NDP did not like Appadurai’s challenge
The disqualification of Anjali Appadurai as a NDP leadership candidate is shocking. She is a competent, articulate woman who is urging the party to address climate action seriously but the NDP leadership electoral officer in an apparently, vengeful and small-minded approach decides to disqualify her.
No one makes it clear why Appadurai is disqualified nor what specific rules she breached. What is clear is that David Eby must be so paranoid that he has to neutralize a leadership challenger to ensure he wins the premiership.
This does not bode well for his leadership nor does it bode well for the NDP.
This is the second time in a row, the NDP party has acclaimed a leader in the absence of a leadership race. Obviously the NDP does not the courage or integrity to allow leadership candidates with different ideas to present their views to the party and be judged.
John Horgan’s pathetic attack on the Green party, saying they are trying to take over the NDP, is absurd. The provincial Green party has far fewer paid-up members than the NDP which runs at about 11,000 (no official figures known) and can hardly mount a takeover.
No one in the NDP administration asked me if I was a member of another provincial party when I applied for membership. Nor did anyone indicate that the NDP would prevent you from becoming a member, if you are a member of another party.
Their internal membership systems are clearly flawed. But this is not Appadurai’s fault.
They did ask me whom I was likely to support for the leadership position, which is none of their business. The NDP has lost a tremendous opportunity to revitalize itself.
Appadurai has ideas, energy, and courage. But, she challenged the long-standing power base of the NDP and apparently they will not stand for it.
Rosalind Coleman
Brentwood Bay
Boldly promising where others have failed
Isn’t it wonderful! After all these years of successive governments denying that any of these problems actually existed, David Eby is going to instantly solve them all.
“I can’t wait to get started!” he proclaimed. But we’ve all been waiting for him and his cohorts to get started for years.
Political blustering like this sounds great now but I wonder what his bluster will be when he discovers that many of those promises are simply out of his control and that he should concentrate his efforts and channel what money there is to what he can control. If he tries to satisfy everyone he will satisfy no one.
So choose carefully, Mr. Eby.
Jack Trueman
Brentwood Bay
Single file, please, when cycling on our roads
I have lived in North Saanich for 20 years. As cycling has become more popular as a means of fitness and not just a mode of transportation, there has been a huge increase in the number of bicycle riders enjoying the perfect ride around the peninsula.
These riders are riding singly, in small groups or huge pelatons. The large groups regularly ride two to three abreast and on our narrow peninsula roads restrict other cyclists or vehicles from passing. Motor Vehicle Act, Part 3, #183, #2 (d) states: a cyclist must not ride abreast of another person operating a cycle on the roadway. This rule needs to be enforced.
Also one way of making these cyclists more aware of traffic around them would be the requirement of a mirror on their bicycles.
Nicky Tutt
North Saanich
Parking lots full at island’s ferry terminals
When I moved to Vancouver Island in 2005, the biggest worry we had when using the ferry was the dreaded “one-ferry wait.” It did happen on occasion but it was the exception, not the rule.
Fast forward to 2022 and due to many factors, we had a reality check of the new normal for the residents of the Island. Multiple sailing waits, sailing cancellations, and now, the latest, full parking lots for those that thought walking onto the ferry was the way to avoid the hassle of taking a car. I heard multiple stories of family reunions delayed or cancelled on both sides of the strait, just because people could not make it.
And then, I realized, closing the loop on my own thoughts, that the ferry system is basically still the same we had back in 2005. Same sailings, slightly bigger boats (but not too much), same terminals, etc.
Population has increased, mobility between the mainland and the island has increased, sophistication of the travellers has increased and yet, the system looks almost the same.
Perhaps it is time that all the interested parties sit together and really give this a hard, long thought: Do we want to be in the same boat (pun intended) in 2040? Or is it time to think about a better way to serve the transportation needs of Island residents?
Daniel Sanchez
Victoria
Weed, weed everywhere, but no coolers, please
Has it really been four years since weed became legal? Time flies.
I remember not so long ago being able to walk through our downtown core (where we live), only rarely smelling the skunky smell of the stuff.
Now, cars drive by with the smoke pouring out the windows and users are puffing away on every street corner or nook along the sidewalk. Downtown smells like a weed “den.”
But if I want to quietly sip on a vodka cooler or beer as I walk through this fog, I could be arrested for consuming alcohol in a public place. How things have changed, and not for the better.
Stephen Kishkan
Victoria
Colwood Crawl … through garbage
I think I speak for thousands of other commuters coming in each morning from the west and the north; the traffic is bad enough, but to see the garbage of paper and plastic scattered all over the centre meridian day in and day out is maddening and disgusting.
I don’t recall it being this bad over the years. The highway crews and municipalities responsible for cleanup are not doing their jobs. Furthermore, there needs to be increased oversight on catching vehicles that aren’t securing their loads.
I’m tempted to pull over myself or rally students with garbage bags, but that wouldn’t be safe. I’ve lived in many places and always prided Greater Victoria as being a beautiful place; we invest in flowers and nice banners, but let’s focus on picking up the highway garbage also.
We talk about the need to save our planet from pollution and we can’t save 10 kilometres of highway from garbage? We can do better.
Glen Palahicky
Victoria
Overcrowded hospital scenes are shocking
A recent experience at Victoria General Hospital has shocked and devastated me. The doctors and nurses are doing the best they can under catastrophic circumstances.
I saw eight- to 12-hour waits in intake emergency, emergency patients lining the corridors in the triage area in makeshift stretcher beds with no call buttons because there were no beds in emergency or in the hospital, many paramedics having to stay with intakes because there were no beds in emergency, which of course leads to fewer ambulances available on the streets.
Once a “bed” was found, we felt lucky to get a tiny makeshift consult room as the ward corridors were lined with patients as well. The ward was a dumping ground for a vast array of cases because there was no room in the appropriate ward my mum should have been in.
Understaffing led to multiple calls unanswered in the night for pain meds, and when they wanted to move my 86-year-old mother with pelvic fractures and a colostomy bag to the corridor to “make room” for a patient just out of surgery, I knew we were lost.
Megan Preece
Saanich
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