To the Editor,

Re: Sailings axed, new ferry parked, Oct. 4.

I read with growing pride (coloured with dismay) your report that B.C. Ferries is replacing the 2007 German-made Coastal Renaissance with the 1976 made-in-B.C. Queen of Cowichan to “achieve efficiencies.”

According to the B.C. Ferries website, the Coastal Renaissance has capacity for 370 cars and the Queen of Cowichan can take 362 cars.

The efficiencies are obviously not related to capacity, but rather design.

It seems we should be exporting our 1970s technology to Germany rather than importing theirs.

Steven Northway

via e-mail

Opinion on ferries forgets crucial facts

To the Editor,

Re: Another ferry fiasco brewing, Oct. 4.

Your editorial plays fast and loose with recent history to arrive at the conclusion B.C. Ferries is badly managed.

What a nerdish line you include as a sidebar – “B.C. should be outraged that we bought new ferries that we can’t afford to run.”

The ferries were ordered well before the time fuel costs were high enough to influence drivers’ decisions to reduce ferry travel or at least the vehicle part of the usage, and you know that.

If the evidence available at order time had shown a need for smaller vessels, then that’s obviously what would have been ordered.

When capital expenditures are needed, one of the criteria is the purchase must be capable of growth, meaning future circumstances would likely demand more capability than at order time.

Your silly conclusion tells me you are on the political side of the neverending chattering that gives B.C. Ferries no good words for its efforts to make itself second-to-none in service and prices based on cost.

The vessels aren’t going into mothballs, they’ll be front-line equipment for years to come. They’re a long way from being cruise ships.

Neil Gillespie

Nanaimo

Name recognition aids NDP candidate

To the Editor,

Re: Incumbents have upper hand, Sept. 20.

Reading professor Allan Warnke’s analysis of the candidates for federal election in Nanaimo Alberni, I wonder if he has any practical knowledge of the area.

I am relatively new to the area and even I am aware that of the candidates Warnke refers to, the NDP’s Zeni Maartman has by far the most recognized name in the area.

Although this is Maartman’s first bid for a federal seat, she is no stranger to political adventure.

She is a respected community politician, having held such roles as school trustee and chairwoman of the business committee, a member of the Tourism Nanaimo board – the list goes on.

I have witnessed Maartman at many engagements in this community and have never met nor seen the less than visible James Lunney.

If the election will be won on name recognition, as Warnke suggests, Maartman will be Ottawa bound on behalf of the people of Nanaimo-Alberni.

Leann Dawson,

Nanaimo

Social engineers forget logic, reason

To the Editor,

Re: Pesticide restrictions pondered, Sept. 30.

The social engineers are at it again – logic and reason be damned.

The fact is that pesticides, properly used, are no more harmful than a lot of things that are in common usage.

I do not advocate the blanket application of pesticides.

Safe practices are required for the use of any product and if these practices are followed, the chance of adverse impacts are insignificant.

There are probably many times more people killed, maimed or permanently injured in car-related incidents than there are from pesticide-related incidents.

But we don’t hear the social engineers calling for a ban on cars. Why?

If these ‘holier than thou’ groups or individuals want to have a real effect on the overall health of people, why don’t they advocate the ban of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs instead of ‘tolerating’ or perhaps even using them?

There are no safe practices for the use of these materials.

Bernie Waatainen

Nanaimo