Alyssa Tobin, Tracy Calogheros and Lisa Connor from The Exploration Place put donated ornaments on the Community Heritage Tree inside the museum on Thursday afternoon. The tree features ornaments that have been donated by the community. They are accepting more donations this year from the public that will be kept in the permanent collection. This Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. the museum will host the members Christmas party.
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff
A woman serving a five-year sentence for her role in a three-city crime spree that ended in Prince George is back behind bars after her day parole was revoked over concern she might be falling back into her old habits.
Sentenced in December 2016, Stephanie Rene Deschene was released on day parole in early May but by the end of August, she had been brought back into custody.
Over that time, she failed to secure a job and while she initially seemed intent on regaining custody of her child, her attentions instead turned to reconnecting with her intimate partner, who is currently homeless, according to a Parole Board of Canada decision.
The partner’s name was not provided, but in January 2017, Kelsey Alexan-
der Allard was sentenced to a further two-and-a-half years in prison for the September 2016 escapade.
Arrested in Prince George following a lengthy game of hide-and-seek with police, they had been driving around in an SUV stolen in Grande Prairie and holding items stolen in both cities as well as Kamloops.
Deschene received a stiffer sentence in part because she was behind the wheel when the couple fled police and because of her past record of similar crimes.
While she was out on parole, Deschene and her partner became the subject of a break and enter complaint.
Deschene told supervisors they were house hunting and in the process of using Google Maps were directed to the wrong address.
When there was no answer at the
door, Deschene said she went through an open garage door and knocked on that one. As she was doing so, the homeowner came to the door and “freaked out.”
A subsequent investigation by her case management team found the home she was looking for and the one where she ended up were 6.5 kilometres apart.
The team also contacted her halfway house and were told of troublesome behaviour, such as sneaking her partner into the house, leaving her child unattended and leaving vague information on her signout logs.
She was also seen behind the wheel of a vehicle despite being subject to a driving prohibition.
In a Nov. 21, decision, a Parole Board of Canada member found that letting her back out would pose an undue risk and revoked her day parole.
Mark NIELSEN
Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
The next three months in B.C.’s Central Interior should be slightly warmer and drier than usual for that time of year, according to a long-range forecast from The Weather Network.
Temperatures should hover 1.5 to 2 C higher than normal while snowfall should add up to slightly less than the 100 centimetres the region typically gets, TWN meteorologist Brad Rousseau said this week.
The average daytime high for the so-called meteorological winter of December, January and February is -1.5 C. January tends to be the coldest with an average high of -3 C.
“You’re still going to see days when it’s a little bit warmer than normal, you’re still going to have days that are going to be colder than normal but you take the average of all three months and you lean to the warmer side,” Rousseau said.
An El Nino, associated with warm ocean water in the central Pacific, and slightly-warmer water in the Gulf of Alaska are the reasons for the prediction.
The season won’t start out that way.
“You are going to go through a cold spell to kick off December,” Rousseau said. “The cold spell should last until not quite mid month and then you should see a bit more of a warmer trend take hold.”
As of Thursday, TWN’s 14-day forecast was calling for daytime highs of -6 C on Wednesday and Thursday, rising to freezing by Sunday, Dec. 9. On balance, skiers should get their runs in – just not all season long.
“This warmer, drier pattern will break down at times and when it does, you’ll get your winter systems moving in,” Rousseau said. “It should bring in enough cold air that ski regions should do OK in terms of snow. They’re going to have their struggles throughout the warmer periods but overall, ski season should be average.”
It’s all systems go as Operation Red Nose Prince George begins delivering safe rides home this weekend, the first of its 2018 campaign.
Tonight will feature 14 volunteer road teams of three and 18 teams on Saturday, ready to take party-goers and their vehicles home between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. Those who need a safe ride home can call 250-962-7433.
Operation Red Nose Prince George is celebrating its 21st year in the city. The designated driving service available during the holiday season relies on an army of volunteers to help keep Prince George roads safe.
We’re as prepared as we can be and we’re really looking forward to finally getting out there and helping people who need it.
— Andrea Johnson
“We’re as prepared as we can be and we’re really looking forward to finally getting out there and helping people who need it,” said Operation Red Nose Prince George spokesperson Andrea Johnson.
“Rudy, our mascot, along with other Red Nose volunteers will also be making appearances at various pubs, restaurants and parties to remind people to call us if they need to.”
In comparison, in 2017, 16 teams provided 57 rides on the first night of service, while another 18 teams delivered 99 rides on the second night.
The free, seasonal service, organized by the Rotary Club of Prince George-Nechako, in partnership with the RCMP and ICBC, allows partygoers to not only get themselves home safely, but their vehicles too. The service is available on nine nights during the holiday season to those who do not feel fit to drive.
— see OPERATION RED NOSE, page 3
Chuck CHIANG Citizen news service
One year after leading the province’s largest-ever forestry-sector delegation to Asia, B.C. Forests Minister Doug Donaldson is taking an even larger group to three key Asian countries this winter in a push to expand exports beyond the suddenly slowing U.S. market.
Donaldson, whose portfolio also includes lands, natural resource operations and rural development, will visit South Korea, Japan and China Dec. 5 to Dec. 15 with officials from more than 40 companies, research institutions, unions and trade associations.
The number of entities represented by the delegation in last year’s trade mission to China and Japan was around 30. The key difference, Donaldson said, is that this year’s edition will include a large First Nations component. He noted that he realized during last year’s trade visit that it would help for the province to put First Nations communities in direct contact with potential customers in East Asia, since most of these communities’ lumber businesses lack the scale to reach Asia by themselves.
“We’ve consistently had conversations with First Nations communities around tenure and processing more wood locally, so it just makes sense for those First Nations who are interested in growing their economies to have representation on this trip,” Donaldson said. “The major licensees can often establish their own connections – although they do find it worth their while to come along on this trade mission, as well – but there’s a significant contingent of people who represent licensees that aren’t as large, and this trip helps open doors and make the connections.”
B.C. enjoyed a lumber-export bull market until this summer, when a sudden drop in U.S. lumber prices removed the insulation between the province’s forestry industry and the softwood lumber duties imposed by the United States. Prices in the U.S. market for lumber fell to US$300 per 1,000 board feet this month from US$600.
There are additional factors contributing to a slowdown, including a shrinking timber supply in B.C. due partially to wildfires. The downturn has resulted in West Fraser Timber Co. cutting shifts at sawmills in Quesnel and Fraser Lake and laying off 135 workers. West Fraser estimates the adjustment will take 13 per cent out of the company’s B.C. production.
“There are certain things that government can do to ensure we have jobs in rural communities that depend on forestry, and there are areas where it’s difficult to exert influence as a government – global markets on lumber prices, for instance,” Donaldson said. “But this trade mission is one example of something where the B.C. government has a very legitimate and important role, and we are acting on it to make sure that there will continue to be rural jobs in forestry.”
That official government presence is espe-
cially important in China, Donaldson said, noting last year’s trade mission showed the importance of Chinese manufacturers seeing the connection between B.C.’s lumber industry and the provincial government, since the Chinese often link government involvement with legitimacy.
Donaldson noted this could give B.C. a leg up on competitors like the United States, where the political representatives often do not accompany the business representatives on trade missions.
China, Japan and South Korea are B.C.’s second-, third- and fifth-largest wood-product export markets, respectively. The three markets combine to make up about 29 per cent of B.C.’s current wood-product exports, although each presents a distinct opportunity for local companies, officials said.
Japan, for example, has a rich tradition of wood-built homes and a savvy consumer base willing to pay for B.C. lumber’s higher prices, said BC Wood’s Asia-Pacific region director, Jim Ivanoff.
Japan builds 500,000 wood homes every year, and Ivanoff said South Korea has a similar demographic and market profile –although the market itself remains much smaller despite rapid growth.
“The Japanese market – the importers and the companies – they are paying the higher prices,” Ivanoff said. “And Korea is the same to a smaller extent for structural
lumber, so we are seeing a lot of potential there because the two-by-four lumber market is taking off. And people are looking for better-quality homes, both in terms of insulation, seismic considerations and just higher-quality products. So we think we can continue to grow that market.”
The seismic safety issue is especially on the forefront in Korea, Donaldson said, after earthquakes that hit the city of Gyeongju in 2016 and the port of Pohang in 2017 raised public and government awareness of quakeresistant construction. The B.C. delegation this year will include researchers who are experts in that field, Donaldson noted.
China, meanwhile, is a more price-sensitive market where wood-frame construction is relatively rare in the housing industry, Ivanoff said.
He noted the Chinese market uses some lower-grade B.C. wood for concrete forming and in-house items like furniture pieces, and the government discourages singlefamily homes to limit urban sprawl.
But Ivanoff noted there is increasing Chinese interest in mid-rise wood buildings for applications like resorts and apartment buildings, and that will need to be the direction B.C. lumber takes in marketing itself to China.
Donaldson said seniors’ housing is also another emerging market opportunity in China for B.C. lumber.
“In China, due to the one-child policy, there just isn’t the social structure where parents can move in with their kids when they get older,” he said. “So China is now building more seniors’ home complexes – they have to build them no matter what – and they are considering building them using B.C. wood. So it’s that type of market expansion that we are looking at.”
The lumber sector trade mission is part of a larger strategy being put in place by the provincial government. In addition to a joint federal-provincial program that will see B.C. representatives attend 15 agricultural trade shows in Asia in the next year, B.C. just concluded its participation in China’s massive International Import Expo earlier this month; the 18 B.C. companies present made up roughly one-third of the entire Canadian delegation.
