In her letter in The Free Press, April 18, Ms. Pallone is clearly in gratitude mode, thanking her MLA and pledging her support for him, 'whether he was a member of the Liberals, the Green Party or an Independent' but not, it should be noted, if he was a member of the NDP.
Yet she advises us 'to put party politics aside.’ Which is ironic, if you like, since her own letter was party political, and Mr. Bennett is one of the most partisan party politicians ever to have graced the benches of the provincial legislature.
Mr. Wilson and Mr. Termuende (letters, The Free Press, April 18) seem unlikely partners: Mr. Wilson provides scare tactics and opinions unburdened by proof and Mr. Termuende, in his own words, business leadership.
As contemporaries at Fernie Secondary School, Mr. Wilson and I can remember the late 60s, when Kaiser started the coal production that has continued since.
What Mr. Wilson conveniently forgets is that boom times continued unabated through the NDP years in the early 70s and mining families continued to come from all points of the compass to seek work in the Elk Valley.
This alone gives the lie to Mr. Wilson's/Mr. Bennett's, contention that to avoid 'a total shutdown' of every mine in the Valley right now, we must shun the NDP and vote BC Liberal. Fearmongering nonsense such as this is appreciated by neither mineworkers nor mine management.
Mr. Termuende's letter on the other hand, has the virtue of containing three statistics, two of which are not in dispute. But the political and economic conclusion he draws from them is.
A Free Press (April 11) news item contradicts his primary assertion that a decade's increase in mining exploration and production has been due entirely to the BC Liberal government in Victoria.
In the item which was headed, 'Plans suspended for new Elk Valley mine,’ Centermount Coal's front office stated that 'the present global economy has reduced demand for iron ore and therefore for metallurgical coal.'
This quotation tells Wilson/Termuende/Bennett that the iron law of supply and demand controls, as it has always controlled, the extent of mining in British Columbia, regardless of whether the BC Liberals or the NDP holds sway in Victoria.
JC Vallance
Fernie