Jack Knox
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Articles by Jack Knox
Jack Knox: Tiny downtown Victoria lunch fixture closing after two decades
As an antidote to the huffing and puffing of the election campaign, meet Mei Lee. Or, perhaps, meet her again. We first ran across her in 2009, a tiny woman eking out a living in a tiny little soup-and-sandwich shop carved out of the side of the Bay Centre. Back then, her Orchard on View Marketplace was barely hanging on, one of a handful of downtown businesses victimized by a spate of late-night drunken window-smashing.
Jack Knox: If you think overlapping elections are bad, try voting in U.S.
Some random post-election musings: • If you want to make Vancouver Island New Democrats annoyed, talk about the Conservatives. If you want to make them go right off their nuts, mention the Greens. The NDP can argue that vote-splitting on the left cost them all five Island seats in which the Conservatives found themselves on top after Saturday. The Greens can counter that the real split was between the NDP and disillusioned supporters.
Jack Knox: Cost of living tops Island voters' list of concerns
Jack Knox is taking the pulse of Vancouver Island’s 15 ridings, looking at them through the lens of issues of importance in the Oct. 24 B.C. election. Today: Saanich South. Having temporarily wobbled back into the journalistic fray, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks bouncing around Vancouver Island, ambushing strangers at random to talk about the provincial election. Didn’t ask anyone who they were voting for. Didn’t talk to politicians.
Jack Knox: When grinding out a living, tax pinch can hurt
Jack Knox is taking the pulse of Vancouver Island’s 15 ridings, looking at them through the lens of issues of importance in the Oct. 24 B.C. election. Today: Victoria-Swan Lake and Victoria-Beacon Hill and taxes. It’s 3:15 a.m. in the Subway at Blanshard and Kings. Any customers coming in now are likely to be night-shift working stiffs — bartenders and bouncers on their way home, security guards, cabbies, food delivery drivers.
Jack Knox: Greens are up against affordability priorities, even in environmentally savvy B.C.
Jack Knox is taking the pulse of Vancouver Island’s 15 ridings, looking at them through the lens of issues of importance in the Oct. 24 B.C. election. Today: Saanich North and the Islands, Oak Bay-Gordon Head, the environment and climate change.
Jack Knox: Affordability leapfrogs environment, even in eco-savvy B.C.
Jack Knox is taking the pulse of Vancouver Island’s 15 ridings, looking at them through the lens of issues of importance in the Oct. 24 B.C. election. Today: Saanich North and the Islands, Oak Bay-Gordon Head, the environment and climate change.
Jack Knox: Cost of living top of mind in Cowichan and Sooke-area ridings
Jack Knox is taking the pulse of Vancouver Island’s 15 ridings, looking at them through the lens of issues readers say are important in the Oct. 24 B.C. election. Today: Cowichan Valley, Juan de Fuca-Malahat and the cost of living. As we found out when a 2021 washout severed the Trans-Canada Highway, causing Victoria gas stations to run dry, Vancouver Island gets its fuel from a handful of marine terminals on the other side of the Malahat.
Jack Knox: Amid Nanaimo's street disorder crisis, compassion wrestles with exasperation
Jack Knox is taking the pulse of Vancouver Island’s 15 ridings, looking at them through the lens of issues readers say are important in the Oct. 24 B.C. election. Today: Nanaimo-Gabriola Island, Nanaimo-Lantzville and street disorder. It’s 3 o’clock on a sunny afternoon in what is arguably the hippest block on Vancouver Island.
In retiree-heavy ridings, it's all about health care. Also the economy
Jack Knox is taking the pulse of Vancouver Island’s 15 ridings, looking at them through the lens of issues readers say are important in the Oct. 24 B.C. election. Today: Courtenay-Comox and Ladysmith-Oceanside. An icy rain is falling in the Comox Valley, but the woman outside the Merville store is getting hot under the collar. Just retired from a 30-year career as a care aide, she has a few things to say about the medical system. “The nurses are burning out and leaving us,” she fumes.
Forestry woes, cost of living loom large in North Island and Mid Island-Pacific Rim ridings
Jack Knox is dropping in on Vancouver Island’s 15 ridings, looking at them through the lens of some of the issues in the Oct. 24 B.C. election. Today: North Island, Mid Island-Pacific Rim and forestry. David Eby initially framed this election as being about who’s the best choice to fight the threat posed by Donald Trump. Is it the NDP or (and here we paraphrase) a Conservative party littered with right-wing nuts with MAGA hats in their closets? Pshaw, Eby’s critics say.
