Non-confidence vote is just grandstanding
There is a role for non-confidence votes in our parliamentary system; however, they are used when there is a controversial issue being promoted or a significant change of direction is planned.
The Conservative leader is grandstanding to give himself more airtime, nothing else.
Kids in school can’t demand a recess just because they are tired or don’t like the subject. Nor can a team demand the game be stopped because they don’t like the score. Neither can parliamentarians.
The Tory leader and his colleagues were elected to help navigate and manage the country, not to pontificate for their own narrow ends. They are wasting everyone’s time.
Shame on them.
Barry Rolston
Victoria
School police officers needed more than ever
In a recent letter regarding the dispute around the school police liaison program in Greater Victoria, a writer assumes that because the Victoria teachers’ union agreed the school police liaison program should be cut, District 61 teachers hold the same view. I don’t believe this is the case. I can’t speak to my union executives’ decision on the matter but do believe an overwhelming majority of my colleagues wholeheartedly support the program and rue the day the matter was decided by opportunistic political tampering instead of anecdotal evidence, common sense and good judgment.
It is heartening to know the province has directed that police officers be brought back into our schools.
These caring and impassioned professionals are needed more than ever to help keep our children safe and to build relationships of understanding and empathy within our communities.
David Masini
Victoria
Remember polio when talking about vaccines
When talking about vaccines, please add this information to your conversations.
This September, it is 30 years since the Canada was declared polio free.
Many people won’t remember polio, but it was a deadly disease, spreading its reach and causing fear worldwide. Much like Covid-19, public health departments in Canada quarantined the sick, closed schools, and restricted travel and large group gatherings.
I was very young in the 1950s and so my memory is vague, but I remember not being able to go to the pool because it was closed because of a disease that killed children (and adults too, of course) and the sick children had to live in an iron lung. The iron lung was the treatment in the 1950s.
The first polio case was in Ontario in 1910 and the last in 1994. The Salk vaccine in 1955 and the Sabin oral vaccine in 1962 brought polio under control in the early 1970s, but Canada was not certified polio-free until 1994.
It was eradicated here because of a vaccines. And the public health system. What if we did not have access to a polio vaccine?
Frances Beckow
Victoria
Your voice is heard through your vote
I have followed the discourse on the accountability of local councils with great interest, particularly regarding the decisions of Victoria council.
I take issue with a recent letter writer’s opinion that people don’t understand that their opinions criticizing council are not shared by the majority of the voting public. Is this really true?
In the 2022 civic election, the City of Victoria had 74,573 eligible voters. Only 27,452 people, just over one-third, actually voted.
According to published statistics, 32 people ran for the available eight council seats. Of those elected to council, only three received a slight majority of the vote.
The average percentage of votes received by the eight councillors was 44.25%. So, not the majority of the voting public, let alone the general public.
Everyone is entitled to voice an opinion, that is a hallmark of democracy, and the media is entitled, if not obligated, to share those opinions.
Even the almost two-thirds of eligible voters who chose not to exercise their franchise are entitled to representation.
Lack of public consultation on issues that impact the our daily lives is not acceptable and in two more years we can make that point at the polls.
Voting is a privilege, don’t waste it.
Pat Jackson
Victoria
In an institution without permission
Anais Bussieres McNicoll of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has called B.C.’s plan for involuntary care “unacceptable” and forced treatment “unconstitutional” and that forced treatment affects a person’s right to liberty and is likely to disproportionately target marginalized groups.
I understand people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are institutionalized without their permission. Perhaps someone can explain the difference.
Just wondering.
Barb Waldner
Saanich
Convert a cruise ship into long-term housing
It surprises no one that “special populations” don’t integrate well into long-term care facilities.
What about purchasing a decommissioned cruise ship and mooring it in sheltered water with appropriate hook-ups for power, water and sewage?
There would be lots of bedrooms, cooking, eating and recreational facilities plus controlled access. Successful residents could develop marketable skills such as cooking, serving, cleaning, laundry or painting.
There would be no NIMBY-ers and it would presumably be safer to walk around downtown again.
With all the enormous new cruise ships being built it suggests that the older, smaller ones will no longer be used. Such vessels must be for sale somewhere and I doubt the cost would exceed the building or purchase of any land facility.
Chris Harker
North Saanich
Fiscal responsibility goes out the window
After hearing of the “Rustad Rebate,” Kevin Falcon must be tossing and turning with severe buyer’s remorse nightmares.
In one fell swoop, the usual tried and true, right-of-centre election mantra of “NDP fiscal and economic mismanagement” has been tossed out the window by the loony B.C. Conservatives.
The New Democrats must be pinching themselves!
Dave Nonen
Victoria
After he is voted out, what next for Poilievre?
Here’s a not terribly audacious prediction for you.
Once soon-to-be Prime Minister Pierre Poilievre has killed the carbon price, eliminated the clean fuel standard, and eviscerated regulations to cap emissions in the oil and gas sector, fuel prices at the pump will have returned to their current neighbourhood within a year.
The usual excuses will be proffered by the industry. Increased demand. Inflation. Supply chain disruptions. OPEC machinations. Unforeseen maintenance. Trouble in the Middle East.
No one appreciates those carbon levy rebates anyway.
Bonus prophecy: When the dark shark of snark is bounced out of office after a single term, the career politician with the guaranteed annual pension of more than $200K will finally have to get a real job.
Thank heavens the oil and gas sector takes care of its own.
Earl Fowler
View Royal
Many reasons for police to stop a vehicle
Re: “Ask the people with bad experiences,” letter, Sept. 24.
In his comment about racial profiling, the letter writer displays a lack of knowledge about the day-to-day operations of police while on patrol.
Additionally, by inserting himself in the exchange (asking multiple times about why they were pulled over), the non-driver in the exchange was interfering with the process and may have helped to exacerbate the issue.
The officer may have pulled the car over for a spot-check, something the police are permitted to do under certain circumstances, but it appears the passenger in the vehicle took offence and inserted themself into the situation.
There are a great many reasons — perfectly valid ones — for an officer to pull over a vehicle on the street. Without all the facts, it is far too easy to wind up with the wrong conclusion.
In his example, the writer has not informed readers of certain salient factors which may have influenced the officer’s decision regardless of the colour of the operator’s skin.
Location, time of day, recent activity in the neighbourhood, even the more obvious thought that a vehicle registered to an older female was being operated by two younger males “across town” as the writer states.
Without at least some of this information to hand, it has become far too easy to “blame the cops” for nothing more than doing their job.
K.M. Frye
Saanich
Limestone idea is just too esoteric
Re: “Firm lands $25 million to capture carbon by mixing limestone in rivers,” Sept. 24.
I’m sorry but I don’t understand the reason for shovelling limestone into rivers.
I’m sure the chemistry works although the ecological balance of the river will be altered and the quarrying, transport, and grinding of the rock will have to be done with plant-based diesel fuel.
But I thought that carbon reduction was more about converting existing practices and not about thinking up wild and esoteric mechanisms.
Joe Harvey
Victoria
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