Opinion

There has been a lot of trash talk around the office this past week. Not the kind where slurs are made behind people's backs, of course, but rather talk about the kind of trash people leave when they don't clean up after themselves.

As I write this column, I have been a non-smoker for 72 days. I can breath easier, I smell better, and for the first time in 16 years, I have been able to sport a cancer awareness pin without any guilt.

For a community that prides itself on its environmental activism and championing of the environment, some of us are just downright pigs. Yes, you read right, pigs. The amount of illegal dumping that is going on up and down the Coast is staggering.

For all my life, spring has meant clean up to me. When I was a kid, the walls were scrubbed, the ceiling washed (a death-defying trick for the short members of my family) and the ratty old linoleum floor polished to an unbelievable brilliance.

You can never accuse Canadian politics of being boring. Monday's night's federal election was full of enough drama, political intrigue, jubilation, history - and, in some cases, horror - to make any Hollywood script writer envious.

The lowest voter turnout since confederation - did I really just read that? Scrolling through my Twitter feed last week, a tweet came up from a magazine I follow that said the last Canadian federal election had the lowest turnout since confederation.

Last year 179 workers lost their lives in work-related accidents in B.C. That number is simply unacceptable. No one should wake up one morning, kiss their loved ones goodbye and go to work and die.

I'll admit that the last thing I wanted to see was another election - especially at the federal level. So when the writ was dropped and an election date set for May 2, I was certainly not dancing in the streets.

When news hit our newsroom two weeks ago about Sechelt resident Vicki Starfire and her alarming run-in with a leg-hold trap while out walking along a trail in West Sechelt, we really couldn't believe that the incident happened.

This week marks the 68th National Volunteer Week in Canada, and it's got me thinking about volunteering: what counts, who does it and why.