The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Vancouver - Carole James, a child-care worker and former school trustee, won the leadership of B.C.'s NDP on Sunday, pledging to remind people there is an alternative to the governing Liberals. James won on the second ballot. James promised to travel the province to win back voters to the party that has governed British Columbia for 10 of the last dozen years. The NDP won only two seats in the 79-seat provincial legislature. The Liberals won the rest. Winnipeg - Manitoba's plan for a provincewide smoking ban may end up being just smoke and mirrors, critics say, because of the daunting task of inspecting bars and restaurants from the United States border to Churchill, Man., on Hudson Bay. "It's going to be very difficult to enforce it all the way across the province," said Stuart Briese, president of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities. It's being touted as the first sweeping, provincewide ban in Canada. But the government has yet to develop a plan to make sure people butt out. Ottawa - The Indian Affairs Department is paying First Nations to draft their own reporting rules in a bid to better track how the government spends $5 billion a year. More than 100 approved bands across Canada will receive a total of $3.6 million to write or tighten fiscal, electoral and administrative codes.