B.C. Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology Bruce Ralston noted that, although there is rising protectionism south of the border, markets like China are motivated to develop trade relationships outside of the United States, which may present B.C. with an opening.
“Particularly at a time where U.S. protectionism is rising, it’s important we take the opportunities where we can find them,” Ralston said.
“I think the USMCA is actually an incentive to do more with other markets.”
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca
Kyle Sampson was noticeably relieved. Telling the world who’s coming to perform at the next Cariboo Rocks the North festival was a weight off his shoulders, as the event coordinator.
“It’s tough knowing the lineup and not being able to tell people,” he said at the official roster announcement on Thursday at Pacific Western Brewing, the presenting organization that builds the annual rock party. This year’s lineup combined, over their collective careers, for 27 platinum records, 17 gold records, and 18 Juno Awards. They are Loverboy, Sass Jordan, Chilliwack, Glass Tiger, Trooper, Helix, Doug & The Slugs, Streetheart, Lee Aaron, plus two acts that have never played in Prince George before: Rough Trade (led by Carole Pope who is also a solo star on her own) and powerpop Detroit band The Romantics.
Loverboy came first in The Citizen’s online poll asking for fan input on possible acts for the 2019 Cariboo Rocks the North. A close second place was Chilliwack. The third top choice hasn’t signed on just yet, that being Corey Hart, but after him was his heyday label-mate Sass Jordan.
Sampson said a number of people are involved in the arrangement of the lineup, and a lot is dependent on the availability of the acts themselves, but last year’s was a winning formula. The 2018 edition was the first time PWB attempted a multi-day festival at Exhibition Park after years of holding a contained backyard barbecue at their own facility alongside the Nechako River involving a couple of classic rock bands.
The crowds kept growing, and the demand for more classic rock became overt.
“It was a no-brainer for us to make it bigger in 2017 for the brewery’s 60th anniversary and we realized after that event that it was now beyond our own place, we had to let the public in on what had been building,” Sampson said. “P.G. didn’t have a large-scale music festival. This was something we knew we could do for our community. This is our company’s hometown, and we want to add to the culture and lifestyle of our city. We’re a beer company. We should be having fun and holding a big party for the city.”
It’s not just for the people here, said Tourism Prince George’s Annie Doran. She was on hand to say this event had already been a big draw attracting visitors from all the western provinces.
“It drives economic growth” for the tourism sector, she said, and was one of the “vital” dates on the summer calendar for the hotels, restaurants and other service providers in the hosting game.
“Cariboo Rocks the North was the best three days of last summer,” said Glen Mikkelsen, manager of CN Centre, the facility around which the event is built.
“We cannot wait to host next summer’s festival at Exhibition Park. The lineup is dynamite, and we know people will again have a wonderful time.”
The Citizen rejoined the festival efforts as a major sponsor, along with broadcast partners 99.3 The Drive, 101.3 The River, and CKPG-TV.
Cariboo Rocks the North takes place Aug. 9-11 with tickets on sale now at the TicketsNorth website and the CN Centre box office.
Driver in van crash swerved, overcorrected, police
Citizen staff
Police have released details on how a van that was carrying members of the College Heights Secondary School girls volleyball team went off the road early Tuesday afternoon. The driver had veered to avoid an obstruction then overcorrected and the van went into the ditch, B.C. RCMP traffic services Cpl. Mike Halskov said Thursday. Ten players and two adults were in the 15-passenger van. They were on their way to the B.C.
Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff
Lee Aaron hasn’t been to Prince George in years, and she is clapping her hands to be on the Cariboo Rocks the North 2019 roster.
The last time Canada’s first female hard rock star performed in this city was in her jazz phase. She played at a little club called Galitas (some remember it as The Other Art Cafe) that is now where social services organizations The Foundry and YAP Friends reside.
The time before that, she was the first rock act to headline a newly opened facility called the Prince George Civic Centre (the Headstones opened for her that night).
Yeah. It has been that long.
But in many ways that has been a reflection of the music landscape over that period.
Hard rock faded in popularity, the way music got consumed changed its platforms and still hasn’t settled into a comfort zone, and she was at a point in life where being a mother and teacher (yes, Lee Aaron is a teacher in Vancouver as well as an international rock star) were more important endeavours.
Her kids are older now, so she can power up the rock show from time to time. Her husband John Cody is also her drummer (the drummer for a scad of big-name acts, in all honesty), and her bass player (Dave Reimer, who has also played for Bryan Adams, Randy Bachman, he was a Legendary Heart with Barney Bentall, etc.) and guitar player (Sean Kelly, who was a regular with Nelly Furtado, Helix, and Carol Pope who is also on the CRTN lineup this summer) are close friends who love to jump on the bus whenever she fires it up.
It has been more frequent, lately.
“This whole series of rock festivals that have cropped up around Canada the last five or six years, it just keeps growing,” said Aaron in a quick call to The Citizen on the day of unveiling the 2019 Cariboo Rocks the North lineup. “Was last year the first year in Prince George? Yeah. This is only the second year, so I’m excited to be part of it, they have all (across Canada) been über successful.”
It’s a chance to relive the old hits, but also a chance to showcase new material, for those classic rock acts who have been so motivated. Aaron has been.
In the 1990s she reinvented her sound away from the commercial metal she had been fronting (to international stardom
levels). She had major hits with Metal Queen, Whatcha Do To My Body, Hands On, Power Line, the sensual ballad Dream With Me, the gutsy Sex With Love and many others. This brought on 10 Juno nominations and gold- or platinum-level record sales many times over.
But in the mid-’90s the industry shifted and she jumped with it. Emotional Rain was a critical darling of an album, and while it didn’t rocket any singles up the charts tunes like Emotional Rain, Baby Go Round, and Had Enough were high musical quality that got solid attention from critics and proved she was more than her video images of the past.
She joined with three-quarters of the band Sons of Freedom to make a project album under the name 2 Preciious and again advanced a new sound. It was still hard, still guitar-driven, but edgy and contemporary.
That has carried on. Songs from the past few years that critics have held the door for include Tom Boy, Popular, and within the last few months it’s Diamond Baby, Mistreated, American High, and a brand new single drops on Friday called I’m A Woman. It is often the case that when a classic rock act plays their new stuff, it has a dampening effect on the audience, but this material is strongly crafted and well received. She is confident the Prince George audience will enjoy the set list, no matter how it gets arranged. It changes from event to event.
“When I’m doing these festivals, a contingent of the audience is a Lee Aaron fan but not everybody, so I try to include a lot of the singles, the hit songs, things they’ve heard on the radio so you’re not alienating people,” she said.
“I would say half our show is new, though. We’ll play all the video singles from the past two albums so the people who are Lee Aaron fans will know that, and I have a whole other set that’s blues, and a whole other set for Europe that we streamline differently when we come back to Canada. I switch it up, so we’re not bored, too, and it keeps it fresh for us. I can promise you, though, it will not be boring. It will be fun.”
The conversation was pleasantly rambling and insightful on the twists and turns of her life, since she was last on regular tour through markets like Prince George. The Citizen will air a feature-length version of that when the event draws nearer.
Citizen staff
Prince George Fire Rescue limited the damage caused by a suspicious fire to $2,000 when called to a 1100-block 20th Avenue home shortly before 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Firefighters found smoke coming from the exterior ground level of an older wood-sided garage and quickly doused the fire. The structure was not occupied and there were no injuries.
“The scene was handed over to the RCMP as it is a suspicious fire,” PGFR assistant chief John Law said.
Anyone with information on the incident is asked to call Prince George RCMP at 250-561-3300 or anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.pgcrimestoppers.bc.ca. You do not have to reveal your identity to Crime Stoppers.
Triple-A high school championship when the mishap occurred on Highway 97 just north of Cache Creek.
Halskov said four people were taken to hospital in Kamloops with non-life-threatening injuries.
“The coach was in a separate vehicle and took charge of the remaining people at the scene and there was a chaperone that accompanied the four injured people to hospital,” Halskov said.
Those injured were later released from hospital and the team returned to Prince George on Wednesday.
— from page 1
This year, Operation Red Nose will be in service tonight, tomorrow night, Dec. 7 and 8, 14 and 15, 21 and 22 and New Year’s Eve. The safe ride home service is by donation. Proceeds go directly to local youth and amateur sport organizations.
The call by organizers encouraging the public to volunteer has had a great response. So far 170 people have signed up. More are still needed to meet the demand for rides they expect during the holiday season, especially on New Year’s Eve.
Volunteers must be 19 years old and have a valid driver’s license. They can be part of a road team of three or work behind the scenes answering phones at Operation Red Nose headquarters.
On average, about 15 road teams of three will be on call each night of service.
For newcomers to Prince George (and that would include anyone who moved here this century), there is an easy way to identify the longtime and lifelong residents because they use a word usually only used to describe avoiding a problem or having emergency heart surgery.
Bypass.
Except they use the word bypass like this: “Have you seen that new fence along the bypass in front of CNC?” or “They’ve made some changes to the bypass access roads off Central between Fifth and Tenth” or “There was a bad crash today on the bypass.”
Where is this bypass?
What does it bypass?
Why isn’t it on Google Maps?
The bypass is simply the nickname given to the stretch of Highway 97 in Prince George between the Fraser River to the south and the Nechako River to the north. When it was first built, it really did bypass Prince George because downtown and most of the residential neighbourhoods were to the north and east of Highway 97. To the west and south of the highway, it was still mostly undeveloped forests until the pulp mills came in the 1960s.
