Michelle Cyca

“AI’s answer helped me create the rule that if an item was useful but didn’t need to be accessed regularly, the closet was probably a good home for it.” oh my god

looks like this BC election had the most dismal turnout in provincial history — preliminary results are around 48%, compared to the last low of 54% in 2020. elections.bc.ca/resources/re...

Remember, this all started with Kevin Falcon kicking John Rustad out of the B.C. Liberals for retweeting climate science denialism

a sad takeaway here is that even if no one likes their MLA enough to vote for them — an incumbent coming in fifth place is pretty incredible! — it's still hard to motivate constituents to remove them. overall, we have a very disengaged electorate.

The BC Conservatives have won a majority government following BC NDP leader David Eby's decision to call a snap election almost two years ahead of schedule. Here's what a Conservative majority means for LNG, Indigenous Rights and more #bcpoli thenarwhal.ca/bc-election-...

The Conservatives will end the night fairly close to the 900,000 or so votes they got in 2024. The NDP will go from just under 950,000 votes in 2024 to less than 700,000 this time. Turnout was down — but how much of it was demotivated 2017-2024 NDP voters who stayed home is a massive question.

Oh there's the dog whistles. Doerkson believes in "property rights" and "parks that are open to all British Columbians"

Lorne Doerkson with a gracious acknowledgement of campaigns by David Eby and Emily Lowan, conspicuously no mention of Dallas Brodie

“If a local candidate — or party leader — is unwilling to engage in an easy interview on election night (such tough questions as “How does it feel?” and “Why do think your message resonated?”), how open will they be to harder questions once the real work begins?” surreynowleader.com/2026/10/22/o...

Canadians tend to vote against parties, not for them. But what happens in a snap election where some candidates are only weeks old and others skip media interviews entirely? Contributing writer Michelle Cyca investigates: thewalrus.ca/bc-snap-election/

This is a publicly funded government agency refusing to share weather warnings and their own public warnings with a journalist at Global News, one of the larger mainstream news outlets in Canada. I really want you to sit with the bare facts of that.

just going to check on the folks in r/VancouverLandlords

happy birthday Ken Sim

IT'S GAME OVER FOR SIM CITY PETE FRY HAS BEEN PROJECTED BY CBC NEWS AS THE NEXT MAYOR OF VANCOUVER

INVESTIGATION: Victoria denies that its bylaw officers put unhoused people’s new, perfectly good tents in the trash. So we tracked them with AirTags. www.defactomedia.ca/bylaw-office...

On the B.C. campaign trail, both the NDP and the Conservatives have spoken against the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act. @sobittersosweet.bsky.social breaks down whether DRIPA actually threatens private property rights or makes development less certain.

The big tech companies want you to believe that their default software offerings are the only option, but spoiler alert, there’s a wide array of fantastic software out there. www.eff.org/pages/i-wan...

first day of advance voting in Vancouver!! a beautiful day to go fill out a comically large ballot!! stickers for adults and children alike!! vancouver.ca/election/202...

"There are those who oppose both supervised consumption sites and public displays of drug use... who support rehab as a panacea, without acknowledging research that shows rehab without adequate supports increases fatalities, because those who relapse have a reduced tolerance for drugs."

recommended reading today — Aaron Hemens’ interview with Phyllis Webstad, published two years ago on @indiginews.bsky.social. Webstad is not even mentioned on the federal government’s webpage for NDTR/Orange Shirt Day indiginews.com/news/orange-...

On Parliament Hill this morning for the flag raising ceremony that will begin a day of solemn remembrance on this Truth and Reconciliation Day. It seems even more important this year, in a moment of rising residential school denialism. #cdnpoli #Canada #yow #Ottawa

A burial site for dozens of children who died while attending the Brandon Indian Residential School will be acquired by the province, the Free Press has learned. www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews...

huge victory for DULF — also a great day to support @defactomedia.ca which has excellent coverage of this case

the number of shitty PR emails I've gotten recently that are using Orange Shirt Day as a hook for things that have nothing to do with residential school survivors or history is appalling. even worse now than it was four years ago, when I wrote this: indiginews.com/first-person...

Residential School denialism is done in the service of white supremacy and they are very, very clear about this link.

should I frame this? my three-year-old’s first skeet ❤️

have reached a surreal, much-anticipated point in my parenting journey: listening to “Jagged Little Pill” with my daughter and explaining I was her age when it came out

just as fireworks are illegal in BC except for one week before Halloween I believe eggnog should only be permitted on grocery shelves in December

fun to read this response to my latest Walrus column about the troubling relationship between Scholastic book fairs & Canadian public schools in LitHub: lithub.com/have-they-ru...

october is going to be a really fun month for politics

my kid came home with her Scholastic catalogue last week with a hopeful checkmark next to a vending machine-shaped eraser set (??) anyway for @thewalrus.ca I wrote about why it's bad & weird that our public school libraries rely on a corporation that directly advertises to children in the classroom

a genuine pleasure to moderate the Vancouver council candidates debate last night with @womentcities.bsky.social! watch to learn about some of the people campaigning for your vote next month. (also learn which parties chose not to participate!) www.youtube.com/live/rv0Paba...

SCOOP: A leaked document indicates Alberta is considering rewriting laws, creating new Crown corporations to take over the natural gas system and build new gas pipelines and taking on costly legal battles — in large part so AI data centres can have access to power, @drewanderson.bsky.social reports.

this is so gross nunatsiaq.com/stories/arti...

A follow-up to this follow-up: The B.C. Conservative Party continued to unravel as two more MLAs stepped down from its caucus Wednesday, pointing to ties between senior staffers and the Alberta separatist movement. www.thestar.com/news/investi...

new from me! more reasons to delete Google Maps besides the Lake America thing

For the Toronto Star, I wrote about the trade war, digital sovereignty, and Lake Ontario. We are already dominated by American tech giants. If Canada fights this trade war and we don't renegotiate the terms of digital trade, we will lose. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

This is a good example of what @ntusikov.bsky.social and I have been warning about for years: US tech companies are uniquely susceptible to extra-legal US government pressure (Google isn’t compelled to change Lake Ontario’s name.) Because of this, they represent a direct threat to Canadian autonomy.