Forestry woes, cost of living loom large in North Island and Mid Island-Pacific Rim ridings
Forestry woes, cost of living loom large in North Island and Mid Island-Pacific Rim ridings By Jack Knox The Times Colonist October 13, 2026 Category: Business & Politics David Eby initially framed this election as being about who’s the best choice to fight the threat posed by Donald Trump. …Pshaw, Eby’s critics say. …Whether Eby is using Trump as a strawman, and whether the New Democrats are the ones to counter the president and his tariffs, is up for debate.
Jack Knox: For book lovers, TC sale all about finding the right match
Occasionally, rare and valuable books pop up at the Times Colonist book sale — diamonds mined from the hundreds of thousands of volumes donated to the charity event each year. Sometimes it’s fairly easy for the volunteers who sort the donations to spot the more collectable finds. A decade ago, when the sale had a separate “specials area,” an 1894 first edition of Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins was priced at $750.
Jack Knox: Your donation won't save the world, but it can help your neighbour
Jeez, has it really been a whole year since I was last here? Don’t worry, I’m only dropping in for a quick visit, just like Santa. Then I’ll be gone again as fast as the porch pirate who stole your Christmas presents. In the meantime, I’d best catch up with what went on in 2025: • The megalomaniac-in-chief began his comeback tour by lurching around the Oval Office like a menacing drunk on a bus, taking wild swings at the world.
Jack Knox: Generosity of strangers renews our faith in fellow Victorians
As we all know, Christmas sucks. Too much commercialization. Too much (or, rather, too little) money. Too much fruitcake (bleh!). Too many fist fights over the last parking space at the mall. Too many Saturday night office parties, followed by the Monday morning summons from HR.
Jack Knox: Basic necessities go long way to helping seniors in need
Last Christmas Day, I met a lovely woman who appeared to be well into her retirement years. She was neatly dressed, well-spoken, well-mannered and trying mightily to keep her chin up while queueing for a free meal with the other people who couldn’t afford to eat. “Let them go first,” she said, hanging back a bit from the rest of the line at the charity-run lunch. “They have children to feed.” This was not where she expected to be at this stage of life.
Jack Knox: Esquimalt parade organizer was Miracle Child in 1979, after surviving falling through ice
The Esquimalt Celebration of Lights takes place this Sunday. As Christmas parades go, it’s more Mayberry than Macy’s, has a comfy, small-town feel to it. It starts near the base at 5, goes east on Esquimalt Road and reaches the Archie Browning Centre in time for Christmas carols and hot chocolate at 5:30. “Cosy” is the word parade co-ordinator Kim Vis uses to describe the vibe. Vis took on the volunteer role a decade ago — 35 years after she “died”.
Jack Knox has his hand out again — for a good cause
I don’t like asking people for their money, because I don’t like it when they ask me for mine. Doesn’t matter whether it’s the ragged figure squatting on Douglas Street with an upturned hat, or the cashier at the grocery store wondering if I’d like to add a couple of bucks for the Aging Reindeer Appeal. It makes me squirm. Makes me desperately try to avoid eye contact — scanning the sky for incoming missiles, or faking a medical emergency at the till. Even the passive pleas trigger a shudder.
Jack Knox: A side of John Horgan you might not have seen Original
Here’s a side of John Horgan you might not have seen: After pulling the plug on politics, the former premier became a volunteer at the Goldstream Food Bank. With few knowing about it, he did so from the spring of 2023, when he gave up his seat in the legislature, until January, when he was appointed Canada’s ambassador to Germany.
Jack Knox: We might not be able to end world hunger, but we can fill an empty stomach today
Right, I’m back, just like Trump. Not for long, though. I’ll be gone again before he waddles back into the Oval Office and names that Capitol Hill insurrection face-paint-and-horned-fur-hat guy as his CIA director. Still, while here I’d best catch up on what’s been in the news during my absence: • You know how you feel when a dysfunctional friend chooses to get back together with a really bad ex? Not surprised, but still so disappointed that you’re tempted to delete them from your contacts?
'We had to race like crazy': Remembering Islanders' D-Day role 80 years on Original
Even at age 97, Earl Clark would still find himself flashing back to D-Day. “Every once in a while you wake up in the night and, boom, you’re right there,” he said, gripping the arms of his wheelchair. He could hear the mortar rounds raining down, see the machine-gun rounds slapping the water as the Canadian Scottish Regiment — all those Victoria boys, Nanaimo boys, Comox Valley boys — poured onto Juno Beach.
