Formula 1 car featured at聽Oak Bay gathering
On Sunday, July 28, it was a privilege to attend the annual Oak Bay car show, which was an excellent event.
I would just like to recognize the organizers and all their helpers, and also mention one of the very rare exhibits, a 1963 Formula 1 car that raced in 1963 and 1964 in the United Kingdom and Europe.
The restoration from a true basket case was completed in sa国际传媒, with a new aluminum body-shell fabricated in Brentwood Bay by Al Hopkins and superb livery and finish by Jetstream Custom Auto in Sidney.
We are extremely fortunate to have a number of world-class vintage vehicles and a full range of extraordinary world-class restoration skills right here on the Saanich Peninsula.
I look forward to another fine show next year. It was interesting to see such a wonderful collection of cars and a huge turnout of enthusiastic visitors.
Brian Chandler
Show participant and Austin Healey owner
Victoria
Statue a political object, not a historic one
Re. 鈥淕ive the Macdonald statue a good home as soon as possible,鈥� July 31
In his commentary on the Sir John A. Macdonald statue saga, Donald Roughley has not argued a case 鈥� he has stated a political priority, namely to mount the statue of our first prime minister in a 鈥減rominent place.鈥�
He does not even name the grounds for this priority 鈥� he assumes that doing so would be a public good without providing any actual reasons. He then criticizes the elected mayor for enacting her election platform and for taking the pain and humiliation of Indigenous Victorians seriously.
The statue was a gift from a Conservative-affiliated organization to the city in 1982. It is not a historic object: It is a recent political object.
Macdonald never even set foot in Victoria. He was a classic parachute candidate. The City of Victoria, as a city, owes his memory precisely nothing.
The federal government can do whatever it wants on its own property, of course. Yet 鈥� interestingly 鈥� no federal government has so far seen fit to erect a statue of any Canadian prime minister in Victoria.
If the Conservative Party or the Sir John A. Macdonald Society would like to buy a piece of land on which to display the statue 鈥減rominently,鈥� they should do so.
Otherwise, it belongs in the Royal sa国际传媒 Museum鈥檚 modern history galleries as an example of 20th-century political propaganda.
Andrew Gow, Ph.D.
Professor emeritus of history
University of Alberta
Victoria
Forget Lenin 鈥� how聽about Lennon?
Re. 鈥淩eplacing the statue? Here is one guess,鈥� July 31
In the interests of economy, maybe there鈥檚 a discarded statue of Lenin that could be bought at a bargain rate from a former Soviet Socialist Republic?
Perhaps it could be passed off as a tribute to Lennon with the addition of some granny glasses.
Angela Forth
Saanich
Why not fund prescription drugs, too?
Re. 鈥淩egulate illicit drugs, health officer urges,鈥� July 27
I would like to know if Dr. Patricia Daly鈥檚 suggestion that addicts be provided with free drugs applies to me. I freely confess that I am an addict taking drugs and I would really appreciate receiving free drugs, instead of having to spend considerable sums of money at my local pharmacy to fill the prescriptions written by my doctor.
It is suggested that the taxpayer fund these free drugs for a small minority of the population in order to prevent deaths caused by taking impure street drugs, but totally ignores a huge majority of the population who are taking prescribed drugs, at great personal expense, in order to prevent their own deaths. So I not only have to fund my own drugs, but Daly wants me to fund addicts鈥� drugs as well.
Ed Buscall
Brentwood Bay
Saanichton鈥檚 lizards come at cost of native frogs
Re. 鈥淲elcome the lizards if they deal with flies,鈥� July 30
I, too, live in Saanichton and agree the place is alive with lizards, a non-indigenous species, but at the expense of those green indigenous frogs. True, frogs eat fewer insects, but at what cost?
Richard Suppards
Saanichton
Not having safe drug supply already costly
Re: 鈥淔ree drugs for them? Not with my money,鈥� July 30
Dr. Patricia Daly was not suggesting 鈥渇ree鈥� drugs. She was suggesting safe drugs. You may not have noticed, but we are in a crisis, with thousands of people dying due to the tainted drugs purchased on our streets.
If you become addicted, often that is the only place you can purchase these drugs that have hijacked your brain. My daughter died of those tainted street drugs. She was 21. That was in 2015, and thousands of Canadians have died since then.
It may come as a surprise, but your tax dollars are already being used 鈥� in hospitals, as those who are addicted develop sepsis, to send out first responders multiple times, and to support supervised injection sites that revive them if they overdose.
Would it not make much more sense to provide a safe supply to those addicted, so that they can stay alive to access treatment, and stop overdosing?
Deb Bailey
Galiano Island
More time, more money on the plastic bag issue
Re: 鈥淰ictoria ponders plastic-bags ban appeal, new rules,鈥� July 26.
Was anyone else perplexed by Victoria council鈥檚 decision to assess the viability of appealing the sa国际传媒 court of appeal ruling striking down the city鈥檚 plastic plan ban?
So we are going to irresponsibly spend more time and financial resources to have the same bright lights who missed the environmental aspects revisit the issue.
With both provincial and federal legislation on the horizon, the cost and timing of an appeal are unjustifiable.
I suspect many of us are conditioned to continue as if a ban still exists. Any increase in cost for a minimal increase in plastic going to the landfill will be far less than the cost of an appeal.
This decision is nothing more than a cheap political PR stunt. At least the province is soliciting public input and trying to be thorough in its assessment before implementation.
K.H. Demmler
Victoria
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