Carole Taylor's Journal

On this episode of Journal: a look at super-agers. The official definition is someone in their 80s and 90s, with the cognitive ability of someone 20 or 30 years younger. Most of us could come up with the basics of how to live longer besides your genes, of course: exercise, eat well, sleep at least eight hours a night, and so on. Easier said than done. What exactly do we mean by exercise? Does it h...

On this edition of Journal, we take a closer look at the federal political landscape through a pollster’s eyes. The people of Canada elected a minority Liberal government and now – poof – we have a majority government. Are people happy with that? I have always found in my research that polls give us a snapshot of where we are at and what people are thinking at a given moment in time. Obviously, th...

On this edition of Journal, we focus on the challenges facing boys and men in today’s society. We know that more women than men make it to post secondary education. But did you know that men have a 75% greater chance of overdosing on opioids than women? Men are also three times more likely to commit suicide. And men don’t tend to take early warning signs of health issues seriously before they beco...

On this edition of Journal, seniors services. For 11 years, British Columbia’s Seniors Advocate has been measuring the challenges facing our seniors. Sad to say, it’s not a pretty picture. In fact, Dan Levitt, our Seniors Advocate, says when you look at the data, we are actually going backwards – not nearly meeting today’s requirements, let alone preparing for the future as a tsunami of aging hits...

How did DRIPA, the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act – supposedly a step forward in reconciliation – become such a political and legal mess? On this edition of Journal, we speak with a man who was a member of the British Columbia legislature that gave birth to the now-controversial DRIPA bill, Mike de Jong. No stranger to this file, Mike served as the aboriginal critic when in th...

On this edition of Journal, we ask the question: Why, in a recent front page story, was one expert quoted as saying he was not too concerned about reported job losses in the construction sector? Meanwhile, another in the same article says the current situation in terms of residential construction is the worst he has seen in decades. So, where does that leave us? To worry or not to worry? We do kno...

On this edition of Journal, we lift the curtain on the chaos of the NDP in British Columbia. If you are shaking your head in disbelief at some of the stunning flip-flops and bad policy choices of our current provincial government, you are not alone. Decriminalization: a disastrous policy now abandoned. How about the infamous Land Act, which would have given First Nations co-control with the govern...

On this edition of Journal: a closer look at the recently released forestry report that says we have to abandon the old ways of managing our forests because the status quo is not working. That statement won’t be a surprise to anyone touched by this industry, be it municipalities, First Nations, the provincial government, or the workers and their families. More than two dozen mills have closed in t...

On this edition of Journal, mayor Brad West of Port Coquitlam walks us through some of the failures we are seeing in our governments at all levels and some of the solutions. Brought up by his mother after his father died, Brad remembers the importance to the family when she finally got a union job, good wages, and good hours. Brad went on to study at the University of Victoria before taking a job...

On this edition of Journal, we open our eyes to the challenges and needs of those living in some of British Columbia’s most remote communities. We have highlighted the crisis in healthcare that many of our cities face every time their local ER is unexpectedly closed, or the maternity ward, or the pediatric unit. But imagine if you lived in a community where there may be limited road access – or no...

On this edition of Journal: the role arts and culture play in our lives. My premise is they are essential to a vibrant community. They lift us up out of our daily worries. They help form our identity. Think of New York: Broadway. Think of Paris: galleries. Italy: opera. So, why are they constantly underfunded here, especially since they are also economic engines providing jobs, not just for the ac...

On this edition of Journal, Chief Constable Steve Rai. It’s almost a year since he was chosen to lead the Vancouver Police Department into the future – the first South Asian Chief for the VPD. His story is so interesting: born in Punjab, India, he came with his family to Canada at age 5. A boy who lived next door to him in Kitsilano was unable to pronounce his name, Satwinder Singh, so he named hi...