Despite the fact Highway 97 bypass stopped bypassing anything 50 years ago,
the bypass handle still lives on but it is slowly dying out. Other oddities of the Prince George portion of Highway 97 are also being phased out.
The intersection of Highway 97 and 22nd Avenue has been a fiasco for decades. On one side, an awkward and often dangerous transition from the end of Westwood Drive onto 22nd. On the other side, a confusing connection between Central Street East and Griffiths Avenue, made worse because the city’s largest high school, PGSS, is located just past this tangled nest of traffic moving in multiple directions across multiple lanes. Worst of all, it is one of the few major intersections in the city without a dedicated left-turn light for those turning onto Highway 97 from either Central or 22nd Avenue.
Some don’t like change, of course, but just like Highway 97 through Prince George is no longer a “bypass,” it has far too much traffic on it to allow quirky, small-town shortcuts like Westwood/22nd Avenue.
As for silly social media complaints about added commute times, let’s be serious. Instead of a 10-minute drive to and from work, it might now take 12.
The intersection of Highway 97 and 22nd Avenue has been a fiasco for decades.
Thankfully, a big part of the problem will be eliminated in early January, when drivers will no longer be able to reach this intersection from Westwood. Those in the Pine Centre Mall area looking for quick access to the northbound lanes of Highway 97 will be left with the underused onramp off Massey Drive, just past the underpass.
It’s hardly “a major disruption to traffic,” as Coun. Brian Skakun called it during Monday’s city council meeting.
Closing the Westwood Drive access to 22nd Avenue mirrors the recent closure of northbound traffic on Central Street West in front of Spruceland onto Fifth Avenue. It also figures into the other work in the same area earlier this fall, where the multiple exit and access points in front of Spruceland Mall onto the southband lanes of Highway 97 were reduced and each point is now only a one-way exit or an access but not a two-way connection. That will no doubt reduce the number of collisions in that area, particularly on icy streets in the winter months.
Some drivers may feel they are being punished for the poor choices of other driv-
Re: Indigenous housing project is racist, letter, Nov. 28 Citizen
You’re so right, Carol Schwab. It’s OK for the Indigenous to take and take. We can’t help what our forefathers did and we are sorry but for how long?
Do you punish your child for doing something wrong until they leave your house?
I might seem to be a racist but when and where can I speak my opinions whenever I want without being accused to be a racist? When are we to take care of the poor and homeless, some of whom are Indigenous?
How about our seniors and mothers on welfare, of all races and religion?
We all need help. It’s not a oneway street all the time.
Warner Bliskis Prince George
Urban village for the select few
The government has committed $10 million of taypayer money to create an urban village on 17th Avenue.
It’s a project that’s for the community and by the community but unless you are lucky enough to have Aboriginal roots, you are not allowed into this nice taxpayer-funded urban village. There are single parents, male and female, out there living in dumps and working at minimum wage jobs, paying taxes trying to support their families, seniors that can hardly make ends meet,
young people that can never hope to own a home, let alone pay off student loans, families with two incomes that can hardly afford the high rent that is out there, let alone ever owning a home.
Maybe the government can create an urban village alongside this one for these people.
I hope they are planning some park space and playground equipment. I would like to know, is this village for Prince George people or are we going to be paying for housing for people from other places?
The government is sure getting into the rental business so I sure hope they know what they are doing with our tax dollars.
Helen Sarrazin
Prince George
I’m not a city councillor anymore, so I will not start a debate about a performing arts centre because that will probably come up again one way or another at council in the future.
Despite of the lack of one, we have a thriving arts community, which includes the symphony. In past years, I occasionally had the honour and opportunity to show and introduce our community to individuals who were interested in Prince George. In most cases, it was related to an employment offer. I remember when one of them said I heard that the crime rate is high and the air quality is not the best. We had a good discussion about living here and it gave me the opportunity to say why my family settled here in 1995. Our air quality has improved dramatically and the
crime rate, as we know, is by far not what it was years ago.
Another question arose about the arts in Prince George and whether there is a symphony.
Well, I was a board member of the symphony at that time and the questions were very fitting for me.
The respective individual later moved with his family to Prince George and now is an active member of our community.
Yes, we have a symphony and in my opinion it can easily compete with a symphony of any large community.
Anyone who would have doubt should have attended the recent performance last Saturday called TENORE, an award-winning tenor group that shot to international acclaim winning a Covenant Award for Traditional Album of the Year, Seasonal Album of the Year and the Fan Choice of the Year across the entire country. It was fascinating to watch, to listen and to observe how our conductor, Michael Hall, the music director with all the musicians, presented an evening that one will not forget and where it ended with a several-minute standing ovation.
Having been a season ticket holder of the symphony for several years, I clearly can say that our symphony deserves a lot of praise for the world-class performances, contributing enormously to our arts community and making Prince George attractive not just for us who are here already but also for others who consider Prince George as a place to live in the future.
Albert Koehler
Prince George
ers and pedestrians that led to accidents, some of them with tragic consequences. On the contrary, drivers with good records are being rewarded with these improvements, which should reduce the number of crashes brought on by careless or risky driving. Fewer crashes means fewer insurance settlements means better driver premiums. Other financial benefits include reductions in lost income and lost workplace productivity, as well as the emergency and health care costs to deal with the victims of these crashes. And that’s not even touching on the personal pain and suffering.
Sadly, few changes are made to roadways and traffic flow until someone dies. There were crashes at Highway 16 and Vance Road before but it took a fatality to get a dedicated left-turn light from Highway 16 onto Vance Road. Likewise, there have been plenty of accidents at 22nd Avenue and Highway 97 over the years but now a pedestrian death has inspired first the fence along the highway median and now the road changes. Put another way, local drivers will soon have to bypass Westwood Drive and 22nd Avenue when wanting to reach Highway 97.
Now that’s a bypass that makes sense.
Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
—
Premier John Horgan and the rest of his government are sheltering in the same “inappropriate to comment” campground where Speaker Darryl Plecas pitched his tent, when it comes to not answering questions about the legislature suspensions.
It’s a very roomy location that provides lots of cover. It cuts off all the obvious questions about the RCMP investigation and the appointment of two special prosecutors, as it properly should. It also apparently covers any and all questions about how the legislature, through the Speaker, handled everything that led up to the police involvement. The “no comment, it’s under investigation” zone even extends to how the legislature and government responded after the news broke. They engineered a house motion to suspend clerk Craig James and sergeantat-arms Gary Lenz, then sat back as the Speaker’s special adviser called the cops and escorted them out the door.
out of nowhere to take down the two top officials in the legislature hierarchy. Then he spent a few days speaking on behalf of Plecas at various news conferences. All questions about his investigatory standing were non-answered from the shelter described above.
The skimpy facts to date build more suspicion than confidence.
It must be a very optimistic place, because Horgan stressed how strong the institution is at a Tuesday news conference, and urged people to have confidence in it.
But based on the positioning so far, people’s confidence in the legislature at this point has to be based solely on blind faith that Plecas knows what he’s doing and has handled the mystery matter correctly. Because any attempts to get more facts to arrive at an informed conclusion run into a wall of “no comments.”
The further problem is that enough details have emerged in the past week to do exactly the opposite of what Horgan is asking.
The skimpy facts to date build more suspicion than confidence.
The Speaker’s idea at the outset to replace the sergeant-at-arms with the same special adviser –Alan Mullen – who says he played a role in the investigation was a fantastically bad one.
The three parties’ house leaders balked at it, to their credit. But it didn’t set off the flashing lights and proceed-with-caution signs that it should have. So they barged ahead with the suspensions the next day, solely on the blind faith noted above.
Mullen’s dramatic rise to prominence is another poser. He’s a $75,000-a-year, direct-hired friend of the Speaker. He burst
Getting your face on newscasts and front pages for the better part of a week brings a lot of background to light, so there are now further questions. Most critically, the suspended duo raised a host more questions with their bewildered appearance at a news conference. They say they don’t have a clue what it’s about, protested the calculated humiliation of their exit and begged for their jobs back.
Horgan tried to be as reassuring as possible about it all as the fall sitting came to a close.
“It’s been a difficult week, but we have accomplished a great deal as a government and as an institution.”
“I believe our institution is strong.”
If it’s that strong, officials shouldn’t be hiding behind no comments.
Of course, the police investigation is off limits. But extending that position to the information that led to it, and the response that followed it, does nothing to build confidence.
Horgan said people should have confidence despite the extraordinary events because deputies stepped in seamlessly and the institution carried on.
He’s correct that the legislature scarcely missed a beat. But the Speaker is under siege, he has stepped aside two days in a row and Attorney General David Eby has spent the same two days declining to explain any details about what’s happening. The affair has left its two top officials lying in the ditch, drawing big paycheques for an indeterminate period until there’s some resolution. And they are the ones who are keenest of all to have whatever they are up against made known.
The fall session concluded Tuesday afternoon, so some of the heat is off. But confidence is the last word to describe the general attitude toward the place.
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Kristy KIRKUP Citizen news service
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Canada will sanction 17 Saudi Arabian nationals linked to the October killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday – a move announced on the eve of the G20 summit to be attended by the kingdom’s crown prince.
The federal government looked closely at the involvement of each person it sanctioned, Freeland said, and concluded they were either directly involved or complicit in Khashoggi’s October murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The dissident writer, who lived in exile in the United States, went to the consulate in Istanbul to get papers for his impending marriage and didn’t come out.
