Building new huge water bombers would simply cost too much
Re: Reader suggestion that B.C. build new Martin Mars water bombers.
The cost of building a large, technologically advanced water bomber (using the Martin Mars as a living blueprint) is unrealistic and cost prohibitive to provincial taxpayers.
It would still cost billions for a major aerospace company like Boeing to design, test and produce an aircraft of this magnitude.
Yes, we are going to need a bigger airplane. A reconfigured DC-10 or Boeing 747 fire-retardant tanker can be purchased for $10 million. A fire-retardant drop is best because water drops are prone to evaporation.
We would be better served if the B.C. government offered a tax incentive to the aerial firefighting companies so they can purchase and/or lease said aircraft. Carla Deminchuk, Aldergrove
Don’t look back in anger
It was enlightening to read the comments of Liberal MLA Ellis Ross in Michael Smyth’s column regarding the removal of the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in Victoria.
It’s refreshing to see a forward-thinking person’s view, on the subject of reconciliation, not the angry response of some who can’t get over wrongs of the past.
My mother lived through the Holodomor, the man-made famine that killed millions of people in Ukraine in the early 1930s.
She was eight when her father was sent to a Gulag, her mother to a work camp, and she and her siblings had their heads shaved and were put in an orphanage. My father had the same story. They both survived the Second World War, eventually emigrated to Canada and taught us to always look forward and not let anger of the past rule your life. Hal Genzel, Delta
Statue should go to museum
I am a descendant of one of the first Europeans in North America, explorer Jean Nicolet. He was the first person in New France to have a child with a native woman. I am a descendant of that woman and also her child, Euphrosine Nicolet, the first Metis person in Canada. I agree with taking down the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald from a place of honour.
It belongs in a museum along with a list of his accomplishments, faults and misgivings.
He is part of history, but just because he was first it doesn’t make him honourable. Dennis Cadrain, Maple Ridge
Glad protest camp is gone
As a law-abiding citizen, I’m happy to see the RCMP found the backbone to move in and tear down the Kinder Morgan protest camp.
If special interest groups and Indigenous people are allowed to get away with disobeying court orders, we might as well fire all the cops and judges and all start packing our own protection. Mark Wolrich, North Vancouver
This is how smoking feels
After weeks of wildfires and choking smoke, millions of British Columbians now know how smokers feel most of the time, including laboured breathing, coughing, wheezing and irritated eyes, nose and throat.
What I don’t get, though, is why smokers willingly pay, on average, $12 a day — $4,380 a year — to feel that lousy? Jerry Steinberg, Surrey
Just make dumping free
The solution to illegal dumping is simple. Instead of spending $5 million fighting the problem and increasing fines, why not make it free to use the transfer station?
The politicians should just admit they screwed up in hiking the dumping fees and use that money to let people dump in one spot legally and not illegally in my front yard. Chris Humphrey, Langley