Mistake and locations are not relevant
Conservative leader John Rustad may have mistaken an overdose for an overdose and death. The average of 6.9 deaths per day remains, and the locations are somewhat irrelevant.
Bill Carere
Oak Bay
Votes are wasted in this voting system
Re: “In this election, every vote will count,” letters, Oct. 12.
Only when we have a proportional representation voting system will every vote truly count. With our “first past the post” system the majority of votes don’t count and those voters wasted their time and effort.
This flaw in our voting system would be so easy to fix but the two main parties would much rather trade having “false” majorities.
It’s much more fun to govern like a dictator, even though they usually have less than 40% of voter support, than allowing minor parties the representation they deserve.
Sadly under the present system the greenest thing most “Green” voters can do is stay home because going to the polls will only create pointless pollution.
The truth is, if we want every vote to count we need proportional representation.
S.I. Petersen
Nanaimo
Virus misinformation killed Canadians
In March 2020, health-care teams around the world were struggling with COVID‑19 — not knowing how to manage this new threat or how to manage the massive numbers of very sick people of all ages filling our hospitals, and not knowing how to keep ourselves and our families safe.
At the facility I was working at, we were masked and for a while gowned. We had some company come in wearing full-on HAZMAT suits and spray the entire facility with some kind of disinfectant.
I think a lot of us were pretty scared. But we did our job, and we cared for our patients in circumstances the likes of which most of us had never experienced before.
Not only were patients young and old dying, but so were health-care providers. It was months before the vaccine became available.
The vast majority of those of us working in health care were greatly relieved to have some measure of protection, not just for ourselves but for our patients and for our families.
Looking back, the calm leadership of Dr. Bonnie Henry was reassuring. We also saw incredibly smart researchers tackling the pandemic with speed and depth that I have never seen before.
Almost daily, the world’s leading medical journals were publishing new studies. As the virus evolved, more research was done and the race was on to try to get ahead of it.
Recommendations were changed as the science became clear. Understandably this was hard for many of us to grasp and some people coped by seeking out what turned out to be misinformation and conspiracy theorists on social media.
Many people struggled with the reality that the virus did not care about personal freedom. We know from detailed, confirmed research that there were at least 2,800 unnecessary deaths in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ that can be attributed to this misinformation.
With the provincial election, I think we need to reflect back on this challenging time and remember the facts and the reality.
We need to ask ourselves if we want to have political leaders and representatives who have denied this reality and choose to align with the conspiracy theorists and crackpots on social media.
Michael Cooper, M.D. FRCPC
Victoria
No need for those municipal councils
Some glad tidings to be had. So the NDP government has nudged municipal councils aside and consultation feedback and dialogue is dismissed.
We can rest easily now. Power obviously flows directly from the dictatorial top.
No more need for councillors, mayors, municipal elections or 13 little fiefdoms. No more charade of community involvement.
Think of all the millions we can now save. Should be good for a few instalment payments on the province’s massive $90 billion dollar debt.
No need to discuss amalgamation, big brother up top will look after us.
Karl Benn
Victoria
Many reasons to turn against Eby
If I only needed one reason not to vote for David Eby’s NDP, it would be that Adrian Dix is still the health minister. It is a classic example of stupidity to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result.
If I needed more reasons, I would add the punitive Property Purchase Tax, which is a penalty for buying a house. That tax, for an average home in Victoria, is about $15,000! The similar tax in Alberta is $400.
Next it would have to be the dictatorial way that Eby ripped up our property rights. The protection that we purchased legally, to live in a neighbourhood of our choosing, is gone.
He overrode all the municipalities’ years of consultation and planning. Very sadly the mayors and councils did nothing to fight back.
The dictatorial actions didn’t stop there. Anyone who purchased a property as part of their retirement plans were told it is now illegal to use it for that purpose.
Then the decree was announced that property owners could no longer rent their property out as vacation rentals. This resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of hard-working families’ holiday plans.
During the TV debate Eby’s reply to every subject that was discussed was “we’ve got to do more.” I think he has done more than enough already.
Joan Turner
Victoria
The Green party represents the future
Housing, health care, drug highs and lows, all top concerns vying for both voter’s and politician’s attentions.
What about nature, without which all of the above, i.e., life itself, would be impossible?
Take trees for instance. They give us the oxygen we must breathe to keep ourselves alive, they stop erosion which would wash away our homes, and immersing ourselves in them would eliminate the need for drugs.
It is high time for us to wake up out of our dreams / nightmares generated by the technology born of our brains we like to tout as superior to those linguistically deprived beings with whom we share the planet and who do their part (largely unconsciously) to maintain it without undermining it, and use these brains instead to restore what they have rapaciously stolen.
In light of the above, the Conservatives represent our past, the NDP our present, and the Greens our future.
The choice is yours.
Mary Andrews
Victoria
System stacked against the Independents
Our electoral system is skewed in favour of party-affiliated candidates, leaving independents (unaffiliated) disadvantaged. The drought of fairness experienced by independent (or unaffiliated) candidates intent on serving as a member of the legislative assembly or members of parliament requires attention.
During non-election periods, parties can amass funds through various sources, giving them a head start.
Contrastingly, independent candidates lie fallow, unable to generate financial backing until an election is officially declared. Moreover, their inability to issue tax receipts outside of an election period further complicates their fundraising attempts.
At least one candidate from a party with no seats prior to 2012 benefitted from the ability to raise and spend a considerable amount of money outside of an election period.
The result of this inequity? Independent candidates grapple with running a resource-limited campaign, while their counterparts enjoy a surplus of funds for their pre-electoral ventures. Indeed, we owe it to our democracy to conceive a system where independent candidates do not stand on unequal footing.
Amy Haysom, an independent candidate, has bravely put her name forward in these challenging circumstances. Her courage — and that of others like her — deserves admiration and a fair chance. I look to the elected parties after the Oct. 19 election to rectify this imbalance. Will you support this call for equity?
Surely, we do not need to stack the odds against independents further by endorsing democratic inequities, do we?
Ryan Windsor
Central Saanich
Elect Independents in every riding
Following the leader’s debate, I can’t help but think that the best outcome of the election would be to elect an Independent in every riding.
The legislature would then have to elect, within themselves, a premier, and cabinet ministers, and work together to make ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ a better place.
Michael Woods
Saanichton
Many, many problems in past seven years
Rather than focus on promises during this election, give some thought to the massive provincial debt and deficits, decriminalization of deadly drugs and record overdose deaths, emergency room closures and no family doctor, a health care system in disarray, unbelievable homelessness wherever one turns, a revolving door crime system, a forest system in crisis, and unbearable cost of living increases without a home.
Why has this all occurred over the past seven years?
H.J. Rice
Victoria
We will all lose if falsehoods win
An aspect of this election that stands out is the personal nature of the verbal attacks. I was surprised during the TV debate by how virulent the comments made by the premier to, and about John Rustad.
To this point I had respect for David Eby, however his remarks consistently were about Rustad, and not about the ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ Conservatives.
The ads being aired reflect the same. Such a shame that U.S. style politics have arrived here. Lies and exaggerations, as well as hyperbole.
Regardless of which party wins, it would be a shame if the victory came about by falsehoods. If that becomes reality, British Columbia loses.
Bill Bishop
Ladysmith
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