Re: Appeasing a bully, for now at least (Letters, Feb. 3)
Instead of bashing Donald Trump, Karen Hertel should focus on bullying in Canada. Jean Chretien was notorious.
In B.C. we’ve seen swashbucklers like hypocrites W.A.C. Bennett and Glen Clark. Clark wouldn’t listen to advice that fast ferries were not suitable for runs near shores, instead rushing ahead with only part of the solution to congestion in Horseshoe Bay – he set B.C. Ferries back a decade or more.
More recently the B.C. Liberals bullied the B.C. Teacher’s Federation, which itself tries to use its monopoly power to bully the system into teaching only its disproven ideology. Meanwhile their combined efforts have not stopped bullying in schools, because they promote collectivism, not individual rights.
Municipal mayors, councillors and staff bully land owners, as former Saanich mayor Frank Leonard did to farmers. Even former Colwood mayor Dave Saunders tried to bully property owners – NIMBYs got what they wanted, which was the gravel pit to close – but they didn’t think ahead to far less tax revenue, so Colwood was financially troubled.
U.S. voters chose shallow loose cannon Donald Trump over a devious member of the establishment who endangered lives by using her own insecure email server to do government business.
Some choice. But U.S. voters made it. Canada should prepare to deal with it constructively.
Keith Sketchley
Saanich