Bench for Eric Atlee on Thomas Road

May 7, 2026

Bench for Eric on Thomas rd

Alex and Eric Atlee had been very good friends for many years and lived in trailers on either side of their landlord’s drive way and with true Denman serendipity ended up living just a couple of driveways apart on the same street they had live on .

Eric came to us and Alex just at the bottom of the road, this happenstance continued for around 10 years.

To say Eric was one of a kind is selling him short. He fit right with in the Denman community, we are all Normal For Denman.

As problematic as Eric’s life was, he genuinely loved this island and was happy to spend the rest of his life right here.

Alex and I and Veronica, wanted to celebrate his life and passing, Alex with great insight thought a bench at the bus stop at the bottom of the road he lived on would be appropriate, we could not have agreed more.

The design was transferred to the bench by a new friend, Russ, who also made said bench, thanks Russ.

It’s really comfortable too.

Stalking the Line

May 7, 2026

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Sasquash

May 7, 2026

#1733

May 7, 2026

As You Wish – May 7, 8 at the Community Hall

April 30, 2026

As You Wish – May 7, 8 at the Community Hall

Denman Island School presents the greatest love story ever imagined. Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles… this magical story has it all! The students of Division 3 return to the stage to dazzle and delight. Mae Erickson stars as the heroic farmboy turned pirate, Tashi Crowe as the Princess-to-never-be, and Franklin Lundberg as the evil Prince. Joining them is a cast of characters you will never forget. So come watch these students give it their all, Thursday and Friday, May 7 and 8 at 6pm. You’re to sure to enjoy it and I mean it! (Anybody want a peanut?) Admission by donation, everyone welcome!

Arts Denman AGM: The Fine Art of Showing Up

April 30, 2026

Arts Denman AGM: The Fine Art of Showing Up

Clear your calendar for May 4 and make your way to the Arts Denman AGM, because where else on Denman Island can you witness the thrilling inner workings of one of the community’s most creative forces?

Arts Denman is, of course, much more than one more organisation pleading for active members. It is a mighty cultural engine, a keeper of beauty, a champion of creativity, and quite possibly the reason civilisation continues to function east of the ferry terminal. If you care about art, community, creativity, or simply like being where interesting people gather, this is the place to be.

Come hear what Arts Denman has been up to, what’s coming next, and why supporting the arts on Denman is everyone’s business, whether you paint, sculpt, perform, weave, write, or just enjoy living in a place where creativity still has a pulse.

Also… and this should not be underestimated… there will be chocolate.

So join us on May 4, 7pm at the Arts Centre for the Arts Denman AGM. Be informed, be entertained, be part of the action. On Denman, there are a few places to be. This is one of them.

American Healthcare Workers Moving to the Comox Valley

April 30, 2026

American Healthcare Workers Moving to the Comox Valley

by Dave Flawes (Local Journalism Initiative)

“Why did you leave the United States?”

Joline Martin, the Courtenay-based author of War Resisters: Standing Against the Vietnam War — a collection of twelve personal stories about American war resisters on Vancouver Island — has thought long about this question since abandoning her country of birth half a century ago. Her answer is frank and practiced. “I left because I was disillusioned with the U.S., and I didn’t want to be a part of that country. They’re always killing people of colour” says Martin.

During the Vietnam War, educated and skilled American immigrants came to the Comox Valley and surrounding areas for similar reasons, often to preserve their lives. Today, the United States is seeing similar political upheaval, and those seeking a way out are also looking north. According to the Medical Council of Canada, Canada is now seeing a new, though smaller, flood of educated American immigrants. This time it’s medical professionals. A recent announcement from the province says more than 500 health professionals trained in the U.S. have accepted job offers in B.C. as of February 2026, with 141 planning on coming to Vancouver Island.

A war resister from 1969, and subject in Martin’s book named Valerie Straw, put her reasons for coming to Vancouver Island another way: “We had a feeling of being rats leaving a sinking ship.”

(Valerie and Greg Straw giving their baby a bath in the makeshift shed where they were living on Canada’s west coast in Mitchell Bay in the 1970s. Photo courtesy of Joline Martin The history of war resister immigration)

Many factors led to Valerie and her partner, Greg, moving to Malcolm Island, B.C. The escalation of the Vietnam War, the pressure from the draft board, the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the election of Richard Nixon to the presidency. The list was endless,” Martin writes in War Resisters. The term war resister replaces “the shame-laden labels ‘draft dodgers’ and ‘deserters,’” Martin writes, referring to the estimated “100,000 U.S. citizens [who] fled their country seeking a peaceful life in Canada.”

