Write to understand and to be understood.
Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor,
Full marks to Premier Christy Clark and Finance Minister Mike de Jong for continuing to show restraint with respect to government hiring and government wages. The government bureaucracy in this province will be reduced by over 1,400 positions in the coming three years. Good riddance to BIG Government and hello balanced budgets – my kid’s thank you.
Monika Bonney Burnaby, BC
Dear Editor,
I can’t understand the fuss being made over a plan to reach out to the province’s ethnic populations. There is nothing new in any of this: Political parties engage in all sorts of outreach activities all the time. The NDP, for instance, established sexual orientation quotas in their constitution for NDP candidates. So, if you ask me, it’s about time the government and political parties made a greater effort to reach out to BC’s ethnic populations.
Donald Leung Burnaby, BC
Dear Editor:
Even though the provincial election is just three months away, NDP leader Adrian Dix still refuses to reveal the NDP’s election platform. Why? Is it so empty that he has to hide it from public view for as long as he possibly can?
I think the public deserve to see what sort of plan Adrian Dix and the NDP have for this province. Voters should be able to evaluate the NDP’s platform and weigh it against the platforms, plans and visions of other parties.
Unfortunately, all Mr. Dix has done so far is defend his secrecy around the NDP platform by claiming the BC Liberals never revealed their plans this early on when they were in opposition during the 1990’s.
Well, I almost bought that argument from Mr. Dix until I checked the facts. Not surprisingly, the facts don’t line up with Mr. Dix’s claim.
In 1996, for instance, the BC Liberals released their platform three months before the election; and that was at a time when BC did not have a fixed election date as we do now.
And in 2000, the BC Liberals released their platform more than a year before the election. These were documents that voters could read and study, evaluate and compare.
How sad it is, then, that BC voters still have absolutely nothing solid from Mr. Dix this close to the election. His platform and plans remain a mystery. You would think that someone such as Mr. Dix, whose fundamental honesty has been in question since the 1990’s, would be doing everything he could to be open and honest with the public about his plans.
Obviously, and sadly, that is clearly not the case.
Fred Reemeyer Coquitlam B.C.
Dear Editor:
I’m afraid it’s that time for all of us in British Columbia to start thinking about who we are going to vote for in the provincial election this Spring. It’s not a decision that I’m taking lightly, especially when I think about what the future holds for the younger members of my family.
One thing I would like to say, however, is how appalled I am about the unfair treatment Premier Christy Clark seems to get. Why this is so, I don’t really know. But she does not seem to be getting a fair shake at all.
But then, putting on my sexist hat, perhaps it’s not very surprising. As a woman myself, and having worked and competed in a man’s world, it once again demonstrates to me that a woman must juggle home, work and perception on a daily basis in a way that her male counterparts never have to.
And of all the woman who have ever been put in a leadership position in our country, from Prime Minister to Premier, none has ever been able to demonstrate fully what they could do. They’ve only been treated a stop gap for the next male leader. For once, I would really like to see what a woman could do with her vision of our future.
That’s why I’ve decided to support Christy Clark, and one of my main reasons is that she has started on a path that leads her government and our Province in a direction I would like to see reach completion. As a daughter, wife, mother, and grandmother, I’ve seen how we’ve gotten to where we are now and I’m anxious for a change.
So, let’s see what Christy Clark can do. Not only do I feel I can trust her, it’s also clear to me that she is genuinely, and truly focused on creating jobs for the younger members of our society, and that is something they can literally take to the bank.
Diane Walters Williams Lake
