Congratulations to artist and art historian Robert Amos whose gorgeous book, E.J. Hughes: Canadian War Artist, has won this year's Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book about British Columbia. (Full disclosure: I was a member of the prize jury.)

Hughes,...

I was out mucking about in the woods last week looking for evidence of the Great North Vancouver Streetcar Trestle. Turns out it wasn't that hard to find.

The BC Electric Railway Company opened its first streetcar line in North Van in 1906. There were eventually three lines: one up Lonsdale, a second heading east out to Lynn Valley, and a third travelling west to Capilano Road. That western...

I see by this article in Quill & Quire that the...

My pal Steve and I meet regularly for coffee at the Commercial Street Cafe in the beautifully restored Gow Block. Back in the day this neighbourhood used to be known as Cedar Cottage and Commercial was its high street. That's it above, pre-World War One. (Photo courtesy of City of Vancouver Archives LGN504) The interurban tram...

Over the years I have been fortunate to be able to visit Savary Island many times. "Sunny, sandy Savary" (see above) is a small island lying at the top of the Salish Sea north of Powell River. To get there you take one ferry, drive for 90 minutes, take another ferry, drive for an hour, then conclude your journey with a 10-minute water-taxi ride. In other words, it is not an easy place to get to....