Letters

Independent MLA John van Dongen on Monday poked another stick into the B.C. Rail snakepit.

The Ministry of Transportation noted in passing the other day that it has spent more than $548 million on Vancouver Island in the last decade. It was the third-to-last line of a news release announcing - wait for it - $1.

Some economic disasters, like a wildfire that destroys a community or the collapse of a major export market, naturally catch governments flatfooted.

There's a lot more emphasis on the question of safety at the problem-plagued Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre, following the latest legal move. The Crown corporation that's involved in the dispute - B.C. Pavilion Corp.

The backbench isn't far enough back for Harry Bloy. The B.C. legislature - and all of British Columbia - would be better served by his absence from provincial politics.

It's not that the B.C. Liberals are always attacking NDP leader Adrian Dix. It's that they are so fantastically bad at it. Going negative and smearing your opponent is the easiest thing in the world for most politicians.

"Premier unveils new transportation strategy to expand trade and create jobs," ran the headline on Premier Christy Clark's Monday news release.

Maybe Randall Hopley really will turn out to be every parent's worst nightmare - a scary, creepy predator who snatches children from their beds in the night. That rough-looking mug shot of Hopley certainly seems to confirm the image.

You have to feel for the other 2011 recipients of the Order of B.C., whose many accomplishments have been overshadowed by all the din around former premier Gordon Campbell getting the award.

It would be hard for any parent to read about how a 15-year-old girl with Down syndrome ended up living for days beside the her dead mother's body in a mobile home without coming close to tears. The girl - and her mother - faced terrible adversity.