My parents married during the Great Depression. After the 1929 market collapse, people had to learn to make do, help each other out and live on meagre incomes. Those times were seared into my parents’ attitudes and values. Although we were all born and raised in Canada, my family was seen as the enemy during […]
Consumerism
Posted inNews + Opinion
SCIENCE MATTERS: Consumer society no longer serves our needs
My parents were born in Vancouver—Dad in 1909, Mom in 1911—and married during the Great Depression. It was a difficult time that shaped their values and outlook, which they drummed into my sisters and me. “Save some for tomorrow,” they often scolded. “Share; don’t be greedy.” “Help others when they need it because one day […]
Posted inLifestyle
Buy Nothing Season in Halifax
If all of the gift-giving at Christmastime gets to be too much, you might want to consider having a Buy Nothing Christmas. Buy Nothing is a movement started by a group of Mennonites in Western Canada in 2001 as a way of saying no “to the patterns of over-consumption of middle-class North Americans,” says its […]