Jack Knox: The TC book sale is this weekend. Here's what you need to know
Twenty-seven things to know about the 27th annual Times Colonist Book Sale: 1. It’s May 4 and 5 at the Victoria Curling Club, 1952 Quadra St., from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 9 to 5 Sunday. 2. The rink is crammed with books, all donated by readers and sorted by volunteers, bless ’em. 3. They’re cheap: $2 for softcovers and children’s books, $4 for hardcovers. You can buy War and Peace for the price of a cappuccino. 4. Payment is by debit, MasterCard, Visa, American Express or cash.
Jack Knox: The Kinder Surprises of the TC book sale
No little urn of cat ashes this year. No brass knuckles. No FBI fingerprint kit. No stash of weed in a hollowed-out copy of Exploring the Ocean World. But you know what the volunteers did find when they sorted through the donations to this coming weekend’s Times Colonist Book Sale? Books. Tens, hundreds of thousands of them. Buried treasures, unearthed. Sometimes opening the cardboard boxes dropped off at the drive-through book collection is like busting into a Kinder Surprise.
Jack Knox: 'I'm here because of Ruth,' says book sale volunteer
Dan Dempsey used to command and lead the Canadian Forces Snowbirds in airshows across North America. He also flew airshows in the F-86 “Golden Hawk” Sabre from 2009-2012 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of powered flight in Canada. His teammates included fellow jet jockeys — and astronauts — Chris Hadfield and Jeremy Hansen.
Udine: Off the tourist track in Italy, little is lost in translation
‘Prendi la donna,” I practised saying. “Basta, non farmi del male.” Or, in English: Take the woman, just don’t hurt me. You must admit, these smartphone translation apps are wonderful. Even in destinations far off the main tourist track, ones where English is relatively uncommon, they let you overcome linguistic barriers that might otherwise turn every interaction into a desperate game of Charades. Udine is such a place.
Jack Knox: You can't solve the world's problems, but you can help a neighbour
Sometimes you ask yourself: “What’s the point?” You read another story about the rising flood of need and realize we’ll never be able to dam the river that feeds it. So why try? Case in point: The United Nations just issued an appeal for $46 billion US to save 180 million people of the world’s poorest people from humanitarian crises in 2024. The UN won’t get anywhere close to that much; last year it asked for $57 billion but raised barely a third of that.
Jack Knox: Asking for your help, even when it’s uncomfortable
A stranger stopped me on the street the other day. “It’s nice to see your column in the paper again,” he said, “even if all you’re doing is asking me for money.” Yes, well, he had me there. After an absence of several months, I wandered back into these pages a few weeks ago to bang the drum for the Times Colonist Christmas Fund. It’s a good cause, but I still feel like that long-vanished friend who only reappears when he wants to borrow your truck.
Jack Knox: Christmas Fund all about neighbours helping neighbours
After her husband died, Shirley Howard moved back to Victoria from Ontario with little more than a bunch of mouths to feed. That first night, the children — ages 2, 4, 6 and 10 – shared a bed in the Craigflower Motel while Shirley slept on the chesterfield. In the morning, she trudged through the snow to a Chinese grocery, the only store open on New Year’s Day of 1965, to buy milk and break for the kids, three of whom woke up with the measles. They made it, though.
Jack Knox: Island woman knows 'you get back what you give'
After her husband died, Shirley Howard moved back to Victoria from Ontario with little more than a bunch of mouths to feed. That first night, the children — ages 2, 4, 6 and 10 – shared a bed in the Craigflower Motel while Shirley slept on the chesterfield. In the morning, she trudged through the snow to a Chinese grocery, the only store open on New Year’s Day of 1965, to buy milk and break for the kids, three of whom woke up with the measles. They made it, though.
Soap for Hope washes away some of the money worries for seniors
News item: Using polling data, a British marketing firm has named Prince William the world’s sexiest bald man for 2023. I slapped my newspaper down in disgust. “Dammit, silver medal again.” Really, I thought this was finally going to be my year. Disheartened, I decided to trundle down to Soap for Hope Canada, just to revive my spirits. This usually does the trick.
Jack Knox: Food costs taking a bigger bite out of non-profits' budgets
Upstairs in the little kitchenette at the Yates Street drop-in centre, a couple of young women have prepared the day’s menu: quesadillas for lunch, chicken stir-fry for supper. Serving meals to so many hungry kids hasn’t always been what the Youth Empowerment Society does, but then we haven’t always lived in an age when so many Victorians have had to choose between paying the rent and filling their stomachs.
