A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

TEA & TWO SLICES: On Occupying The Sun And Regular People Who Drink Tim Hortons

by Sean Orr | Hockey game helps Clark punctuate a right-wing shift. Man, this article was really promising at the start. It mentioned Boessenkool, the surging BC Conservative Party, and even took a jab at their populist choice of coffe – Tim Hortons. But then it just kind of fizzles into nothing:

So far she’s up to 7,313 followers on Facebook. On Thursday night, those 7,313 all had a four-image photo gallery to remind them that Clark wasn’t just a Liberal’s B.C. Liberal.

It’s like the last line of that terrible Cusack movie, 2012. “No more pull-ups”.

British Columbians least able to afford prescription drugs. That might explain why it’s cheaper to go to Carnegie for some dillies instead of to a pharmacist (not that I’ve done that or anything).

In what’s believed to be a first for B.C., a judge has ordered a condominium owner to sell her suite because of an avalanche of complaints from other owners. Let the Condo Wars begin!

And speaking of war: “In May, the minimum wage in B.C. will climb from $9.50 to $10.25, the highest in the nation, sparking debate about its impact on individuals, businesses and the economy at large”. Well, when you’ve hinged your economy to the ability of the consumer to spend more money at Christmas, what do you expect? “The Fraser Institute said that employers will respond to higher labour costs by cutting hours and hiring fewer people.” It’s The Revolt of the Salaried Bourgeoisie. It’s the Leviathan in reverse! It’s the Tragedy of the Commons! “The second question is the potential trickle-up effect of the minimum wage raise on the entire workforce”. That’s rich. I thought it was the other way around. The massive and disproportionate bonuses doled out to CEOs was supposed to trickle down to the hoi polloi. Alas:

This new bourgeoisie still appropriates surplus value, but in the (mystified) form of what has been called ‘surplus wage’: they are paid rather more than the proletarian ‘minimum wage’ (an often mythic point of reference whose only real example in today’s global economy is the wage of a sweatshop worker in China or Indonesia), and it is this distinction from common proletarians which determines their status. The bourgeoisie in the classic sense thus tends to disappear: capitalists reappear as a subset of salaried workers, as managers who are qualified to earn more by virtue of their competence (which is why pseudo-scientific ‘evaluation’ is crucial: it legitimises disparities in earnings). Far from being limited to managers, the category of workers earning a surplus wage extends to all sorts of experts, administrators, public servants, doctors, lawyers, journalists, intellectuals and artists. The surplus they get takes two forms: more money (for managers etc), but also less work and more free time (for – some – intellectuals, but also for state administrators etc).

The G-word: Paint store sale heralds major East Hastings redevelopment. Key words: “downtrodden strip”, “artist studio rental spaces”, “industrial, gritty, edgy”, and the kicker; “I think the area will benefit by just having regular people move in and living there, and also regular shops of one sort or another opening up there”. Wow. Regular people. What a breath of fresh air. Is it just me, or is it staying white out later and later?

Everything in Flux: Is Vancouver a Friendly City? Short answer: no. It’s the transience – a fishing village blown all out of proportion. It’s the end of the line – Terminal City – and yet the “gateway” to the Pacific Rim. It’s why it’s almost novel when you meet someone who is actually from here. So it takes a little longer for us to open up. We may not be laid back like everyone thinks we are, but we are definitely chill. I used to think it was vanity, but then I realized that everyone was just really shy.

Bonus: The (Occupied) Vancouver Sun.

There is 1 comment

  1. I’m 4th generation Vancouver and mostly agree with the last paragraph but I have to say I think shy is an alibi. For something a bit less innocuous than shy.

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