“There are so many war resisters [in the Comox Valley] it will blow your mind,” says Martin. Martin, who is relatively new to the community, knows at least 50 resisters and notes that they assimilated into society. “Even among ourselves we did not know who came.” She only discovered these 50 or so people for herself while researching the book. Even the birthplace of a friend whom she’d known for decades went unmarked. “I had no idea he was a war resister,” Martin says.

To legally immigrate to Canada, war resisters had to meet a point system. Most resisters had skills or were university educated, making it easy for them to meet the point system requirements, Martin writes. When a pardon became available in the U.S. in 1977, many war resisters left Canada to go home. But a 1986 census showed that half stayed, “making it the largest and best-educated group this country has ever received,” Martin writes.

Sarah, an American family doctor and obstetrician, had always talked with her partner about working outside of the United States one day. “Then, after the shift in political tone over the last few years and the re-election of Trump, we said maybe now is the time to go,” Sarah says. She is keeping her identity anonymous because she must still maintain a medical licence in the United States for two years to be licensed in Canada and doesn’t want to jeopardize her job.

In early 2025, she saw advertisements on LinkedIn and other online platforms targeting American health-care workers to work in Canada. The couple had previously travelled to Vancouver Island. “We love Victoria,” Sarah explains. In June 2025, Sarah toured practices across Vancouver Island, eventually finding one with like-minded people in the Comox Valley. She spoke with her partner and they decided to “pull the trigger” and move to the Island.

Since moving here in October 2025, Sarah has been taking advantage of supports from the Division of Family Practices, including continuing medical education and monthly meetings for new physicians to the area, she says. Sarah is in contact with two American friends in the medical field who also plan to make the move to Canada. One is a pediatrician working in a small, remote town. “There are a bunch of funding cuts to rural access hospitals. Her position may not even exist,” Sarah says.

A grassroots effort to attract doctors to Canada began by chance in 2025 when Tod Maffin famously invited Americans to spend time in Nanaimo. Maffin was surprised when “a lot of health-care workers came as a way to, you know, kick the tires on Canada,” Maffin tells reporter Dave Flawse. That’s when Maffin decided to begin the Healthcare Infusion, which, according to the initiative’s website, is “a volunteer-driven national movement connecting doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals with the Canadian communities that need them most.”The movement has since spread.

The Affordable Housing Conundrum

April 30, 2026

Old camper trailer rotting in the woods in a junkyard. Autumn color.

The Affordable Housing Conundrum by Keith Porteous

On Denman and Hornby Islands, the cost of buying a home or renting one is not only a matter of market fluctuation, it is the predictable outcome of a limited island geography colliding with governing policies, and the harshest consequences of market based housing. When land is finite, development is constrained, and when zoning and land use bylaws limit the expansion of housing, prices do not just rise, they accelerate beyond the reach of average income residents. This is not an abstract economic principle but a lived reality for our island communities, where scarcity is structurally reinforced.

At the core of the issue is a simple conundrum, where demand continues to grow while supply remains effectively limited. Unlike mainland regions that can expand outward, an island has fixed boundaries. There are only so many parcels of land available for housing, and once they are built upon, they cannot easily be subdivided. As populations increase, whether through migration of retirees or the appeal of island living, more people compete for the same limited number of homes. This competition inevitably drives up both purchase prices and rents. At a 20% growth rate over 5 years, Denman and Hornby Islands have the highest population growth rates in B.C., according to the Canadian Census.

The result is a self-reinforcing cycle of limited land, restrictive zoning that constrains supply, reduced supply driving up prices, the higher prices attracting investment and speculative buying, all while these forces further limit affordability for local residents. Over time, this erodes the social fabric of our communities, pushing out long-term residents, essential workers, and younger generations who can no longer afford to live where they work or grew up. More than half our residents are over 60 years of age, the oldest mean age in Canada. A more diverse demographic mix is needed to sustain our local economy and shared amenities.

Local land use and zoning bylaws intensify housing scarcity. While zoning rightfully exists to preserve community character and environmental integrity, it also restricts higher-density housing and secondary suites. When most of the private land of an island is designated for single-family homes only, the number of potential rental units shrinks dramatically. This forces renters into a tighter market with fewer options, and landlords charging higher prices. Meanwhile, prospective buyers face inflated property values because the limited housing stock becomes more desirable, with an overheated market driving prices continually upward.

