Profile of Michael Johansen

Biography

MIchael Johansen is a resident of North West River, Labrador. His column "North of Here" appears every Monday.

All articles of Michael Johansen

• Two regions, one thumb
  Labrador and New Brunswick share two things in common at the moment: brand new highways and an almost complete lack of public transportation.In ...
• Dogs are my favourite people
  Forty-seven homeless dogs on the Goose Bay tarmac waiting for a plane; then the same 47 on another tarmac in Halifax — all to have homes within ...
• A clear vote for a referendum
  One vote: that’s all it should take. If the provincial government is truly interested in knowing how many citizens support building more dams in ...
• Ten reasons why Citizen Williams is wrong
  “The facts,” one ex-politician said recently to a board of merchants, “should be enough.”Quite right. But enough for what? And which facts? One ...
• The price of Nixonian politics
  Despite his fall from power (his plummet from the highest office in the United States), the late Richard Milhous Nixon is still considered by ...
• So much for Nalcor being green
  Apparently the Lower Churchill hydroelectric project is already producing so much crap that a single day without flushing can cause an ...
• Nalcor's doing more than it says
  At six o’clock a sudden explosion erupted and split the peaceful Thanksgiving Saturday evening, so large and loud it was heard many kilometres ...
• A curious case of missing bugs
  This summer, pest-wise, began normally enough — that is, the bug-to-human ratio reached several gazillions to one as soon as the leaves ...
• Out of sight, not out of mind
  The name “Labrador” didn’t appear even once in the policy platform the now-governing Parti Quebecois published before their recent election. ...
• Flim-flam, but no mumbo-jumbo
  Hello everyone! Thanks for coming. Quiet down, please! Thank you. Let me welcome you to the first meeting of the Lake Melville District Homework ...
• The very stones beneath their feet
  Pity poor Nalcor. Things were going so well for the company, but lately it’s run into some trouble with a few pesky bits of rock. Frustrated: ...
• Well-armed and ready to run
  The sun was already set and the moon had not yet risen above the treetops, but a single candle was enough to illuminate a washtub half-full of ...
• Just another sacrifice to so-called progress
  The government of Newfoundland and Labrador is spending $1.9 million to figure out why the population of the Ungava Peninsula’s George River ...
• Zero to 60 in 40 years' flat
  There’s no doubt about it: western Labrador is far-and-away winning the regional semi-finals. Their paving teams look like they’ll reach the ...
• A little ahead, but so far behind
  The first item was the easiest: one plastic pop bottle. Where to? Recycling, of course. Into the blue box with it. How about the cap? That’s for ...
• Betwixt flying and falling
  Being suspended in mid-air can make a split second seem like a long time. My feet were still touching a spray-slicked boulder, but my center of ...
• There goes the neighbourhood
  When your neighbours are in the news, it usually means they're in trouble and when your neighbours are in trouble it can mean their problems will ...
• The Emperor's new hydroelectric dam
  For those who don’t remember the story about the Emperor and his new clothes, here’s the gist of it: The Emperor, who had more money than brains, ...
• Fighting a mid-summer media chill
  "I'm against the project - always have been," I said on a live radio call-in show earlier this year: the Jan. 17 edition of "Radio Noon's ...
• Fighting a mid-summer media chill
  “I’m against the project — always have been,” I said on a live radio call-in show earlier this year: the Jan. 17 edition of “Radio Noon’s ...
• Lo, the trembling of the Earth
  Far beneath the Big Land, deep below the spruce-clad hills, underground to where the Earth’s crust floats on a sea of molten rock, that’s where ...
• Rain, rain, don't go away
  A man’s voice came out of the dark, but I couldn’t see his face past a pair of glaring headlights. I only saw it was Edward when he came up to ...
• The canary in the coalmine
  The public air terminal at 5 Wing Goose Bay is going through a remarkable transformation. It no longer looks anything like the building I entered ...
• Much smoke and a lot of fire
  The clouds of smoke that billowed from a forest fire behind 5 Wing Goose Bay a few weeks ago, choking out the residents around Terrington Basin ...
• Sensible precautions in bear country
  “Whatever you do,” one friend advised me on the question of how to play dead during a bear attack, “always clasp your hands over the back of your ...
• The problem with Schrödinger’s Cat
  If Erwin Schrödinger had ever owned a cat, it’s fairly certain he would never have locked it inside a booby-trapped box to find out if it would ...
• Bureaucracy at its worst
  For many years it was known as the Old Map Building, but everything around it was just as old.There was the Old Harbourmaster’s House, the Old ...
• Three rules for litterbugs
  The sun shone warm through broad leaves onto a forest trail. I was maybe seven years old, trundling down the path ahead of my mother. I spotted ...
• Don’t mention the war
  At one time, it was easy to discover when Labrador’s annual low-level flying season had begun. All you had to do was sleep soundly somewhere in ...
• Back of the book no more — or not
  Tourism guides published about this region of Canada (including my own guide, I add with humility) teach travellers and others that if you’re ...