inform  engage  truthful

We moved to Qualicum beach from the Lower Mainland in 2018 after retiring from professional legal and banking careers. We loved the small town character and stunning natural vistas from the beach to Mount Arrowsmith.  As we announced our plans to move , we boasted to our friends that QB has only one traffic light in town, no parking meters and neither a shopping mall nor any big box stores. We half expected to see Sherriff Andy Taylor and Barney Fife strolling down the sidewalk on their way to the local coffee shop.  For us moving to QB has been the perfect choice and we appreciate the slower more thoughtful pace of life. 

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We have made many new friends and acquaintances over the years. Frequently conversations begin with "Have you heard about" or "What do you think about? (insert any QB topic.)  Most often this is followed by a puzzled look and "No, I haven't heard anything about that." Most QBers are very proud of their town and want to protect the things they love, often the very things that attracted them to live here in the first place.  What surprises us is the lack of participation by residents in the stewardship of their town. A lack of informed reporting perpetuates the popular belief that everything is fine in QB. However unlike the town of Mayberry in the 1960's, our town is currently facing some significant challenges worthy of citizen engagement.

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In the distant past, local independent newspapers served an important role of disseminating factual in depth reporting on local government matters. Budget and business model constraints  have reduced the news component of our nationally owned  paper to simply a wrapper to hold local advertising leaving residents in the dark as to the real issues in our town.

 More recently "Second Opinion" tried to fill this significant void, but sadly they are no longer publishing.  In an attempt to  continue the work undertaken by the Second Opinion we are launching Qualicum Beach Insights as a community resource. 

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Marie and Jim Noel

Contact us at  QualicumBeachInsights@gmail.com

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