All investments come with risks
Re: “Condo owners seek compensation for losses in property value,” Oct. 24.
Homeowners cannot have it both ways. If real estate is treated as an investment, it is subject to the same market risks as any other financial asset, including changes in governmental policy.
You don’t see stockholders suing the government when policy shifts cause a drop in the value of their portfolios.
Similarly, if homeowners believe their properties should be exempt from market fluctuations and protected from new regulations, they should be advocating for policies that ensure housing remains affordable, such as stricter rent controls or limiting property value increases to inflation rates.
The lawsuits from Victoria’s short-term rental owners reveal a sense of entitlement that is astonishing.
No investment, be it in stocks or real estate, is without risk. These owners made a financial choice to profit from the short-term rental market, and now, when that market shifts due to policies intended to address a housing crisis, they expect the government to compensate them for their lost income.
This expectation is a blatant demand for socialized protection of their personal investment — a request as unreasonable as asking the government to guarantee stock market profits.
Michael Ford
Nanaimo
Two ways to get a seat for Furstenau
Sonia Furstenau decided to switch ridings and run in Victoria-Beacon Hill. Two‑thirds of voters in the riding did not vote for her. That’s democracy.
Letters from her supporters are proposing that she should be given a seat in the legislature by acclamation. That’s voter disenfranchisement worthy of the U.S. Republicans.
Instead they should be asking the hard questions of why a leader of a third party chose to run against an incumbent who won 54.6% of the vote in 2020.
The Greens have simple options to try to get their leader in the legislature. One of the newly elected Green MLAs can resign, causing a byelection where Furstenau can stand, or their two MLAs can make a vote of no-confidence in the new government, forcing a general election where she can stand in whatever riding she wants.
The voters will then decide.
Other supporters are resurrecting the notion of electoral reform that has been rejected three times since 2005 by B.C. voters, the last time in 2018 by 61%.
These letter writers should recognize that outside of enclaves of southern Vancouver Island and parts of the Lower Mainland, the province is predominately blue.
Instead of election denial, they should be acknowledging the message that vast parts of the province are sending.
Additionally, only 57% of the electorate voted. All parties should be asking why 43% did not. Were they actually voting “none of the above” and where does that leave the policies of each party?
Alan Humphries
Victoria-Beacon Hill
What right does Furstenau have?
Who gave Green Leader Sonia Furstenau the mandate to negotiate with Premier David Eby?
Certainly not the constituents of Victoria-Beacon Hill.
K.H. Demmler
Victoria
Furstenau should talk with Rustad
The electorate has spoken. It is clearly unhappy with the government provided by the NDP. Does the Green Party know something that no one else does? The leader of the Green Party is suddenly on the front page as if she is the fount of all knowledge. She didn’t even win her seat.
The B.C. Conservative Party came within a whisker of a majority of seats. Perhaps they even carried the popular vote. Has the leader of the B.C. Conservatives suddenly developed leprosy? Or perhaps COVID?
Why can’t the Green Party sit down with the Conservative leader to discuss possibilities?
Robert Popple
Victoria
Hubris, smugness on full display
I watched the television report on Green Leader Sonia Furstenau’s press conference and was struck by her extreme hubris and smugness.
By scolding the 45 Conservative Party members, she came across as an overbearing and haughty school-marm. In reality, she lost her seat in the legislature, and saw her party’s share of the vote reduced from 15 % in 2020 to only 8% now; is that really something to be so very proud about?
Likewise, at the New Democratic Party’s headquarters there was whooping and hollering on Saturday night when their Leader David Eby took to the stage.
Were they cheering the fact that they won only 46 seats compared to 57 in 2020, with several prominent cabinet members receiving the heave-ho ?
Before the election the former Green leader Andrew Weaver had indicated he planned to vote for the Conservatives, and four months ago he wrote that “Eby is coming across as an ideological, know-it-all elitist, who surrounds himself with sycophants.”
Weaver’s characterization of Eby perfectly fits Furstenau right now; time for her to climb down from her high horse, and chow down on a few slices of humble pie.
Bernie Smith
Parksville
Offer positive comments only, please
“You jerk, you liar, that’s fake, your disgusting, you’re a denier, ya well your an affirmer, you’re woke, your asleep, your are a scam artist, you carpetbagger, you megalomaniac, you sociopath, you psychopath.” Wouldn’t the world be a wonderful place if we used current political vernacular, when choosing co-workers, friends and or partners.
Our lives would be as productive as the chambers that guide us and take 50% of our earnings annually, or as they might say circumvent 50% of our earnings annually for our benefit.
There should be a lottery with a large financial prize for the first chamber to allow only positive comments.
Coming together, sharing ideas, Socratic discussions “what if,” where ideas and credit are shared and problems are solved, where the opposition and government are hard to tell apart.
A change in government would be almost unnoticeable as opposed to what feels like a metronome
Bill Carere
Victoria
Calls for proportional representation begin
The results of the B.C. election, regardless of the final tally, only show that neither the NDP nor the Conservatives have majority support due to woke or extreme positions. If there was a centrist, middle-of-the-road party it would likely win in a landslide.
Under proportional representation we would get to rank the parties in order of our preferences. In this election, it was hard enough to make the decision to vote for one.
(Don’t say BC United — the Liberals — were centrist, they were just Conservative under a different name.)
Wayne Cox
Saanichton
NDP needs to reflect on what went wrong
Urban progressives need to pay more attention to public safety.
As a lifelong NDP supporter I hope we have the critical self-reflection to understand how we lost touch with the suburban working class and resource dependent rural communities.
There are several reasons for this, but public safety is top of the list.
Folks outside our bubble don’t appreciate our permissive approach to public order and drug use or the anti-police rhetoric we have embraced.
Statements by NDP candidates that cast hunters and sport shooters with concerns about firearms laws as femicidal maniacs feed into the disconnect.
How does this land with rural people when we target them and their relatives who hunt while our provincially administered justice system practises catch and release policing and facilitates hard drug use?
It destroys our credibility.
David Eby and the NDP need to continue to reject the dead ends on offer from the anti-police fringe elements of the party.
Conservative voters are not just a bunch of closet fascists worthy of our derision. Many are scared for their families’ safety, and that trumps almost all other issues.
Sasha Kvakic
Victoria
Volleyball beach, or litter box?
I applaud whoever had the vision to supply the fun new public resource, the beach volleyball area at Victoria High School. However, I fear that unless all fences are very high, the neighbourhood cats will be the only clients.
I am sure they are impressed with the fresh giant litter box that has been provided!
Deborah Cooper
Victoria
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