Re: Recall descends into ugly farce (B.C. Views, Jan. 19 )
William Butler Yeats must be spinning in his grave at the misuse of his words by a bellicose reporter who favours venom over the truth. Tom Fletcher has really stretched the limits of credibility with his references to Yeats’ masterpiece, The Second Coming. This is like Elmer Fudd quoting Shakespeare.
With his dissection of the recall campaign, Fletcher just repeats his noxious modus operandi: Verbally impaling innocent people without actually interviewing them to get the facts. The columnist accuses canvassers of “abuse” of Oak Bay residents on hearsay evidence without giving recall organizers a chance to defend themselves. That is what I call low-brow reporting.
Fletcher’s dime store journalism does not merit references to a literary master. In Yeats’ epic poem, he warns us of a future where “the best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Fletcher should heed the last few words.
Doreen Marion Gee
Victoria
Fletcher ignores democratic basis of recall campaign
According to Tom Fletcher, the citizens’ recall movement is “the rough beast of recall” and a “venomous venture.”
Unfortunately Tom goes off-message as he zealously criticizes the recall leaders, Bill Vander Zalm and Chris Delaney. For this clashes with Ida Chong’s tactic — expressed in three brochures delivered to my home — that claims that recall is a secret NDP plan.
Tom ignores the democratic basis of the Ida Chong recall movement. Recall, for any purpose deemed worthy by the electorate of any riding, was approved in a 1991 referendum by 81 per cent of B.C. voters.
Tom echoes Ida’s line that getting rid of her won’t get rid of the HST. Recall would, however, provide an opportunity for the citizens of Oak Bay-Gordon Head to get rid of a Liberal cabinet minister who supported the HST immediately following a provincial election in which she promised not to introduce this unfair $2-billion annual tax shift from corporations onto individual taxpayers.
The recall movement is the people’s protest of a Liberal government that has deceitfully imposed the unfair HST at a time of fragile economic recovery. It is, as ex finance minister Carole Taylor stated, “the wrong tax at the wrong time.” It is, as she rightly said, both ideological and a loss of our province’s sovereignty over the provincial domain of the sales tax.
The recall movement is a cry for honest, accountable, and democratic government for the 21st century. Ida and the B.C. Liberals ignore this grassroots movement at their political peril.
Ron Faris
Saanich
Recall is about
more than the HST
This piece by Tom Fletcher rather grated on my mind because he seems to think that the only reason for the recall is the HST and is some kind of vengeful reaction to it.
Fletcher’s view of the recall seems to be that of any good party membership paying B.C. Liberal supporter who believes no cabinet minister or MLA is to blame for anything.
After all, it is only the people who object to the method of introduction, not necessarily the tax, and we all know the people do not matter in B.C.
If the people should get mad enough to object and say, “Wait a minute here,” then it is up to the Fletchers of the B.C. media to try to put out that fire.
Ida Chong is a good MLA?
Has everyone forgotten her role in the Coleman donation of Crown lands to Western Forest Products and the re-zoning of them? Who held that up until it was too late?
Is that what makes a good MLA, or is it what makes a good servant to the premier? How does she, as a local resident, really justify claiming more for her meals than many people make in a year here in B.C.?
I think she is a good choice for recall, based on her pathetic performance both as a cabinet minister and her disregard for her employers.
Jeremy Arney
Central Saanich