TC Christmas Fund: Those in need not always who you expect
Right, back in the saddle. Didn’t mean to be away this long but it has been a busy year. Busy, busy, busy. Just this week, for example, I bought a spatula. To quote Ferris: “Life moves pretty fast.” What’s been in the news since I was last here in May? Depressingly familiar stuff, mostly: inflation, war, (un)affordable housing.
Jack Knox: Sad end to book sale mystery: Soldier died at 19
The mystery of the soldier’s diary has been solved — though not with a storybook ending. Charles Deane Douglass, who graduated from school in Victoria, never made it home from the First World War. He was still a teenager when he died near Ypres, in Flanders, where the poppies grow. This story began two weeks ago when a slim, pocket-sized diary emerged from one of the boxes of donations to the Times Colonist Book Sale.
Jack Knox: The Kinder Surprises of the Times Colonist Book Sale
“Terrible bombardment today,” one entry reads. “Men killed.” Then it goes on to talk of gas attacks, blanketless nights in the snow, a young man’s hand being blown off and — a note of joy here — a day with a hot bath. Poignant stuff. It was in a First World War soldier’s diary, found among the hundreds of thousands of books donated to this weekend’s Times Colonist Book Sale. Belonging to a Pte.
Jack Knox: Volunteers are the (aching) backbone of Times Colonist book sale
One year, a woman came to the Times Colonist book sale looking for a needle in a haystack. Hundreds of thousands of books on display, but she really wanted just one: an impossible-to-find air force history written by her father. “Do you mean that one?” replied Richard Pope, pointing to a volume on a table of military tomes he had sorted. “My God, there it is,” the woman said, stunned. Moments like that are what have kept Pope volunteering at the annual book drive for the past two decades.
Book dropoff Saturday, Sunday at Victoria Curling Club; and, can you spare 100 tables for our book sale?
There are times you should really keep your mouth shut, just in case you tempt the gods of fate to shut it for you. “We won’t need an umbrella. It’s not going to rain.” “What are the chances of your parents walking in?” “Lightning never strikes twice, Mr. Trevino.” “At least we won’t have to worry about tables this year.” That last one was at a Times Colonist book drive organizing meeting.
COLUMN: At the end of the day, local journalism matters
Long ago, on my first day at the Times Colonist, I was toured around the building by an editor who cheerfully pointed out places where people had had sex. The cot in the first aid room made sense, but the stairwell just looked painful. As it turned out, no such perks were on offer – at least to me – by the time I first climbed those stairs, though employees did get half-price newspaper subscriptions. The TC was still a fun place to work.
Jack Knox: At the end of the day, local journalism matters Original
Long ago, on my first day at the Times Colonist, I was toured around the building by an editor who cheerfully pointed out places where people had had sex. The cot in the first aid room made sense, but the stairwell just looked painful. As it turned out, no such perks were on offer — at least to me — by the time I first climbed those stairs, though employees did get half-price newspaper subscriptions. The TC was still a fun place to work.
Jack Knox: What do you do after catching a puck in the mouth? Get up
This isn’t about hockey. It’s about taking a puck in the teeth — metaphorically speaking — and getting up again. Coll Campbell is stripped to the waist in a sweaty post-game dressing room in Saanich’s Pearkes arena. His shoulder is livid where, a week or so ago, he had 30 stitches sewn in. Skin cancer. The Radium Hot Springs man was in the middle of that surgery when he piped up with: “By the way, I’ve got an oldtimers game tomorrow. OK if I play?” No, he was told.
Jack Knox: Seeking absolution on Email Debt Forgiveness Day
Back in the Before Times, in 2019, I wrote a column about a half-finished message that had been sitting in the drafts folder of my email for five years. The unsent message was my reply to a reader who had written me in anger. Hers was a lengthy, thoughtful, well-argued critique of a column she didn’t like, and I had decided that instead of dashing off a hasty response, I should take the time to compose an equally thoughtful letter.
Jack Knox: Seeking absolution on Email Debt Forgiveness Day
Back in the Before Times, in 2019, I wrote a column about a half-finished message that had been sitting in the drafts folder of my email for five years. The unsent message was my reply to a reader who had written me in anger. Hers was a lengthy, thoughtful, well-argued critique of a column she didn’t like, and I had decided that instead of dashing off a hasty response, I should take the time to compose an equally thoughtful letter.
