“It’s madness. We’re on a downward resource spiral, yet we fail to recover 70 percent of the resources we consume. Are we crazy?” --- David Newman, a board member with the International Solid Waste Association, wonders what we’re doing about waste. The answer to his question is probably “yes”. (Nation of Change, June 24)

“I do think people will become sick and probably some people will die because of this.” --- Dr. Megan Williams, an Ottawa-based family physician, confronts Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq over the Harper government’s plan to save a measly $100 million by gutting health care coverage for refugees. (Huffington Post, June 27)

“There is a certain amount of common sense amongst Prairie folk, an instinctive wisdom and moral compass that is frequently absent in the hustling city of Edmonton and in the Ottawa Bubble.” --- Conservative backbencher Brent Rathgeber lambastes his own Cabinet’s extravagance, including more than $600,000 paid in overtime fees to the dozens of limo drivers who wait hours in front of Parliament Hill to ferry ever self-important Tories around Ottawa. (Edmonton Journal, June 27)