Victoria’s CFL game was a great experience
Kudos to the Canadian Football League, the B.C. Lions and the City of Victoria.
On a glorious West Coast Labour Day weekend with an innovative hometown team owner, Amar Doman, a returning homegrown quarterback Nathan Rourke and a welcoming city, the CFL put on a great show.
From practising at Langford’s Starlight stadium, the boys eating at a local White Spot, a festival-like feeling, the end result was a spectacular show including a momentum-changing win for the Lions.
This was a brilliant move by the CFL and B.C. Lions and hopefully can be replicated in other secondary markets across the country. The template has been set.
As a 2024 Grey Cup ticket holder for the big game in Vancouver this fall, I hope the show can be repeated in November.
Len Jansen
Langford
Maybe a sign would slow cyclists
Re: “Mix of traffic is risky at PKOLS,” letter, Aug. 28.
I too have been startled and frightened by cyclists, streaking by me from behind as I walk down Churchill Drive. Cyclists going at breakneck speed are endangering pedestrians, especially children, and dogs, who are enjoying our beautiful mountain.
However, I disagree with the options proposed to resolve the problem.
1. Banning bicycles altogether punishes many cyclists who enjoy this exercise and pose no safety problem to anyone. Let’s not punish everyone for the malfeasance of a few.
2. A dedicated time for racers probably won’t be respected and encourages this bad behaviour as well as making the mountain not available or not safely available for walkers during certain periods.
3. Please dear Lord, let’s not create another bicycle lane. We don’t need narrowing of the walking space available and a bicycle lane is not suitable for the racing that some people indulge in.
This is a problem, but not a large one. We can either ignore it or post prominent signage saying that high-speed bicycle riding endangers everyone and is absolutely prohibited.
Racers should go elsewhere. There will always be people who put their own enjoyment over everything else and may ignore the signage, but I suggest this is a first step.
Launa Palset
Victoria
Improving downtown should be a priority
Have you ever heard of the saying, why not leave well enough alone? Centennial Square was a gift to the City of Victoria! What kind of people destroy a gift?
Residents cannot keep paying for multi-million dollar, unnecessary projects. People are losing their homes while the city council has given themselves a raise. They are out of touch with the working class.
So I say leave well enough alone and deal directly with the problem which is homelessness and drug abuse.
My friends and I cringe at the thought of going downtown. The stench of cigarette smoke, car exhaust and seaplane fumes are enough to kill a horse in our once quiet and beautiful city.
What kind of people allow this to happen? Lethargic, apathetic?
Lisa McKinnon
Victoria
Thanks for phone rule, how about handwriting?
We cheer the Education Ministry’s wise “bell-to-bell” edict restricting student access to, and use of, cellphones in our schools and classrooms.
Cellphones have been widely proven an addictive, unsafe distraction from learning.
It’s noteworthy pupils with health or other special needs can still access their phones to call parents and other care authorities.
Before the ministry’s cogent announcement, just before schools reopen in September, Cowichan’s busy teachers were allegedly unfairly tasked with policing pupils’ cellphone use in classrooms.
Speaking of teachers, it’s unfortunate the Cowichan Valley School Board cannot use future windfall profits, from selling the aging Cowichan high school, to hire more teachers, educational assistants and other critically needed classroom staffers.
We believe 20 students per class, or less, is ideal for focused learning.
Under ministry policies, school-sale profits must, sadly, fund capital projects such as school upgrades.
Meanwhile, we expect the diligent ministry to reintroduce cursive handwriting into our schools, giving students a full educational toolbox for lifelong learning.
Peter W. Rusland
North Cowichan
Once there were cars, now there are horses
Since the spreading of insidious “Oak Bay, Land of 40 K” disease to pretty well all of Greater Victoria, I’m thinking of getting a horse and buggy.
Are there any bylaws stopping me from taking one on urban streets? Are the carriages downtown an exception?
Would I be able to build a small stable for my one horsepower engine? Would I be able to take it down a carless Shelbourne, as a letter writer suggested we do with that street?
So many questions now that we are going backwards at, dare I say, 50 K?
I hope Hillside mall will install hitching rails, just to be safe.
Don Duvall
Saanich
Canada needs those foreign workers
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is out of touch with the labour situation in Canada. Reducing the number of foreign workers admitted to Canada is plain wrong.
The reality is that most Canadians still unemployed don’t want the jobs being offered, whether the jobs are in food services, hospitality, construction, health care, retail, etc.
Virtually every business is struggling with the labour shortage. The result is that businesses are unable to work to their full potential, having to reduce their hours of operation, or even closing one or two extra days a week.
Businesses without adequate labour cannot expand. The vast majority of small businesses rely of foreign workers just to survive.
To suggest that businesses are only hiring foreign workers because they supply cheap labour is nonsense. Foreign workers earn the same as residents doing the same job, wages ranging from $22 to $35-plus an hour.
Foreign workers look forward to becoming valuable, contributing citizens, achieving permanent residency, followed by citizenship.
This change in limiting the number of foreign workers is a step backwards. It’s having a devastating impact on our economy and our quality of life.
Tim Hackett
Victoria
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