Two & Out
James Peters is our News Director, promoted to the position in November 2023. He got the journalism bug as a youth and hasn’t been able to shake it since, working in radio newsrooms in Manitoba and Alberta before settling at CFJC in 2006. James anchors the afternoon news on B-100 and 98.3 CIFM, and his newscasts have been honoured multiple times as the best small market newscasts in both BC and Canada. When he’s not working, James enjoys spending time with his wife Jennie, his daughter Eden, and his son Jovan.
Two and Out
PETERS: The highs and lows of Kamloops council
THIS WEEK, we saw the highs and lows of what Kamloops council can do.First, the highs.What council did this week in launching the process to open its own medical clinic is a glimpse of the potential positive impact local government can have on its community.It's an example of being innovative enough to think outside th...
May 09, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: Elections Canada did not do enough to fix its voter card mistake
ANYONE WHO WAS PREVENTED FROM VOTING on Monday because of a screwup at Elections Canada has a right to be more than a little perturbed.Many residents of the Kamloops-Shuswap-Central Rockies riding received voter cards that told them polls would be open Monday between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.That was actually only true i...
May 03, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: The myth of local representation in East Kamloops
IN THEORY, our Canadian parliament is supposed to be about local representation.Each electoral area chooses one representative to go to Ottawa, sit in the House of Commons and stand up for the interests brought forward by the communities who sent them there.Of course, we know a major flaw has developed in that model, a...
Apr 25, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: The mayor of Kamloops does not need a gold chain
MAYOR REID HAMER-JACKSON has not received a lot of love on Two and Out since he came to office more than two years ago.This week, though, he struck just the right tone in his response to a councillor's idea that the city replace the long-ago stolen Mayor's Chain of Office.The item is best described as ceremonial regali...
Apr 18, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: School district budget roller coaster takes another turn
THE KAMLOOPS-THOMPSON SCHOOL DISTRICT is proposing deep staffing cuts in order to balance the budget next school year. The district wants to eliminate more than 75 positions - 27-and-a-half on the teaching side and 49 on the support staff side. That is about three per cent of the district's total workforce. Speaking to...
Apr 11, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: 'Spend now versus spend later' is a debate worth having
KAMLOOPS COUNCIL faced the age-old conundrum this week - pay now or pay later?Council was debating a suite of proposals from staff to knock down the projected tax increase from north of 9 per cent to about 7-and-a-half.That's no small potatoes for most of us. The most significant portion of that saving would come from ...
Apr 04, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: It's a single-issue election, just like those during wartime
IT'S ELECTION SEASON IN CANADA - and mercifully, it will be a short one.That's fine, because there is only one ballot question that really bears asking this time around.In 2021, the election was, in part, a referendum on the handling on the COVID-19 pandemic, but there were other matters to consider.The Trudeau Liberal...
Mar 28, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: Eby's Bill 7 fights Trump with more Trump
DESPERATE TIMES call for desperate measures.That's the logic David Eby is using to justify an alarming proposed law that would allow the premier to bypass the legislative assembly and, thus, democracy itself.Bill 7 allows Eby and his cabinet to do basically anything it wants in the name of protecting the province's eco...
Mar 21, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: Economic uncertainty bears unsettling resemblance to COVID-19 pandemic for Canadians
IT'S BEEN FIVE YEARS NOW since the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic and that is enough time to look back on it with some perspective.Think back to March of 2020 - if you can bear to do so - and compare it with what we're experiencing right now.There was so much uncertainty because most of us had never experien...
Mar 14, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: What's the plan here?
ASK ANY BUSINESS OWNER about their Number 1 wish for their business and they will probably say prosperity. Success.That's understandable.But coming in a very close second will be stability. Predictability. If you have a pretty good idea how the market is going to act, how regulators are going to act, what governments a...
Mar 07, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: While working to stem tariff threat, Eby can't neglect systemic healthcare problems in B.C.
IT'S NOT DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND why governments at all levels are putting their focus on protecting and growing the economy.U.S. President Donald Trump continues to threaten massive import tariffs against Canada, believing they will be his very own cash cow.In actual fact, most credible economists and political leader...
Feb 28, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: More than just a hockey game
LAST NIGHT'S FOUR NATIONS FACEOFF final pitting Canada against the United States transcended the sport of hockey.Generations from now, Canadians will tell their children and grandchildren where they were when Connor McDavid scored the overtime winner - just the way our parents and grandparents tell us about Paul Hender...
Feb 21, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: Even in our camera-mad world, we need to be wary of government surveillance
KAMLOOPS COUNCIL IS CONSIDERING whether to okay widespread surveillance on public infrastructure as a means to deter crime.Just 20 years ago, such an idea would have been summarily decried as foreign and frightening but things are different here in 2025.Most of us are quickly coming to the realization that we can be on...
Feb 14, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: Are national anthems really necessary before every sporting event?
NOTHING UNITES CANADIANS like a common enemy - especially when that enemy is actually our best friend, the United States of America.An Angus Reid poll found the number of Canadians who described themselves as "very proud" to be Canadian has jumped 10 per cent. The same spike was seen in the number who said th...
Feb 07, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: Are there any arguments left that could derail a proposed housing project?
THE NEED FOR HOUSING in Kamloops has never been greater.According to a housing needs report received by council last month, the city will have to add more than 23,000 new units in the next 15 to 20 years.But the need is not only for future growth. We have a deficit right now.Whatever you think of its tactics, the provi...
Jan 31, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: Taxpayers should not have to pay a nickel for mayor's axe-grinding lawsuit against councillor
IN LIGHT OF EVERYTHING WE LEARNED this week about the state of Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson's defamation lawsuit against Councillor Katie Neustaeter, it may seem to make the most sense for the mayor to just drop it.Consider this: the mayor is low on funds - and even if he wasn't, he admitted he can't find a lawyer to take ...
Jan 24, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: Paying attention is half the battle
IT WAS WOODY ALLEN who said, "Just showing up is half the battle."When it comes to the public's access to local democracy, simply paying attention is half the battle.In B.C. Supreme Court this week is a lawsuit disputing the alternative approval process (AAP) that resulted in public assent to borrow millions ...
Jan 17, 2025
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Two and Out
PETERS: You know what? Maybe the U.S. annexing Canada isn't such a bad idea after all
JUSTIN TRUDEAU did a couple of very smart things this week.First, he announced his resignation - which is Canadian custom for a prime minister when our World Junior hockey team loses so embarrassingly.Second, he responded strongly in the negative to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's threatened annexation of Canada, s...
Jan 10, 2025
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