Thanks for cleaning the Galloping Goose
This is a thank you to the municipal workers and citizens who have been continuously clearing junk and removing garbage from the Galloping Goose bike trail throughout COVID times.
I can only imagine the volume and assortment of stuff that has been collected. I am grateful that it keeps getting cleared.
This is an important chore, and is very much appreciated by me and the thousands of people who use the trail regularly.
I hope one day we can have the murals repainted. Thank you to the social workers and police who have been continuously discouraging campers and moving them along, too.
The trail needs to remain the vital transportation route that it is.
Rosemary Mueller
Victoria
Let each municipality pick their time zone
Surely the fairest way to decide whether we should adopt permanent daylight saving time in the Capital Regional District is to leave that decision to each municipality.
Having 13 entities decide such matters has to be more responsive to area residents than having one overarching decision imposed on all. And it would add yet another “valid reason” why we should never all be amalgamated in the future.
Having each area adopt and name its own time zone would be right in keeping with our kooky “little fiefdom” approach to municipal governance.
Chris Foord
Oak Bay
View Street change a rare event for Victoria
View Street is now going to run two directions. This is the first positive move I have seen Victoria city council make in a very long time.
It feels like a breath of fresh air in an other wise poorly ventilated series of anti-car decisions around how downtown is being developed.
Is this a sign that the onslaught of cement island building, parking removal and endless bike lanes has come to an end? I doubt it. I’m sure they are only one ping-pong table away from another silly decision.
C. Scott Stofer
Victoria
Truck convoy, meet old-growth protesters
Can we arrange for the people protesting old-growth logging to block some highways when the truck convoy is due to arrive? The two groups can decide whose protest is more important.
Alanna Wrean
Victoria
We need to get tougher with Putin
I am venting some anger over the gutless, barbaric, constant bombardment of the people of Ukraine.
I have no idea how a raving lunatic can keep the world at bay, while NATO and the rest of the world sit idly by. The sanctions are good, and I hope Vladimir Putin pays the price on lost national income.
More important, I think NATO should impose a no-fly zone, surround Russia on all sides, and call Putin’s bluff. He is not the only world leader with nuclear weapons. If he is not stopped, he will continue his atrocities westward.
Hopefully the sanctions will work, Russia may run out of money, or Putin may be killed. I welcome these scenarios.
Couldn’t NATO move a little bit of artillery closer to Russia, or the Ukraine border, look a bit prepared, or will they scramble later?
Rob McKenzie
Duncan
Putin wreaks havoc as Ukraine suffers
NATO and the UN have shoved the Ukrainians under the bus. Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians are our sacrificial lambs — they get killed and displaced, see their country turned to rubble while we cry, gnash our teeth, wring our hands and utter platitudes.
NATO should have adopted Ukraine as its own. Protected it as its own. Not left to fend for itself with “a little help from my friends.” As Zelenskyy quipped when offered asylum: “I need ammunition, not a ride.”
I know the arguments for not prodding the deranged giant and I understand the trepidation, but we know what happened last time, when we let Hitler have Sudetenland.
The West has nuclear weapons too. And just as they’ve been used as deterrents for the past 60 years or so, they can be used as such now. The thought that Britain, France, Israel and the U.S. are training their warheads on Moscow and St. Petersburg would give Vladimir Putin some pause for thought.
On the destruction of war, the Roman historian Tacitus wrote: ”They made a desert and called it peace.” Is this what the West wants? What is the endgame here?
If the pundits are correct — that Vladimir Putin wants to re-establish the Tsarist Russian Empire, where and when will he stop? The Baltics? Finland? Poland? Romania? Once he’s taken Ukraine, what do we do then? Is it only when Putin treads on our daffodils do we dare confront him head on? Risk our precious freedom?
As we know, totalitarian dictators can only exist with the tacit approval and support of the people. That’s what Putin has. We’re hoping that sanctions will change his and their minds, but if they are successful it will take time, all the while he’s wreaking havoc.
John Crouch
Victoria
EV owners should help pay for roads
Drivers of cars that use gas pay gas taxes, some or all of which go to maintaining roads.
When you buy a car that uses gas, there is no government rebate helping you buy one. An electric car has numerous rebates helping to buy the car. Do they pay any road taxes to help maintain roads?
With the big push on electric cars, and more and more of them on the road, it is about time they help pay to maintain the roads and bridges. That is only fair and equitable to all users of the highway and road system.
Larry Easton
Cowichan Bay
Royal Jubilee parking needs an upgrade
I am a former employee of Royal Jubilee Hospital. Parking has been an issue since the 1990s for staff. If I didn’t arrive at work by 7:50 a.m., I would not be able to park in the staff parking lots, as they were full. Many side streets surrounding the hospital are used by staff, forcing the city to expand the residential parking zones farther and farther from the hospital.
The hospital doesn’t have a visitor parking problem, it has a staff parking problem. When parking is free, a number of visitor spaces are used by employees. I think it is time to consider adding another parkade at Royal Jubilee to relieve the issue.
Eileen Cannon
Victoria
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