Knocking down houses isn’t green, destroys our heritage
People travel to Montreal, Quebec City, Boston, New York and cities in Europe to see historic buildings and neighbourhoods. They will never travel to Vancouver for these things.
Our historic buildings and neighbourhoods are being torn down and sent to the landfill. Perhaps developers, politicians and some citizens don’t care. Those cities you love to visit got historic because someone decided not to tear them down and build new.
When some politicians talk green, they talk bike lanes, which really in the grand scheme of things aren’t helping the environment that much. Tossing millions of tons of decent material into the landfill and then cutting down more trees and using more of other materials is much worse for the environmental than a few more cars on the road.
There is something disgusting about tearing down a 20-year-old house to build something bigger. The new owners don’t care about the environment, their neighbours, the city, our history or B.C. residents.
It is about time our politicians did something to protect our environment. It is time to implement some of that zoning they have in Europe that creates historic areas.
Elizabeth Foster, Nanaimo
Death move a slippery slope
The push by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and other pro-euthanasia groups to make euthanasia as easy as ordering a pizza should be a wake-up call to anyone who believes that laws will protect vulnerable people from abuse once euthanasia is legalized.
These groups are demanding the most liberal laws of any country that has legalized this practice. As Wanda Morris of Dying with Dignity states, “the Supreme Court judgment in the Carter case is just the beginning.” Today the terminally ill; tomorrow the mentally ill, depressed, lonely, the elderly who are a burden on society, the handicapped and so on.
Wake up Canada before it’s too late.
Mary Holtby, Mission
Trash talk was welcome
Columnist Gordon Clark continues to hit the nail on the head. Oh, if only we had a few more level-headed people like him, what a wonderful world it would be.
Every garbage day, the streets are lined with more and more plastic boxes made from oil. We have more sign pollution than most cities and now we have recycle-container pollution.
Coffee drinkers are the worst polluters. They just leave their empty containers wherever and don’t even bother to dispose of them properly. Oh well, we know they have a good excuse anyway as the trash containers are probably full.
They would never think to take their trash home and dispose of it. That would be too easy.
Caroline Duncan, North Vancouver
B.C. Family Day not right
I do not agree with this relatively new holiday called Family Day. Aren’t weekends meant for that?
But if we’re going to have another holiday, we should have aligned it with our neighbours to the south, who celebrate Presidents Day a week later on the third Monday in February — also a holiday in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island.
Francois Gasel, Vancouver
LNG competition is stiff
Re: Michael Smyth column on LNG. Why isn’t there more reference to B.C.’s global competition on this subject?
Specifically, Australia has beaten us to the punch: they have four projects on stream and five more under construction. Malaysia has three on stream and two pending, and who is involved in the two pending?
Surprise: Petronas. And if that wasn’t enough, Sabine Pass in Louisiana is set to begin exporting in the next three months and there are four more on the drawing boards there if markets improve.
Brian Peckford, Qualicum Beach