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

On Blaming The Bible & Living Large In A Van Nowhere Near The River

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by Sean Orr | Hammer time: Your lie-detector guide to the latest PMO spin. “If lying were an Olympic sport, Canada’s PMO would be the Jamaican bobsled team. They’re really bad, but it’s great TV.”

When all else fails, blame scripture: Nigel Wright says bible helped him decide to quietly give Mike Duffy $90k. That’s just like the time I let a box of locusts loose on my upstairs neighbour because he was stomping around so much.

An explosive article that will have absolutely no bearing on the outcome of this election because not one single Tory voter trusts/reads/cares about the New York Times: The Closing of the Canadian Mind. Fuck that noise, my Canadian mind has been closed since Mulroney. “But the worst of the Harper years is that all this secrecy and informational control have been at the service of no larger vision for the country…” Oh, so if there was some grand conservative vision, all the deceit would be fine?

The fallout for Canadian politics in general: strict control of information is now the norm. Take the NDP on its handling of Israel, for example: Thomas Mulcair is Cracking Down on Pro-Palestinian Sentiment in the NDP. And yet, as Charles Demers reminds us, “allowing Harper to win because Mulcair sucks on Palestine is like eating nuclear waste because sundaes aren’t healthy…”

Majority of Canadians believe we’re in a recession. The same poll found that the majority of Canadians feel that Autumn is on its way.

Why won’t politicians address the poverty problem? Because poor people don’t vote.

Fentanyl overdoses: Why a safe injection site is an election issue leads to the satire of the day: Harper proposes travel ban on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Need a Vancouver lifehack? Why not try homelessness? Vancouver’s housing costs no problem for entrepreneur living in a van. Man, sometimes these things just write themselves. Rather than reference the low-hanging fruit of Matt Foley the motivational speaker or replace the word “entrepreneur” with “millenial who will never get laid”, I’ll simply combine two of my favourite quotes from the article and leave it at that:

“Mr. Gray cared for his housemate’s chickens and the vegetable garden […] He had recently landed a job as a bitcoin ATM attendant in the Waves Coffee House…”

Speaking of the current state of journalism, Pete McMartin discovers dad jokes and the word ‘atavism’: Pete McMartin: No s’more fun: the death of the campfire. It’s not an offensive article per se. It’s just a really weird one. Try not to cringe as McMartin tries to be funny recalling the time he almost burnt down a campsite:

Have you ever seen a tree catch fire? At first, it’s like it’s trying to make up its mind, likes it’s thinking, whoa, what just happened here? Because it doesn’t just immediately burst into flames, it kind of muses about it for a few seconds, and then it decides, OK, let’s do this thing!

Something is not right here: Man dead, 6 police officers injured in Vancouver takedown. “Attempts to subdue the man with chemical agents were unsuccessful. A physical altercation ensued, resulting in injuries to the man and six officers.” Couple that with the eerie Independent Investigations Office quote, “this is very early days”, and it looks even more suspect.

Best advertisement for a party ever: Vancouver police warn people to avoid Commercial Drive street party, citing fears for safety, cleanliness. “Police don’t want you to go to the party that is protesting the police not wanting you to go to the party that is protesting the police”. – Alex Smith

Faith restored: Another naked devil has appeared in East Vancouver and this time there’s no penis.

Instagram of the week: Craft Beer Revolution.

On Ken Sim’s So-Called “Swagger” and ABC’S Class War

Sean Orr is back from his hiatus with a rundown of the local headlines that have been running on a ticker tape through his mind over the past six months...

On Post-Election Recuperation, Platform Paradoxes and Refund Communities

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr finds irony in "safety, affordability, and sustainability", and shouts out a bunch of amazing local organizations working on the frontlines.

On Running for City Council, Playing Whack-a-Mole with Homelessness, and the Public Washroom Deficit

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr finds a park ranger with a grudge, a gross misuse of air quotes and Tripadvisor slander.

On Living in a City Preoccupied with Street Cleaning, Chandeliers, and Campaigns Against the Homeless

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr hones in on the recent Langley shootings, and the ongoing criminalizing and dehumanizing of the homeless population.