The sanctions freeze the targets’ Canadian assets, she said, and make them inadmissible to Canada.
Earlier this month, the United States imposed its own sanctions on Saudi officials for the same reason.
“The murder of Jamal Khashoggi is abhorrent and represents an unconscionable attack on freedom of expression and freedom of the press,” Freeland said.
Canada walked a fine line as it unveiled its sanctions on Thursday, not making a direct link between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the writer’s murder in Freeland’s public remarks or in documents associated with the announcement.
Freeland defended that position, saying Canada wants a credible, transparent investigation to identify all involved in an act “so serious and so odious” as Khashoggi’s death.
“It’s very important to act and to speak only on the basis of real certainty,” she said. “These are not steps that we take lightly, they are not accusations that we can make lightly.”
Canada and other countries face the difficulty of how to handle bin Salman, known as MBS, at the G20 summit set to begin Friday.
The trip is the highest-profile overseas junket for the crown prince since Khashoggi’s murder and it is expected to be an oppor-
Camille BAINS Citizen news service
VANCOUVER
— An otter that dined on prized fish at a classical Chinese garden in downtown Vancouver seems to have dashed as the facility takes steps to ensure the unwelcome critter doesn’t come back. Howard Normann, director of park operations for the city, said automatic closers will be installed on two gates and plates attached to the bottom of them so the river otter can’t return to Dr. Sun-Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden.
Two surveillance cameras will also be placed around a pond that was home to the garden’s collection of decorative koi, Normann told a news conference at the garden Thursday, when the facility reopened to the public after closing on Nov. 20.
That’s after staff began noticing koi carcasses near the pond and visitors spotted an otter on the scene. Traps baited with raw chicken and salmon were set up but the otter made off with the food without getting caught.
Six more traps that included fresh trout were left untouched, Normann.
The otter ate 11 koi and hasn’t been seen since Saturday. The oldest fish was named Madonna and estimated to be 50 years old.
“Madonna’s no longer with us,” Normann said, adding the three remaining koi and 344 juvenile fish have been scooped out of the pond and placed at the Vancouver Aquarium.
The garden has not yet decided when the koi will be returned to the pond, but Normann said that may not happen until next spring.
It’s believed the otter showed up in the dead of night by squeezing through the bottom of a gate and headed for the koi, which were donated by the Korean pavilion after Expo 86, he said.
Otters are creatures of habit and hone in on a food source so the wily visitor is likely to return but would leave once realizing there’s nothing to eat, Normann said.
Vincent Kwan, executive director of the garden, said staff had become attached to the koi, which symbolize perseverance, transformation and happiness in Chinese culture.
“It goes back many thousands of years from legends’ perspective,” he said. “They are elements that are ingrained in Chinese culture.”
Madonna’s fans are particularly sad, he said.
“Everyone in the community knows Madonna,” he said.
“I think a lot of people are still trying to digest what has happened and it’s certainly very emotional.”
Kwan said the garden is trying to see the “silver lining” in the whole situation, including a greater awareness of koi and the garden, the only one of its kind outside China.
“Let’s not forget about the otter,” he said. “They are an important part of Vancouver and are well loved.”
Kwan said he has nothing against the otter.
“They are part of the environment of Vancouver, and as much as they might have done something that we might feel sad about, it’s what they do. I’d just say ‘Hi!’ ”
Nick Page, biologist with the Vancouver Park Board, said otters are a key part of the urban landscape in Vancouver.
“What’s unusual in this circumstance is that this otter came a few hundred meters from the shores of False Creek into Chinatown and found this specific resource in the pond,” he said as construction workers welded bars onto a gate to fill in gaps.
tunity for other leaders to press him on what happened and why. Freeland would not say whether Canadians will speak with Saudis during the meeting of the world’s top economic leaders in Buenos Aires.
As part of an examination of Khashoggi’s death, the head of Canada’s spy agency was dispatched to Turkey earlier in November to gather information and listen to a recording Turkish
authorities have of Khashoggi’s killing.
Canadian Security Intelligence Service director David Vigneault briefed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as well as other top officials upon his return.
Khashoggi’s murder – which sparked international condemnation of Riyadh – has also renewed public outrage in Canada over Ottawa’s controversial $15-billion deal to sell light armoured vehicles to the kingdom. The Trudeau government has faced calls to cancel the armouredvehicles contract but the prime minister has said the penalty for doing so would be “in the billions of dollars.”
The federal NDP said Thursday it plans to press the Liberal government to “have the courage” to move beyond sanctions to the immediate cessation of all arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
It has been over a month since the prime minister announced the government is reviewing current export permits to the kingdom, said the New Democrats’ foreignaffairs critic Helene Laverdiere.
“This belated and timid response
from the government does not address the full scope of challenges in Canada’s relations with Saudi Arabia,” she said.
Amnesty International Canada also welcomed the sanctions – and also said that banning further shipments of armoured vehicles should be part of Canada’s response.
In Buenos Aires, Freeland repeated that Canada is reviewing arms sales to Saudi Arabia in view of Khashoggi’s murder, incredible explanations of his death offered by the kingdom so far (from denying he was dead to saying it was the fault of rogue Saudi agents), and Saudi participation in the civil war in neighbouring Yemen.
“During this period of review, no new arms export permits are being issued,” she said.
For his part, U.S. President Donald Trump has defended his country’s ties to Saudi Arabia following Khashoggi’s murder.
The president has faced accusations of ignoring U.S. intelligence that concluded, according to a U.S. official, that it was likely the crown prince himself ordered the killing.
cannabis products seized by police in Delta are seen in this composite image made from handout photos provides by the Delta Police Department.
Laura KANE Citizen news service
DELTA — Const. Derek Gallamore was shocked when his department in Delta busted a woman allegedly selling weedlaced brownies with 40 times the recommended single dose of THC.
The sugary treat looked identical to a regular grocery store confection but packed a whopping 400 milligrams of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. He immediately imagined what might happen if a toddler came across the dessert.
“Being a parent, I looked at it and went, ‘Wait a second.’ ” he said. “There were no warning labels for children.”
Though cannabis was legalized Oct. 17, edibles will not be legal until sometime within the next year. But that hasn’t stopped entrepreneurs from cooking up potinfused candies, cookies and other items and selling them online or in dispensaries.
Gallamore said the woman was arrested about 18 months ago and the Crown decided against laying charges because they weren’t sure how marijuana legalization would affect the case.
Photos provided by Gallamore show other items seized were in professional-looking packaging.
A rice cereal treat had the words
“Keep away from children” in small letters, but blue raspberry gummies were in a clear bag and looked like any other candy.
After the incident, he began researching the edible cannabis market and learned it’s easy to purchase potent weed delicacies online. Most require the purchaser to register using government identification, but youth could still get the products, he said.
“It’s pretty easy to have someone buy edibles for you,” said Gallamore, whose work to spread information about the dangers of edibles to youths was highlighted by Delta police in a news release on Wednesday.
Some websites require buyers to agree to terms and conditions that state they need cannabis for a medical reason. Selling marijuana online to medical users is illegal unless the producer is licensed by Health Canada, which says on its website that law enforcement has the authority to take action against illegal cannabis activity.
The federal government is set to launch consultations in the coming months on edible regulations, and it’s considering requiring a standardized cannabis symbol on labels and banning product forms, ingredients and flavouring agents that appeal to kids.
Colorado had practically no restrictions on edibles when they hit shelves in 2014. That year, marijuana exposure calls about children and youth to a Denver poison control centre nearly doubled, and a college student jumped to his death after eating infused cookies.
The incidents grabbed headlines and pushed the state to introduce regulations, including requiring each product to be divided into servings of 10 or fewer milligrams of THC.
Edibles effects are delayed compared with marijuana consumed by smoking, putting users at risk of overconsumption, and the items are often sweet treats that appeal to children, said Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, a medical health officer with Vancouver Coastal Health.
Lysyshyn said Vancouver hospitals see a surge in emergency room visits by youth intoxicated by cannabis every year on April 20 during a weed festival in the city.
Most have consumed edibles, he said.
“When people consume too much cannabis, they don’t overdose like people do on heroin,” he said.
“But it is unpleasant to consume too much cannabis and people can feel nauseous, they can vomit, they can feel sweaty, they can feel anxious and paranoid and even have psychosis if they consume enough.”
It’s going to be tricky for the government to ensure that edibles aren’t kid-friendly but are still appetizing to adults, Lysyshyn added.
In early October, a young girl on Vancouver Island ate pot-infused gummy bears that she found in the back seat of a car. She was rushed to hospital in medical distress but was expected to fully recover.
Gallamore said his focus now is educating parents and youth about the dangers of edibles.
“If you do consume these things, lock them up. Make them safe.”
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
Prince George’s own Megan Tandy is the leader of a rifle-toting pack of energetic speed demons on skis, otherwise known as the Canadian women’s biathlon team.
The three-time Olympian earned that mantle the hard way, by winning the national team trials a few weeks ago in Canmore.
Considering what she went through earlier this year, the fact Tandy was even race-ready to take on nation’s best biathletes was a small miracle for the 30-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club member.
“Obviously I’m happy to be back on the World Cup team and more than anything I’m just thankful and excited for the opportunity because I was sick so much last season and it didn’t go as I’d have hoped,” said Tandy. A virus that forced her to drop out of the Olympic competition in Pyeongchang in February and scuttled the rest of Tandy’s World Cup season turned out more serious than she thought and had lingering effects. Right after the Olympics Tandy learned the viral infection was shrinking the size of her heart and her
A virus that forced her to drop out of the Olympic competition in Pyeongchang in February and scuttled the rest of Tandy’s World Cup season turned out more serious than she thought and had lingering effects.
cardiologist prescribed 10 weeks of bed rest to reverse the condition.
