Goodbye, Fentie
Hello, jobs
Wanna see an economy that’s happening?
Go for a drive outside the Yukon borders. Saskatchewan, Alberta, Northeast BC, Alaska, Manitoba … all are progressing in a positive fashion.
Meanwhile, the Yukon, save for a couple of mines, is once again vapour-locked in mediocrity as shown by a sawmill in the Watson Lake area that is strangely silent.
Surely this mill could produce fence posts or material for pads that the oil companies use.
There are jobs out there, folks, for whatever skill level in whatever area you may have.
Accommodations may be tough, but you just gotta kick around a bit.
You don’t have to be a clone who sends out three e-mails and then attends a meeting before sitting down with a newspaper for the afternoon.
I heard of another can’t-miss business that is closing its doors because of a lack of good supply. Infrastructure, anyone?
The Fentie regime has failed miserably for eight years now to get anything going for the Yukon people and should do the honourable thing by leaving the territory in shame.
The only guys benefiting are in the good ol’ boy network, who share federal transfer payments under the guise of free enterprise.
Yes friends of government enjoy a false economy and negotiated inertia.
More lawsuits because of forked-tongue, broken promises will be forthcoming.
It is time to send the sleeping Fentie regime packing, folks. The times they are a changing … or should be.
John Birmingham
Whitehorse
Put bounty on wolves
I was reading the write-up about the caribou slaughter in the September 6 News.
I may be wrong, but I have lived in the North and in the Arctic for many years and have seen the way of life.
The younger hunters hunt for the older people and they may shoot 50 or more caribou to share in the community.
Sometimes the young hunters go for 100 kilometres to hunt for caribou by dog team or snowmachine.
These days, young hunters from several communities take 100 or 200 caribou a year to contribute to people. I don’t see anything wrong with that.
To maintain a way of life, perhaps caribou could be conserved by putting a bounty on 30 or 40 per cent of the estimated 10,000 wolves following the herd. This should show an increase in numbers.
Ron Holway
Whitehorse
Cellphone maniacs
What’s with people and their cellphones?
More specifically, those who drive while yapping away on them?
They don’t seem to have a clue about what is going on around them. It would not surprise me to learn that a cellphone was the cause that led to the tragic death of the Alberta women crossing the street and all the rest of the accidents involving pedestrians.
I get cut off at least five times a day going to and from work on Fourth Avenue. These chronic cellphone users, whether turning right or left, do not even attempt to yield at a stop sign.
When you look at them it’s perfectly clear that they are totally submersed in their phone chat and not at all concerned with the safe operation of that two-tonne piece of machinery under their ass.
It’s like watching the Borg Collective from Star Trek behind the wheel. Not sure how you people managed to make it through life prior to your pet cellphone.
Fact is, they are a menace and it should be illegal to use one while driving just as it is to drive drunk because there is little doubt that it’s an impairment.
In addition, I believe there are laws on the books concerning “driving with undue care and attention” and if this latest craze does not define that very thing then someone tell me what does.
Seriously, what next — a DVD player in between the open slots of the steering wheel?
Kevin Sinclair
Whitehorse
Liar, liar
Do we want politicians we can trust?
On the Friday before Stephen Harper officially set in motion a federal election campaign, my local newspaper published a political cartoon that shows a long-nosed portly gentleman making the following announcement: “I have to call an election… I’ve run out of promises to break.”
The effectiveness of political cartoons often relies on the assumption that what it targets has some general public credibility.
In this case, the implication is clear: it has become commonly accepted that politicians do not keep their word.
Integrity implies a certain correspondence between what a person says and what a person does.
If Harper is returned to office, what are we to think except that integrity is no longer a requisite for a Canadian politician?
Granted, Harper and his fellow conservatives are not alone in their lack of political integrity, but it would be difficult to deny that they have been bolder than most in their abandonment of it?
It is unfortunate that the primary focus of current electioneering is not on “what” is said, but on how effectively public opinion can be manipulated in favour of what is said.
Polls measure the effectiveness of the selling techniques of political parties, not what the people polled “really think.”
What could possibly be of deeper concern than the integrity of those we choose to govern us?
Every good parent knows that allowing a child to get away with “saying one thing and doing another” will have negative consequences. How could it be different for our country?
When we vote on October 14, we will be giving a message to ourselves and to future generations. We will either accept the disintegration of political integrity that has occurred during the past two years, or we will say that “enough is enough” and we want a change — we want politicians we can trust.
Paul Crawford, PhD
Via e-mail
Taxpayers pay for dubious election
As I write, Stephen Harper has just walked across Sussex Drive to advise the governor general that he and his party no longer have confidence in the government of … well, Stephen Harper.
The last Canadian prime minister who voluntarily dissolved a minority parliament was Lester Pearson in 1965.
Pierre Trudeau didn’t do it in 1974. Joe Clark didn’t do it in 1979. Paul Martin didn’t do it in 2005. They were all defeated on non-confidence votes.
Pearson’s gamble resulted in another minority government.
That’s what Stephen Harper predicts this time, too.
So, why is Harper spending millions of your tax dollars on an election he doesn’t expect to change anything?
Why is he ignoring his own law setting an election date for a year from now?
Finally, why should we have confidence in a Stephen Harper government if Stephen Harper doesn’t?
Ken Bolton
Whitehorse
Ed. Note: The writer is seeking the NDP nomination for the Yukon riding.
