Opinion

Barry O’Neill CUPE BC president is asking us to tell city council to clean up its act so they can get on with holding the taxpayer over a barrel. He and his union are not going to be pushed around by a bunch of bullies according to the Western News, Jan 28. I would submit Mr. O’Neill that the opposite is true and has been for many years.

I am writing you as the Penticton Pikes Summer Swim Club registrar who has three sons in the club.

It was the Egyptian army’s statement that brought it all back: “To the great people of Egypt, your armed forces, acknowledging the legitimate rights of the people ... have not and will not use force against the Egyptian people.” In other words, go ahead and overthrow President Hosni Mubarak. It’s all right with us.

The shocking story of 100 sled dogs being shot execution-style after the Olympic Games in Whistler last year is attracting worldwide attention.

The intended purpose of this letter is to inform all recreational anglers of the Department of Fisheries and Ocean’s Halibut Allocation Policy. The specific injustice of the current DFO’s halibut policy is that it allocates 88 per cent of halibut stocks to 436 commercial halibut licence holders and 12 per cent to the rest of the Canadian population who are potential recreation anglers.

I am writing in response to the Jan. 21, column “Rate increase a shock to the system”, in order to clarify several points.

We do live in a very strange world. An uproar and refusal to build a park behind Munson Mountain. Now Penticton council wishes us to have a prison in this district.

Today’s rapidly escalating energy prices, such as Fortis’ planned 11.6 per cent increase and the rising price of gas at the pumps, underscore the need for us to examine how we consume energy and fuel. It’s only one of the reasons why the City of Penticton is considering two climate action plans — one for the city operations and one for the community. These action plans will save taxpayers money and have a positive impact on the environment.

Penticton has succumbed to the universal error that progress means change. A desire to compete with what is now viewed as social convention, has cost this community not only millions in misplaced dollars, but the very unique and very abundant harvest for which the Okanagan was known in decades past.