“One of the colds or flus I caught in the season affected by heart and it was a tough spring,” said Tandy. “By the time I got to the end of the season they said the infection wasn’t acute but that my heart had lost somewhere around a third of the muscle mass compared to what they expected as an endurance athlete.
“I don’t think I’ve ever stayed still that much in my life. I missed the outdoors and movement so much. More than anything, instead of considering retirement or my career I was just, for a small window of time, worried about my health in general and if I’d be able to enjoy recreational sport or have any longterm health damage.”
By mid-spring Tandy was back to full health and her doctor gave her the go-ahead to resume training and she made up her mind to try to earn back the national team spot she’s
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
After months of practice, they started firing real bullets Thursday on the IBU Cup biathlon tour in Idre, Sweden.
The opening race was not one of the better days on the slopes for Sarah Beaudry of Prince George, who finished 55th out of 83 in the women’s 7.5-kilometre sprint, but it’s just one race in a season that lasts four months.
Beaudry, a 24-year-old Caledonia Nordic Ski Club member, finished the course three minutes and 19 seconds behind the 23:44 pace
of gold medalist Ingela Andersson of Sweden.
Beaudry missed one target in her prone shooting round and had three misses while standing. Each miss required her to ski a 150-metre penalty loop, which dropped her further behind.
Emma Lunder of Vernon, the only other Canadian in the race, placed 36th, 2:25.8 behind Andersson. Lunder had three prone misses and one in her standing bout.
Irina Kruchunkina of Belarus claimed the silver medal, eight seconds behind, while Anastasiia Morozova of Russia won bronze, 32.9
had since she was 18.
“I was just incredibly lucky and healed well and there are no problems,” she said. “I kind of thought about it and I’ve put so much of my life and passion and energy into this sport and I didn’t want to go out with a disappointing year, even if it was an Olympic year. I wanted to go out on my own terms and I was really grateful my sponsor, a software company in Germany, was willing to stay with me.”
Tandy and her partner Dominik Wolf live in Klingenthal, Germany, with her eight-yearold son Predo and Wolf’s nine-year-old son Lenny. Both kids were in school last year and were exposed to cold and flu bugs which they brought home. By the time the Canadian team trials rolled around Tandy was already fighting off the effects of a head cold.
“If I looked back I really wish that I had had the confidence to say, ‘nope, this isn’t great for my health,’ and sat out the trials,” she said.
— see WORLD CUP, page 8
seconds off the winning pace.
In the men’s 10 km sprint, Anton Babikov of Russia won in 26:00. Silver medalist Aristide Beque of France was 17.4 seconds behind the Russian, and Lucas Fratzcher of Germany was third, 22.7 seconds behind.
Aidan Millar of Canmore was the top Canadian in 45th place, 2:50.3 off the pace. He missed one while prone and three while standing.
Carsen Campbell of Bedeque, P.E.I., was 61st, 3:38.6 behind, after missing four standing targets. Men’s and women’s sprints are scheduled for Saturday, with pursuits set for Sunday.
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff
The dogs of Saskatchewan pack a mean bite. Both UNBC Timberwolves basketball teams learned that firsthand Thursday night in Saskatoon, where they each suffered one-sided losses to the host University of Saskatchewan Huskies. The UNBC women were clobbered 92-60 – their third-straight loss after a 6-0 start.
Despite a strong opening from forward Madison Landry, who scored nine of her team-high 17 points in the first quarter, the T-wolves trailed 30-19 after 10 minutes. UNBC closed the gap to eight points in the second quarter but the Huskies pulled away with a 12-2 run to take them into the intermission leading 48-30.
The Huskies keyed on UNBC’s big three – Landry, Maria Mongomo and Vasiliki Louka – and limited their ability to create offence. Mongomo finished with a 13-point game while Louka put up 11 points and had 13 rebounds. Sabine Dukate led the Husky attack with 24 points, while Summer Maskewich hit for 17 points. Megan Ahlstrom contributed 12 rebounds and five assists.
UNBC shot just 29 per cent (18for-62) from the field. Saskatchewan hit 45 per cent of their field goal attempts (36-for-80).
“UNBC has three really strong players and I thought our depth wore them down,” said Huskies head coach Lisa Thomaidis, on canadawest.org
“To see players come off the bench and the level of play not dip at all is fun to watch. I think we are starting to build some confidence in more players and that’s translating to some pretty good things happening on the court.”
With the win, the Huskies (9-2) moved into sole possession of first place in the U Sports Canada West conference.
The UNBC men suffered a 98-80 defeat Thursday at the hands of the Huskies. Lawrence Moore had a 33-point game, Maxwell Amoafo had 14 points and 15 rebounds, while Emmanuel Akintunde and Alexander Dewar, coming off the bench, each totaled 14 points.
The T-wolves kept it close in the early going and trailed 23-20 after one quarter. The Huskies stretched their lead to 52-41 at halftime.
Thursday’s win improved Saskatchewan’s record to 7-4, good for fourth place in Canada West. Their third consecutive loss dropped the T-wolves (5-4) to ninth in the conference.
The same four teams meet again tonight in Saskatoon.
November has been nearly a perfect month for the Prince George Spruce Kings.
They’ve lost just one game in regulation time while putting together an 8-1-1-1 record. Of those 11 games, just one team, the Langley Rivermen, was able to prevent the Spruce Kings from gaining at least a point during a remarkable run that’s taken Prince George to the top of the overall standings in the B.C. Hockey League.
The Rivermen hung a 2-1 loss on the Kings on Nov. 10 at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena and they’ll have two chances to become repeat winners on Prince George ice when they take on the Kings tonight (7 p.m. start) and Saturday at RMCA.
The Rivermen (14-13-1-0, fourth in Mainland Division) are 5-5-0-0 in their last 10 games and they’re 14 points behind the league-leading Spruce Kings (20-7-1-2), who are coming off a 3-1 victory Wednesday at home against the Merritt Centennials.
Vancouver Canucks players Michael Del Zotto, from left, Troy Stecher, Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser
celebrate Boeser’s goal as Brayden McNabb of the Vegas Golden Knights skates to the bench during Thursday’s game in Vancouver. Vegas won 4-3 on a late shorthanded goal.
Citizen news service
TAMPA, Fla. — The Buffalo Sabres came up just short of a history-making run.
Cedric Paquette broke a tie with 5:41 left and the Tampa Bay Lightning ended the Sabres’ franchiserecord-tying winning streak at 10 games with a 5-4 victory Thursday night.
“I thought it was great stretch by us, 10 games in a row,” Buffalo star Jack Eichel said. “It shows us we can win every night we go out there, and I think that should be our mindset no matter what. That’s the confidence you build through a winning streak like that.”
Paquette beat Carter Hutton, who had won his previous eight starts, from the top of the left circle. Ten of the Sabres’ last 11 games have decided by one goal, including seven that needed extra time. Buffalo also had 10 consecutive victories in January 1984 and October 2006.
Dan Girardi, Alex Killorn, Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos also scored for the Lightning, and Luis Domingue made 18 saves.
“I thought there was a lot of momentum in that game,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “Both teams coughed up leads. There was a ton of swings in that game. I’m pretty sure if you’re a fan of hockey and were in the building tonight you would have enjoyed that one.”
The Lightning took over the top spot in the Eastern Conference and hold a one-point advantage
over the Sabres and Toronto.
“It was kind of a playoff atmosphere,” Girardi said.
Sam Reinhart had two goals for Buffalo, and Zemgus Girgensons and Tage Thompson also scored. Hutton stopped 32 shots.
After the Sabres took a 4-3 lead on Thompson’s goal at 2:29 of the third, Stamkos tied it 1:49 later on a power play.
Buffalo pulled even at 3-3 when Eichel’s pass from the left wing boards into slot went off Reinhart’s skate at 5:39 of the second.
Eichel had two assists, giving him 25 this season.
Kucherov put the Lightning up 3-2 from the slot during a 3-on-1 with 4:05 left in the first. The right winger also had an assist, and has an eight-game point streak (three goals, 17 points). He set career high for points in a single month with 23.
After Girardi opened the scoring, Girgensons and Reinhart scored 63 seconds apart midway through the first. Killorn knotted it at 2-2 just 43 seconds after Reinhart’s goal.
Girardi couldn’t put any weight on his right leg after a collision with Thompson five minutes into the game but returned 10 minute later.
“I got pretty lucky,” Girardi said. “My knee really hurt but just a little bump. The pain went away.”
Tampa Bay defenceman Ryan McDonagh went to the locker room at 11:50 of the first after being hit at the end boards by Eichel, who received a twominute boarding penalty.
Ted CLARKE Citizen staff tclarke@pgcitizen.ca
The College Heights Cougars got what they were after Thursday on the B.C. double-A boys provincial volleyball court in Langley.
The Cougars won back-to-back matches in the championship playoff to advance to a semifinal encounter with the George Elliot Coyotes of Lake Country.
After losing two of their three seeding matches Wednesday, the Cougars were re-seeded third, one notch below their pre-tournament ranking. That meant they were matched with Pacific Christian in their first game of the day Thursday morning and College Heights rolled to a 3-0 (25-16, 25-18, 25-9) victory . Then in the quarterfinals Thursday afternoon, the Cougars dispatched Surrey Christian 3-1 (25-19, 25-11, 23-25, 25-22).
