Vote with your heart – and head
Some people advocate voting with your heart. We suggest that in this election, it is critical to vote also with your head – that is, to vote strategically.
How would your heart feel if on the day after the election, you realized that your vote had helped to elect the government you least wanted to see get in?
In the last election, the NDP won over the Conservatives in our riding by only 400 votes, which was an average of two votes per ballot box. The Liberals and Greens were both many thousands of votes behind.
In this riding, only two parties have a realistic chance of winning: the Conservatives and the NDP. Increased votes for the Greens or Liberals would not be enough to win the seat for them, but could be enough to give the victory to a party their supporters do not want to see in power.
The NDP, Liberals, and Greens have all said they would bring in some form of proportional representation. With that in place for the next election, you would then be able to vote with your heart without fear of working against your own ideals and interests.
If you like our current federal government, it’s easy to decide how to vote. But if you want a change in government, please consider voting for a candidate who can win.
Greg and Sheila Whincup
Sooke
‘You make my heart flutter’
Re: Running Man (Sports, Oct. 7)
I would like to say this to who inspires me:
When I ran the Run for the Cure two weekends ago, there was a pipe band that led a group of 50 or more women survivors of breast cancer to the start of the race. These people are announcing, it can be beaten and I am a survivor and carrying on with my path. Good on you, you make my heart flutter.
Ken Pungente
Sooke
Council must listen to taxpayers
Re: Apartment plan hits a snag over parking (News, Oct. 7)
Residents spoke against this parking variance as the roads are narrow and parking a premium. This large project on such a small piece of land will change the neighborhood.
The developer says rents would be between $650 and $800, but who knows if he will develop it, flip the land and then someone else will try to change the zoning?
This happens often in Sooke.
The last council voted to allow suites in all zones to allow greater affordability for more folks. The result? Now, we have clogged roadways, driveways and byways, as council again disregarded neighbors concerns.
I wonder why council bothers with public hearings when some councillors suggest this area will eventually all be apartments and condos.
Why bother with 2.5 years of official community plan deliberations and input from the people when council deems to know better than we do? After all, look at council’s successes with Mariner’s Village and the hotel – one a lack of sales, the other a lack of parking at a cost of $300,000 to taxpayers a year for five years.
Council, listen to the people who elect you to protect our homes and environment, not to the Union of B.C. Municipalities and other entities, who tell you how to manage our community.
Ellen Lewers
Sooke
Naming roundabout after fallen Mountie
Re: Sooke roundabout could honour our fallen Mountie (Opinion, Oct. 7)
I think the naming of the downtown roundabout in Sooke as the Reg Williams roundabout is an excellent idea. It is a good memorial in his name for his service here in this community.
Anne Roberts
Sooke
Big business wins, the rest of us pay
I am not normally partisan nor expostulative about political issues – it is same old, same old most of the time – but this is egregious.
It seems that seven out of 15 Canada Revenue Agency board members are Conservative donors, while more and more headlines suggest the work of CRA is politically motivated.
It looks as though Canadian corporations sheltered close to $200 billion in tax havens last year.
Meanwhile, the CRA spent $8 million auditing charities. (Not that I necessarily trust charities, but their cash is a drop in the bucket.)
When Conservatives stack influential appointments with their hand-picked donors, big business wins while the rest of us pay the price.
I feel as though I pay plenty of taxes, proportionate to my meagre income, while the rich get richer.
Howard Szafer
Sooke
Meetings promote neo-Marxist candidates
Certainly many of the all-candidate forums were arranged to promote neo-Marxist candidates and try to trap their opponents. It’s another devious tactic of political activists.
But candidates who cannot hold their own thus avoid the forums are not well equipped for public office, where they want to persuade others.
And why are some candidates excluded by the organizers? That’s not fair. What are they afraid of?
There is a concern about security – indeed a topic for lovers of freedom, who should be advocating more and better re-education in federal prisons.
Keith Sketchley
Saanich