Quick lesson in B.C. election math
Along with the official counting of votes, I would like to offer another example of election math.
A simple equation:
Start with the MLA-elect from Surrey South, Brent Chapman, who has referred to Palestinians as inbred, and thinks U.S. school shooting were staged.
Add Sharon Hartwell from Bulkley Valley-Stikine, who, according to media reports, has supported calls for Canada to withdraw from the United Nations and the World Health Organization and falsely stated that former U.S. president Donald Trump won the last American election. She also repeatedly praised organizers of the “Freedom Convoy,” which gridlocked downtown Ottawa for a month in early 2022, and has called for the firing of provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
Add Conservative candidate Marina Sapozhnikov in the Juan de Fuca-Malahat riding, who was quoted as saying that B.C.’s adoption of the UN Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act renders every non-Indigenous British Columbian a “second-rate citizen,” and said that “90 per cent of Indigenous people use drugs.” She also said that historically, Indigenous people were “savages.”
What does that equal? A leader, John Rustad, who is clearly out of his depth and not ready to govern.
Andrew Koster
Saanich
Define reconciliation so we understand
Re: “B.C. Conservative candidate uses racist slur for Indigenous Peoples in interview,” Oct. 26.
Comments like those of Marina Sapozhnikov can make sensational news. But a more constructive area of discussion might be to define “reconciliation.”
What exactly is it? Who gets to define it? Who gets to decide how, if ever, it can be achieved?
Greg Klein
Nanaimo
And another one bites the dust
One more of several of John Rustad’s Conservative running mates utters another inappropriate commentary.
Like a magnet attracts lead fillings, sadly the B.C. Conservative Party attracts these kinds of people. These are not the kind of folks I want stepping within one foot of the legislature.
More concerning is the fact that Rustad only makes an apology for their outrageous statements but never removes them, leaving one to wonder to what extent he holds concealed views and opinions of the same nature.
John Stevenson
Victoria
Ethical principles are being ignored
If Conservative Leader John Rustad were a legitimate leader he would remove Juan de Fuca-Malahat candidate Marina Sapozhnikov for her racist views and comments.
He won’t, so he isn’t. He is simply an opportunist at the expense of ethical principles to justify the end of basking in power.
Cal Robertson
Fairfield
Savagery continues in many forms
So, Conservative Marina Sapozhnikov thinks that Indigenous peoples were savages in the past. I don’t profess to know the answer to that statement but survival takes many forms, violence being one of them.
How un-savage were past cultures? How un-savage was colonialism, or for that matter, any culture invading another? And savagery sadly continues to this day, masked in hubris, arrogance and hatred. You need only look to the Middle East or the Sudan to witness the savagery perpetuated in the name of (fill in the blank).
It beggars belief that somehow we are more mature, and less savage, today. Tell that to the children of the world.
Robin Krause
Sooke
Here’s a review of European history
So Marina Sapozhnikov believes that before Europeans came to North America, First Nations peoples were “savages who fought each other all the time,” the implication being that it was Europeans who “civilized” them.
Who were these wonderfully civilized Europeans, I wonder. The ones who hanged “witches’ and burned Joan of Arc at the stake?
The ones who perfected torture during the Spanish Inquisition? The ones who deliberately infected Indigenous people with deadly diseases? The ones who fought a war that lasted 100 years?
(We won’t talk about such modern civilized episodes as the Holocaust or the Srebrenica massacre.)
Perhaps Sapozhnikov might want to take a history course.
Gisèle Bourgeois-Law
Oak Bay
There were savages — the new arrivals
Regarding Marina Sapozhnikov’s comment about “savages,” the only savages at that time were the white demons who took over the continent.
Polly Burk
Duncan
Doctor survived pressure over 1918 pandemic
Re: “Pushback: How a Victoria doctor saved his city from 1918 flu despite overwhelming pressure,” Oct. 27.
Interesting and informative dissertation about how Victoria health officer Dr. Arthur Price, did the right thing in 1918 to save lives despite the similar pressures from religious and business interests that provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry faced doing the same thing.
Damn good thing there weren’t people like John Rustad around threatening to fire Price for his efforts and heroics!
It strains reality to understand how a public figure can grandstand on wanting to fire someone for having the wisdom and fortitude to carry out a pandemic plan designed to save an entire province from a certain health disaster. Shame on Rustad and any of his “followers” who would parrot this incredible nonsense.
