Opinion

The problem with having a great party is that there comes a point when it has to end. And the wilder the excesses, the more wicked the hangover.

Just as Calgary was abandoning work to celebrate Stampede Week, then-premier Ralph Klein breezed into town wearing a white Stetson, to declare Alberta debt-free.It was a stunt, of course, because there still was a little bit of debt outstanding. But a special bank account had been created, with just enough money in it to pay the last of the bills, as they came due.

People who make their living in the sphere of public comment — journalists, politicians, poets and stand-up comics — need to be reminded from time to time that expressing a minority opinion is not a crime. At least not yet.

The grisly video of 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan dying in a Tehran street, shot down by a government thug, has already been seen by millions of Iranians.

I was waiting for my bus in downtown Vancouver the other night when an unconventional gathering grabbed my attention.

To the federal government lawyer and the RCMP for the late disclosure last week of damning evidence at the Robert Dziekanski tasering death inquiry.

If you lived in British Columbia, you’d be able to find out how your local hospital measures up against others in the province.

City cyclist John Johnston is taking the “nice guy” approach in bringing cycling safety issues into public focus in Red Deer. It’s a good place to start and his timing is right, giving civic leaders just over a year to hear the chatter before the next civic election.

It’s well known that a healthy democracy needs oxygen, daylight and the not-so-gentle patter of constructive dissent. Less understood is that it can’t thrive without space.

The federal government is refusing to reveal the anticipated future cost of the war in Afghanistan on the grounds that doing so would threaten our national security.