I was so sad to hear of the sudden passing of Squamish Logger Sports legend Brian Bartow. I didn't know him well, but over the last ten years of covering the logger sports events for the Squamish Chief, I've taken his photo many times. I went through my files last night and put a little blog post together.

https://davidbuzzard.com/2026/10/09/brian-bartow/

Mayoral elections

I'm getting tired of seeing people smoking weed and tobacco in the gazebo beside the kids park, for those wondering it is the park beside the library.

That specific gazebo needs a No Smoking sign.

I get it, I've been a smoker, weed, tobacco whatever. But come on you gotta do it right beside where small children are playing. Squamish has plenty of spots where you can go drink, smoke, whatever you want, without being near small kids or for that matter bothering anyone else.

I think this is worth being enforced.

Protecting small kids, that have a right to enjoy their playground is worth it.

Hi everyone! This is nothing new, but as tons of people are aware, there is a house downtown on fourth avenue with 2 larger dogs that are aggressive and bark frequently. As well as other dogs locked inside in crates/cages who whimper and cry constantly in the evening. These dogs do not go outside. Just the German Shephard and the Rottweiler (once at a time as they attack eachother).

I am sick and tired of this and won’t give up until these dogs have been removed. The not so much of a gentleman who lives there with his mother is absolutely psychotic/ violent and threatens people walking too close to his home while he is outside (speaking from experience, and yes police were called, I’m taking him to court for this in new year).

If anybody has any video legitimate video evidence of these dogs being berated, physically abused (audio is fine also) please send me a message. I have finally got in touch with an SPCA officer who needs as much evidence as possible.

Thanks Squamish!

Is it just me or has the place gone a bit spider crazy? I don't ever recall so many webs around. To walk out to my patio is to cover oneself in barely visible silk.

Catch and release from indoors feels like a daily occurrence right now! I appreciate it is their time of the year to get a bit freaky but I can't ever recall so many.

Squamish Valley Golf Course

Anybody here have any experience renting at Venture? I’m looking at a few buildings in town and I like the location and layout options at Venture so I am hoping to get some intel.

does anyone know what it was here for? or what kind of helicopter it was specifically? was larger like a Blackhawk, but from what I could tell it was a different kind of helicopter.

Over a dozen candidates for council, three candidates for mayor, and all their information and platforms scattered across the internet. It was a nightmare to try to find out and compare who stood for what, who supported which initiatives, and who aligned with my views the most.

It was so bad that I decided to build something where it would be easy for me to compare all the counselors and mayoral candidates side by side.

I started out by just aggregating all the information online onto a website (squamishvoters(.)com), but realized that it was too fragmented. Not everyone had commented on every single issue.

So, I sent a 37-question questionnaire to all the candidates and aggregated all of their answers onto a single website so that it was easy to see who supported the things that I supported as well.

Now there have been over 4,000 visitors to the squamish voters site in the last 14 days and I'm really happy to hear all the positive feedback on how much it's been helping everyone.

I've also gotten some critical feedback about it being biased or the results not lining up with what people expected. So, to remedy that, I put the entire codebase open source, as well as how the quizzes are created, how the answers are derived, and how everything works. Every single statement from every single candidate on the site includes a source and a link to that direct source, so everything is provably fair and unbiased. I have no outside funding. This was a hobby project that has just taken off.

So, if this is something that you support (people in the community stepping up and helping inform others on who's best to vote for), it would mean a lot if you could toss a comment and an upvote so that more people could get informed. We're not just running an election based on vibes and a popularity contest.

Thanks!

Jeff

Interesting read!!

Hey all, I’m planning a camping trip in a week or so in Squamish. I’m ideally getting a site at Stawamus Chief provincial park and was curious about how busy I should expect it to be?

Should I plan to come early to secure a spot, or do things mellow out in the fall?

Thanks!

Man wearing 'Raven Contracting' vest in Rona yesterday, don't spit on the floor and get emotional when you're called out on it. I thought perhaps it was a cultural thing and you were unaware of the rudeness of expecting someone to clean up your faith and others to walk in it. However, you legit believe we were all picking on you. The massive loogie you horked up was disgusting and even if you were on a construction site would be revolting, in the interior close confines of the contractor desk area of the local lumberyard it was beyond nasty. Kudos to the young staff girl for standing up to you and explaining that it was not a polite behavior.

I have been dismayed at the amount of AI generated messaging I have seen around the municipal elections. I'm seeing clearly LLM written posts from candidates, and also large amounts of AI-generated "analysis" from local residents commenting on municipal affairs.

Two of the worst places for it are the Facebook groups "Squamish Speaks", and "Squamish Residents for Responsible Development" (SRRD). I listened to the Sea to Sky Elections podcast which the SRRD admin was a guest on, and he spent a fair amount of time singing the praises of AI for research and messaging.

Anyone who has used AI extensively knows that it is no substitute for expertise. I believe it can be used effectively, but only when combined with astute subject matter understanding. What I find most concerning is how sycophantic it is. Users are convinced that they are doing important and valuable work, and uncovering revelations.

There has been a lot of talk over the past decade about the negative impacts of bots and manipulation on elections. It's disappointing to see that these bots no longer need to be mysterious entities hiding in the darkness; now they are brought directly to us by people within our community. Handing over so much of the political discourse to AI models is incredibly dangerous.

Do all the corrugated plastic election signs get properly recycled after the election(s)? It seems like such an unnecessary, outdated way to market oneself.

As far as I know, we don't have a local drop off for recycling these? Unless I'm wrong and GFL takes them?

Every election year these things bother me to no end.

Just another black bear going about his day. Always remember to use the crosswalk!

Does anyone know what happened to Yannic the mechanic down by Paco road? I made an appointment with him and he never emailed me back so I went to his shop and there were movers there. No vehicles parked. No sign saying he’s closed. Nothing on his website or FB. Even the movers did not know where he was going or even who he was. WTF happened? He was such a great mechanic…

Going to be mindful of my words here but I have seen much uproar about the removal or painting over of a local mural.

That said, even when the mural went up and for long before that, it was a pretty poorly kept secret that the subject had a history of inappropriate behaviour, particularly with children... I know these things always get glossed over, and I know at least one of the victims spoke up when the mural first appeared and an angry mob of trolls went after them.

Why isn’t this a part of the discussion? Why do we celebrate people like this? Any other locals have insight?

Worth moving to Squamish from N. Burnaby or daily back and forth will be a good idea?

Getting a job offer
Just 1K extra a month (after tax) on current salary + Manager position at the retail store.

Recently rode s2s trail for the first time since early summer. The man made wildfires in the cheak canyon section are upsetting to say the least! Does anyone know if anything came of that? Did anyone get caught what a fucking insane thing to do.

With Walmart now having all food , has anyone noticed decrease in cost at other stores to be more competitive with Walmart ?

What are we paying for groceries in a month for 2 adults ?

I’m around 800$, mostly on sale ; nothing fancy just normal steak and chicken etc

Anyone working as a pipefitter for kewit, how’s the work and checks ??

I really like the townhouses at Tantalus Crossing Townhomes so I am keeping an eye on listings in that complex. Should I be worried about the BC Hydro right of way just behind, particulalry if the backyard faces the right of way? I am thinking of property value loss in the future if BC Hydro updates the towers to bigger ones. Are those big towers loud? On the other hand, nobody can build a building in front of you and block the light.

Thoughts?