Editor:
The new Boundary-Similkameen riding is a small, rural riding with the least amount of eligible voters in any riding.
It now has garnered major media attention as it has become a bit of a ‘snafu.’
When Joe Cardoso won the Liberal nomination he beat Rick Thorpe’s nominee, John Slater who came in third.
At first Joe was asked to resign by both Rick Thorpe and Bill Barisoff by first insinuating that there were voting irregularities which were not true.
When Joe did not back off, they dug up the letter to the Oliver Chronicle and made it into a major issue.
It is possible that Gordon Campbell was unaware of these happenings until later in the episode and not realizing the furor it would create later in the campaign.
It has been the problems with other Liberal candidates that has brought the attention of Joe and his statement “Gordon Campbell, You’re Fired” back to life and making Campbell look a little like Lord Fauntleroy and at a time when he is trying to stop a Liberal slide in the polls.
A Cardoso win here would add a lot of egg on someone’s face in the Liberal realm plus it would put Joe on the front seat in the Legislature across from whoever forms the Government.
That’s the only way this small riding will be heard in Victoria.
The Carbon Tax is going to do it to us.
We will rival Newfoundland for the highest gasoline prices in Canada which will drive all prices up on everything including adding additional provincial sales tax as well.
Many on fixed incomes will find it becoming tougher to make ends meet.
We also have quite a bit of new retail space coming on-stream in the Okanagan.
These new buildings were started two to three years ago when developers were wearing rose-coloured glasses.
There are a lot of “for rent” and “for lease” signs but no one knows of any new businesses looking to open up shop!
In Osoyoos, on a Saturday afternoon, April 25th at 3:40 p.m., only one car was parked in the entire block in front of the Osoyoos Credit Union.
We have lost about 1,000 individual campsites in the area in the past few years.
That means we are missing about 3,000 people per day in the summer months of July and August.
That alone has taken about $25,000,000 out of the local economy as those campsites have been replaced by other development that attracts a totally different clientele.
Tourism officials always say that tourist dollars circulate nine times around the community.
Adding higher gasoline cost is not going to be a help when we look for other sources of business in the Interior.
Tom Shields,
Osoyoos
