I feel that public schools should get funding and private schools should not receive public funds.
Shame on Christy Clark.
She should send her son to a public school instead of a private school. Is a public education not good enough for her son?
Leslie Magee
Penticton
*****
Thanks to everyone
I would like to thank all of my friends and family that attended the Caring Heart Benefit held for me on July 5.
In January of this year, I was diagnosed with cancer.
It has taken five months of treatment and great care at the Penticton oncology department but I have come out cancer free.
I would also like to thank the businesses that donated to the silent auction: Okanoggin Barbers, Leisureland RV, St. Andrews by the Lake, Hawthorne Chiropractic and Pasadena Fitness.
So many people with kind hearts!
Thank you seems like such a small word but it means everything when it comes from a full heart. So thank you all.
Deborah Clements
Penticton
*****
Municipal election reforms needed
I have been involved in elections for 25-plus years including organizing and finalizing.
I have been after the municipality (Penticton) to move the election to October so that the towns and cities in the snow areas will allow persons to vote in better weather. Alberta elections are the second last Monday in October when the weather is better.
Another consideration is that I am a snowbird and most of us seniors go south by the first of November.
And who always votes these days? It is the seniors and we are getting scarce and the voting is going to go below a turn out of 40 per cent in the very near future.
Mayor Janice Perrino was instrumental in getting the municipal elections to go to October but it is going to be four years from now.
The last election was in mid-November and the city staff mailed me a ballot from Oroville to Yuma but our great postal services didn’t deliver for a week and I did not ever find out if my ballot made it back in time but I am positive it didn’t as I mailed on the Monday before the Saturday election.
So, the government has moved to October in 2018, but they need more advanced polls, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then the final day which is usually the Saturday.
I will be leaving for the winter on Oct. 26 so I will be unable to work or vote. I will be working for a senator in Arizona who is in favour of the XL Pipeline.
Ken Johnston
Penticton
*****
Grateful for paint job
I wish to extend my heartfelt thank-you to Benjamin Moore for the Main Street Matters program!
As the building owners at 467/469 Main Street ,Ron Humeny and I where thrilled when they announced Penticton would be one of only three cities in Canada to be sponsored!
The 300 and 400 blocks of Main Street look so fresh and new thanks to Sylvain Levasseur Painting and Design! What an amazing transformation.
Many, many thanks Benjamin Moore and Sylvain Levasseur.
Daisy Kapusta
Penticton
*****
No place like home
I came up here in July of 2010 to “start anew” after years of living in the Lower Mainland where I was born.
The climate can be hard to take at times, whether it is the heat and mugginess but certainly this area is beautiful and I’ve experienced a fresh start in terms of living conditions and my work place as well as new opportunities such as walking around the town and seeing the sights.
I’m glad to have been born in Canada too and feel sorry for those people, such as Tom Isherwood, who appear to have nothing positive to say about living in Canada. I’ve never lived anywhere else but I have travelled to the U. S. as well as to England and Germany and honestly, I wouldn’t wish to live anywhere else.
Is Canada perfect?
Of course not!
Is it the best country in the world?
I’d say that yes it largely is, despite the poor political representation that we receive, the idolatry of the party member Conservatives, Liberals and NDPers etc., the way that some/many corporations run roughshod over laws, people, and the country itself.
I say be thankful for what blessings you have, even if you have a lot of hardships too.
Patrick Longworth
Okanagan Falls
*****
Liquor board did right thing
Arguing that it would be better for Penticton, if the liquor board approved Boonstock a liquor licence is dubious at best.
The same argument could be made for any situation whereby containing a problem is better than letting it out.
For example allowing grads to drink on someone’s property, rather than the current situation where many head to the hills to drink and eventually drive.
The liquor board was created to determine whether a particular enterprise has followed the proper protocol for that enterprise to be allowed to sell alcohol.
Obviously Boonstock has failed to do that, and therefore a licence cannot be given.
Rather than arguing, “that it would be better if they were allowed the licence,” people should be arguing that the provincial, municipal, and band governments should have made sure Boonstock had all their ducks in a row well before approving the event.
All three will be responsible if it turns into a gong show!
Chris Sharp
Penticton
Palestinians should have their own country
Palestinian people, living in 58 refugee camps since1948/1967.
The Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip is under endless Israeli occupation resulting in intermittent wars greatly benefitting the U.S. Industrial military complex and their senators.
Israel is literally seen as the 51st U.S. state and consequently America, sadly is more and more held in contempt by the rest of the world.
The present death and carnage in the sardine can Gaza Ghetto annihilation operation is causing universal post-traumatic stress syndrome among the populace, especially the young, bitter hate and a genesis for endless future terrorist groups.
The Gaza Ghetto tragedy brings to mind the Second World War. Nazi devastation wrought on the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto. The turmoil will only widen.
It is written, “thou shalt not kill.”
Canada should insist the Palestinian people have their own nation just as we do.
I like B.C. Premier Christy Clark, but she’s wrong when she says she supports Israel. Surely we’re not becoming a country of hypocrites.
Joe Schwarz
Penticton
Sir Newton and the
teacher dispute
How often do we experience the use of metaphors in daily life situations? Once, twice, a few times or a myriad ?
Let’s revisit our school day science class for a moment and Sir Isaac’s three laws of motion which we can apply metaphorically to the ongoing dispute between the teachers and the government.
Law one: A body in motion will remain in motion provided that no outside force acts on it.
The government and teachers speak of reaching an amicable resolution to the educational problem. This has been going on for the last ten or so years.
No change in action on either side, so the first law would apply. Status quo remains.
Law two: acceleration is dependent on the forces acting upon an object and the mass of the object. Therefore if the force is increased, the acceleration is increased.
Following this law is the teacher’s penchant on having all of their demands met, or else, and the government saying that those demands are financially improbable.
Both masses have dug in.
The teachers have increased the force en masse.
The acceleration to reach an amicable agreement might very well slow down.
Law three: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
With the escalation of things by the teachers to force the issues with the government, who’s to say that government won’t react in a similar fashion.
This is how it has been over time. Basic one-upmanship seems to be the order of the day as we all know.
If there has been no movement over the past number of years on similarly related issues, what makes either side think that realistically they can resolve the problem over a weekend and avoid further disruption to delivering educational programs to students it’s the ones affected the most by this impasse?
Ah the joys of applied science or what?
Ron Barillaro
Penticton