Top-ranked George Elliot swept its two playoff matches, beating Windermere and Richmond Christian to advance to the 5:30 p.m. semifinal encounter with College Heights today.
Langley Christian and Abbotsford Christian will meet in the other semifinal. The winners will move on to the championship game Saturday at 4 p.m.
After three straight three-set losses on the first day of the 16team tournament, the Kelly Road Roadrunners got their winning act together and defeated Prince Charles of Creston 3-1 (20-25, 2517, 25-27, 25-17). That pitted the eight-ranked Roadrunners against Langley Christian and their hopes
of upsetting the No. 2-ranked team crumbled in a 3-0 (25-8, 2512, 25-16) loss. Kelly Road still has a shot at finishing fifth and will need to beat Mennonite Educational Institute of Abbotsford in a playoff today at 11:30 a.m. to get to that fifth-sixth placement match on Saturday.
• Meanwhile, at the double-A girls provincial tournament in Burnaby, the Kelly Road Roadrunners went 0-3 on opening day Thursday. They lost 2-0 (25-15, 25-16) to York House, dropped a three-set decision to Pacific Christian (25-18, 22-25, 15-8) and were swept by Surrey Christian (25-16, 25-13).
The Roadrunners take on MEI in a playoff math today at 11:30 a.m. The winner advances to play the Langley Christian-West Point Gray Academy winner.
• In Nanaimo, site of the 20team single-A girls provincial championship, the 14th-ranked Cedars Christian Eagles lost their first three best-of-three roundrobin matches Thursday, falling in straight sets to No. 2 Kelowna Christian (25-10, 25-11), No. 18 Duncan Christian (25-2, 25-23) and No. 11 Fernie (25-11, 25-15).
The Eagles will wrap up roundrobin play today at 9:40 a.m. against Credo Christian.
— from page 7
“But you’re under pressure, you want to make the Olympic team and I’d flown over from Germany to race and I chose to race even though I wasn’t totally healthy.
“It’s not something that we can prove, but we suspected that’s what led to the heart problems and by March I was just done,” Tandy said. “Seven or 10 days after the Olympics we figured out what was going on.”
Tandy had been a late addition to the 2018 Olympic team, having started the season on the IBU Cup tour. She finished 47th out of 87 competitors in the sprint race in Pyeonchang to qualify for the pursuit but was too sick to race and made the decision to drop out of the Olympic competition a couple days before the women’s 15 km individual race.
Beaudry, 24, is back with the national B team and started her race season Thursday at an IBU Cup event in Idre, Sweden (see story, page 7). Emily Dickson, 21, a Caledonia club member from Burns Lake, is also on the IBU Cup team.
Tandy’s season goal is to start nailing personal bests and to be a regular finisher in the top-16. This year she’s working with a full-time coach who works specifically with her. That’s something new for Tandy, who has been pretty much on her own since she moved to Germany the year before the birth of her son.
Tandy’s season goal is to start nailing personal bests and to be a regular finisher in the top-16.
“You’d think that’s standard but it’s actually the first time I’ve had a coach probably in eight or nine years as a senior athlete, who has really made a training plan specifically for me,” Tandy said.
The silver lining was that her Caledonia clubmate, Sarah Beaudry of Prince George, the alternate on the team, took Tandy’s place and in her Olympic debut finished 29th as the highest-finishing Canadian. Beaudry also helped Canada to a respectable 10thplace result in the team relay.
After months of inactivity, instead of going for long runs like she usually did, Tandy had to start with short jogs alternated by walking segments. She gradually built up her stamina and by July she started to hit her previous training benchmarks. By the time she got to the trials in Canmore she felt invigourated and it showed in her results – second the first race, first in the second race and fourth in the third – good enough to win the overall women’s title.
“I was ready to rip and I’m feeling awesome,” she said.
Tandy is now in Pokljuka, Slovenia, this week preparing for the season-opening World Cup events, which start with the relays on Sunday, with individual races, sprints and pursuits to follow next week.
“He’d like to remain anonymous and that’s a little unusual. He works for another national team and has a bit of different training philosophy and it’s working for me so far. I don’t think I would have been able to go from rock-bottom for a World Cup athlete in the spring, back to winning national team trials in November without him. It gives me a nice confidence boost going into the season.”
Rosanna Crawford, 30, is also on the World Cup women’s team, along with Megan Bankes of Calgary and Nadia Moser of Whitehorse, Yukon, both 22. The Canadian men’s team for the first leg of the tour includes Scott Gow of Canmore, 28, his 25-year-old brother Christian, and 32-year-olds Nathan Smith of Calgary and Brendan Green of Hay River, N.W.T. The BMM World Cup tour also stops in Hochfilzen, Austria, Dec. 10-16 and Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, Dec. 17-23, leading in to the Christmas break. Both Canadian national teams will stay in Austria over Christmas. The World Cup tour resumes in Oberhof, Germany on Jan. 7.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Dak Prescott desperately scrambled for a first down in a game of fourthquarter keepaway, then took three knees starting from the New Orleans one to run out the clock by the narrowest possible margin. Anything to keep Drew Brees and the NFL’s highest-scoring offence on the sideline. Ezekiel Elliott scored the only Dallas touchdown on a 16-yard screen pass and the Cowboys stifled Brees and the Saints, ending New Orleans’ 10-game winning streak with a 1310 victory Thursday night.
LAS VEGAS — Chase Elliott has been voted NASCAR’s most popular driver, ending a 15-year run for superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Earnhardt presented Elliott the award during NASCAR’s annual season-ending awards ceremony Thursday at the Wynn Las Vegas.
Earnhardt won the award for 15 consecutive years until his retirement last season. His streak fell one short of the record of 16 set by Chase Elliott’s father, Bill Elliott.
“Definitely a big passing,” Elliott said told Earnhardt on stage. “So cool, though, that it stayed between Elliott and Earnhardt for so long. I am glad, though, that you quit a year before you broke Dad’s record, so that’s pretty cool. I’m pretty happy about that. We got it back in the right name. I’m a little biased. Sorry.”
The award is based on a fan vote and sponsored by the National Motorsports Press Association. Bill Elliott won the award every year between 1984 and 2002, until he removed his name from consideration.
Now, the award has returned to the Elliott family.
Chase Elliott won three times in the Cup Series in 2018, including twice in the playoffs.
“I was in some good situations with some fast cars and I was able to get a few wins. It was a good year,” Elliott said. “We couldn’t finish it off as strong as those couple months there in the summer, late summer, but looking forward to ’19 and excited to get back going.”
Chase Elliott does a burnout after winning a NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway in October.
His first trip to victory lane was years in the making.
Elliott won the Xfinity Series championship in 2014, when he was 18 and finally eligible to run a full NASCAR season. Plans were formed in 2015 for his move to the big leagues with Hendrick Motorsports as he replaced retiring four-time champion Jeff Gordon. Elliott was in the seat not long after his 20th birthday. Chase entered the series with a built-in fan base that desperately wanted him to match his father’s success. Because he drove for powerhouse Hendrick, in Gor-
don’s old ride, many figured wins would come immediately.
Elliott did claim the pole for his Daytona 500 debut, but he finished 37th. His rookie season netted five finishes of second or third, a 10th-place finish in the standings and no wins.
Year 2 was similar. The pole again at Daytona and nothing to show for that effort. Even worse?
Five runner-up finishes and almost certain victory snatched away at Martinsville Speedway. Elliott was leading late in the race at the Virginia track with only a few laps remaining before what
would have been both his first victory and an automatic spot in the championship finale.
Elliott was instead wrecked by Denny Hamlin. He didn’t win, didn’t advance to the final four and two weeks later at Phoenix retaliated to ensure Hamlin wouldn’t race for the title, either. He finally broke through on the road course at Watkins Glen to notch his first win. That August victory locked him into the playoffs, and he bookended the second round of the championship chase with victories at Dover and Kansas.
Lori EWING Citizen news service
TORONTO — A night considered as a potential NBA finals preview certainly lived up to its billing Thursday.
Kawhi Leonard poured in 37 points, his most as a Raptor, to lead Toronto to its seventh straight victory, a thrilling 131128 overtime win against twotime NBA defending champion Golden State.
Pascal Siakam, who didn’t miss a shot until the final minute of the third quarter, added 28 points for the league-leading Raptors (194). Serge Ibaka chipped in with 20, Danny Green had 13, Jonas Valanciunas added 12, and Kyle Lowry finished with 10 points and 12 assists, Kevin Durant scored 51 points – his third consecutive 40-point performance – to lead a Golden State squad (15-8) missing Steph Curry. Klay Thompson had 23.
The Raptors had lost eight straight to Golden State, but that was pre-Leonard, and now Toronto is the talk of the East. The matchup prompted Thompson to suggest the night was a potential preview of June’s NBA finals.
The much-anticipated night – a
rare nationally televised game in the U.S., and the Warriors’ only regular-season trip to Toronto – lived up to its promise. The Raptors raced out to an early 18-point lead, and for the most part maintained a double-digit advantage until Durant lit it up late in the third quarter.
Durant scored the Warriors’ final 13 points of the quarter, including a three-pointer from the mid-court Raptors logo at the buzzer that sliced Toronto’s lead to 96-88, and set up an edge-ofyour-seats final frame.
Thompson capped a 9-0 Warriors run that pulled the visitors to within two points with eight minutes to play. But the Raptors clawed their way back and when Green drilled a three-pointer with
4:42 to play, it capped an 8-0 run that put Toronto back up by 10, prompting a deafening roar from the Scotiabank Arena crowd that included Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock, Drake, and UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway.
