Editor:

A huge standing ovation to the Yellow Point Drama Group on their production and performance of Snake In The Grass. We are very new arrivals to the area and went to see this play Oct. 23. We were very impressed with the whole package. The set, lighting, acting and directing.

We have been involved with the theatre world in Calgary and Edmonton for many yeras and have been exposed to many theatre groups with many different styles and budgets. This drama group ranks very high.

The people of this area are very lucky and blessed to have such a talented and hard working group, that show their love and passion of theatre through their long hours of dedication.

We are excited to attend many other live arts that this area has to offer. We will make a date on the calendar to see any plays that this group puts together for the future.

Break a leg.

Belinda Thomas

Ladysmith

Editor:

I’m getting a bit tired of hearing people complain about the HST.  What people should really be complaining about is the fact that B.C. even has a PST when we have so many high-value renewable energy resources we could be tapping into instead. 

 Look at Alberta.  They don’t have any PST because they’ve capitalized on their energy resources and even socked away billions of dollars for rainy days like the current global recession. 

 Alberta doesn’t have a PST, and energy rich BC shouldn’t have one either.  

We should be tapping into our unrivalled world class renewable energy resources and using the revenue to eliminate the need for any kind of sales tax here in B.C.

 Michael McBratney

Port Moody

Editor:

Re: Ferry run dropped as traffic declines, Oct. 15, News Bulletin

I am disgusted to learn that BC Ferries is dropping a couple of weekday evening sailings on the Nanaimo-Horseshoe Bay route.

The corporation should be adding passenger service in the late night hours, not removing it.

The 750,000 of us who live on Vancouver Island are connected to the rest of Canada via the Trans Canada Highway system. If BC Ferries is not “legally” part of that highway, vessels certainly connect Departure Bay (where the physical roadway leaves the Island) and Horseshoe Bay (where the highway resumes).

Would mainland residents be fine if the highway on each end of their city was shut down from 9 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. during the week?

All of us on the Island should be able to go to concerts, sporting events and enjoy a night out in the province’s biggest city without having to incur time and costs for an overnight hotel.

It is long overdue that BC Ferries operate a downtown-to-downtown passenger-only service between Vancouver and Nanaimo. BC Ferries whines that its 9 p.m. sailing from West Vancouver leaves only 30-per cent full.

The huge, new, Coastal Renaissance carries 370 vehicles and 1,650 passengers. If it ran a 300-passenger catamaran (or even smaller) late at night, which would likely be cheaper to operate, be subsidized like the rest of the fleet (giving stability and longevity so ridership would increase), then we would have a ferry service to be proud of.

Kevan Shaw

Nanaimo

Editor:

Re: Chilcotin War isn’t over yet, B.C. Views, Oct. 13.

Tom Fletcher states that the Chilcotin War of 1864 was “B.C.’s only shooting war between natives and gold seekers.” This is hardly true.

The Fraser Canyon War of 1858, along the river between Yale and Lytton, resulted in many more deaths than the Chilcotin uprising. Although the Chilcotin events resulted in 20 miners and others killed, and several Tsilhqot’in later hanged in retribution, the Fraser Canyon War according to various contemporary reports counted between 30 and a few hundred dead.

We will never know exactly how many miners and First Nations people were killed but it can be argued that the Fraser Canyon episode had greater implications for B.C. and was multi-national in scope.

Ken Favrholdt

Kamloops

Editor:

Surprise, surprise – another long weekend gone by and another of the infamous BC Ferries so-called breakdowns. There are a lot of ferries up and down the coast, so what are the odds that it’s going to happen to one or two of them where the heaviest traffic wears them down.

It may be a bit of a misnomer to reference a fire in an engine room as a breakdown, but what are the chances that newspapers would be all over what makes more provocative news.

To say it was an actual life-and-limb-risking fire that caused the breakdown doesn’t quite get under the skin of the long weekend traveller, as would a good old irresponsible and totally inept “breakdown” caused possibly by a fleet full of disgruntled ferry workers, as was cited by one woman. The lady who made that accusation in a call to a radio talk show was looking to blame someone and blame someone she did.

But try as I might, I struggle to imagine ferry workers all sitting in a dark room contriving a master plan to bring a fleet of ferries and David Hahn to his knees because they’re a tad disgruntled.

To purposely want to see me wait for hours on end becomes too much of a farce as ferry workers’ strategic plan to anger the public. Al Strandlund

Nanaimo

v2