My Princess Scrapbook and lasting memories
My Thursday morning started with breaking news that the Royal Family were called to Balmoral concerned for the Queen’s health. And then followed by the announcement that Queen Elizabeth had passed.
At the age of six in Grade 1, my teacher showed the class a portrait of King George VI hanging in the centre of a wall of our classroom explaining that he was our King.
She said his wife was our Queen and his daughters were princesses. I could hardly believe it.
I could hardly wait to run home to tell my mom that we have a real King and a real Queen with daughters who are real princesses.
At six, I wasn’t that long away from fairy tales of kings and queens and princes and princesses being read to me. Hearing that kings and queens and princesses are real people and they belong to us, I was awestruck.
I was enchanted. Local newspapers and national newspapers regularly published photos of the Royal Family. My parents pointed these photos out to me.
An aunt gave me a scrapbook and with little scissors I happily albeit awkwardly cut out these photos for “My Princess Scrapbook.”
The Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Elizabeth made a trip to Canada in 1951. They came to Victoria and stayed at the Empress Hotel.
Princess Elizabeth had her hair done at the hotel’s beauty salon. An aunt and manager of that salon were able to procure wisps for a ringlet of the royal locks for “My Princess Scrapbook.”
I knew nothing about this until it arrived along with reporters at our home to take pictures of me with it.
Many years later I showed my children “My Princess Scrapbook.” They took it to their Grade 1 class for Show and Tell.
More years passed and my grandchildren took “My Princess Scrapbook” to their Grade 1 class for Show and Tell.
The Monarch and the Royal Family have been a part of my family since I was a little girl.
I’ve admired her as our Queen always. I’m grateful there were so many photos and video clips being shown of her and her magnificent reign. She will always be with us.
Sharon Pedersen
Victoria
Thoughts on the death of a beloved icon
Humans seem to love icons, whether hereditary, political, financial, athletic, artistic, or simply monstrous, their passing always releases a wide range of emotions, both positive, negative and ambiguous.
Bill Carere
Victoria
Find a better way to determine rents
I realize that there is no happy side to the rent increase plan recently announced. Obviously landlords are having a greater problem making a return on their investment. Property taxes and interest cost are two of the big issues.
Interest expense is beyond anyone’s control.
Property taxes could be controlled by any caring municipalities and at least be restricted to the same percentage increase as rent increases are allowed.
With the high costs for landlords, the result will have to be fewer properties available to rent. This issue will not help the housing shortage.
As there have been good increases in property values in the past few years, I have no doubt that more landlords will be selling to get a better return on their capital on other investments, especially when earning interest on savings is becoming a more guaranteed return.
The only good out of this situation is that there will be more properties available for home buyers. However, potential home owners are not the folks who are suffering so much from rent costs. Buying a home is expensive and is only available to people with good incomes and good savings.
The old scale of two per cent plus inflation was too high for renters to have to pay, for sure. Inflation though is real and increases based on that, or at least close to that, seem to make more sense.
Larry Ware
Saanich
Salary increases must be fair for all
At first blush, the proposed wage increase seems good at around 3.25 per cent in the first compared to prior year increases. But with the cost of living being much higher than that, how realistic is it to expect ratification?
The cost of living CPI for the past year is around seven per cent, but that’s with food and energy stripped out/not included. Include those and we’re well over nine per cent.
I understand our MLAs are getting a cost of living built into their remuneration package. So if CPI goes to nine per cent they’ll get nine per cent versus the government employees at 3.25 per cent.
Why is the government willing to compensate MLAs so much more than the average government employee? They’re not worth more and they have a quite lavish retirement and benefit package.
I have no skin in the game on this issue, but I believe the principle of fair pay is important to retaining a skilled government workforce.
I’ve now been retired for quite a few years and any future pension increase I can expect to get will, I’m sure, be paltry compared to this, but that’s a different battle.
Chuck Dickson
Victoria
Segregate cyclists for safety of all
Re: “More on Dallas Road dog and people issues,” letter, Sept. 8.
I’d first, on behalf of cyclists, like to apologize to anyone who is using the pathway who was sworn at or spoken to in a hostile fashion.
I will say that, at times, when you are coming up behind pedestrians who are wandering, it is necessary to raise your voice to get their attention. It can be done pleasantly.
A cyclist doesn’t really know which way a pedestrian will move if the pedestrian is not aware of the bicycle’s presence and so the cyclist needs to announce themselves.
The letter seems to imply that the cyclists are to yield to pedestrians on the path. I don’t believe this is accurate. Cyclists are to yield to pedestrians at pedestrian crossings, but in all other portions of the path, from Clover Point to just west of Boyd Street, the path is clearly marked as shared. That means we both have to watch out for each other.
On the stretch of path from Ogden Point to west of Boyd Street there clearly are two paths. One for cyclists with two narrow lanes and a wide sidewalk for pedestrians.
These are clearly marked but there seem to be a number of pedestrians who think this is also shared use. Please have another look at the signage.
I think it is clear that the intent is to segregate the cyclists from the pedestrians for everyone’s safety.
Alan Macnab
Victoria
Don’t forget Lim Bang, who built the Douglas
Re: “He ran a property empire and gave new life to a rundown Hotel Dougie,” Sept. 7.
Nice job on the Rialto Hotel developer Danilo Danzo. But don’t forget the man who built it, and many other downtown structures, Lim Bang.
