City council’s ‘silly idea of the week’

Re: “Victoria at last has council it deserves,” letter, Oct. 24.

When I first read the letter, I thought it a facetious but amusing composition. Since reading submissions from some others, I have come to believe the writer might be serious about what he wrote.

I have long thought of the Victoria city council as an extension of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, wherein, instead of the Ministry of Silly Walks, the council presents the Silly Idea of the Week, with apologies only to council member Geoff Young.

Should Coun. Ben Isitt really believe that there should be a municipal income tax and that housing should become a staterun enterprise, then we should all be fearful of the enormous weight of bureaucracy that would ensue, with inevitable increasing taxes.

What the recent Victoria election result has shown me is the downside of the first-past-thepost form of elections.

Moreover, I feel thankful that I don’t live within the Victoria municipal area and am not directly affected by the weirdness that reigns there, except that that the “dream team” bike lanes have caused me to shop elsewhere when I can.

Finally, the Victoria city councils of the past few years have convinced me, a Saanich resident, that the possibility of amalgamation of Saanich with Victoria might prove to be a big mistake. David Smith Victoria