As we zig zag across the vast expanse of this country, we are desperately trying to keep up to date with our blog responsibilities, but alas, the constant organizing, meeting with local activists and traveling sometimes sets us back. So, as I write this from Dawson City, Yukon, I would like to tell you about our northern events, but you'll have to wait! For now, I'm writing two updates on our British Columbia events, which happened in Gibsons, Vancouver, Courtenay, Victoria and Salmon Arm. Between our video blogs, I'll post this update -- on Vancouver and Courtenay -- and another on Victoria and Salmon Arm. Gibsons is further down the list and deserves its own post to be sure. One thing is certain: we were worried briefly that we concentrated too many events in BC, but as it turns out there are a high percentage of Wal-Marts in that province and luckily a high percentage of citizens either engaged in action or ready to take up the fight agains the Beast of Bentonville. In Vancouver, this was immediately clear to us...

VANCOUVER

The Vancouver event was a huge success with over 250 people in attendance. We even had to ask early birds to come back later as they started showing up over one hour before we were to begin! Vancouver is the only city in Canada without a Wal-Mart, so you can imagine how the boys down in Arkansas (and they are all boys) feel about that. The arrogance of Wal-Mart’s business philosophy is that they know better what a community wants then the community itself. So when progressive COPE councillors in Vancouver’s municipal government dared to vote down a completely bogus "green store" application by Wal-Mart, the exploiter-extraordinaire prepared for a long drawn out battle. Now that Vancouver has a right-wing government with a Mayor completely disconnected from the communities he represents (other than big business), Wal-Mart has come knocking again.

So at our event there were many people in the audience who stood up and reminded everyone else that the fight in Vancouver is not yet over, that the communities opposed to Wal-Mart need to regroup and strategize on how to keep the big box out. Some elders in the crowd also made their voices heard, suggesting different ways Vancouverites can tackle this aggressive and unwanted corporation.

COURTENAY

My home town looks a little worse every year that I visit, and every year I come I hear more and more citizens complaining about the state of the community: big box development and sprawl has transformed an idyllic recreational town with a diverse and walkable downtown into parking lots and gigantic windowless shopping centres. Wal-Mart was the first to invade, and the big box anchor as its known, set down in the community and tested the waters for the army of other mostly American big boxes that would follow. Sure Courtenay had a Canadian Tire and a few other big stores, but nothing like what it has now: a sleepy downtown that is mostly knick-knack and coffee shops, and a perimeter ring that comprises a vast expanse of concrete, asphalt, automobiles and the odd artificial-looking landscaped shrub. Who let this happen? It is easy to point the finger at Courtenay’s inept, pro-sprawl mayor, Starr Winchester (who in her spare time supplies the local media with quotes describing her utmost affection and respect for none other than George W. Bush). Heck, at one point I even officially applied for information on the Mayor, having noticed her excellency’s non-existent biography on the municipality’s website.

However, the responsibility of how the community of Courtenay is shaped and realized lies not just with representatives, but with their constituency as well. I am baffled at the disinterest local citizens have when it comes to get involved with the municipal government. What we’ve found across Canada, is that the more people get involved with their local governments the more they actively take a part in the direction of that community. As the Mayor of Gibsons said twice at our Sunshine Coast event: The world is run by people who show up. If you don’t want to show up, then I guess you get what you get. I also realize it is a hard road to walk, especially for our increasingly overworked, entertainment-obsessed individualistic society.

That is precisely why I feel we need to disconnect in order to reconnect. If we can disconnect from the global military entertainment industrial complex, and in turn reconnect with our neighbours, our local merchants, artists and artisans, then we’ll be in a world that rejects Wal-Mart.