Opinion

It's that time of year again. No, not Valentine's Day or your mother's birthday. Maybe the colourful posters all over SUB gave you a clue — yes, it's the Students' Union elections. Once a year, 20 per cent of the student body whips themselves into a state of caring about student politics enough to bother voting in the SU Exec for the following year.

I hereby declare today to be Free Soy for Lactose Intolerant Students Day, because we lactose intolerants have been charged too much, for too long. While we don't have a university club, or a Facebook fan page, we actually outnumber the milk-drinkers.

In their latest attempt to jump on the social media bandwagon, the U of A launched an official blog last week, called Colloquy@UAlberta, which can be found at ualbertablog.ca.

We've all heard that university is a time of learning and personal growth, but after doing my time in Lister, I'm calling bullshit.

If you've lived a blessed life, away from contact with the strange and overly dramatic world of music-related subcultures, you may never have heard of straight edge. It began in the '70s as a protest against the hardcore punk scene of the time. They rejected hedonism, drinking, and drugs, with many followers also rejecting promiscuous sex.

As a single man, surrounded by friends who are happily engaging themselves in medium- to long-term relationships, it is with extreme enthusiasm that I await that most widely hated of holidays, Valentine's Day.

Conservative opponents have dubbed Bill C-389 the "bathroom bill," warning that if it passes, sexual predators will legally be allowed access to women's washrooms. This, of course, is bullshit; C-389 will add "gender identity" and "gender expression" as protected categories under the Canada Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code's hate crimes section, not grant bathroom privileges to rapists.

All winter long, Edmonton Transit has been torturing thousands of commuters forced to deal with inexplicably late buses, incompetent service, and perpetually broken-down LRT trains. As an apologetic act of love this Valentine's Day season, ETS has given us the gift of ... increased fares-?

With Valentine's Day yet again on the horizon, a lot of people are searching for that special something to give to their loved one. Still others are single, by themselves, and possibly feeling like Valentine's Day will pass them by without having anyone special. To all of these people, I say: don't worry. For this Valentine's Day, you should give the gift of me.