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Bundled up well in my winter clothes, I arrived in Vancouver on the April 18, 2014, having more or less made it through a Montréal winter. Despite spring’s imminent arrival, the thermal contrast between the two cities was impressive. The first thing that hit me was, quite literally, the rain. It was a fine refreshing…
The Metro Vancouver transit referendum begins this month. Despite a long campaign supported by the vast majority of mayors and political parties in the region, the ‘No’ side is leading in the polls. Why can’t the ‘Yes’ side seem to galvanize public opinion for a mere 0.5 per cent increase in the provincial sales tax…
The Festival du Bois has now finished but this wood sculpture by Michel Campeau will remain as a tribute to the festival and to francophone culture in Mackin Park, Maillardville, Coquitlam, BC. It’s an eight-foot wooden sculpture of a lumberjack, carved from salvaged cedar wood. Eventually it will be painted and accompanied by a second…
Vancouver is a home for people with different cultural backgrounds, and this fact affects the way its citizens identify themselves. Coming from Russia originally, I consider Vancouver to be the most favourable place, as it allows people with big cultural differences to live and work together in peace. My home country embraces more than 100…
At a glance, the B.C. budget introduced last week by the B.C. Liberal government tells a story of success and prosperity. This year’s surplus was larger than expected, at a whopping $879 million. As the only provincial administration not currently running a deficit, Finance Minister Mike de Jong was able to boast, “We are the…
This extraordinary bronze sculpture sits outside the landscape architectural firm of Paul Sangha at 1622 West 7th Ave., Vancouver, about a block west of Le Centre, the Francophone cultural centre. Jeri is at least life-size and very life-like. His veins and musculature are very pronounced. Although he sits calmly in a contemplative squatting position, he…
One of the things that intrigued me most about Canada was…Canadian women. Yes, yes, despite a wealth of experience in France, I have always found French women to be distrustful and to have a closed and wait-and-see attitude. I was anxious to meet their sisters from across the Atlantic. After all, it’s the time of…
My first full-time job was at the Nalley’s chip factory on Annacis Island. I started the gig a day short of my 18th birthday. The first thing that shocked me was the astonishing amount of waste that occurred during production. The facility was old and somewhat in disrepair. Grease fires regularly broke out in the…
Feb. 12 will mark the fifth anniversary of the opening of the Vancouver Winter Olympics. The four metres bronze sculpture pictured here at the corner of Thurlow and Cordova, not far from the Olympic Cauldron, was a gift from Olympia, Greece to the city of Vancouver to commemorate the 2010 games. It’s a tradition that…
I arrived in Vancouver on a sunny Sunday in August 2014. Although I was tired, I felt like taking a walk around the famous downtown area. The city was joyous on that day, and the glass in the buildings reflected the sunlight making everything I looked at very shiny – the glitter city, I thought…
Syriza has won the elections in Greece. A new left party, they’ve gone in just over a decade from the fringes of political life all the way to power, swept in on a promise to end years of vicious austerity policies. This historic win for Syriza has alarmed right-wingers and bankers around the world. It…
Triumph of the Technocrat by Vancouver artist Reece Terris is the featured artwork at the outside ground level of The Lauren at 1051 Broughton St. The interior design of the building is by Westbank and the architect is Henriquez Partners. The Lauren is touted as “the first new high rise purpose-built market rental building to…
A balancing act…that’s how I perceive my conversations since my arrival in Vancouver a few months ago. Surrounded by and immersed in North American English, French-Canadian French and the French of my native France, I like to juggle all three cultures, which are dear to me, both at work and elsewhere. But I also watch…
