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…

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…

Salt Spring Island featured on the Today Show. Watch video at mid-way point.

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Tom Mitchell will be heading up a team of Saltspringers going over to foot canvass in Saanich tomorrow. Want to join? If you've never done it before, don't worry, we'll pair you with someone who has, and it's actually kind of fun. They'll be heading over on the 9:50am boat from Fulford and returning on the 3pm. No need to take a car on the ferry; we will be picked up on the other side. Drop me an email if you think you can make it so we can be sure to have enough canvass kits ready to go. Brian Smallshaw 250-653-9778

Voting in our online federal election poll continues today. Early results with 324 votes as of this posting show a very strong lead with Greens getting 85% of the vote, NDP 6%, Conservatives 5%, and Liberals at 3 %. Are the Greens going to get Salt Spring votes in a landslide? Are they better at getting the online vote out? Are there a disproportionate number of Greens that use the Salt Spring Exchange? Or are they just doing a better job connecting with Salt Spring voters? We're not sure. If you have thoughts, please comment on this post. We've notified all local riding representatives with the link to this poll and suggested they promote it with their constituents. We'll keep the poll open until end of day Thursday, April 7th, but so far in the first 24 hours there have been 324 votes logged. Our polling system tracks two methods to ensure that it is very difficult for any one person to vote more than once. If we see any multi-voting patterns we'll remove the votes f…

We're conducting an advance 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. We've sent out notices to all political parties represented via email and Twitter to let them know this poll is running and to share it with their constituents. Once you enter your selection, you'll instantly see the current, real-time results of the poll. Which party will get your vote?customer surveys

A lot of people have been telling us that they are outraged by Elizabeth May’s exclusion from the televised debates. It IS outrageous that a media consortium is determining how we conduct our democracy, and that the leader of a national party should be kept out of the debates based upon some shifting criteria that they don’t care to share with the public. If you’d like to express your opinion about this, there are a number of good places to go: Click here to vote in the CBC’s poll - currently 82% in favour. Click here to sign the Green Party’s petition. Send a text message to the Chair of the Media Consortium, Mr. Troy Reeb of Global TV on his cell phone at 647-261-3752 In the meantime, you might enjoy some one-on-one debates: Elizabeth in a one-on-one with Gary Lunn on CTV’s Question Period. Click here to watch the video. And finally, after Michael Ignatieff took up Stephen Harper’s challenge for a one-on-one debate and then Harper retreated, it seems that…

This notice is an update regarding donkey loose situation in Ecological Reserve that I had posted a couple of days ago. The lady who owns "Russell" the donkey and myself had a positive in depth conversation today regarding the concerns of her donkey and dog encounters. She feels very responsible and apologetic for frightening my friend by stating her donkey could kill her dogs. I too offered an apology for being so very quick to assume she did not care. It appeared that all that was needed was some serious dialogue and interaction, on a personal level, regarding both our concerns and possible solutions so we can all "share the road". The upshot is that she is not going to be on the trails, and will be very alert to any donkey/dog encounters and I hope I will be able to walk with her, the horse, and "Russell" the donkey, along with my dog. We will both work towards that.

Office of the Provincial Health Officer VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall today issued a statement reassuring British Columbians that there is no expected health risk from radiation at the Japanese nuclear power plant. “Based on present information, we do not expect any health risk following the nuclear reactor releases in Japan, nor is the consumption of potassium iodide tablets a necessary precaution. Small amounts of low level radiation released from the nuclear reactors in Japan will have been dispersed in the atmosphere there and are not a health risk to British Columbians. “Modelling of possible scenarios suggest that any release into the atmosphere of nuclear particles would take five to six days to reach British Columbia, by which time it would be so dispersed as to be not considered a health risk. “As a result of the terrible tragedy, emergency officials in British Columbia remain in constant contact with Health …

UPDATE: Tsunami Advisory Lifted The tsunami advisory for British Columbia has been lifted, after the effects of an 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan passed the province's coastline without significant incident. The first effects of the Japan tsunami reached Canada's West Coast at about 7:30 a.m. PT, and wave-height changes were negligible. Federal Public Safety Minister Vic Toews announced the end of the advisory shortly before 8:30 a.m. PT, speaking on CBC Radio. UPDATE: BC bulletin number 002 This is an important bulletin from the provincial emergency notification system. A large earthquake has occurred in the pacific basin near Japan. The West Coast Alaska Tsunami warning centre has raised the alert status to advisory for the following zones of coastal British Columbia: Zone A - the north coast and the Haida Gwaii islands Zone B - the central coast including Bella Bella, Bella Boola and shearwater Zone C - the outer west coast of Vancouver Island from Cape …

Video from the demolition of the old stores in town. Video from escapetosaltspring via YouTube

Sunset Magazine recently honoured Salt Spring Island as one the best places to live on the West Coast of North America! One of the best places to be an entrepreneur, artist and to raise a family. Congratulations Salt Spring! Click here to read the full story.

