CHILLIWACK TIMES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012
A9
Letters
Core issues need to be addressed
School board an embarrassment Editor: Our dysfunctional school board is an embarrassment to all of us in Chilliwack who care for our community. The behaviour of the members is objectionable and for adults supposedly modeling respectful behaviour to those attending our schools, absolutely beyond the pale. I confess that I voted for one of the trio of women who are having such difficulty accepting the role trustees play in the educational system and for that I apologize. It won’t happen again. Phyllis Fawcett Chilliwack
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Still good folks around here Editor: There are some really special people in this world and last Sunday night one of them touched our lives. Sam, our golden retriever, and my husband were out for a walk on the dike when Sam took off. We can only guess that he was trying to get back to the truck when a car hit him. The woman stopped and seeing his tag took him to our vet. It was a horrible situation but the good news is he is home today some the worse for wear with stitches and scrapes, but with no broken bones or internal injuries. The vet says he will be fine in a short while. I just think of how different the outcome could have been if this person had chosen not to get involved. I don’t know your name, but you reminded me that the world is still a place of good people. Thank you for caring. Carol Frost Chilliwack
‘Coke’ needs to be shut down Editor: I shutter when I hear of another accident on the Coquihalla Highway due to winter conditions. A bus crashed north of Merritt earlier this week and ended up in the ditch on its side. Fortunately nobody was killed but all 42 passengers were transported to the hospital in Kamloops where 21 required treatment. This could have been much more tragic! There have been many fatalities on this highway due
to winter conditions. The Coquihalla is set in the rain shadow of the Cascade mountains. The ascent to the Coquihalla summit is very steep, especially from the south. The highway is subjected to micro climates along the way. What starts as powdery snow, quickly turns wet and slushy as you head south. The Coquihalla has some of the highest snow packs in the province! There has been many complaints about the contractors who maintain the Coquihalla during the winter but I don’t think it’s their fault. The fault lands clearly on Mother Natures’ shoulders. In California/Nevada they close some highways that cross the Sierra Nevada mountains. An example is the Sonora Pass, which is extremely steep on both sides and is closed between November and May because of high snow accumulations. In my opinion the Coquihalla Highway is not safe for winter travel. Perhaps our government should consider closing the ‘Coke’ during the winter, like they do in California. There are alternate routes available through the Fraser Canyon and the Hope/Princeton highways. The savings would be huge and the carnage would end. Rob Kingdon Sardis
Seeing it for what it is
Editor: In a Dec. 6 Chilliwack Times article, I believe, a man of the cloth, of one of the innumerable denominations that currently exist, pondered the fact that people appear to be leaving religion. It got me to wondering if there is any connection with the popula-
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tion drifting away from the religion, and also drifting away from elections. One wonders if the younger, better-educated individual is finally beginning to see religion for what it actually is, at least the organized variety. After all, the various churches have become incredibly successful business ventures over the centuries. One might go as far as to say that one church, the one that has had a longer tenure than the others, is historically the world’s most successful business. One other central point is that now there is only one religion that is openly prepared to kill to maintain religious control; unlike the past when they were all in the business of killing dissenters. Maybe that the same younger, better-educated voter has finally cottoned on to the fact that our much vaunted democracy is really not a democracy at all. Sure we get the opportunity to vote once every four or five years, but how does that really count? We vote for a candidate who, to have any chance of winning, requires the backing and resources of a political party; and who is therefore chosen by that political party. Should the candidate, who others chose for us and for whom we vote, win the election, then, his/her first loyalty must be to the party that backed him/her financially, not to the electors who voted for him/her. Should the party who owns the candidate for whom we voted, achieve a majority of the parliamentary seats, that party will go on to form the government and the leader of said party, who was chosen not by the electorate but by the party will become the prime minister. Now, when our candidate arrives in Ottawa, or in our case, be it a provincial election, Victoria, he or she will do exactly as they are instructed by the leader through the party “whips.” Virtually, this individual who was sent by the voters as their representative to either the federal or provincial parliament, will, if he wants to stay in the job through future elections, do exactly as he/she is told. If told to jump, he/she may not even risk asking how high and when may they come down. Colin Genders Chilliwack
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Editor: I am writing in response to NDP Gwen O’Mahoney’s Thursday, Dec. 13 comments re: B.C. falling behind in skills training. I would contend that this ideology has a degree of political spin and is not addressing the real issue. This province has for a number of years (beginning in the NDP ’90s) until current Liberal control, been bleeding young people to more-conservative Alberta and Saskatchewan. Young people have been leaving due to incredible high taxation, high cost of living and little opportunity to prosper. Can we blame them? If you don’t have young people to pay for social programs, building more bureaucracy will cause further recession. Many of the skilled trades people have left, and the last thing they want is to come back to a left-wing province. The little I have heard from NDP leader Adrian Dix is higher taxation—just what we need. Stating we need skills training (which we do) without addressing the core issues is like putting a BandAid on a fatal wound. This province need immediate fiscal conservatism, an NDP government (like Greece) will be the final nail in the provincial coffin. From a sincere B.C. Conservative. Michael Henshall Chilliwack
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