another reason to quit?

By now one would have to assume that almost everyone knows all of the very compelling health benefits to quitting smoking. Longer life must be an appealing concept to most of us, but in case anyone out there needs another reason to kick the habit, why not consider the negative impact that tobacco use has on our environment?

According to an article in Vancouver's 24 Hours on Monday, clean up crews at East Vancouver's own Trout Lake have picked up an astonishing 208 000 cigarette butts from the shoreline over the past year. In my own relentless efforts to make my workplace go tobacco free, I've learned a bit more about the large and ugly footprint left on our planet by the cultivation and use of tobacco products.

Cigarette butts are made of cellulose acetate, a material with extremely poor biogradability which means that we are stuck with them for an awefully long time. In 2003 in the United States, San Diego's Sonoma Beach decided to go completely smoke free. Prior to that, like our own Trout Lake, officials estimated that 50 to 60% of the beaches litter consisted of cigarette butts. In Canada, some 2 billion empty cigarette packages and 50 billion butts are thrown away (many carelessly) every year and worldwide, it is estimated that 954 million kilograms of butts are discarded annually.

Without even getting into the further environmental damage caused through the cultivation of tobacco, again I have to ask... Do you really need another reason to quit smoking?

what are you waiting for?

This past Saturday my two boys and I decided to take the bus up to Hastings where we took care of some errands and dropped in at a bicycle and pedestrian safety fair that was being held at the Community Policing Center. On the way home we walked back to Renfrew to catch the bus but unfortunately I was so busy reading a pamphlet that I'd got at the fair that we missed it pass by. With a bit more than a little persuasion I managed to convince the boys that it would actually be quicker, and better for us to walk home than wait the 15 minutes for the next bus.

But that's me in a nutshell. I will always walk to the next bus stop and even the stop after, rather than wait and its a trait that I hope my kids will take from me.

Last week Finance Minister Carole Taylor warned British Columbians of the impending doom that health care spending will bring to the provincial budget if something is not done. She predicted that by the year 2017 health care will gobble up 70 cents of each dollar that our BC government spends. I don't know about you but this disturbs the hell out of me.

But take a look around you. Are you really surprised that 50% of adult Canadians are over weight and that some 63% of us are not active enough to get any real health benefits from the few activities we do? The fact is that when it comes to health care most of us believe that it is our fundamental right to universal and unrestricted services. We are worried sick about the possibility of a two-tiered system and any increases in our premiums. The question then is, why are so few of us willing to do anything to actually help sustain the system? A perfect example is the fact that less than 3% of eligible adults in this country donate blood. I find this astonishing.

There can be no denying the fact that universal health care is a distinctly Canadian institution that is worth preserving. But if the system is to survive, a lot more of us are going to have to start walking a bit more rather than waiting that 15 minutes for the next bus to come.

here's to big tobacco

Quite possibly the hardest thing that I have ever done was to quit smoking but, after nearly 15 years of carelessly puffing away, I finally began to realize just how stupid the whole thing was. It didn't hurt that at 33 I was having trouble walking up stairs without losing my breath and often kept myself awake at night listening to my own wheezing. So after about 8 tries I quit and now, 3 years later I couldn't feel better.

I am now one of those dreaded ex-smokers. While I don't usually preach to people who still smoke (it never worked for me), I do advocate for the complete ban of smoking anywhere that me or my family may be exposed to it and I applaud our provincial government for its stance on tobacco.

Last Friday the BC government won a landmark victory over the multi-national tobacco giants. The BC Court of Appeal has rendered a unanimous verdict that will allow our province the right to sue for recovery of tobacco-related health care costs. I couldn't be happier about this ruling and I sincerely hope that this is the final nail in the coffins of big tobacco in this province.

Tobacco use in our province accounts for approximately $1.25 billion in health care costs and it kills nearly 6000 British Columbians every year. Some of these have never smoked! Given the challenges that we currently face and projected costs in BC, I think its great that we may have found an innovative new way to finance health care. The only thing better to me would be an outright ban on tobacco!

