Maritime Museum鈥檚 plans make no sense
Re: 鈥淢aritime Museum envisions national status, return home,鈥� Feb. 1.
I woke up Friday morning, looked at the paper and thought that I had really overslept. But no, it was Feb. 1 and not April 1 as I had panickingly thought when I read that the Maritime Museum of sa国际传媒 wants to return to Bastion Square as an art centre.
For years, the museum has searched for new digs on the water. There have been several reasons for this: First, to allow the museum to have a port of entry for visiting historic vessels and its own small floating collection 鈥� namely, Dorothy.
Second, previous museum boards have carried on publicly about the museum鈥檚 lack of space to tell more maritime stories and exhibit much more of the museum鈥檚 fabulous collection.
Third, from a curatorial and education point of view, the museum has always been in need of a modern environmentally controlled reserve collection facility with rolling storage for the archives, artifacts and fine art, along with spacious work tables, conservation facilities and classroom space for school visits.
The plans, as I read them, are to make the museum an art hub by reconfiguring the first floor and half of the second floor for arts and cultural programming. After years of trying to use as much available space as possible to tell our maritime stories, this makes no sense and causes one to ask: Just what is the mission of a museum in general, and the Maritime Museum in particular?
Richard Mackenzie
Former MMBC collections and exhibitions manager
Saanich
Don鈥檛 vote. It just encourages them
I decided not to vote in the Nanaimo byelection. Why?
I read several current news items. Here are but three samples: 1) The World Economic Forum in Davos. 2) The scandal occurring (yet again) in the sa国际传媒 legislature. 3) The ongoing broken promises by our euphemistically called leaders such as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Indigenous rights; proportional representation; pipelines; Site C) and U.S. President Donald Trump (too many faults to list here). Also, I read items about Brexit (Europe) and climate change (the world), and recently I attended an all-candidates meeting for the Nanaimo byelection (local).
From all this information I concluded, sadly, it is just too far beyond my boundaries of personal integrity to support the system of failure we are living under. For sure, some positive and creative things are happening, but not nearly enough. Our system is so immoral and corrupt and the .01 percenters鈥� global-domination plan 鈥� only the .01 percenters win 鈥� needs a fundamental system change.
Climate science warns we have about 12 years to make the necessary changes or our species risks annihilation. Sadly, I have no real answers, but do have one small suggestion: Every ballot should have a 鈥渘one of the above鈥� option available for our singular 鈥榅鈥� vote. Should this option win, the bottom two or three are removed from the ballot and the election is re-run.
Friends, it鈥檚 the system. We can鈥檛 get where we should be from where we now are. Next time, don鈥檛 vote. It just encourages them.
Jordan Ellis
Nanaimo
Canadians getting cranky with each other
Re: 鈥淚n a nation short on hugs, Victoria isn鈥檛 helping,鈥� column, Jan. 31.
I believe that the piece by Jack Knox is a must-read for anyone who calls themselves Canadian. We are becoming more and more cranky and unhappy with each other鈥檚 provinces. Sort of like the big country to our south.
I certainly don鈥檛 admire Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and her council for sticking a finger in the eye of our neighbour 鈥� Alberta. We in the West have always felt hard done-by by our compatriots in the East, but now, it is getting mean and nasty.
Our sa国际传媒 is a place that many countries envy, so let us agree or disagree, but still be Canadian.
Shelagh Bell
Sidney
Polling company was wrong in Calgary
Re: 鈥淧oll: Liberals have 12.5-point lead in Nanaimo byelection,鈥� Jan. 29.
I am surprised the sa国际传媒, like many other media outlets, jumped on the bandwagon and published the only lopsided poll favouring the sa国际传媒 Liberals just before the Nanaimo byelection without checking the history of Mainstreet Research鈥檚 record of predictions.
Just a few days before Calgarians went to the polls to elect their mayor in 2017, the same Mainstreet Research pegged Bill Smith, who was opposing the incumbent Mayor Naheed Nenshi, to take the election with 47 per cent over Nenshi鈥檚 36 per cent. The final result was Nenshi won with 51.4 per cent of the vote while Smith received 43.7 per cent.
Mainstreet Research鈥檚 CEO Quito Maggi was bombarded with tweets after the Calgary election results questioning the company鈥檚 brash but supremely incorrect prediction. Maggi tweeted this response, and it鈥檚 obvious to me the company still hasn鈥檛 figured out how they can be so wrong, since their polling for the Nanaimo byelection was just as incorrect as their Calgary prediction.
Is there something else at play here other than polling? Who hired Mainstreet Research to conduct the Calgary poll and the Nanaimo poll?
鈥淟ook, I get it, all the polls were awful in the end. Ours worst of all. We鈥檙e going to look at our entire process and figure out why.鈥�
鈥� Quito Maggi, Oct. 17, 2017.
Phil Le Good
Cobble Hillu
