To the Editor,
Gordon Campbell is gone but the war on the poor his government implemented remains.
From the way the city has turned down its support for Kuu-us Crisis Line Society’s plans for the former armoury buildings on Johnston Road, it sounds like Mayor Ken McRae and his council is cheering it on—fanning the flames even.
An opportunity to build social capital in the Valley is being framed as an inter-governmental war by this city council, with the result of the poor and the struggling in our community paying the price. Are we in Canada or some fictitious place?
Why look a gift horse in the mouth? Why deny the social issues that exist here and a helping hand with them from the federal government?
Why not welcome the good news for Kuu-us, and our community, as the miracle it truly is?
I guess the answer rests with us, the 12,000-plus eligible municipal voters. What do we want? What are we prepared to do to get it? Who will run for council this coming November and represent us fairly, as we struggle to maintain in a paradigm we’ve never faced before?
Global coal industry snapping at our backs and cronies holding on to power in front?
Vote them out of power. Use your political rights to curb theirs. It’s called a clean sweep. Communities do it all the time when entrenched ideologies become a problem.
Cronyism is a fact of government, like corrosion, it happens over time. No one in public service should take it personally.
Jen Fisher-Bradley,
Port Alberni