On this edition of Journal, we try to untangle the evermore confusing issues surrounding aboriginal title in British Columbia and what it means for private property owners. My head is spinning with all the contradictory information that is out there. Private property is not affected, says our premier. Oh, maybe it is, says a judge. One pattern is emerging – decisions are being made by governments...

On this edition of Journal, a subject that is near and dear to me – governance. I know, I know. Your heart is beating faster at just the thought of this topic, but bear with me. If you are a government or a nonprofit or a business of any size, if you get the governance right, then you are on your way to success. Sadly, it is often in government that we find problems. The example that is glari...

On this edition of Journal, we join the chorus of voices repudiating British Columbia’s new budget. To be charitable, Premier Eby is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (to borrow from a children’s book). Even before the actual numbers were released, one headline from Business in Vancouver magazine stated: “Eby may go down as the worst fiscal manager in BC history.” Another said, “T...

On this edition of Journal, we examine one of the received truths in British Columbia: that one of our economic advantages is that BC offers businesses and industry a plentiful supply of hydroelectric energy at reasonable cost. What could be a better pitch? It is clean energy to run your enterprise. In fact, Premier Eby has had press conferences highlighting the government’s demand that new mines,...

On this episode of Journal: an examination of the worrisome new expansion of what it means when we talk about food security. In the good old days – actually only 9 months ago – when Journal last spoke with Lenore Newman, one of Canada’s top experts in this field, much of the focus was on the effects of climate change: how our supply chains must adjust and how Canada’s own agriculture would be affe...

On this edition of Journal, we take a closer look at one piece of our health care system that doesn’t usually get much attention, even though we see them working on our streets all the time: paramedics. We hear about doctor shortages and nurse shortages, but did you know we have a paramedic shortage? In rural and remote areas of the province alone, there are close to 400 vacancies. The problem is...

On this edition of Journal; an opportunity to look back at British Columbia’s failed experiment of decriminalization – and look forward to what might come next. Dr. Julian Somers, a clinical psychologist and distinguished professor at Simon Fraser University, was one of the first voices to speak up about the perils of decriminalization and safe supply of drugs when these initiatives were first ann...

On this edition of Journal, we look at the sad Vancouver tale of the rise and fall of Woodward’s on Hastings Street. Built in 1903, the Woodward’s building was the place to be in Vancouver – a one-stop department store famous for its renowned food floor. Glory days. But few things stay the same forever. The Woodward's decline began in the 1960s as both shopping patterns and Vancouver’s Downtown Ea...

On this edition of Journal: another hitch in the plan for a smooth path to reconciliation in British Columbia. First, we had the BC government’s introduction of the Land Act, which unsettled many of its assertions of co-management with First Nations of all the Crown land in the province. The Act was withdrawn, but not before some name-calling. But then in a splashy press conference, Premier Eby an...

On this edition of Journal, we try to make sense of the mish-mash of housing initiatives coming at us from all directions – federal, provincial, and municipal governments. Two things seem obvious. First, no one is coordinating these various programs, since some of them overlap and some even contradict each other. At one point last spring, research showed there were at least 60 initiatives aimed at...

On this edition of Journal, we examine what is happening to the City of Vancouver – and what can be done, if anything, to turn this situation around. When I was a councillor in the late eighties, I remember one example of how neighbourhood planning was done in those days: on the street, not in backrooms. A brand new False Creek residential development, to be built on industrial land, while controv...

On this edition of Journal: What has happened to the centre-right coalition that ran British Columbia for so many years, under various names (SoCreds, BC Liberals, etc.)? The latest iteration was cobbled together just before the last provincial election when John Rustad, who had been kicked off the BC Liberals before they became BC United, joined up with the dormant Conservative party – and then K...

On this edition of Journal: healthcare. How can we ever have a meaningful discussion on how to improve healthcare delivery in Canada when we aren’t even allowed to ask the question? Medicare is perfect – until it isn’t. Tangentially, this reminds me of the President Biden situation, when all his spokespeople were insisting that he was in perfect health until the public saw with their own eyes duri...