The struggle to keep Canada's oldest Chinese temple open - BC News
Somehow the deity emerged unscathed from the fire that ripped through Victoria's Tam Kung Temple in 1980. Banners burned, flags went up in flames and intricate embroideries were damaged, yet the statuette of Tam Kung remained intact on its altar. That’s why, roughly 160 years after the wooden carving was brought to Victoria, Nora Butz was able to go to Canada’s oldest operating Chinese temple to seek guidance.
The struggle to keep Canada’s oldest Chinese temple open
Somehow the deity emerged unscathed from the fire that ripped through the Government Street temple in 1980. Banners burned, flags went up in flames and intricate embroideries were damaged, yet the statuette of Tam Kung remained intact on its altar. That’s why, roughly 160 years after the wooden carving was brought to Victoria, Nora Butz was able to go to Canada’s oldest operating Chinese temple to seek the god’s guidance this week. You can, too, if you like.
The struggle to keep Canada's oldest Chinese temple open
Somehow the deity emerged unscathed from the fire that ripped through the Government Street temple in 1980. Banners burned, flags went up in flames and intricate embroideries were damaged, yet the statuette of Tam Kung remained intact on its altar. That’s why, roughly 160 years after the wooden carving was brought to Victoria, Nora Butz was able to go to Canada’s oldest operating Chinese temple to seek the god’s guidance this week. You can, too, if you like.
Jack Knox: In a city of single seniors, we can relate to Roger the marmot
Warm day, cherry blossoms blooming, we’re basking in the sun in front of The Empress when Roger elbows me in the ribs. “There’s Ed Bain,” he says, nodding toward the sidewalk. “You want to meet him?” I ask. “He came from Alberta, just like you.” Roger quickly shakes his head, no. Marmots are shy that way. He keeps tracking Ed with his eyes, though: “He looks younger than I expected.” “Pot, meet kettle,” I reply. Well, he couldn’t dispute that.
Point Ellice House closes: “We weren’t bluffing”
Wednesday’s sudden closing of the Point Ellice House Museum and Gardens was not, in fact, sudden. The operators of the Victoria heritage gem had warned for years that they would have to pull the plug if the province didn’t provide sustainable funding. The big question now is: Will other publicly owned historical properties follow? “We’re the first to close.
Jack Knox: Exploring a vanished village at Cordova Bay
The W̱SÁNEĆ people have an ancient story about a young man who wanted a giant to teach him a powerful song. OK, the giant said, I’ll teach it to you as long as you agree not to share it with anyone. Alas, the young man couldn’t help himself. As he and his wife paddled back from Point Roberts, where the giant lived, to their home in ȾEL¸IȽĆE, a village on the eastern side of the Saanich Peninsula, he burst into song.
Jack Knox: Our book sale is back, boosting Island literacy
Island schools begin spring break this week. Maybe that’s why the teacher-librarians looked so giddy. Or maybe it was because I was waltzing in the door bearing cheques from the Times Colonist Literacy Fund. This is one of the best parts about the newspaper’s annual book sale: others do the heavy lifting, but people like me get the glory. Over the past few days, I swanned around town like some bald-headed, mustard-stained Santa Claus, handing out sale proceeds to grateful recipients.
Jack Knox: Herring only live in Craigflower Bridge memories
It used to get chaotic on the old, narrow Craigflower Bridge. In the 1980s, the fishermen crowded the railing shoulder-to-shoulder, elbow-to-reel from one shore to the other, packed together like, well, herring. Rods bent and fish flashed silver in the sun after hitting the multi-hooked jigs three, four, five at a time. Curses filled the air as lines crossed and gear tangled. Gulls lurked and plunged, snatching herring from unattended buckets.
'Handshakes and hugs, not handcuffs': Cop-nurse team tackles mental-health calls Original
Squatting on the sidewalk, a man in a white hoodie smokes meth from a glass pipe while grooving to the tunes pounding out of his music player. Were he in the doorway of a Government Street business, he might get shooed elsewhere, but he’s on The Block, as this tented and tattered stretch of Pandora Avenue is known. Besides, Const. Tristan Williams and nurse Chris Nagainis are otherwise focused. They’re looking for a young man whose brother has just died suddenly.
Jack Knox: To get blood boiling, just ask about public art Original
Nothing gets our knickers in a knot like public art. China can be accused of messing with our elections, Putin can mutter about nukes, and climate change can leave polar bears doing the backstroke amid the melting ice, and we just shrug. But plunk a sculpture in an outdoor space where everyone can pass judgment on it, and even the Dalai Lama will curl his lip and start snarling and spitting like it’s a bike-lane debate.
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