The Library’s 2011 Annual Giving Campaign

A new library is finally being built! That new home will meet our community’s needs for decades to come. This project is currently both on budget and on schedule for an opening in the Fall of 2012. Until then, library services continue to be provided at the library’s temporary home at 118 Jackson Avenue. And now it’s time to begin thinking about what goes into that new building. All proceeds from the 2011 Annual Giving Campaign have been earmarked for expanding the collection and broadening the range of services provided. Many areas of special interest in both the fiction and non-fiction collections must be strengthened. Both the teen and children’s collections now have room to grow as do the library’s DVD and audio book collections. The library also hopes to provide, both in the new building and “from home”, access to more on-line full text articles and research materials. Click Here to Donate Now Will you join us this year in the effort to expand our collections, our pro…
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  • - November 2, 2011

Salt Spring Local Elections Poll

Our local elections are coming up on November 19th and just as we did with the federal elections, we're running an informal poll for the Capital Regional District Director and Islands and School Board Trustees. We have another opportunity here to see how Salt Spring might be voting for this years candidates. When you cast your vote you will be able to see results in real-time. You can also monitor results by clicking on the "View Results" link to the right of the "Vote" button on each poll. NOTE: Salt Spring Exchange online election polls are not intended to be scientific and may not reflect actual results. Instead, they are a way for our readers to share their views with fellow site users. Respondents are not randomly selected, but select themselves to vote on a specific question. In addition, while Salt Spring Exchange online polls are designed to allow only one vote per user, savvy users may find ways around this limitation. Who are you voting for CRD Director? Who …
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51% of Saanich North and the Islands Vote to Scrap the HST

Final results of the HST vote are in. Saanich North and the Islands 51.35% voted yes to scrap it, 48.65% voted no to keep it. Question Are you in favour of extinguishing the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) and reinstating the PST (Provincial Sales Tax) in conjunction with the GST (Goods and Services Tax)? Yes/No The final results are: % of valid votes voting Yes 54.73% % of valid votes voting No 45.27% Electoral District Yes Votes Yes % No Votes No % Total Valid Votes Abbotsford-Mission 8214 45.37% 9892 54.63% 18106 Abbotsford South 7573 43.28% 9925 56.72% 17498 Abbotsford West 7740 48.54% 8207 51.46% 15947 Alberni-Pacific Rim 10665 63.90% 6024 36.10% 16689 Boundary-Similkameen 9679 59.48% 6593 40.52% 16272 Burnaby-Deer Lake 11097 62.62% 6625 37.38% 17722 Burnaby-Edmonds 11827 64.55% 6494 35.45% 18321 Burnaby-Lougheed 11426 58.77% 8016 41.23% 19442 Burnaby North 12956 60.34% 8516 39.66% 21472 Cariboo-Chilcotin 6361 56.90% 4818 43.10…
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Salt Spring Island in an edible little work of art

Salt Spring Island featured on canada.com There are many wonderful things about Salt Spring Island. There is the famous goat cheese, packed so beautifully it is like tiny, edible work of art, and the delicious coffee that is on par with the best out there. And of course it is known for being a hub for artist, attracting talent from across the country. But what finally drew me there was the chance to stay at the historic Hastings House, a beautiful resort that is set on a 22-acre farm. The trip to the island offered a little taste of things to come. It already felt like a holiday once the ferry departed from the Tsawassen ferry terminal. For three hours, it slowly snaked between the Southern Gulf Islands, including Mayne, Pender and Saturna. Salt Spring is the largest of this cluster of islands nestled between Vancouver Island and the mainland. After watching the sun setting leisurely over the inlets, we arrived at the last stop, Long Harbour. From there it was a 10-minute…
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Islands Trust Secondary Suites Survey

As part of the udate of Land Use Bylaw 355, Islands Trust is considering the legalization of Secondary Suites. This project responds to the 2008 Salt Spring Island Official Community Plan policies which give direction for the Salt Spring Island Local Trust Committee to consider the legalization of Secondary Suites within certain criteria. Islands Trust planning staff are looking for broad community input to inform policy drafting for the legalization of secondary suites. This summer, come by and see us at the Islands Trust information kiosk at the Tuesday Market in Centennial Park or invite us to give a presentation to your group or neighbourhood friends. Get informed by exploring the information below. Fill out a questionnaire on the Islands Trust site.
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Man’s banishment from Saltspring Island risks setting poor precedent, lawyers warn

Story from the Globe and Mail: A homeless man charged with theft from a grocery store, a dine-and-dash at an inn and assault of an RCMP officer has been banished from Saltspring Island. After a tele-bail hearing on July 17 for the three charges, a judicial justice of the peace told Donovan Seward, 31, to leave the B.C. island and not return until his Aug. 10 circuit court appearance to enter a plea, said RCMP Sergeant George Jenkins of the Saltspring detachment.... Read the full story at the globeandmail.com
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Calling all Salt Spring Bloggers!

Do you write and keep a blog with stories and content that are specific to Salt Spring? Interested in having your content and site promoted and featured on the Salt Spring Exchange? Here's your chance. We'll be implementing a new service that will pull content from Salt Spring Island focused blogs and sites into the Exchange where we will feature a few stories a day or week depending on what comes in. What you get in return is more exposure for your writing, your work, your businesses, etc. We're calling it the Salt Spring Community Stories Network. Here's how it will work. Content for Traffic We pull the content from your site. We feature the first 200-300 words of any post, then include a link to your site to read more. The benefits for you are increased traffic and viewership and the benefits for the Exchange are that the 15,000+ people who use the site each month get more of a range of content to read about something they love; Salt Spring Island. Our goal…
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How will you vote in HST referendum?

