Reader urges an escalation of trade war with Alberta
Regarding Alberta Premier Rachel Notley boycotting B.C. wines, we should fight fire with fire. Many Calgary residents have vacation homes in the Okanagan, where this boycotted wine is produced. We should double the property taxes on B.C. homes owned by Albertans.
Grant Husdon, Enderby
Support B.C. wineries
The majority of B.C. wineries are family-owned. They employ local, family-supporting employees and contribute to our provincial economy.
I don’t drink much wine, but if you do, buy B.C. wine! It’s some of the best in the world and there’s no better way to show our solidarity with our local wineries while Alberta imposes this unfair trade embargo.
Andrew Appleton, Gibsons
Three cheers!
Kudos to Alberta Premier Rachel Notley.
Roger Bjaanes, Harrison Hot Springs
Time to accept pipeline
Let’s be clear about the Kinder Morgan pipeline mess B.C. finds itself in. This is an approved project with significant caveats in place, it is a federal mandate in the best interests of whole country, and it is a significant benefit to B.C. as much as it is Alberta.
To pander to a few thousand uninformed upstarts and put the entire province — not to mention the country — in economic peril is shameful. Premier John Horgan better get his back straight, stand up and ensure we do what is right and lawful. Stomp your little feet all you want, this ship is sailing.
Paul Betts, Vernon
‘Everything for free’
Columnist Michael Smyth asked how new B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson, a 60-year-old white guy, could relate to young, diverse voters?
He should do what NDP Premier John Horgan did — promise them everything they could ever want for free. Be Santa Claus! Don’t offer jobs, offer free stuff. Fifteen dollars an hour? Promise $25 or $45! Who cares if anyone can afford it? Who cares if they have no skills, show up late or not at all.
Everything For Free! There’s your bumper sticker. Unfortunately, this campaign strategy works.
Brock Bishop, North Vancouver
Privacy lost with cameras
Recently, many local governments have reported plans to implement video surveillance in public spaces, on a scale that would be unprecedented in B.C. Richmond plans to spend more than $2 million to deploy video surveillance throughout the city, and Terrace plans to install surveillance in its parks. Kelowna, which already has CCTV, plans to hire employees to monitor their cameras continuously, in real time.
These proposals all assume that video surveillance prevents crime, justifying the invasion of privacy of law-abiding people. My office is working with those municipalities to determine whether any of these proposals are lawful.
While the benefits of surveillance are hypothetical, the harm it presents to the privacy of British Columbians is real. It will be amplified by facial recognition technology and big-data analyses identifying and following us from camera to camera. If we surrender our public spaces to surveillance — one of the few places where we have privacy — we may never get them back.
Drew McArthur, acting B.C. information and privacy commissioner, Victoria