I am writing in response to two letters that appeared in the Friday, March 7 edition of the Oak Bay News.
The first stated that the Prosperity Mine proposal, turned down again on its second proposal, would have created ‘tens of thousands of secure, high-paying jobs’ in the region. Yet, not only are the numbers unproven, but the legacy of the resource industry in the area points to the opposite.
Resource industry jobs often last only a generation or two at most before depletion, foreign competition and consolidation. What they leave behind is a much longer legacy of environmental degradation and, in this case, the exclusion and disenfranchisement of First Nations.
The second, on Mike Farnsworth’s bid for NDP leadership, makes the completely unsupported claim that he is only ‘in it’ for the money. If only those who knew they could win entered politics, we would have a one party system.
On the other hand, privatization under the Liberals has largely benefited those with connections to the party and its leaders.
Oak Bay voted in a Green MLA in the last election, and the seat has previously been a tight contest between the Liberals and NDP.
I’ll wager that there are others in Oak Bay who, like myself, have a very different take on both the issue of the NDP leadership and the Prosperity Mine.
K. Strauss
Oak Bay