Up by just three points heading into a crazy final minute of regulation, Lowry drilled a three, but Durant replied with two of his own, his second dagger tying the game with 8.6 seconds to play and sending it to overtime.
The night had a post-season buzz, and the fans stood for the extra period, erupting when Green knocked down a three with 2:07 to play to put Toronto up by three. With 22 seconds left, and the Raptors clutching a three-point lead, Andre Iguodala had a clear path to the basket but was whistled for travelling, and Siakam iced the victory with three free throws in the dying seconds.
Nick Nurse certainly was dressed for the occasion. The Raptors coach wore a shiny royal blue suit jacket for Sager Strong night in honour late NBA sideline reporter Craig Sager, known for his colourful attire.
Leonard went into the game
a perfect 6-for-6 in the regular season and playoffs against Golden State since the 2014-15 season, averaging 20.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.1 steals per game.
Curry, meanwhile, sat out with a strained adductor (groin). The two-time NBA MVP hasn’t played since the Nov. 8, but is expected to return Saturday in Detroit. The Warriors were also missing Draymond Green (toe injury).
The Raptors will get another chance at Golden State soon – the Warriors host Toronto on Dec. 12.
While the Raptors’ pre-game mantra for Golden State “just another game,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said it was no ordinary night.
“It feels different for us when we know we’re playing one of the best teams in the league. The media coverage we’re used to, the fans outside the hotel,” Kerr said. “(But) we’re well aware of who we’re playing and who we might see later on and tonight is definitely one of those games.”
The Warriors game was the second in a tough stretch for the Raptors. Only four of their next 14 games come against teams with losing records, including two against Cleveland.
Gethin COOLBAUGH
Citizen news service
BOSTON — Rick Middleton raised his No. 16 to the TD Garden rafters Thursday night, nearly three decades after playing his final game with the Bruins. Middleton, nicknamed “Nifty,” spent 12 seasons with the black and gold from 1976 to 1988, scoring 402 goals and totalling 898 points. The right winger ranks third in goals and fourth in points in Bruins history.
“I’ve had four months to think about it, and I hate repeating myself, but honestly, I believe it is the biggest honour that certainly a retired athlete can get in his career,” the 64-year-old Middleton said before the Bruins faced the New York Islanders.
The Bruins announced in July that Middleton’s number would be the 11th retired by the team.
The Bruins announced in July that Middleton’s number would be the 11th retired by the team, the first since longtime forward and current Bruins president Cam Neely’s No. 8 was hoisted to the rafters in 2004.
In all, 19 players have worn No. 16 for the Bruins – including centre Derek Sanderson, who Middleton said he wore the number in honour of. Kaspars Daugavins was the last to wear it in 2013.
“In the last six or seven years, I’ve been seeing that it’s not out there; nobody’s wearing it,” Middleton said. “All of a sudden, it happened. In July, a phone call in July; I never thought it would ever happen that way, but I just have to thank Cam so much for doing it.... It culminated tonight.”
Middleton was joined by Neely, Ray Bourque, Johnny Bucyk and Terry O’Reilly – whose numbers have all been retired by the Bruins – along with former Bruins coach Don Cherry at centre ice for the pregame ceremony.
A first-round draft pick of the Rangers in 1973, Middleton played his first two seasons in New York before being traded to the Bruins.
The three-time All-Star led the Bruins in goals for six consecutive seasons from 1978-84. He scored a career-high 51 times in the 1981-82 season, the same year he took home the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy.
Middleton holds the NHL record for most points in a playoff series, totalling 19 (five goals, 14 assists) in a 1982-83 second-round series against the Buffalo Sabres.
David FRIEND Citizen news service
TORONTO — Another price hike is on the way for Netflix Canada subscribers as competition heats up among the biggest streaming video services.
The company behind Narcos and Orange Is the New Black is introducing its biggest price increase yet for both new subscribers and current members.
Netflix’s standard plan will now cost $3 more – or $13.99 a month – to watch content on two screens at a time.
The basic plan – which does not offer high-definition video and only allows one stream – rises a dollar to $9.99 a month.
Premium plan subscribers pay $3 more – or $16.99 a month – for up to four simultaneous streams and ultra high definition 4K video.
Netflix says the higher prices are effective immediately for new subscribers, while existing users will be notified by email before their bills rise in the coming weeks.
The company most recently increased prices for most plans by a dollar about a year and a half ago.
Netflix says the move will help fund upcoming TV series and films as well as overall improvements to the Netflix platform.
But the company also faces intense competition next year as the number of streaming platforms in the Canadian marketplace with attractive offerings grows.
Earlier this month, Bell Media introduced a higher tier of its Crave streaming service that includes a selection of recent Hollywood movies and new HBO
programs. The package, dubbed Crave+, costs about $20 per month.
Next year, Disney jumps into the market with its own streaming platform. Disney+ is expected to be stocked with movies and original series like a prequel to Star Wars: Rogue One and a Marvel superhero show based on the character Loki from Thor and The Avengers.
Other platforms could make headway too, including a new service operated by Criterion that specializes in classic films, and CBS All Access, which is beefing up its library of original shows that include Tell Me A Story and Strange Angel.
Analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak of New York-based Pivotal Research Group says the last Netflix price increase in the U.S. didn’t lead to an appreciable loss of subscribers but “I would not be surprised to see some churn out of the gate in Canada given the per cent increase on the standard service.”
“However, given the still very low cost of the service and the lack of real alternatives, I would expect NFLX to eventually see most of those that churn return,” Wlodarczak said in an email.
Director says Evans isn’t done as an Avenger just yet
Marcela ISAZA Citizen news service
LOS ANGELES — Chris Evans suggested his run as Captain America is done. The filmmakers currently controlling the Avengers’ fates say he shouldn’t shelve the shield just yet.
Evans tweeted last month that he had wrapped his shooting on the fourth Avengers movie, calling it an “emotional” day and saying, “Playing this role over the last eight years has been an honour.”
Joseph Russo, who along with brother Anthony wrote and directed this year’s Avengers: Infinity War and next year’s sequel, and directed Evans as Captain America in two previous films, told The Associated Press “I think it was more emotional for him than us. Only because he’s not done yet. And I don’t want explain what that means but the audience will soon understand what I’m talking about.”
Russo spoke to the AP recently in an interview promoting Simone, his new restaurant in downtown Los Angeles.
As expected, he only teased details of the forthcoming film, saying audiences can expect the unexpected from the duo that left Marvel fans gasping earlier this year in a cliffhanger that saw several beloved Avengers disintegrate into oblivion.
“We killed half the Marvel universe so for us it really is about, in what ways can we surprise the audience and tell a very challenging story,” Russo said.
He would confirm that at least at this point the movie, which is in post-production, is the longest Marvel film ever. “We’re about halfway through the editorial process and it’s standing about three hours right now. It’s a very complicated movie,” noted Russo.
“It has a lot of characters in it and you know we are putting in the work, so we’ll see where it ends up, but it definitely has a lot of story in it.”
After back-to-back years with Avengers movies in 2018 and 2019, Russo said there is likely to be a break before the next one, with Disney finalizing a deal to acquire parts of 20th Century Fox, whose properties include the Marvel Comics characters the X-Men and Deadpool.
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MARTENS(NEEUNRUH), SUSANA(SUE)K. NOVEMBER30,2018
Mom,it’sbeenoneyearsinceyouleft.Youarewith meeveryday,inphrasesIsayandthewayI approachlife.ImisshearingObaKint.ThisyearI won’tcutyourtulipsfromthefrontyardtogiveto you. Neverforgotten.Restinpeace. LoveNicole.
MITCHELL GUNNAR
MOREN
February 9, 1973November 26, 2018
It is with utmost heartbreak that we relay the passing of Mitchell Gunnar Moren on November 26, 2018. Predeceased by his father Swede, survived by his wife Tanya, the light of his life daughter Molly, mother Bonnie Stack (Bill Thomas), grandmother Nora Larsen and many close friends and extended family who were such an important part of Mitchell’s life. Mitchell’s courage and determination to overcome were inspiring to all. We know he is in a place where the fish are plenty and the beer is cold. Please stop by between 12pm & 4pm on Saturday, December 1, 2018 at the Hart Pioneer Centre, 6985 Hart Highway, to celebrate Mitchell’s life and share your stories. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the BC Cancer Foundation. Assman’s Funeral Chapel in care of arrangements.
‘An end to an era...’ The Chimilowski Girls Marie Jackson, has gone on to join her sisters, Rose, Victoria, Helen, Ann, and Daisy. 21st November 2018, 97 years young. Also predeceased by her husband Robert Lloyd George Jackson in 1969. Loved and remembered by her son Robert (Glenis) Jackson and her daughter Linda (Leo) Schwab. She will be greatly missed by her five grandsons and their wives, two greatgranddaughters, and five great-grandsons, and many, many nieces and nephews. She was born 9 October 1921 in Prince George, B.C. She lived under the Cutbanks with her parents Tomasy and Wasylena Chmielowski (Chimilowski) and her sisters. Living in a small house on 7th Avenue, her home was always open to family and friends. She loved to garden, her flower beds were always beautiful, especially her gladiolas. She belonged to the Horticultural Society in the past and won many awards with them as well as at the Fall Fair. She was well known for her baking , especially her pies and her shortbread, her chicken soup, and playing her lottery tickets... She always remembered birthdays (putting small poems in with the cards), and anniversaries of her family, children, grandchildren, sisters, brothers-inlaw, nieces and nephews, even phoning and singing ‘Happy Birthday’. She was independent to the end and always did things her way. She died in her sleep after a short stay at Hospice house. Thanks to ‘the girls’ at Gateway Lodge and Hospice House, and Dr. Tammy Attia for all your care. She loved you all. A former employer, was recently quoted, saying “They don’t make women like ‘Jackson’ any more”. No service by request.