I don't know how many times I've heard critics of our government accuse the BC Liberals of lacking in imagination? I for one have been impressed, on more than one occasion, by the unusual yet progressive ideas that I've seen coming from Victoria.

Last week Premier Campbell announced a plan to cancel the fall session of the Legislature in favour of a road trip that will bring public meetings to communities through-out the province. As the Premier explained it, "This is a thoughtful way of proceeding with the public's business.", and I couldn't agree more. I for one welcome the notion of public processes taking place in the presence of the public.

Of course the NDP is aghast at the idea claiming that the move is simply a tactic designed to avoid accountability. (Forgetting of course that during their decade at the helm they only held two fall sessions) But who is the government expected to be most accountable to? This is an excellent example of leadership from the front and I suspect that the truth of the matter is simply that the opposition has finally accepted what polls have been saying for a while and that is that the NDP is no longer as welcome in the trenches as it once was.

...the huck...

In my last blog I mentioned how a recent trip to Silver Star saw nearly everyone in our group overcome either a specific obstacle, or a component of riding in general that we were having trouble with. For me it was the "Huck", and I am so happy about licking this that I thought I'd share a few different "hucks" in this pictorial tribute.

While none of us are yet able to huck in the manner of say, Wade Simmons (we did have a lot of laughs at the expense of another "Simmons"), a few of us did manage some respectable air time and had a blast in the process. So here it is...the huck!

Sorry folks, I've got a lot more huck pictures to share but I believe that I've realized the limit to either blogger or my technical expertise. Doesn't want to post any more! Oh well, stay tuned 'cause next time we'll explore another exciting component of mountain biking...the skinny...

The passing of the Labour Day long weekend can be particularly tough for those of us who love the summer. Is it just me or are the summers just getting shorter and shorter as the years go by? It seems to me that once the PNE opens up thats it, time to pull out the heavy coats and boots brace yourself for another long, wet winter.

All of this aside, I have to say that this past Labour Day weekend was probably the most fun I've had in a single weekend so far! I was blessed with the opportunity to spend four days doing one of my favorite things with arguably, the greatest group of people that one could ever call friends!

Our four day epic mountain bike ride began on a trail discovered by my friends, in Lac Le Jeune. A nice warm up to the weekend however, a valuable lesson learned. Always ask just how "small" the climb is actually going to be before throwing on all of your armour and full-face helmet! Thanks guys, and next year I will conquer that spine.

Day 2 took us to Harper Mountain, just outside of Kamloops. Kind of a rough start to the day as the best rider of our group broke his arm falling from a "skinny" about 6 feet in the air. A bit of quick thinking, a shin pad, some tape and a ride to the hospital from a local rider who thankfully
happened to be in the right place at exactly the right time, and we were back on our way. Unfortunately without our friend Pierre, but he wouldn't have had it any other way.

Day 3 at Silver Star's bike park. A long drive from Lac Le Jeune but worth every second for what could have been the best day of mountain biking that I have personally ever had. The trails were awesome and the stunts were challenging and I think that every one of us managed to take our riding to the next level by conquering at least one thing that we couldn't, or wouldn't do before. For me it was the "huck". Speaking for the group, I have to say "kudo's" to Silver Star Resort and its trail builders for all of their hard work. The quality of the trail building more than made up for the long line ups at the lift.

Day 4 and the four of us that still had the energy to tackle another bike park, headed out to Sun Peaks Resort. A long dry summer had left trails more than a little dusty and keeping a straight line was a challenge. That said, it seemed as though we had the mountain to ourselves and as they say, "a bad day on the bike is better than the best day at the office" (or something like that. All-in-all not a bad way to end the weekend.

And suddenly there we were! Not long after it started the weekend was over, even with the extra two days. I had to get back to see my oldest boy off to his first day of kindergarten (another reason that this Labour day was memorable) and everyone else had their own "real world" challenges to face Tuesday morning, as another summer came to an end.

The weekend was fabulous for a number of reasons. The biking was tremendous for sure, but at the end of it all I would have to say that the thing that made it the most memorable for me, was the people that I got to share it with. And the fact that now I can "Huck"!