Daily Digest: Green Party leader sees high emotion in Canada's election, Trump kills FEMA aid
[Good morning! You're receiving a free subscription to Cascadia Journal's Daily Digest, a round-up of news, environmental reporting, and arts coverage from across the Pacific Northwest. For $5 a month, you can receive this newsletter in your inbox every morning. Andrew Engelson's weekly essays about issues facing the Cascadia bioregion are available free. Hope you'll sign up!]
In BC, Green Party leader sees new divisiveness
Representing the British Columbia riding that includes the Gulf Islands and much of northern Victoria, the co-leader of Canada's Green Party, Elizabeth May talks with The Tyee about Canada's upcoming federal election on April 28. Though the country's two left-of-center parties – the Liberals and the NDP – are leading in the polls over Conservatives (a huge turnaround caused largely by Trump's belligerent trade war) May, one of two Green Party MP in Parliament, says she's seeing high emotions in her district. May, who suffered a stroke in 2023 but has since recovered, said “There are many things I want to accomplish before I decide I’m going to retire, and I want to keep working." CBC reports that voters on Vancouver Island are contemplating voting strategically – since their alternatives to the Conservatives and the party's leader Pierre Poilievre are three different choices: Green, Liberal or NDP.
Trump halts FEMA aid to Washington, Oregon
KUOW reports that the Trump administration has denied Washington state's request to FEMA for disaster aid related to the "bomb cyclone" storm that killed two people and caused $34 million in damage across the state this past November. In Oregon, a $140 FEMA grant for building disaster-resilient infrastructure is on hold. The Oregon attorney general has joined a lawsuit with other blue states that have seen disaster aid slashed by Trump.
Court rules in favor of Haida Gwaii over timber company
A great in-depth feature at the Narwhal looks at how the Haida Gwaii First Nation, which gained title to all its lands and has limited logging, attained a victory in the BC Supreme Court over Teal Cedar Products, a massive timber firm that tried to claim the restrictions would limit its profitability unfairly and sued for $75 million in damages. Last summer, I traveled to the lands of the Gitanyow First Nation in northern BC, and wrote a feature for the Tyee on how that First Nation hopes to also achieve title for all its lands and better manage declining salmon runs.
Celebrating the "Log Lady" actress in Ashland
Though most people know Oregon actress Catherine E. Coulson for her portrayal as the quirking Log Lady in David Lynch's Twin Peaks, she was also a beloved part of the Ashland Shakespeare Festival for decades. Oregon ArtsWatch reports on a new documentary about Coulson's life "I Know Catherine, the Log Lady," debuting at the Ashland Independent Film Festival. As the Log Lady once said, " "The Answer is within the question."