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Following are a collection of reader responses to stories or letters to the editor for the third week of March 2024. They have been edited slightly for readability. 

Got something you want to add? Send an email to editor Marshall Jones at mjones@infonews.ca.

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Okanagan landscape painter puts memories, emotion into his work

Hi Bailey, I just wanted to send a note to thank you for the article. I’m very pleased with how it turned out, and the photos look great. You did a great job. Much appreciated! Cheers. — Robert Wood, via email 

Carney says U.S. must stop 'disrespectful' comments before comprehensive talks

This is all good news and an encouraging economic outlook. We need to eliminate interprovincial boundaries, and look for other trading partners. — Bonnie Derry, via iNFOnews.ca

He returned library book 64 years late. But B.C. resident says it saved his life

What a sweet story. I’m glad to hear he’s doing fine in his 90s. — Robert Bishop, via iNFOnews.ca

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Well done. — Bonnie Derry, via iNFOnews.ca

Kamloops council part of a growing resistance to BC Housing

It’s about time someone questioned what BC Housing thinks they are doing to the detriment of existing taxpayers and communities. It still shouldn’t turn around anyone from voting against all the current council. It’s too little, not enough, and way too late. — Laurie Nordstrom, via iNFOnews.ca

LETTER: 'Be Kind. Be Calm. Be Safe.': COVID five years in

Good thoughts to ponder on. Thank you for them. — Bonnie Derry, via iNFOnews.ca

Small, slow-speed EVs will be allowed on Osoyoos streets

Congratulations on unanimously coming to a very progressive solution that will serve citizens, particularly seniors, moving forward. — Mac Gordon, via iNFOnews.ca 

Penticton MLA says former BC Conservatives should resign, run in byelection

I wish that Amelia Boultbee would be more thoughtful in her statements. She seems to assume that people are voting for the leader or the party and not individuals. I cannot believe she was so foolish to leave her Penticton council seat and run for a corrupt party like the BC Conservatives, which are no better than BC United or BC Liberal or BC NDP or BC Greens. — Patrick Longworth, via iNFOnews.ca

iN RESPONSE to March 17 newsletter editorial regarding Elon Musk critics targeting Tesla

Hi Marshall,

I find it funny that when a fellow wins an election promising change and a stop to corruption and fraud, and then begins to do that, the narrative goes to things like dictatorship, 'stealing' money for themselves, anti-democratic, et cetera.

It's not surprising that those whose gravy train of ill gotten gains has ended are kicking up a fit. After all, it was Biden's administration and the Democratic party that were calling for an end to the First and Second Amendments, and Democrat law professors saying the constitution should be abandoned because it was outdated.

I read comments from Democrat blue bloods, such as Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, who were very upset that they were losing control of the narrative - because the collusion between the government and media had been exposed by Elon Musk after he bought Twitter. That is actually what those on the left are upset about. It's sad that when they don't get their way or don't like something they resort to riots, vandalism and worse.

What is going on down there is the exact definition of gaslighting. Accusing the other side of what you are actually doing. Sadly it is going on in Canada as well. But it seems that most Canadians don't seem to notice and take the bait on dishonest smears of anyone not far left leaning.

I am not a fan of most politicians of any stripe, so I vote for who I think will cause the least damage economically (what pays for social programs and feeds families), and who seems to understand what a government is supposed to do, which is to take care of the country's security, interests and taxpayers, not force ideologies that people don't want on them.

It's pretty easy to tell that people don't like that way of governing or ideologues obsessed with dividing, fear mongering and things that don't actually matter, or sometimes even really exist. It gets branded as 'populism' and 'far right wing', but it's actually voters saying they don't want it and love their countries not international bodies coercing them and setting agendas, and have had enough.

I hope Canadians have, and can see the difference between someone seemingly dedicated to his country first, and a fella whose picture is in the Oxford dictionary when you look up 'climber' or 'self-serving', who has already been caught in at least two lies before he was even chosen as leader.

— Aubrey Dangerfield, Kamloops, via email

iN RESPONSE to March 14 newsletter editorial criticizing the electoral system that got Okanagan MLA Tara Armstrong in office

Exactly the same story in West Kelowna with our MLA. Who is he, where is he, we can in part thank Kevin Falcon. — John MacMillan, West Kelowna, via email

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I've always thought it a repugnant practice to parachute candidates into a riding in which they don't live. I do not believe they can fully appreciate the concerns of the people in a riding they do not reside in.

We see it happen far too often. A new leader is elected to a party and the party plants them into a "safe" riding to get them elected.

Even if the candidate has never been in that riding before. I don't feel it follows the principles of democracy, but the people of those ridings head to the voting booth and give that person the authority to represent them, showing more loyalty to the party than the party shows them.

— Mike Nichols, Penticton, via email

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We had the exact same issue in Vernon. The candidate didn’t even live here and yet people voted for him. — Marti Giroux, Vernon, via email

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First Past the Post causes this problem because winning is everything and losing is nothing.

If you win you have total power and opposition has next to zero.

This causes like minded ideologies to band together to win, eventually ending up with a two party system that is ever so easy to be controlled by a very few. People get frustrated by lack of representation so they eventually vote for extremes to break the cycle. But like revolutions, it seldom works the way they want.

The recent election in Germany is a good example of how to break this two-party syndrome. They went from a centre left coalition to a centre right coalition, but that centre right coalition did not embrace the extreme far right. The far right received 20 per cent of the vote, their support has grown over the years. So it lets those other parties know there is something that these people want that is not being addressed by the other parties and they better address it. Or eventually this far right party will gain enough support that they may get control of government within any coalition which is completely normal under any Proportional Representation (ProRep) system which Germany uses. In their case it’s Multi Member Proportional (MMP). To form a coalition, there has to be a shared ideology. So with this or any other ProRep system, the minor differences are more easily recognized as opposed to being hidden in a big tent.

Our big tent parties are coalitions but they are all identified by one name. So within that party there are many differences between their shared ideology of the big tent. Some parties use the Whip system to keep all the factions in line. The BC Conservatives tried to avoid the Whip and so you see the break away of one of the coalition ideologies. This is not unusual in a freshly revived party. They needed the numbers to be viable.The BC NDP and BC Green Party are no different except that the BC NDP uses a Whip and the BC Greens have just two MLAs anyway. Their Whip happens in the nomination process, like all parties do, but they all have different factions within the big tent. Hidden from view as opposed to a ProRep system where all the different factions are in smaller tents so they are more identifiable as to who they are.

— Anthony Plourde, Kamloops, via email

To contact a reporter for this story, email Marshall Jones or call 250-718-2724 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

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