Please let us hope that he nor similar small-minded candidates ever get to positions of power! They clearly have demonstrated they are unfit!
Kevin Hardy
Nanaimo
Don’t blame China for the 1918 pandemic
Unfortunately the very eye-opening, educational “Pushback” excerpt of Oct. 27 also contained a thinly-veiled racist, unproven theory that China was the source of the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic! The best-identified source of the pandemic, so far, was a midwest U.S. Army base.
Not Chinese labourers on sealed trains crossing Canada. These trains began operating well-before the influenza struck Canada. And they ran back West well-after the pandemic abated due to public health efforts championed by Dr. Arthur Price. These trains have not been linked to the pandemic.
There is documentary evidence that Canadian soldiers conscripted/recruited in Montreal for the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force being assembled in Victoria were taken off their westbound trains and placed in quarantine in Calgary suffering from influenza symptoms in September.
Did these Canadian soldiers bring the Spanish Flu to Victoria?
It certainly struck the encampment at Willows Beach before the soldiers left for Siberia in December.
Leave the China virus conspiracies to the modern stew of online fantasies, demagoguery and bogey-men.
Stephen Rybak
Galiano Island
Mandates work during pandemics
People who are anti-mandate during pandemics should take a look at the numbers. A 2022 study from John Hopkins University shows the COVID mortality rate in the United States was almost exactly three times the rate in Canada.
The lower mortality rate in Canada can be attributed to many factors including higher vaccination rates and health mandates regarding closures.
This 3:1 ratio is virtually identical to the 1918 Spanish Flu mortality rate in Vancouver versus that in Victoria, as per the Oct. 27 article, The Price Factor. While Victoria mandated public closures, Vancouver remained open.
History repeats itself. COVID is still with us and will not be the last pandemic to come our way. Responsible politicians should take heed.
Michael Shepherd
Victoria
Money for addicts but not for seniors
Victoria can find $1.8 million in annual operating funds — plus a onetime $300,000 grant — for SOLID Outreach Society to operate an “access hub” for drug addicts on Dowler Place.
Meanwhile, it cannot find $50,000 in annual operating funds to offset the extra costs incurred by Silver Threads Society to provide services for seniors in non-city-owned premises.
That’s after the city evicted Silver Threads from city-owned and maintained premises more thnn 10 years ago. At the time, Silver Threads was assured this was a very temporary move until Crystal Pool was rebuilt with program space for Silver Threads — of course, we’re all still waiting for that new Crystal Pool.
The extra costs of operating in commercial space have been borne by Silver Threads ever since its eviction from city premises. This has meant less money available for programs.
Since 1956, Silver Threads has provided a wide variety of important services to Victoria seniors on a non-profit basis.
Still, they continue to be penalized year after year in the city budget process because of a move forced on them by the city in the first place.
By the same politicians who can suddenly come up with over $2 million in funding for drug addicts. It makes no sense.
Brian Mason
Victoria
Taxpayers on hook for all the protests
What has been the cost to Victoria taxpayers this year for police security and traffic control for the “ongoing” Palestinian protests?
The mayor has recently spoke about tax increases for 2025 and the increase in police budget.
These protests and the costs accrued at the university are unacceptable to taxpayers as well.
That encampment should have been dismantled early on. By allowing the protesters to stay just emboldened them.
For a small city, “activism” is off the charts.
Cathy Potter
Victoria
Make school safety a top priority
It appears that the Greater Victoria School Board in its wisdom has decided not to take child safety as a priority for the district. They apparently want “proof” of harm? Well how about a few decades of parental observation and actual help by this program for which I am forever grateful?
I saw first hand the amazing energy and sense of fun that occurred when the police liaison officers arrived to connect with children both in their elementary and high school experiences.
As a parent volunteer over the years this interaction created continuity through the community and when an incident arose this touchstone proved invaluable.
Now with my grandchildren in middle school I lament the absence of these amazing officers and their ability to help make these connections. Can we please rely on the minister of education and the premier to oversee the reinstatement of this much-needed and vital program.
My gratitude to all this who had my children’s best interest at heart. You are heroes.
Joan Pink
Victoria
A simple courtesy with four-way flashers
Re: “Four ways great modern safety feature,” Oct. 25.
A one-time tap on the four-way flashers as a thank-you gesture to a fellow traveller for a driving courtesy can bring a smile to the faces of both drivers.
Notice how B.C. transit drivers often thank you by hand or four-way flashers.
Common courtesy. Simple.
Christopher Causton
Victoria
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