His Sidney brickyard supplied material for many buildings other than his own, and he found time to raise funds for Sun Yat Sen’s overthrow of the Chinese emperor (and was offered a seat in the latter’s cabinet), and fight for equal rights for Chinese Canadians.
Steve Weatherbe
Victoria
Forget ‘safe’ drug use, get the help they need
Re: “If we really care, make treatment mandatory,” letter, Sept. 6.
I fully agree. Drug addiction is not a “normal” condition. Addicts are often dependent, unproductive and prone to harm themselves.
They may also harm others, as well as be involved in crime.
The drug problem will not be “solved” by maintaining addicts with “safe” drugs in “safe” places, but rather by working to cure them of their addiction, keeping them in treatment centres until they are not any more driven by their addiction.
Theodore Kass, MD
Oak Bay
Province’s fiscal report shows museum blunder
I note from Les Leyne’s Aug. 31 analysis of B.C.’s fiscal bottom line that “the annual operating line [for the Royal B.C. Museum] shows a $13.4 million surplus in 2021 turned into a $1.2 million deficit in 2022.”
To recap, the board of the RBCM took a profitable institution — one that enjoyed stellar reviews by its visitors — and turned it into a money loser. They did this by demolishing exhibits (“Old Town” and the full scale replica of Captain George Vancouver’s H.M.S. Discovery) that had been beloved by generations of visitors to the museum — without having anything to put in their place.
Whilst I am sympathetic to calls to reform the museum in such a way as to allow it to tell the stories of our province’s original inhabitants more fully, the way in which this reform has been launched — and its early stages implemented — has demonstrated incompetence to the nth degree.
Closure and demolition of the third-floor exhibits was carried out with unseemly haste and without consultation, in a display of quite staggering arrogance.
It is important to note that the economic ramifications of this debacle are far broader than just the new and wholly unnecessary drain on taxpayers’ pockets.
The RBCM in its former incarnation was a major draw to Victoria for tourists, while the impact of its partial closure on tourism may not yet have been quantified, it is unlikely to prove to be positive.
In light of this, and now that the early (fiscal) numbers are in, I have one question: how on earth is the board that oversaw this debacle still in place?
Paul Warren
Duncan
Let’s learn about alcohol like we did on cigarettes
Re: “Don’t blame City of Victoria for other government’s failures,” column, Sept. 4
In his recent article Dr. Trevor Hancock notes “There is a concept in health promotion called victim-blaming … blaming smokers for their habit, for example when in reality they are victims of a sophisticated marketing campaign.”
The same goes for alcohol consumption, as we heard just last week. After 20 years of extensive research, we learn that alcohol causes a long list of cancers, internal organ diseases, mental illness and much more.
Just like smoking, the populations worldwide are victims of a sophisticated marketing campaign to introduce you to, and keep you drinking, alcohol your entire life.
I was a smoker for 20 years and I finally quit 30 years ago. Some 24 months ago I was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. I sure didn’t dodge that bullet!
Over the years we saw cigarette advertising abolished, warnings placed on packaging, study after study published outlining all the pitfalls of smoking and how detrimental it is to your health.
Some people were in denial, some quit smoking earlier, some didn’t quit until later years, and some are still smoking.
Luckily a new generation was taught it wasn’t so cool or healthy any more to smoke cigarettes and thankfully smoking is not as prevalent today in young people as it once was.
Hopefully the same pattern will follow with our next generation regarding alcohol consumption once the marketing campaigns start to disappear and the warning labels appear on all the liquor bottles. Sound familiar?
When you tell doctors you have one or maybe two drinks a day (more or less) they know to double the number anyway. Oops, now I’m over my limit based on the recent studies however, let’s not “blame the victims.”
Let’s hope our next generation is wiser than we’ve been!
Brian W. Shaughnessy
Victoria
Safe, affordable home remains a dream for us
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Vancouver that “everyone should have an affordable and safe place to live.”
Not too comforting to the families in Saskatchewan, and others across Canada, in shock from Saturday’s horrific murders.
The parole board decided the suspect was fit to live in the community. A safe community for so many will only happen when the criminally insane can be locked up in a facility, such as the former Riverview Hospital.
How many more acts of violence will it take to get that message across to our elected representatives?
Judith Hodgson
Victoria
Residents’ voice part of democratic process
Re: “Amalgamation Yes does not speak for everyone,” letter, Sept. 5.
A few points of edification are required concerning comments made in the noted letter.
Firstly, the formation of a citizens’ assembly to “explore the costs, benefits and disadvantages of the amalgamation between the District of Saanich and the City of Victoria” was approved through referendum by the electorate of these two municipalities in the civic election of October 2018. None of the other 11 municipalities in the region are involved or affected by this process and as such does not directly impact those residents.
Secondly, a citizens’ assembly is a gathering of citizens called to address issues of importance to participants. Assemblies recruit a cross-section of the public to study the selected issue.
Information is presented to provide a common set of facts, available options are considered, and recommendations are forwarded to the appropriate authority. Citizens’ assemblies operate by direct democracy and provide a vehicle where residents have a voice in their own governance.
Amalgamation Yes will be monitoring to ensure the democratic process is being upheld and free of interference and influence and will not be monitoring the deliberations or outcome of the citizens’ assembly. That will be determined by the independent participants.
Doug Pascoe
Saanich
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