British Columbians have a very important decision to make. The HST referendum is a chance for you to make a decision that will impact B.C. for years to come. We're taking a poll to learn how Salt Spring will vote in the referendum. Vote below. This is the exact language of the mail in referendum question we will all receive in the mail (someday). To learn more about all aspects of the issue visit HST in BC. [polldaddy poll="5173680"]
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Driftwood Pick-up Locations - Mail Delivery Strike

Subscribers of the Driftwood Newspaper are advised that the newspaper will not be delivered via the local Post Office today (Wednesday) as they are not accepting any mail for delivery. Please cross reference where you live on the map below and head to one of four pickup points after 1pm today. Please disregard the individual labels, just take a paper.     If you live in the pink area, pick up your newspaper at the Ravenstreet Cafe. If you live in the purple area, pick up your newspaper at the Vesuvius Cafe. If you live in the green area, pick up your newspaper at the Driftwood Office. If you live in the blue area, pick up your newspaper at Starbarks. If you live in the yellow area, pick up your newspaper at Patterson's.

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You're Not Really a Salt Springer Unless...

“You’re not really a Salt Springer until you have held four jobs simultaneously" Salt Spring Literacy study of the culture of employment on Salt Spring Island. You'Re Not Really a Salt Springer...Final(function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script"); scribd.type = "text/javascript"; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = "http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();
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Apple Festival Time-lapse Video

Right now, on a tree on Salt Spring, an apple you will sink your teeth into during the Apple Festival is quietly growing in the sun. Until then, enjoy this time-lapse video of the Apple Festival in Fulford Hall.
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Salt Spring Gathers to Bear Witness with Tribes

Numerous Salt Spring Island residents gathered early this morning to bear witness with the Cowichan Tribes during the removal of remains of at least 5 people in a burial area located in town. Elders from the tribe were on hand with contracted archeological services to remove the remains before new construction begins at the same location. Residents gathered after an appeal went out last evening on the Exchange from Tania Aquila who helped facilitate support for the respectful removal. Here are photos from this morning. Removal is on-going throughout the day. Consider visting town to show your support and consideration.

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Elizabeth May wins Saanich-Gulf Islands

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has won her B.C. riding, earning her party's first elected seat in Parliament and unseating a longtime incumbent Conservative. May defeated former cabinet minister Gary Lunn by more than 7,000 votes in the riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, capturing 46 per cent of the vote share. "Today we proved that Canadians want change in politics," May said during a victory speech from her riding. "I will never shrink from speaking truth to power nor will I embrace the politics of spin. We need hope over fear, we need compassion over competition, we need to recognize that Canadians deserve a government where 308 MPs figure out how to work together. "Whether a majority or a minority, we are 308 MPs and we are elected to serve the people of Canada, not any one political ideology." - CBC News

 

Poll Poll Poll Vote Party Candidate 07-Apr 23-Apr 3…
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Final Federal Election Poll Results

The results are in from our final federal election poll. Elizabeth May's Greens increased their lead by almost 5% over the 3 polls taking most of their support away from the Liberals and NDP. The Greens averaged 80.51% of the vote across all 3 polls. Support for Gary Lunn's Conservatives increased a modest 1% with an average of 6.99%. Support for the Liberal candidate all but disappeared in the last polling round since the all candidates meeting here on Salt Spring. Based on these results, if Salt Spring had its own riding, or accounted for more of the Saanich - Gulf Islands voting base, the voting results on Monday would likely be overwhelmingly for the Greens. That we know of, this is the largest sample of Salt Spring specific election polling that has ever been done. An average of 275 people voted in the 3 polls that we ran over the month of April. The polling system we use permits only one submission per user. We detected no obvious vote fraud based on data analysis in o…
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Vote in the Final Federal Election Poll

We’re conducting our final advance online poll for the coming federal election. Take a minute to indicate which party you will vote for on election day. Choose one party listed below and click the ‘Vote’ button. The polling system permits only one submission per user. Voting is open until mid-night on Saturday. Voting results are displayed in real-time after you vote.   Which party will get your vote?online survey Thank you to our poll sponsor. Funding for this poll provided by the The Smith Manoeuvre.
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The Exchange is Back Up - New Features

The Exchange is now backup after 12 hours offline. With the financial help of our advertisers and community supporters we've been able to implement a number of requested features and enhancements. We've been working on these changes for a number of weeks but are just able to make them all live today. Please let us know if you have any feedback about the changes, or experience any challenges using the new features: Pricing We've reduced the price of our paid listings and commercial sponsorship by 40% Commercial postings listed more than once every 60 days are now only $12+HST Paid listings are now only $12+HST Commercial postings are still free once every 60 days for everyone Design You will notice some slight changes to the design, we tried to keep changes to minimum User Profiles Improved the tools to edit and manage your profile Improved the tools to change and update your password Added in profile fields so you can add your Facebook and Twit…
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Federal Election Poll Results - Another Green Landslide

The results are in from our 2nd online federal election poll. While the sample size for the vote was considerably smaller, the final vote percentages are almost statistically unchanged from the first vote a few weeks ago. Based on these poll results, Salt Spring Island is voting Green by a landslide. We'll be conducting one final poll again this coming Thursday to Saturday before the election itself on May 2nd. All candidates were again notified of the poll via Twitter.     Poll Poll Poll Vote Party Candidate 07-Apr 23-Apr 30-Apr 02-May Conservatives Gary Lunn 6.83% 6.70% TBD TBD NDP Edith Loring-Kuhanga 8.81% 9.57% TBD TBD Greens Elizabeth May 79.07% 77.99% TBD TBD Liberals Renée Hetherington 5.29% 5.74% TBD TBD Vote Sample Size 454 209   Read the results from our first online poll here. Read the results from our 2nd online poll here. Thank you to…
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