The situation is further exacerbated by a healthy resistance to expanding development opportunities. Legitimate concerns about overbuilding, infrastructure strain, and environmental impact lead to stringent approval processes or outright denial of new housing approaches. While these concerns are more than valid, the unintended consequence is a bottleneck that prevents supply from responding to demand. In such an environment, higher population growth is triggering disproportionate spikes in housing costs, while calls to expand the capacity of the ferry service will only contribute to the problem.

Additionally, our island communities often attract higher-income buyers, including retirees, investors, or second-home owners. These buyers can afford to pay premiums that most local residents cannot match, effectively setting a higher baseline for property values. As home prices climb, so too do rents, since landlords adjust their rates to reflect higher tax assessments, the increased value of their assets, and the heightened demand. In turn, more homeowners are exploiting opportunities to create expensive short-term vacation rentals that contribute to the increasing scarcity of rentals for full time residents.

Addressing these issues requires acknowledging that scarcity on an island is not just natural, it is also manufactured through policy choices. Expanding zoning to allow for more diverse housing types, streamlining approval processes for non-market housing, prioritizing housing for full-time residents over non-resident ownership, and limiting vacation rentals, are all steps that help the accessibility to affordable housing. Without such measures, the high cost of homeownership and rent will remain an inevitable and continually worsening feature of living on Denman and Hornby Islands.

Phoenix Riting! – April 30th 2026

April 30, 2026

Ah, spring. Every year it returns, no matter how dismal and dreary the winter, no matter how chilly, wet, or long. With every spring, its relentless, unstoppable arrival seems a bit more miraculous and unlikely. The power of it. The lush, ferocious greening, all the exultant birds, creatures, and people emerging, returning from wherever they’ve spent the dark months.

Some of us haven’t gone far. We’ve stayed right here, in our homes, under cover, wrapped in layers of protection from the cold and rain. Some are more intrepid. I know those who swim in the frigid sea year-round. While I admire the commitment, I can’t even imagine.

Soon enough, the sea will soften and warm, and I will float in its briny embrace. I will surrender myself to sunshine, sand, and sea, bake in the hot, hot heat of summer. Summer is coming. But I was speaking of spring.

In a place like Hornby, we experience a stark contrast between our winter lives and our summer lives. Springtime is a blessed buffer, softening the blow of summer, which would otherwise arrive like a sledgehammer with its crowds and frenzy. Spring opens us sweetly and slowly. New things happen, with space before and after to breathe.

It’s a smaller world here in winter. I visit, I play cards with family and friends, I write, I go to classes through New Horizons, I do my radio show, I have a dance group, a songwriter circle, a writer’s group. I keep busy. I love winter here.

In summer, I am differently busy. Busy bigger… with the market, at the beach, out and about, in the garden, at art events, socializing and performing. You name it, I will do it. I am happy to be busy. Since I spent the last half of summer last year in a cave (my room), in pain and on drugs, this summer I am more than ready to come alive again.

But first: spring.

Soon, this coming week, it will be Blues Week. Not everyone participates, but I do. I’m signed up for my fifth straight year as a student. I love it. The point is to learn, yes, and I do learn so much. But also, I love the connection, the community, the food, and especially the music. The fabulous concerts each evening serve as the high point of the season, warming me up for summer.

After Blues Week comes May Long Weekend, right in the middle of the month. This marks the official beginning of shoulder season, when the island starts the turnover to summer life. Blues Week is busy, but it’s a concentrated week that passes, and then we relax for a bit. Then comes the Long Weekend, and the shops and the Farmer’s Market open.

Farmer’s Marketeers who offer wares and services get a full dose of busy on May Long, then we have gently increasing busy-ness through the second half of May and June. By the time Canada Day weekend arrives, we’re more or less ready for it.

I love the cycle of the seasons here. This year, though, feels so different. Changes are happening, obvious, huge ones. The campground, for one. It’s hard to believe it will open to the public in its denuded state, but it will. I wonder who will want to stay there. Will past campers withstand the shock of the devastating, obliterating changes? Many won’t, I imagine.

Lots of others have been waiting their chance. They won’t mind. They’ll bring RVs with their indoor furniture and TVs and WiFi, and they’ll happily park on the big, bare gravel pads in the baking sun. AC will take care of the heat. No worries.

I worry. I worry for the displaced families who loved camping in the green glades under venerable old trees, now replaced by fencing everywhere, gravel pads laid in a grid. It horrifies me.

Oh well. I’ve said this all before. It’s done. Why complain? Suck it up (insert sarcasm here). And perhaps in a few years the campground will be beautiful. It’s hard to imagine. Those fences. Those giant gravel pads. But still. New plantings will grow to soften and obscure the ugly. Nature is excellent at growing, thankfully.

