Grandpa’s First World War service changed him forever
My grandfather fought at Vimy Ridge and he came home from the First World War a profoundly changed person.
All wars are insanity personified, but that war — with hundreds of thousands of young men dying in battles for control over 10 acres of land or small hills — was particularly obscene in terms of its callous waste of lives.
I was told by my mother and aunts that my grandfather left Canada as a happy-go-lucky young man, but returned four years later a morose and uncommunicative old man. Only once, after too many glasses of wine, did he share with me stories about living in muddy, rat-infested trenches, consuming rotten food and contaminated water, with endless dysentery and seeing his friends and comrades mutilated and killed by enemy fire.
I have never been able to erase those images from my memory.
He was never physically injured, but like so many other veterans, my grandfather never overcame the effects of the psychological wounds he suffered.
Ray Arnold, Richmond
Olympic hockey. Who cares?
What is the No. 1 men’s soccer event in the world, the Olympic Games or the World Cup? I am not even sure the Olympic Games ranks second.
Did you notice that most of the elite PGA golfers skipped the Summer Games in Rio last year? Winning majors is where it is at for them, not Olympic gold.
Who cares if the NHL goes to Korea next year for games that will be played in the wee hours of the morning. The NHL and its players do not need the Olympics to have a best-on-best tournament and the business case for the NHL going to the Olympics does not even begin to make sense.
Trevor Amon, Victoria
No longer backing Liberals
I’ve had it with Premier Christy Clark and her Liberals. Try as I might to continue supporting her party, whom I endorsed because of her economic platform of energy initiatives and job creation, the endless wave of Liberal decisions that do not support average British Columbians has taken its toll on me.
Daily, there are situations that make my blood boil — overcrowded hospitals, education problems, housing issues, homelessness, child-welfare shortcomings. I completely disagree with the Liberals’ handling of these important matters.
I’m switching and voting for the other guys, and hope many other British Columbians do so also. Enough with the phoney spin and mismanagement. Roger Bjaanes, Harrison Hot Springs
What is mayor all about?
Mayor Gregor Robertson is losing it. A fortune built on “oil” donated by the Rockefeller Foundation will fund a new City Hall program, the chief resilience officer?
In a short time, the mayor will be protesting Kinder Morgan’s new pipeline. You know, stuff that pays for things in huge ways in Canada? But Vision will spend hundreds of thousands in legal fees fighting the project with our tax money. Robertson spent a lot of his life in the U.S. It makes one wonder what it’s really all about.
Hugh Shirreff, Vancouver
Stop paying taxes
After all the recent news of government overspending, it’s time for a taxpayers’ revolt. It’s time to withhold our taxes. Don’t worry, the government can’t put us all in jail. Bonnie Mitchell, Vernon