Regarding the current controversy being stirred up by our usual
group of eco-crusaders (ECs) on the provision of a safe parking
area near Cathedral Grove.
The players are the same - the tactics and aims are, tiredly,
the same old, same old.
It's all about creating delay after delay after delay until
proponents of the project give up in disgust. Plus it gives
a lot more time and media copy for fundraising.
Kinda makes one yearn for the good old days when the ECs would
throw themselves in front of bulldozers - or build and occupy
small platforms in tall trees - or, best of all, have the ladies
disrobe in front of conveniently tipped-off TV cameras.
Isn't it amazing that every three months or so (except during
the forest fire season) the local ECs find a cause to create
a "the sky is falling, the sky is falling" type of
situation. Each one carries the same fatalistic type of message,
"if we don't stop this, it will be the end of civilization
as we know it," or "all the elk will be mesmerized
by the parking lot, and die of starvation." (Having spent
a reasonable amount of time in the bush, I've concluded that
an 800-pound elk will go wherever the hell it wants to go.
The reality is that, even if the proposed location of the subject
parking lot was in the Parksville Industrial Park, the ECs would
find reasons to make it a major controversy.
I'm certainly not a fan of the Larry, Moe and Curlys making
up our provincial government, but in this case, I appeal to
Ms. Trumper - "stay on course Gillian and give us a safe
parking lot this year."
C. A. O'Leary
Parksville
