In response to The Chief’s editorial “‘Alternative facts’ in Squamish” (March 2) and the letter “Changing face of job” by Wolfgang Wittenburg (March 2).
The energy we have seems to be focused on President Trump, whereas our politics should be our main concern.
The media is an important part of any free democracy and access to any discussions or decisions is critical. Misleading the media on time or location is a major infringement on our democracy.
Prime Minister Trudeau has said he admired China in the way they could get things done – guess what this isn’t China. Whether you support LNG or are opposed, for this reason alone the project should be quashed – this is not the way things are done in a democracy.
The public is aware of the Machiavelli playbook and smoke and mirrors is not good enough. People have far more access to information and facts; tactics that were successful in the past no longer work.
And these people are not bright enough to realize things have changed. We seem to be at an inflection point where the governments behave like this is a top-down system (government dictate to people) and the people are sold this is a bottom-up system (governments respond to the will of the people), so what do we have?
Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, would give the people the impression they had diversity in choice but in fact the people were pulled in the direction Hitler wanted. Is this any different – I ask you?
In his letter, Wolfgang is suggesting a reevaluation of the tax system to reflect the changing nature of the employment environment. I don’t see why – are these people requiring more municipal services than others? No.
If anyone is naïve enough to think with this crew and the additional revenue from the LNG, construction boom, alternative taxing techniques that we won’t still see a 40 per cent increase over four years is dreaming.
The elected officials think they are doing a good job and some think they deserve a raise. The municipality’s appetite for money is insatiable. The muni needs to get its house in order, more tax income for this group is not a long-term answer.
David Colledge
Squamish
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