Parker’s Pen

BY DAVID PARKER

It’s really too bad that there is not more competition in the domestic airline industry as the two big carriers continue to put people off travelling by air.

Yet, despite continuing cancellations of flights, I still get toofrequent offers by email and by telephone to take advantage of so many special deals.

On a recent call to a colleague, I mentioned that we had to drive to southern B.C. because Air Canada had cancelled all flights to Castlegar. From Calgary that is. But actually, it is still possible to fly there, but via Vancouver. Quoted rates range from $566 to $938 per person one way.

My friend told me his story of booking a WestJet flight to Cape Breton for a time-sensitive family affair. Booked and confirmed for some time before he was called to say flights had been cancelled but he could fly to Halifax at the same price. In the middle of his tale of woe, my line was interrupted and expecting a call, I excused myself only to find that it was WestJet with yet another wonderful offer. Add to the frustration of milling around airports while worrying about cancellations and little wonder so many people I talk to say they are not travelling by air if they can avoid it.

Not that “on the road again” is without problems. Driving back from the Kootenays in what was for me extreme heat, resurfacing of the Crowsnest Pass had us suffering in the vehicle for an extra half an hour as we waited in a long line along Highway 3.

I had to find out about Canada’s last mass execution in a book review in the Times Literary Supplement.

Hanged in Medicine Hat by Nathan Greenfield tells the story of four German prisoners of war – 4,500 miles from their homes –who were hanged for the murder of fellow PoW Karl Lehmann in 1946. I had no idea Internment Camp 132 was located there.

I checked out Google to learn the difference between a longshoreman, a dock worker and a stevedore. Still no nearer, but I did notice that some of the west coast people in that line of work were reportedly earning $41.09 and even $53.44 per hour.

Why disrupt business for so many others?

It‘s a long time since I bellyached about the tough job getting pills out of a plastic container, but To Open Press Down While Turning proves too often to be Adult Resistant as well as Child Resistant.

At my druggist I asked that in future I wanted to be provided with easier flip-top holders. Surprised to have to fill out and sign a form to say I wouldn’t let children be near them.

And not only pill boxes. Just watch a senior trying to open a candy bar or even a packet of potato chips!

Hard to believe it is 25 years since we witnessed the implosion of the Calgary General Hospital into a huge pile of rubble.

An exciting event, but a real downer for the staff as well as local businesses and the whole community of BridgelandRiverside. Imagine the impact of taking away the jobs of workers who looked after 1,000 beds as well as a constant stream of out-patients and visitors who contributed to the neighbourhood economy.

It is a big mistake to consider ourselves of more value than other human beings.