Denaturing: The Fast-Track to Economic Growth… and the Snow Geese Bucking the Trend.

When I first moved to the Lower Mainland of British Colombia I wondered what Canadians did for a living; as a child brought up in Britain, I was led to believe that what they mostly did was chop down trees. I remember Monty Python singing a song about it: 'lumberjacks' apparently were O.K. -- but as the verses progressed a different story emerged -- all nonsense for comic effect, but even in the real world things aren't always what they seem and mostly not quite so funny. There are very few trees like this on the Lower Mainland. A couple…

When In Doubt – Go To The Beach.

I presently live in British Columbia, where the car number plates say 'Beautiful British Columbia' - but really, it isn't like that down on the Lower Mainland where there's a competition to see how quickly the whole area can be covered with houses; planning isn't an issue though because there doesn't seem to be too much of that - it's just one big urban sprawl of grey and drab cow dung coloured houses, which, more often than not, are oversized for the land that they stand upon - it's ugly stuff and to add to the nastiness of the burgeoning…