Witness Wanted
Anyone having information regarding a mid 30’s male cyclist injured by a red 4 door Honda at approximately 1:00 p.m. on October 30th, 2018, traveling south along Carney Street near the intersection of 10th Avenue, in Prince George is asked to contact Bailey Quinn of Dick Byl Law Corporation at: 250-564-3400, or at bailey@dbylaw.com
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It is with indescribable
sadness that we announce the passing of our wonderful wife, mother, and grandmother, Lynda Wagner (1947-2018). She was the kindest, calmest, and most giving person any of us could have ever known. She was a humble minimalist who cared about family and feelings above all else. She taught us all to be better people, and has now left an enduring legacy of goodness. She will be missed terribly. We love you. You are a child of the universe… In lieu of flowers, please donate to Prince George Rotary Hospice House. Celebration of life will be held at Pineview Community Hall at 12:00pm on Sunday Dec 2, 2018.
Edward Lee Helgeson May 16, 1943 - November 10, 2018
It is with great sorrow that the family of Lee Helgeson announces his peaceful passing on Saturday, November 10, 2018, at the Christine Morrison Hospice in Mission, BC. Lee was born May 16, 1943, in Nelson, BC. He was raised in Peace River, Alberta and spent many years in Prince George before settling in Abbotsford, BC. Lee worked most of his life as a surveyor on projects throughout BC and Alberta as well as overseas. Lee is survived by his brothers Gordon (Judy), Jim (Judy), and his sister Peggy (Greg) as well as his many nieces and nephews. Lee was predeceased by his wife, Rayne, his parents, Albert and Rita and brothers, Don and Ray. There will be no service at Lee’s request. Donations to the SPCA in Lee’s name would be gratefully accepted.
Currencies
OTTAWA (CP) —
The markets today
TORONTO (CP) — Canada’s main stock index rose slightly Thursday a day after posting its largest gain in nearly three years as the key energy sector benefited from higher crude oil prices.
“Today you’re seeing the hangover of renewed market enthusiasm from yesterday’s U.S. Fed comments,” said Kash Pashootan, CEO and chief investment officer at First Avenue Investment Counsel Inc.
Markets rallied Wednesday afternoon after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in a speech that U.S. interest rates are close to reaching normal, a more dovish view than a month earlier when he said the country was a long way from normal.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 227.16 points Wednesday for its largest single-day gain since Feb. 17, 2016. The Dow Jones industrial average had its best performance in eight months by gaining 2.5 per cent or 617.70 points.
“It was a big move to the upside in one session and what you’re seeing today is really just a hangover from the partying that the market did yesterday,” Pashootan said.
On Thursday, the S&P/TSX composite index closed up 22.79 points to 15,194.04. The energy sector led the way, gaining 1.7 per cent, followed by consumer staples. The cannabis-heavy health-care sector led on the downside, losing 1.77 per cent. Energy shares rose as the January crude contract was up US$1.16 at US$51.45 per barrel as a report suggested Russia may be ready to join a Saudiled oil production cut. Crude prices have fallen 30 per cent in the last quarter.
“The oil market has been decimated in the last quarter and it’s just grasping for straws, it’s just looking for any reason to justify a higher price,” said Pashootan. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average lost 27.59 points to 25,338.84. The S&P 500 index was down 5.99 points at 2,737.80, while the Nasdaq composite fell 18.51 points to 7,273.08. The Canadian dollar traded at an average of 75.33 cents US compared with an average of 75.18 cents US on Wednesday. The January natural gas contract was down 5.3 cents at US$4.65 per mmBTU. The February gold contract was up 60 cents at US$1,230.40 an ounce and the March copper contract was down 2.4 cents at US$2.79 a pound.
Kristy KIRKUP Citizen news service
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Canada is on schedule to put pen to paper on its new trade pact with the United States and Mexico on Friday, but there is still work to do on the fine print before that can happen, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland acknowledged Thursday on the eve of a meeting of G20 leaders.
Freeland, speaking on a sunny patio at a hotel in Buenos Aires, said there are still details to be finalized before the three countries can formally sign the “massive” U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
“Our objective has always been to sign this agreement on Nov. 30 and we are on track to hit that objective,” Freeland said shortly after the Canadian delegation arrived in Argentina for the two-day summit.
Canada has been in touch with the Americans and the Mexicans since arriving in Buenos Aires, she added.
“A vast number of technical details need to be scrubbed and wrapped up,” Freeland said.
“The fact that this is an agreement in three languages adds to the level of technical complexity and it is on that level that we are just being sure that all the Is are dotted and all the Ts are crossed.”
Friday is an important deadline: Saturday, a new Mexican president takes over who could
scramble the agreement.
Signing the deal is largely ceremonial; it still requires ratification by all three countries before it can formally take effect. Lawmakers in the U.S. have already signalled they don’t expect to deal with the USMCA until after the new Congress is sworn in early next year.
But the path to Friday’s signing has been bruising, and those sore spots will be impossible to ignore when the three countries gather to talk trade for the first time since 13 months of talks culminated in an 11th-hour agreement late in September. For starters, U.S.-imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum exports remain in place against both Canada and Mexico, as do a raft of countermeasures. With a new deal on the table that’s supposed to represent a new era of tariff-free trade, all three countries have been working on resolving the standoff before Friday.
The deal – 32 chapters, 11 annexes and 12 side letters – sets new rules for the auto sector, including a higher threshold for North American content and rules requiring 40 per cent of car parts be made by workers paid at least $16 an hour.
It preserves a contentious dispute-resolution system the U.S. dearly wanted gone, extends patent protections for biologic drugs and allows U.S. farmers a 3.6-per-cent share of Canada’s famously guarded market for poultry, eggs and dairy products – a concession that
dismayed Canadian dairy producers.
In a letter released Thursday, the Dairy Farmers of Canada warned that the text of the deal gives the U.S. too much say over how the Canadian system is managed, and urged the government to stand down until that provision is excised.
“The current final text of the USMCA will cause further harm to the Canadian dairy industry,” they write. “The existing text... grants the U.S. oversight into the administration of our Canadian dairy system, which undermines Canadian sovereignty and ability to manage Canadian dairy without U.S. intervention.”
Then there are the deeper wounds.
The negotiations were long and at times acrimonious, with Freeland and her delegation learning first-hand what it’s like to negotiate with Donald Trump’s administration, in particular his trade emissaries – U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his deputy, C.J. Mahoney.
During the final week of talks, Trump punctuated the tensions during a freewheeling news conference on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly: “We don’t like their representative very much,” he said, an apparent reference to Freeland.
Despite the symbolism of Friday’s signing, Trump has no meetings with Trudeau scheduled while the two are in Argentina.
— With files from James McCarten
Norman was a world famous choreographer and dancer, while Ian, who was originally from Scotland, played in bands around the world.
Inga moved to Canada from Germany when she met a man and stayed to practice law. Rina was originally from Moldova and had to move during an economic crisis, studied nutrition and knows how to make a difference in people’s lives.
These are just a few of the people that I met on my first day working with a retail client in Vancouver while helping to train their staff in sales and customer service. The people I met are all customers of this retailer and my interactions with them led me to discover their greatness.
Greatness comes in all forms, but when we find people who are passionate about what they do, whether it is dancing, or music, law, nutrition or even raising children, we need to celebrate that passion.
The truth of the matter is that today, there are not enough of us taking the time to discover what others are passionate about. The reasons for this are multiple, however, for most of us we are so caught up in our own daily lives that we feel we don’t have time to really discover who others are.
As children, we have a sense of wonder, but as teenagers we become self-centered. As young adults, we get caught up in our careers and families. As we grow older we become tired and less curious about other people.
We often think we know enough people, have all the answers and just can’t be bothered.
But what has wonder and curiosity to do with business? And why should we even care if we are in the presence of others who are greatly talented?
Curiosity has everything to do with business.
Almost every new fang dangled technology or creation in your home and business has been the result of someone’s curiosity. Inventions, new ways of doing things and every sale of every business is generally the result of curiosity.
Sales processes without curiosity are a dull way to make a living. Sure we can invent websites and businesses that process people without taking the time to discover what they
really love and who they really are. However, when we dehumanize the selling process to become simply transactional, we lose loyalty. If I am only loyal to a company because they have the lowest price, and the most convenience, then, as soon as they start to disrespect me, chances are that I am going to leave or be open to a competitor that seems to show interest in who I am and what I stand for.
More often than not, most businesses seem to think that we can create a customer service or sales model that doesn’t develop relationships. However, when we go deeper to discover the greatness in our customers, we build customers for life. In an age when the transactional has taken the place of the transformational, there are huge opportunities for businesses to become passionate about people and live in the hearts of their customers.
The internet will always remain a threat to retailers who are complacent and become simply order takers. However, for those retailers who allow time to discover the greatness of their customers and to develop deep, long-lasting relationships based on creating value and mutual respect, their businesses will thrive.
Dave Fuller, MBA, is an award winning certified professional business coach and the author of the book Profit Yourself Healthy. Email your comments to dave@profityourselfhealthy.com
“Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.”
Mark Twain
