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Prince George Spruce Kings coach Dave Dupas said there were some good things in the team’s first game of 2015, a 6-3 loss at home to Nanaimo on Jan. 3. But he was quick to note one aspect of the game that wasn’t among them. “Special teams weren’t good.” Nanaimo scored four times on five powerplay opportunities. Dupas did, however, say there were extenuating circumstances. “We had some new players in the lineup, some guys coming back from injuries. The new guys were being thrown into the...

Mario Dedjardins summed up the Northern Cougars performance at the Mac’s Midget Invitational Tournament simply. “It was disappointing overall,” said the coach of the Prince George-based team which came back from Calgary with a record of one win, two losses and a tie. “We had expected to do better.” Those expectations were probably not unfounded, given how well the Cougars have played in the Female Midget AAA League, where they have a seven-point lead at the top. “It was a good experience...

Aiden Yip returned from the 14th World Danceweek in Poland triumphant last week after he and his Canadian dance team took part in a high-level competition with 1,835 dancers from 24 countries. They competed for six days for prestigious International Dance Organization (IDO) titles in jazz dance, modern and ballet. The organization has 90 member countries. Held in December at the Polish Resort Hotel Golebiewski in Mikolajki, Poland, the competition was the highlight of the year for...

Hopefully city council’s exuberance for speaking out on issues affecting the city will continue. On Monday night city councillors didn’t hold much back as they threw their support behind the Royal Canadian Legion’s push to have Veterans Affairs re-open its office in Prince George. The local office was one of eight across the country that were closed in 2012, ostensibly as a cost-cutting measure even though the agency has returned more than $1 billion in unexpended funds to federal coffers....

While city council was vocal in supporting a call to re-open the Veterans Affairs office in Prince George, at least they were pragmatic about the possibility of the Conservatives doing their bidding. Both Prince George-Peace River MP Bob Zimmer and Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick Harris have done what they do best … toed the party line. Zimmer has stated that veterans will be served better through Service Canada offices, which are in centres throughout the North, rather than one...

Hotel guests in Prince George will continue to help promote the area through a two per cent tax on accommodations. The municipal and regional district tax, formerly the additional hotel room tax, has been extended until January 1, 2020. The tax was implemented in 2010 to help fund the destination marketing organization operated by Tourism Prince George. “(We’re) excited to see how the revenue from the tax will continue to be applied to help market Prince George as a destination choice,”...

  The man behind the stack of books at Books and Company has sold his interest in the popular downtown book store, coffee shop and arts and entertainment venue. Jim Brinkman, who opened the store in 1993, has announced that his right hand person Owen Lubbers will be taking over. In his “final goodbye” e-mail sent out Jan. 7, Brinkman notes the store has been “quite successful both financially and helped me to find out who I was. So thanks to everyone in the past. Onward we go. To the...

The BC Coroners Service has confirmed the identity of a woman who died following the accident on the Hart Highway Wednesday.. Dead is Michelle Susanne Auger, 39, of Prince George. Auger was the driver of an SUV which collided with a BC Transit bus on Highway 97 about 500 metres north of the John Hart Bridge, shortly before 3 p.m. on Jan. 7. Auger was transported by ambulance to the University Hospital of Northern BC, but could not be resuscitated. Road conditions were noted to be very...

Electoral reform is kind of like the weather. A storm blows up every so often and, while everyone likes to talk about it, no one seems to be able to do anything about it. Part of the problem with electoral reform, especially among majority governments, is that the current first-past-the-post system worked for the party in power. It got them to where they are so why would they change the system that gives them power akin to a dictatorship and then keeps them there when most of the people in...