Leaders show lack of respect
The net result of the leaders’ debate was to reinforce the fatigue and distrust that many voters feel about most politicians.
Do our leaders not realize that when they interrupt each other and cross-talk or, more accurately, cross-shout, it is disrespectful toward their audience because no one will hear what anyone is saying?
Do they even care that their message will be thereby be scrambled into incomprehensible verbiage?
The performance of the debate moderators can only be described as pathetic. They exerted zero control during most shouting matches. And the very design of part of the debate was quixotic — allowing just one minute to express an opinion on a complex topic is an exercise in futility.
We mock political shenanigans south of the border, but we don’t need to look that far. We have our own political charades.
Adrian Fine
Victoria
In campaign, who is the real phoney?
The English leaders’ debate was a disappointment and insult to Canadians looking to learn more about party platforms and leadership character qualities.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer set the tone for the often raucous event by ignoring the substance of the first question of the debate, instead using his time to attack Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau. Scheer appeared very un-prime ministerial in attacking his opponent as a “phoney and a fraud.” Does Mr. Scheer forget those very words might apply to him?
In his resumé, he claims to have been an insurance broker. Media reports as recent as this past September cannot confirm that he ever received his accreditation and the Insurance Council of Saskatchewan is reviewing the matter.
At the same time, Mr. Scheer did not reveal to Canadians that he has dual Canadian and American citizenship. When asked why he never made this public, Mr. Scheer’s flippant response was that he had “never been asked.”
Is it safe to say Mr. Scheer is “not as advertised?”
Janice Vansickle
Victoria
Don’t vandalize election signs
I am writing to remind people that it is a criminal offence to destroy, remove or otherwise tamper with candidate signs for the Oct. 21 federal election. I encourage anyone seeing such activity, regardless of party, to note the licence plate and report it immediately to the RCMP.
On Sooke River Road recently, a sign that I paid for and erected for PPC candidate Jeremy Gustafson was missing, although the sign for the Conservative candidate close by remained untouched.
It is possible that the PPC is being specifically targeted, having been unfairly maligned or ignored by corporate media who realize that when Maxime Bernier is elected prime minister, the gravy train is over.
Elaine Ellinger
Sooke
Take care of trees we already have
Re: “Victoria pledges to plant 5,000 trees in UN challenge,” Sept. 22.
Regarding the noble tree-planting plan Mayor Lisa Helps has offered, the City of Victoria first might want to take better care of existing trees along boulevards. Two mature hawthorn trees in front of my house and many along my street are in desperate need of pruning. Dead branches invite disease and further decay and are unsafe and unsightly.
If allowed, I would prune them myself or contract the work to my arborist. But the city does not allow it and, in spite of the request I made three weeks ago, has yet to provide the necessary service.
Rather than maintain existing trees, the practice seems to be to cut down and replace. It will take years or decades for replacements to match the canopy and benefits to wildlife that existing mature trees offer.
The city should direct funds to take care of the trees we already have before spending money on more trees that will suffer a similar fate.
Marc Craig
Victoria
Intersections are no place for panhandlers
While visiting Victoria in September, my husband and I noticed an increase in panhandlers at intersections farther out of the city.
We hadn’t noticed that in previous visits. Some of the panhandlers were coming right up to the cars stopped at the lights.
Shouldn’t the police be doing more about this issue? As a tourist or resident of Victoria, I wouldn’t want someone tapping on my car window asking for money when I was stopped at a light. You wouldn’t know how aggressive a person could become if you ignored them or declined to give them money, if they were under the influence of drugs, etc.
Victoria is a beautiful city. It’s unfortunate that, as with a lot of cities (ours included), there isn’t a more effective way to deal with panhandling.
C.A. Potter
Edmonton
Boomers earned what they have without help
Re: “Boomers gonna boomer,” comment, Oct. 6.
I am a boomer and I have two millennial-aged children. It seems to me that it’s all about life choices.
In my generation, student loans hardly existed. I worked from the age of 12 to save for living expenses, tuition and books. With the help of my savings and working during three years of attending post-secondary education, I graduated with no student debt and a full-time job.
Recently, at a town-hall meeting, my wife and I listened to a young man with an electronic engineering degree talk about how he could not afford to rent anything other than a room in a house after being evicted for a renovation.
He was paying more than 50 per cent of his income to rent. We felt very badly for him and spoke with him after the meeting to see how we might be able to help him.
This individual really opened our eyes. He explained to us that life-work balance was important to him. He would only work three days a week, as he enjoyed hiking, camping and other outdoor activities. There was no need for us to continue the conversation.
I have two millennial children, who I have given no financial support to other than a roof over their heads until they were 19. Both pursued their own education, worked part-time during their elementary and high-school years, saved their earnings, worked during their post-secondary education and graduated with full-time jobs.
These two millennials now own their own homes and have children. They don’t have the perfect life/work balance, but they make life fun and enjoy what they are doing.
Keep this in mind when you look at or think about boomers — 95 per cent of them earned what they now have without subsidized daycare, forgivable student loans and subsidized housing.
I think we will look back 30 years from now and discover that 90 per cent of millennials will have coped with their situations just as the boomers did. They will make it work through their own resources and smart life/work choices.
Richard C. Meagher
Victoria
Waste of court time, lack of common sense
Re: “Driver who lost licence for lack of breath sample will get a new hearing,” Oct. 6.
Hopefully, Norma McLeod will recover her financial losses from this overreaction. All I can think about is the waste of court time and resources going into this issue because of a lack of common sense.
Every day, my commute is fraught with people running lights, speeding excessively or just driving dangerously.
In all the years, I have very rarely seen any enforcement on the road during the early hours going to work. That’s a poor job of allocating resources as far as I’m concerned.
Dan Korolyk
Victoria
Stop fighting, start working together
Combatting and adjusting to climate change is going to take a concerted and cohesive effort from each and every one of us.
I’ve been reading the many letters to the editor from differing age groups and it seems to me that the blaming and shaming going on from one age group to another is not in any way effective, useful or helpful. We are all culpable in some way or another.
Perhaps it would be more effective for each of us to think about how we can take small steps to alter our behaviour to effect the change we want to see — buy locally, use less plastic and recycle what you do use, walk or bicycle if you are able, and if not, have a no-drive day one day a week, recycle electronics, reduce food waste, turn down the thermostat, write to municipal, provincial and federal officials asking for climate policies to be put front and centre, write letters of support to researchers who are looking for solutions.
Together we can do this!
Jocelyn Harder
Victoria
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