Vashon is the largest island in Puget Sound, with an area of 37 square miles. It is hilly with lots of trees and is only a 20-minute ferry ride to downtown Seattle. The population is around 11,000, which doubles in the summer months. With more than 55 vacation rentals available, the fun starts with exploring beaches, walking forest trails, and...

Dear Moosume Alfred: There’s a cenotaph that stands on the land of your Cree nation. On the plaque is a list of names of those who died fighting for the Canadian military. I saw your name along with my last name on the plaque. I have never met you, but I know you are the brother of my grandfather and...

Eunice Gore-Hickman has a special collection of photographs, cherished possessions from a trip to Holland, and a precious pair of salt and pepper shakers in her home. They are all reminders of her brother Kenneth Scott Ferguson. She was nine years old when Ken enlisted in the Canadian army. Ken, like so many Canadians, lied about his age so he...

My father was a stickler about voting and as each of his children reached the age of majority, he proudly marched us to the polling station. Back in the day there was a blackout on reporting eastern election results until after the polls closed in the western provinces, supposedly so Canadians in the western provinces wouldn’t know that the election...

As the son of caring and sharing parents, Mike Stensrud believed it was inevitable that he’d be called to follow in their philanthropic footsteps. His parents, Howard and Rita Stensrud, were among Saskatoon’s great champions for those with intellectual disabilities. They attended an early meeting of what was then known as theSaskatoon Association for the Mentally Retarded and Howard became...

What we’re doing isn’t working, my friends. I don’t know how to put it any more simply than that. If you’ve learned one thing over the past few years, it’s that Saskatchewan’s economy needs the rest of Canada on its side for it to not only survive but thrive. We’ve had that message beaten into our heads for the last...

Fifty years ago, back in 1969, six hungry men in Saskatoon were served bowls of soup. Those simple meals marked the beginning of the Saskatoon Friendship Inn, an iconic local institution that provides food and friendship to people in our community 365 days a year. No one is turned away from the Friendship Inn, which currently serves up to 1,000...

It is nice to see the city has started the process to pick a location for a new arena. First up is a location in Riversdale, south of the farmers’ market. While aesthetically pleasing, the site is the wrong one. Among other things, it is too far from the heart of downtown, especially given our winter weather. The city recently...

There’s a gravel road about the length of a football field that runs in front of my place. Along one side of the road is a row of houses. Across the road are evergreen spruce trees. Some of the trees are more than 100 feet tall. If the wind is strong enough, the trees appear to be dancing. Past me,...

A tweet from the Regina Police Service: “A female on the phone while driving looked at me and gave me the finger. When I pulled her over, I told her it is not wise to give people the finger like that, and she told me I shouldn’t have been staring. I told her she shouldn’t have been on her phone....