Editorially speaking…
Although today is the 1st of January 2026—the first day of the rest of our lives, as some sage once said—I’m going to use this issue’s Editorial to clear up some odds ‘n’ sods from what, overnight, became “last year.”
Sort of clearing my decks for hosting the BC Chronicles in 2026.
As regular readers are sure to know by now, heritage news always catches my eye. The latest item, this one three weeks ago in the Victoria Times Colonist, tells of another heritage home about to be demolished.
But not, for a change, to make way for new development; rather, the result of arson that so damaged the two-storey Victorian house at 111 Caledonia Avenue that it must come down.
Sad.
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Here’s one dear to my heart—the English language. By which I mean, English spelling. Or, as Word insists, English Canadian. What prompts this rant is a recent newspaper headline, “Canadian English supporters urge [Prime Minister] Carney to abandon shift to British spelling.”
Back in the dinosaur age when I worked at what was The Daily Colonist, everything was spelled the American way. Why? you ask. Because, to give one example, dropping those “u’s” tightened up space. Only fractionally, sure, but space really counted in a newspaper that was operated, in my entire worldly experience, as cheaply as was humanly possible. And I do mean, cheap.
When the newsroom complained that the fluorescent ceiling lights were so bright that they were causing eyestrain and headaches, rather than replace them, the managing editor, who lived and breathed economy for his employers, simply had every other fluorescent tube removed.
This certainly solved the too bright problem; now, reporters and editors could hardly read what they were writing or editing. It was back to complaining, of course—so back came the missing tubes, and to being blindingly bright.
But no one complained this time because, what was the point? It was the nature of the beast.
Now, I think you’ll understand why we wrote “endeavor” instead of “endeavour,” etc.
Dropping those “u’s” really added up!
Fast-forward to the present and the BC Chronicles, which obviously favours (see?) English rather than American spellings. The joke was, soon after I began posting, I received a complaint from a disenchanted reader who accused me of being “unable to spell”!
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Two weeks ago, a former Saanich Police auxiliary constable was honoured with long overdue recognition for an act of bravery during a 1973 knife attack.
It took more than 50 years to formally honour Graeme Henderson’s risking his own life to protect a fellow officer when a drunk driver became violent, pulled a knife, and stabbed Sgt. David Yuill in the back of the neck.
What brought all this back was an interview with a retired police department sergeant by Bill Turner of the Saanich Police Historical Society. When details of the long forgotten incident were passed on to the office of the current Chief Constable, the department was instructed to review the 1973 case.
Ergo, Henderson’s belated Citizen’s Award of Valour.
My point being that history is seldom truly gone and done with, but often relevant to the present and the future. It’s not often that we can correct errors and omissions from the past, as in the case of Graeme Henderson, but another reason to make ourselves aware of the past by reading, for one.
That didn’t really clear my desk, but who cares at this time of year?
Happy New Year!
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