Summer will be different this year. The construction of the new Co-op, the issue of parking, congestion—all of that will be tiresome. We can deal with it. It’s just transition.

Other changes aren’t so transitory. We baby boomers are aging. I’m a late boomer. My parents were children when the war ended. Still, I qualify. I am much more aware of my limits.

Once, I didn’t know I had limits. I had them, certainly, but I ignored them. Now, my body doesn’t forgive the way it once did. “No,” body says. “Don’t eat that. Don’t do that. Go home now.” And if I eat that, or do that, or stay out too late, body makes me sorry. I learn because I have to.

I’m changing. My body is stiffening in some places, loosening in others. I’m still strong, and I’ve not lost much muscle mass, if any. I’m flexible. I can dance. I’m grateful for my strong, vital body. But I’m slower. I tire more easily. I take more care with my time and energy. I have to.

I will adapt. Time passes, life happens. Even the campground will be beautiful eventually, if not in the same way. Some things don’t come back. Giant trees don’t. Old buildings become memories. We will have a new Co-op, and I think and hope it will be better. But the old one holds so many years’ worth of memories. All those produce department heart-to-hearts, the dramas, the colourful characters who have since passed on.

With all that, no matter what, spring keeps coming back. That is a constant. Life rebounds every year with vigor and verve. Hallelujah. Viva spring.

That’s what I think. What do you think? Email me at phoenixonhornby@gmail.com

The Book Report

April 30, 2026

The Book Report

By A.Bae Hel

11/22/63

By Stephen King

In 1979 I lived in Dallas and worked downtown a Baylor. I had interviewed at Parkland, well known for its trauma care, but chose Baylor for its nice safe position in high-risk maternity. I would drive down through the wide street of Daley Plaza fairly frequently never failing to look up at the window of the brick building on the corner. Even for a Canadian in a strange land the mythos of the building claimed attention.

Stephen King has never been one of my go to authors, but there has been a great deal of hype about this book. Sometimes I ignore hype, sometimes I fall for it.

I suspect this novel is written in usual King style. I seemed to scream American genre to me. It isn’t a deep storey, but it is woven around the event many of its readers will remember. Then it incorporates the thought experiment – If you could go back in time and kill Lee Harvey Oswald before he killed Kennedy, would you do it? The premise is that the Kennedy assassination was a pivotal moment in history and the trajectory from that bullet has had far reaching consequences. Change that and it would change all of America, and by extension, all of the world.

Like all King books it is long. I have often thought he could do with an editor who tells him to cut with a bit more ruthlessness, and there were moments where I almost tossed it into the Unable To Finish pile, but like King, I persevered and got to the end. I am glad, because the post script, which I normally never read, was well worth it to hear his comments.

Was Oswald a pasty like he claimed? Did the shot come from the grassy knoll? Was the Badge Man a real figure or just photographic distortion? I have no clue and this book will not resolve those questions if you are prone to wondering about them. It is an easy read, I suspect, but I listened to the audio version. It provides and interesting perspective on time travel and the consequences of messing around with the past, and because I am a fan of time travel stories, I was willing to finish this one.

If Stephen King is one of your favourites you might enjoy this. No horror, just regular people just trying to live their lives in a racist time. And yeah, Dallas was still racist in 1979. I give it 3-4 stars.

The Bedlam Bride

By Matt Dinniman

Many reviewers say this is the best one yet in the Dungeon Crawler series. I would be in that camp, although there are currently book 7 and 8 yet to be read, so…

Each book has me astounded at the imagination needed to create not only a truly f*cked up (can I say that in the Grapevine?) basic scenario, but such previously unimagined monsters, aliens, gods and random NPCs. I think Carl might have the “outline of a plan” on how to burn it all down, and I trust Carl’s outline of a plan more than He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Carl has the necessary rage and genius to circumvent the AI and the sponsors. I think one of the best things I like about this series is that the main character intent on bringing down the overlords is not a teenager. Nothing against teenagers, but in order to bring about the kind of revenge and destruction needed to bring it all down, you need a full developed frontal lobe. Katniss may have had the rage, but it needed Haymitch Abernath to bring the plan together. Carl brings people together. He reminds them that they are human, and they are stronger together than when the game pits them against each other. I am continually reminded how a small group of determined rebels can bring down a giant. Playing now on cable for your entertainment.

Still a 5 star and still audio excellence way into the night.