Opinion

Most of the world now marks the beginning of each new year as the first day of January. Although, like all of the other dates still held as new starts by a number of cultures, it's really quite arbitrary, from a cosmological point of view.

New Year's Eve is a horrible guest. It slouches in a week after Christmas - which is much more fun, what with the wrapped presents and the eggnog - and tries to get us all to drink and stay up late.

It's a month into ski season, and once again we find ourselves wagging our fingers at out-of-bounds skiers and snowboarders.

Dear Editor: The recent rallies across the province brought out B.C. taxpayers that are against the pipeline project - happily retired taxpayers, employed taxpayers that still have not been able to buy their own home yet, and the unemployed.

Dear Editor: You have to really wonder about the Christy Clark-led B.C. Liberals. After spending $15 million of taxpayers' money extolling the virtues of the so-called B.C. Jobs Plan, we now find out that jobs in B.C.

Dear Editor: Re: City wants more details on new plaza proposal, The Record, Dec. 24. Betty McIntosh's comment "I have been talking to engineering for years - the corner of Sixth and Sixth has too much space for bus stops.

Dear Editor: Chuck Puchmayr's letter, The Port Mann: A bridge too far (Dec. 24) failed to recognize what appears to be obvious to me and many others: the likely construction of the Stormont Connector.

Dear Editor: Mr. Oppal got two things right. We must put an end to endemic poverty, and we are all responsible. Ending poverty among indigenous peoples is easy enough: end two centuries of injustice: accept aboriginal title and rights.

Another big fight is brewing in the education system, but unlike the last dustups, this one doesn't involve the B.C. Teachers' Federation going to war with the provincial government.

It's hard to talk of holiday joy when the world of late has been filled with so much frightening news: a mass shooting in Connecticut, ongoing conflicts in Syria, the economic woes of most of the globe, to name but a few.