Open letter to MP Ryan Leef:
I recently received a letter in my mailbox from you telling me what a good job you have done getting money from Ottawa to the Yukon.
So where is the money for Dredge No. 4 as well as the other monuments to our heritage that are no longer open to the public due to lack of money from Ottawa, Mr. Leef?
Our government has $30 billion to spend on fighter jets, yet no money to protect our heritage. What’s with that?
Stop being such a toadie to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Stand up in Parliament and demand that funding for Parks Canada be reinstated.
After all, if you are so good at getting Ottawa to spend money on the Yukon, that this should not be such a difficult task for you.
You have become Harper’s man in the Yukon. You are not the Yukon’s man in Ottawa.
So the next time your office sends me some more Conservative Party propaganda boasting about your ability to get money from Ottawa to the Yukon, I will be looking for the part where you got the Yukon’s branch of Parks Canada the funding required to open Dredge No. 4 as well as other national historic sites that have fallen victim to Mr. Harper’s axe.
If our government in Ottawa were to purchase two fewer fighter jets, then we would have more than enough money to protect the Yukon’s heritage.
How about you run that one by your boss the next time you see him. Or, are your lobbying efforts more focused on mixed martial arts nowadays?
I find it insulting as a taxpayer and as a passionate student of history that Mr. Harper in Ottawa is willing to spend $30 billion on fighter jets yet he somehow views CBC radio and Parks Canada as a drain on the taxpayer.
Stand up for the Yukon, Mr. Leef. After all, that’s what you promised to do during your election campaign, and yet you will not stand up to Mr. Harper when it comes to decisions he has made that are wrong for the Yukon.
You won your seat by only 127 votes. I have spoken to more than 127 Yukoners who do not agree with mothballing the Yukon’s heritage while giving billions to an American armaments company.
Please remember that during the next federal election, Mr. Leef.
Jon Wilkie
Dawson City