Olson, Geoff

Sketchbook Survey Libraries, swimming pools, community centres, marinas and city-run day camps may be closed during the strike by city of Vancouver workers. Add to that the garbage pileup, and you've got the makings for one, long, hot summer. Thoughts?
"Home ownership is out of the question, and I can't find an affordable apartment to rent. Dude, there aren't even any vacancies in the Downtown Eastside! Okay if I couch-surf at your place for awhile?" "Uh oh."
A business advisor for Mayor Sullivan and Premier Campbell addresses Vancouver's social housing problem, and the plight of retailers along the Canada Line... "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"
Sketchbook Survey According to a human rights report, 2 million people have been moved from their homes over the past 20 years, many of them forcibly, to clear space for the Olympic games. Three [...]
"Aren't you worried about being on the "No-fly list"?" "Dude, at this point I'm just trying to avoid SWAT teams."
Speaking of poor Olympic optics... "I can see the first chart no problem... ...but I'm having trouble with the second one..."
Don't think of it as a trench on Cambie Think of it as a grave for Kevin Falcon's political ambitions
Sketchbook Survey A museum of creationism has opened its doors in Kentucky, teaching children that the world is only six thousand years old, and that human beings walked with dinosaurs. A similar, [...]
Meanwhile, in a parallel world with a lot more sense than ours about cellphone use... "You were driving erratically. Any calls from the car tonight, sir?" "N-N-No, officer! I only made one quick call to my wife, from a 7-Eleven parking lot!"
Here we go again... "Mine's bigger than yours."
After criticism over the anti-poverty committee arrest, Vancouver's finest do a rethink... "From now on, we identify ourselves to activists as the police. We meet with them as the police. Got that, [...]
Sketchbook Survey In protesting the Olympics and homelessness, Vancouver's anti-poverty committee has been criticized for its office-trashing tactics. What do you think?
Mother Nature sez: "Hello, dearies. Have you heard about the feminized fish? A scientist decided to mimic normal sewage conditions by dripping minute amounts of estrogen into a clean lake in Ontario, [...]
The softwood lumber debacle. David Emerson's defection to the Conservatives. Harper's war on the press gallery. Canadian bodies returning from Afghanistan. Michael Ignatieff's qualified endorsement [...]
"Them guys in Victoria have it all figured out! I'm thinkin' of voting myself a 29 percent wage increase, too!" "Knock yourself out. 29 percent of nuthin' is still nuthin'."
NEWS ITEM: In Senate hearings on Canadian military involvement in Afghanistan, Liberal senator Peter Stollery calls Afghan president Hamid Karzai a US "stooge." Response was swift from Conservative [...]
"I think he's trying to say this is his corner."
WORLD CLASS CITY* *Homelessness, shootings, rampant drug use and break-ins, infrastructure problems, taxpayer-subsidized megaprojects, cronyism, armed transit officials, outrageous housing prices, a [...]
Sketchbook Survey Whats got your attention in the news, lately?
Colony Collapse Disorder Neocons Bolton, Rumsfeld, Libby, Wolfowitz, Gonzales
NEWS ITEM: Conservative government to phase out use of incandescent bulbs by 2012, in favour of mercury-containing fluorescent bulbs... Bairds Big Idea ...exempting their own dim bulbs, of course.
"I reject the term swine. I'm a domesticated hog." "I'm not a dung beetle. I'm a solid waste management specialist." "Monkey at a typewriter? Hell, I'm an embedded reporter!" "I'm no lobbyist! I'm a content consultant!"
NEWS ITEM: Controversy in Ottawa, after a report that says Afghan detainees are tortured when Canadian forces hand them over to Afghan security forces... "We cannot condone the use of torture. We'd [...]
Mother Nature sez: "Happy Earth Day to me, Happy Earth day to me... Oh, hello dearies! Can it be you're finally learning? The town of Rossland, BC has introduced a voluntary ban on plastic shopping [...]
"This TILMA trade deal thing is gonna be sweet, boys..." "Yeah, and the public/private deals through Hydro, too..." "Right, Gord?" "Whatever you say, guys."