Politicians are all being hypocrites in seeking power
The Liberals and NDP are a bunch of hypocrites. The Liberals had every chance to garner enough votes to continue as the ruling party, but arrogantly thought that the voters agreed with them on everything. However, now that they face a vote of confidence, they’re willing to give all the perks the voters demanded. What a bunch of hypocrites!
NDP Leader John Horgan isn’t much better. He’s willing to defeat a confidence vote, although it contains everything he promised the voters throughout his campaign. He’s not interested in supporting a government that is now willing to give all that he wanted. He just wants the power! Again, a first-class hypocrite. Ray Roch, Delta
Let’s see if Clark is humble
Premier Christy Clark has set the bar high in claiming to be a changed person. Now she is a humbled MLA, interested only in working across party lines for the benefit of every British Columbian. Her promise stands in stark contrast to her tenure as premier, when she led a government best characterized as ideologically driven that was by turns dismissive, indifferent and arrogant.
While it’s probably too late for Clark to hope for another term as premier, she may soon have a chance to prove that she is something more than a neo-liberal wolf in socialist clothing as leader of the opposition.
She might begin by voting in favour of the 30 or so pledges made in her throne speech, commitments borrowed from the Greens and NDP, including such measures as proportional representation, child care, a multitude of social-justice measures, raising the carbon tax and a ban on corporate donations.
Mike Ward, Duncan
What will they debate?
After listening to the Liberals’ recent throne speech, it’s going to be interesting to watch how things play out with NDP policies now defining both the government and the opposition. John Leonard, Pitt Meadows
Quite an illusion
It’s like a magician’s trick, the body is severed from the head, but the mouth keeps moving. That’s the perilous state of Christy Clark’s B.C. Liberals. Stewart Brinton, Vancouver
Is intolerance tolerable?
Imagine a person with only a few weeks to live who happens to be a racist, a misogynist and a homophobe, and only wants to be treated by a heterosexual, white male doctor. Should this person be denied health care because of his intolerance or be forced to receive care from someone he can’t tolerate?
In a society that is striving to be tolerant, is there some small degree to which we need to grudgingly tolerate and accept the non-violent, intolerant people among us?
Most people who are intolerant were likely raised to be that way and it’s unlikely they’re going to change. With no access to private care, they’re likely to make scenes in waiting rooms that make headlines. Racism, misogyny and homophobia are disappearing, which is good. In the meantime, forcing intolerant people to receive care from people they can’t tolerate is unlikely to lead to good outcomes. Trevor Amon, Victoria
Put chicken abusers in jail
Never mind just firing the workers who abused chickens.
Put them in jail! Better yet, send them for mental-health treatment.
There must be something fundamentally wrong with people who treat living creatures like that.
Or maybe it’s the attitude we have developed over time by eating animals to survive. They’re living creatures and ought to be treated with dignity and provided with — do I dare say humane? — treatment until they’re killed so we can eat them.
Diane Skippen, Vancouver