenter and campaigner. In January, XR Brighton held a protest outside a committee meeting. They marched on Hollingbury. Were not anti-golf, insists Ben Benatt, an ecology surveyor and XR member. Its about a sustainable solution that addresses the climate and biodiversity emergency.

In January, the council awarded a new contract for Hollingbury, securing its future as a golf course. It was a blow to campaigners and the families who had roamed the course. But the council also announced that Waterhall, where membership was in steeper decline, would shut down for a rare experiment: the rewilding of a golf course.

They call chalk grassland rainforests in miniature, says Kim Greaves, as we crouch low on the first green at Waterhall. The 37-year-old played here briefly as a teenager. These days, he works with adults with learning disabilities and teaches Brazilian jujitsu, a martial art that relies on skilful leverage. He is also an amateur naturalist and part of the campaign to restore Waterhall.

Golfers abandoned the course when lockdown stopped play just seven days before the old lease expired. It had stood here since 1923. Six months later, the greens are cracking up. Daisies and ragwort are growing and the old holes and bunkers are filling with soil and debris.

The clubhouse, which sits just above the first green, has sweeping downland views. There is one proposal to move the building towards a rugby club, where dog walkers now park to enjoy the old course, and turn it into an education centre. For now, it is a symbol of a lost era. Abandoned trophies left in the window of the Spike Bar collect dust next to a golf glove, on which a large bumblebee has expired.

The very thin layer of soil that covers chalk in valleys across the south-east of England the result of centuries of grazing lets rain drain straight through it. Nutrients are scant, so dominant grasses, and the shrubs and trees that would succeed them, tend not to do well. Instead, an array of resilient wildflowers cling to the earth, supporting rare species of butterfly and birds.

Diversity on the old greens is still low; it will take years for the effects of mowing and pesticides to be flushed out. But Greaves wants to show me what is happening on the fringes of the fairways. Wildflowers with evocative names betony, harebell, devils-bit scabious, ladys bedstraw are creeping in from the rough.

I even saw a round-headed rampion in the middle of the fairway, Greaves says of a survey he did in the summer. It might have been there without flowering for decades. The delicate blue flower, also known as the Pride of Sussex, is a magnet for the chalkhill blue butterfly.

Rewilding here will require management. Without any intervention, ecological succession will do its thing, even on thin soil. Last month, the council took responsibility for the project after a leaseholder pulled out. Greaves is anxious to start controlling the hawthorn that is already dominating areas between fairways. In other ecosystems, big fauna would do this kind of work. Perhaps well introduce elephants here eventually, Greaves says with a smile.

Golf still offers pleasure and exercise to hundreds of thousands of people. Many clubs enjoyed a growth in visitor numbers when they reopened in June; golf is nothing if not a socially distanced sport. Even XR Brighton says a sensitively managed links is far from the worst way to preserve green space, especially if it brings a revenue stream that can help manage it in the right way, Benatt says.

Housing can be an obvious and lucrative alternative, especially when privately owned courses can rescue their finances with a sale to developers. Reading golf club, another old, struggling course, will next year merge with Caversham Heath, a club two miles to the west. A controversial housing development will take its place.

But Waterhalls fate adds weight to campaigns for old courses to remain green yet public, making permanent the freedom that excluded communities briefly enjoyed this year. Four years ago, Lewisham council closed a municipal 18-hole golf course that had occupied an old Georgian estate in Beckenham, south-east London. It is now a public park with a restored lake for swimming and boating. It shows what local campaigns can do, Shrubsole says.

It will take time for balance to be restored at Hollingbury. Today, walkers and joggers outnumber golfers by far. Its just getting ridiculous, says Brian Coomber, a club member who is looking for his ball in the rough next to the 10th fairway. He says people have been using the footpaths way more since golf resumed, interrupting play and messing up the fairways. Dont get me wrong, Ive got a dog myself, but at the end of the day this isnt common land, he says. His friend, Dave Slocombe, nods in agreement. Days later, the men leave Hollingbury to join East Brighton golf club, which is only three miles away.

Henson and Spryanova still walk on Hollingbury, where Spryanova says a few comments from golfers have made her children feel uncomfortable on their walk to school. Lockdown inspired Hensons art. She made videos of the course, in which images of cartwheeling children fade into more recent footage of golf. Birds sing in the background. As we stand at the hillfort, taking in the sweep of Brighton, she can still picture those weeks. At sunset, everyone would have been sitting here looking west, each little group taking a mound, she says. It looked a bit like a very spaced out village green.

Read more:

We had nudity on the greens! The battle over Britains golf courses - The Guardian

It's been a close election between B.C. Liberal incumbent Eric Foster and B.C. NDP candidate Harwinder Sandhu for the Vernon Monashee riding.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED

October 24, 2020 - 10:21 PM

B.C. Liberal incumbent Eric Foster is leading with most polls reporting tonight but the results are so close, we may not know who the MLA is for another couple of weeks.

With 104 of 121 polls reporting, Foster has a narrow lead with 35 per cent of the vote, compared to Harwinder Sandhu with 34 per cent a difference of 195 votes. No matter what else happens tonight, the8,747 voters who requested mail-in ballots will make a big difference.

Those votes won't be counted for another 13 days, Elections B.C. has said.

If Foster loses the seat, it will be an historic failure. Foster has been MLA since 2009 in a seat the Liberals have held since 1996. If Sandhu wins, it will be the first time the NDP has held a Vernon Monashee seat.

The riding, which encompasses Vernon, Coldstream and Lumby stretches northeast to the North Okanagan Electoral Area E.

The only other time a competitor got close to snatching a seat from the Liberals was in 2009 when the NDP earned 31.8 per cent of the vote closer to the Liberals 37.3, but not enough to swing the election.

Sandhu, a nurse at Vernon Jubilee Hospital, previously said in an NDP press release that running in the provincial election is a natural extension of the work she is currently doing at the hospital.

When deciding to run, I had to ask myself, do I try to improve health care by working at the hospital or should I go to Victoria to join John Horgan's government and work for better health care for all British Columbians? she said in the release. As a patient care coordinator in one of the COVID wards at the hospital, I am well aware that the B.C. NDP government has earned top marks for how it handled the pandemic.

Foster has sat the last term in parliament as the Official Opposition Caucus Whip.

He's also served on a number of committees, including the Environment and Land Use Committee and the Agenda and Priorities Committee. He has been a member of the Select Standing Committees on Legislative Initiatives, Parliamentary Reform, Ethical Conduct, Standing Orders, and Private Bills, and Finance and Government Services.

A Lumby resident, the MLA has been involved in politics for close to 30 years. Foster sat as a councillor in Lumby for 12 years, before becoming mayor for one term and then moving into provincial politics.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Carli Berryor call 250-864-7494 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroomand be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.

Read more:

Eric Foster leads in Vernon-Monashee but race is too close to call - iNFOnews