Opinion

The next time you have a bear in your garbage or in your back yard munching on your fruit trees or you encounter a cougar when out for a walk, don't expect to get any help from the local conservation office.

Some positive news this week out of Gibsons has us anticipating quite a busy summer on the lower Coast. The New Beachcombers' crew is coming back for a month of filming in July and August for a Christmas Beachcombers movie to air in December on CBC.

I live in Canada for a reason. I've chosen not to move to the United States and make more money, buy burritos for $1 and sport the red, white and blue because I know the drawbacks - the U.S. health care system being my number one concern.

One wild goal-mouth scramble and a puck trickling over the goal line - that's all it took to send the Calgary Flames to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and my beloved Vancouver Canucks to the golf course.

Problem dogs and, even more so, problem owners are becoming a real issue on the Coast.

We don't get a chance very often to toot our own horn, so you'll have to indulge us a little bit this week.

Usually, my favourite news stories are what you might call bad news. I prefer to think of it as big news.

Well, I'm back, and it feels like home. Except here there's no crying baby, no stinky diapers, no mushy cookies stuck in the rug and no one pulling at my leg to be picked up. I guess it's a little better than home in some ways.

What should have been a celebration after a great men's hockey series last Friday night at the Sunshine Coast Arena was marred by an ugly incident on the ice. The Suncoast Flyers and Rangers went toe-to-toe in game two of their championship series.

We received several reports of a cougar sighting in Sandy Hook this week. A number of residents in the area expressed concerns about safety of their children.