Editor's Take: April 07, 2008
Vancouver (hfabulous/flickr)
BC Leaders Ponder: What is a Civil Society?
Saturday’s Vancouver Sun is a treasure trove for Cascadian doers and thinkers. It’s a special edition of the paper guest-edited by seven of BC’s most innovative leaders. Each considers the question, “What makes a civil society?” This is third time the Sun has handed over the editorial reins. Scientist David Suzuki guest-edited the first of this series last spring.
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What Makes a Civil Society?
Vancouver Sun
04/07/2008
Big ideas from seven BC leaders about a better way to live.
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Mike Harcourt: Employ the Excluded
Vancouver Sun
04/07/2008
Civil Society -- non-government organizations, volunteers and active citizens can play a huge role to help include our often excluded citizens, immigrants, urban aboriginals, the disabled, homeless and poor.
Not only is it morally right to include the excluded, but also, Canada faces a job and skill shortage of one million people over the next decade. Many boomers are retiring -- skilled tradespeople, workers, and professionals. They're not being replaced.
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Norine MacDonald: Become World Citizens
Vancouver Sun
04/07/2008
With all of our society's wealth, it is hard to understand why we still have poor single mothers worrying about how to feed their children, homeless people on our streets, entire first nations communities living below the poverty line. But also, as the world is shrinking, nations and communities once completely unknown to us become our part of the new definition of "us." Our sense of community must expand.
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Geoff Plant: Embrace Change
Vancouver Sun
04/07/2008
Since being appointed Vancouver's Civil City commissioner, I've had many conversations with people about what the idea of a "civil" city means. Is it just about being nice to each other on the streets? Is it the signal for more aggressive enforcement of tougher laws and regulations? Or is it something else altogether?
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10 Rules of Civility
Vancouver Sun
04/07/2008
Making a difference for the good of all is no easy task. It takes courage and determination, but many extraordinary and ordinary people do it. The real achievers have been compassionate and respectful -- but not always polite.
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Hillary Clinton Applauds Oregon's Green Leadership
Oregonian
04/07/2008
In Hillsboro, Clinton detailed how she wanted to follow Oregon's lead to push for greater use of solar and wind energy and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She said that her highest priority was to slash America's dependence on imported oil, which she argued endangers both national security and the environment.
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In Portland, Create Your Own Green Space
Oregonian
04/07/2008
A Metro government contest challenges designers to incorporate nature and quality of life in creating livable spaces.
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Who's Afraid of Social Housing?
Vancouver Sun
04/07/2008
The vast majority of facilities operate without harming the safety of neighbourhoods or dragging down property values, reports conclude.
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Timothy Egan: Big Sky Slugfest
New York Times
04/07/2008
Here's some advice for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as they prepare for Montana's annual Democratic dinner Saturday night in Butte -- where the ragged-edged town on the crest of the Continental Divide will be the center of the political universe.
"In Montana, we like our guns. We like big guns. We like little guns. We like shotguns. We like pistols. Most of us own two or three guns. Gun control is hitting what you shoot at. So, I'd be a little careful about blowing smoke up our skirts."
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Jonathan Raban: Down and Out in America's Last Boomtown
New York Times
04/07/2008
If the American economy is on the brink of meltdown, it's hard to credit it from here. Unemployment in the area is at 3.6 percent, the house-price curve has very slightly dipped but not plunged, and a new business and residential district is climbing fast immediately north of downtown, where the masts and swinging jibs of tower cranes crowd the sky, excavators dig yawning pits in the ground, and men in hard hats swarm over a square mile of concrete, rebar and forsythia-yellow gypsum board. In still-booming Seattle, it's left to the homeless to remind us of economic calamity.
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