BOUQUET Thank you to Friends of Haven for all the years of helping people in Nanaimo. You will be sorely missed. Good luck Madeline and Cory.
BEEF To the old man next door to the elementary school, who waits for kids to get out of school and regularly comes outside yelling and swearing with a park full of kids. You should be ashamed and you should get a hobby.
BOUQUET I am so looking forward to a taste of artificial intelligence, the organic stuff is just plain awful.
BEEF To the person complaining about the coffee shop that has the ‘no laptops, no studying’ signs. You won’t be missed. It is very busy because it’s a much loved place with wonderful people working there.
BOUQUET To Karen who works at the Quality Foods warehouse in Errington for bringing food to a man on disability several times. You kept him alive. He is so grateful for your generosity.
BEEF To the MLA who claims to have a plan to fix our cost-of-living crisis but doesn’t supply any information regarding the plan when requested.
BOUQUET To those who write in with ridiculous beefs. May your dogged and unexamined resistance to change in all areas of life never stop entertaining the rest of us.
BEEF To B.C. Ferries for increasing cash payment of ferry fares at the ferry terminals. Why should we subsidize those who pre-book online and get a discount with credit cards? This will not reduce congestion at ferry terminals. People who pay cash at the terminal booth should get a discount, not get penalized with an additional fee. As far as I am concerned, the reservation system should be abolished. First-come, first-serve worked best before the reservation system came into effect.
BOUQUET To my husband Stew who’s always there with a smile and a helping hand for family, friends, neighbours and strangers. Not only that, he built and maintains our neighbourhood library, and has partnered with me in rescuing and re-homing close to 100 dogs during our 44 years together. He’s a neighbourhood hero, for sure.
BEEF To standard time. You mess with my paycheque and my sleep. In the summer if you had your way, we’d be up at 3:30 a.m. In the winter I lose an hour of work a day because the sun sets at 3:30 p.m.. Honestly, who doesn’t love the 10:30 p.m. sunsets in the summer? Standard time lovers, that’s who.
BOUQUET No matter how little money and how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you rich.
BEEF To the fast food restaurant that daily disposes of its unusable food products on the roof of the establishment for the seagulls and crows to clear out for them. Not only is this unhealthy for our feathered friends, the increase of birds in the area is unhealthy for the vehicles parked in the area. Daily we come out to droppings on our vehicles.
BOUQUET To the two girls and the couple who picked up all the garbage on Harry Wipper Park created by a couple of bored neighbourhood morons.
BEEF To the convenience store for leaving out their liquid coffee creamers (no ice, no cooler). I have come several times to get my coffee before work at 2:30 p.m.
BOUQUET Another one of my bouquet rants, ’cause they inspire in me a happy dance. Let’s strike up the band and salute Westland. So friendly, so efficient, no detail omitted, so nothing deficient. Again, I love to recite, their service is a true delight.
BEEF Normalize people not parking on neighbourhood roads, they are not big enough, so either park in the driveway or tell the city to make larger roads.
BOUQUET To an unknown person with a tremendously big heart who dropped off a food gift card at a local grocery store with the intent of a wonderful person working there as a cashier to select someone in need. I was selected. I lack the words to express how much this means to me. Thank you so very much.
BEEF To the beefer about high food prices saying we should get government to step in. It’s frightening to know there are people who don’t realize it’s the government who’s creating these high prices with their increasing taxes on everything. On top of that, they’re giving themselves salary raises this year.
BOUQUET To the beefer complaining about daylight savings time. Is it really meaningful to create the illusion of 60 minutes more daylight? Let’s just enjoy the change of season, keep our heads, and let the clocks be.
BEEF To the RCMP and the city who do absolutely nothing about obnoxiously loud vehicles. Loud bikes and cars drive around downtown with abandon, knowing there are no consequences. They scream up and down Front Street spring and summer every evening, breaking speed limits and breaking noise bylaws. Never a police car around and no tickets handed out for speeding or excessive noise. The whole situation borders on lawlessness, frankly, and societal breakdown.
BOUQUET To Medical Arts Centre, a lifeline for walk in patients. It is high time that we recognize and express our heartfelt appreciation for the top-notch professional medical care provided by this clinic to large numbers of walk-in patients from Gabriola and central Vancouver Island when, for whatever reason, their local clinics are unable or unwilling to provide the help they need.
BEEF To the non-profit. You’re ‘cooking’ very outdated food bank food for us, and it’s so obvious that I’m days away from reporting your charity to the CRA. I’ve been homeless for almost a decade, and I’ve never seen meals like this given by a charity to those down and out.
BOUQUET To the lovely lady who gave me a ride home after my fall on Uplands Drive. Your kindness is so much appreciated.
BEEF To the federal and provincial governments for impoverishing the population. $2 a litre for gas for your citizens while exporting coal overseas doesn’t pass the sniff test on your climate hysteria journey. Shame on you.
BOUQUET To the paramedic in the red truck on his way to work, he stopped traffic and rescued a toddler who was wandering in the street and vehicles were rushing by, thank you sir for your efforts.
BEEF It is better not to have a GP than to have one who picks and chooses what they feel warrants their time. Most I’m sure are very good, some are very bad. Listen to your patients and diagnose the actual problem.
BOUQUET Our conscientious, hardworking paperboy Daxton is leaving our Greyhawk/Wavecrest neighbourhood. Although sometimes difficult to elicit a smile from this studious lad, nevertheless Daxton is a good example of our future generations, I hope. Thank you and good luck in your future endeavours.
BEEF To the provocateur driving around Nanaimo looking for a fight with two Russian flags attached to his truck.
BOUQUET To the young man who helped my husband when he had a bad fall, called me, and waited with my husband until I could get there. Thank you so much.
BEEF To the hospital for utterly failing my brother-in-law at every turn. Beef for sending him home because he was a ‘healthy’ man in his thirties and you needed the beds. Beef for taking so long for everything that his epilepsy killed him at the age of 37. Beef for refusing the autopsy, which could have saved future epileptics. Bouquet to the hospital we drove him to in Victoria. They almost helped save his life.
BOUQUET To those many friends, neighbours and passers-by, from the very young to the seniors, for your smiles, waves, happy dances and showing hearts and hugs to the old man at the window in his wheelchair. Thank you all. You truly make my days happy.
BEEF It would be nice if the RCMP started cracking down on intentionally noisy/modified motorcycles. Loud pipes don’t save lives, they just point out to everyone that you’re an attention seeker who has no respect for neighbours.
BOUQUET To B.C., the gentleman working on Ross Road. Not only was there a friendly smile and hello, he gave me one of his handmade photo cards. I appreciate your kindness.
BEEF To the neighbours who leave a derelict motorhome in their front yard. It hasn’t moved in years and is now a mouldy, rusting eyesore in the neighbourhood.
BOUQUET I would like to thank Josh from Traffic Jams for putting in my dashcam.
BEEF To the not-for-profit that has forever damaged the once nice neighbourhood. There is now garbage, drug paraphernalia and criminal activity.
BOUQUET To Sam, the Walmart greeter. Thanks for all the good jokes and friendly nod of the head or a nice hello.
BEEF To the City of Nanaimo. If it had not wasted millions on the Metral Drive mess, it could have been that much closer to a Labieux yard upgrade. It’s time for a referendum.
To submit a beef or a bouquet to the Nanaimo News Bulletin, e-mail editor@nanaimobulletin.com.