Opinion

This week a promising young life was lost. A Boy Scout troop from Tacoma, Wash. was on the Coast on a summer trip. They were enjoying the Chatterbox Falls near Princess Louisa Inlet when disaster struck. Somehow a 17-year-old boy slipped and fell.

As I write this column on Thursday morning, we're into day six of competition at the Athens Olympics.

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal's recent decision that the Davis Bay seawall needs safety improvements is a case of good news disguised as bad news. Jacqueline Moser's complaint to the human rights tribunal was far from frivolous.

The public furor over Svend Robinson's five-finger discount on a diamond ring is dying away now, but while it lasted I've been mulling over my own criminal career. My brief dalliance with crime wasn't that different from Svend's.

Sechelt was alive with activity last weekend. And by the time you read this, it will be hopping again this weekend. Sechelt played host to the inaugural Family Arts Festival on the August long weekend.

I've been thinking a lot about Julie Andrews lately. You know, raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.

With less than a month before the students from across Canada, China and Mongolia arrive, Canada World Youth organizer Terrance Lowe is still scrambling for host families.

I feel the need - the need for speed! I'll apologize now for shamelessly stealing this line from Tom Cruise and the movie Top Gun, but I just can't help it.

Setting priorities - that, to my mind, is the most important and most difficult task facing elected officials. And with its rushed decision last Thursday to approve a $3 million to $3.

Isn't it great that your hard-earned tax dollars go for something important like a former MP's junket to Scotland? If you haven't heard, ex-MP Svend Robinson recently returned from a four-day trip to Europe - a trip funded by taxpayers.