Would like to invite all those of you who might be going to the Victoria Wordpress camp this weekend for a meetup on the Fulford ferry for those traveling to and from the conference on Saturday. There are a bunch of us leaving on the 7:50 out of Fulford, returning again on 7. If you want to meet up with other Wordpress folks, let's use our travel time together to meet and talk all things Wordpress and to make the most of our time together at the event. Meetup in lounge 4 of the Skeena on either run if you want to connect with others going over for the day.

Last night 70+ islanders came out to the Harbour House to take the next step in this ongoing experiment of exploring how digital, marketing, media and knowledge working professionals could collaborate together on this island to help shape a sustainable, local economy for Salt Spring. Thank you to everyone who made it out on a dark December night. Thank you to the Harbour House for donating appetizers for all. Thank you to Margery Moore from I-SEA for helping to co-ordinate everyone from the Green Drinks community and thank to all our Digital Island collaborators who helped co-organize and promote the gathering; Jon Suk, Phillip Reece, Phil McCluskey, Suzanne Little, Johan Bosman, John Bateman and Pravin Pillay. Our organizing group is going to gather the ideas from last night and will share them back out, along with some suggestions for when our next event will be. Until then, if you are a professional working in the digital economy today consider joining our Facebook gro…

Out the window from where I sit is still a deep white from the usual green. Winter landed with a soft bang this weekend and I wanted to send a special thank you to all of the crews with BC Hydro and working for BC Hydro as well as the Shaw and Telus crews for all their hard work this weekend. There were hundreds and hundreds of homes and businesses without power, many still are and the crew work continues. These are vital services. It takes people to make it all work. Thank you for keeping us here at The Salt Spring Exchange going all weekend. Track all outage updates on at bchydro.com

1. The big news, of course, is that the Local Trust Committee of the Islands Trust has approved the Library Board’s plans for the new building. This was a big hurdle to jump but we did it. We now expect to “break ground” in April, 2011 2. On December 2nd, the LTC will be asked to approve the plans for the temporary facility in down town Ganges that will be the home of the Library for a fifteen month or so period while construction is underway. 3. All this activity and change notwithstanding, the library during 2011 must continue to meet community needs much as it has done in recent years. Each day in 2010, for example, over 350 people will enter the Library and each week some 2,500 items will circulate. And since the Library will continue to function while construction is underway, we are again asking for Community support of an Annual Giving campaign. Thanks to repeat donors making generous gifts, that campaign is off to a strong start. However, small gifts as well…

Raising Money for Children’s book and CD sets is a 2010 Library Annual Giving Priority. Why is that the case?  How can using a book and CD set help a child improve reading? Give a young child a book and the child will behave like a reader, hold the  book, turn the pages  and pretend to read.  With a book and CD combination, the child quickly learns to match the pages to the words on that CD.  For a beginning reader, listening while reading helps the child make the connection between the printed words and the sounds of the language.   The audio disks usually provide excellent models of pronunciation,  phrasing and expression. Reading is a skill which takes practice, lots of practice.  When practicing a skill, it is wise to follow a good model.  The model could be a parent reading aloud, but it could also be an audio disk.  Youth who have difficulty with reading skills can enjoy listening to books on CD that are at their interest level without the frustration of struggling …

Calling all Salt Spring social media enthusiasts! If you're using social media services like Facebook or Twitter for business, pleasure or otherwise on Salt Spring come down to Rock Salt and help us overload their brand new wi-fi service and drink some complimentary refreshments they are providing as sponsors. It's curry night at Rock Salt too! Always good food at Rock Salt. Meet some of the people in person you may have been connecting with only online. We'll also share a little about an initiative some of us are working on to create a sustainable, resilient local economy right here on Salt Spring. An economy designed to inspire digital innovation and entrepreneurship which might create better paying work opportunities for our island community. To get us going and inspired, we have some speakers lined up who will each have a ruthlessly fast, but fun, two minutes to share their story on 'why they're using social media' then we'll un-conference the rest of the gathering to se…