I got a copy of a letter last week from the Fraser Valley Regional Library board that expressed an anxiety felt by many out there. It began:
Over the past few weeks the Board of Fraser Valley Regional Library, along with other
libraries across the province were concerned to hear rumors over possible significant
reductions in the provincial funding for public libraries.
And then the letter, signed by Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender, went out to argue about the importance of libraries and how they’re needed more than ever in the downturn, etc. Libraries aren’t the old bodies feeling this way. Everyone is wondering what the real budget will be once the voting is over tomorrow and whoever is elected gets in there to start chopping. I’ve heard — though have no idea if it’s true — that there’s already an internal provincial committee working on the drastically revised budget.
Cities have to be worried for sure. Many of them have been waiting for the province to come through on money for promised housing — not just here in Vancouver, as you might imagine, but in places like Kelowna and Nanaimo and everyone else where the homeless are now present. TransLink mayors were already in a quandary about how the Lower Mainland is going to pay for $450 million of unfunded new spending needed to keep the system up to speed (pun intended). And, as the library letter tells us, there could be all kinds of cuts in little areas that we don’t even think about, until the money’s gone.
Happy voting.
And here’s the full text of the library board’s letter.
open-letter-to-premier-campbell-provincial-funding-for-public-libraries
5 responses so far ↓
1 Forthingham // May 11, 2009 at 7:56 pm
No one has been attention to the real issues. Too bad rafe mair is not being given enough media attention.http://www.ourrivers.ca/latest-news-mainmenu-38/sors-blog-mainmenu-43 He has the issues nailed. but no one is paying attention and when gordo and co get elected they’l lput the boots to us and give mucho $$ to their U$ friends. … and so it goes.
2 LP // May 11, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Yeah, Rafe Mair has all the issues nailed, including his support for STV.
Sorry Forthingham, but the old Mare (spelled incorrectly on purpose) has survived beyond his best before date. Time to put him out to pasture.
Anyway with record turn outs already, doesn’t that usually spell the end for the incumbants?
Although I’m not crazy for gordo, I am not at all convinced the NDP wouldn’t be far worse.
So without a real alternative to the Liberals and the NDP what should one do?
3 SV // May 11, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Vote STV and hope for the best.
4 Forthingham // May 11, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Respect your elders. They have earned it. And he may just be right
I am not crazy about the NDP. but having seeing many elections since the 1960’s i know that everyone once in awhile it’s good to throw abusers of power out on their ass. Hopefully we can have a minority BC government. I think it would be good for all. peace …
5 glissando remmy // May 11, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Are you one of those undecided electors? Do your friends describe you as ignorant and apathetic when it comes to politics? Are you one of those people that say they do not care who gets elected but dies of curiosity to find out how the decided voters do really vote? Well, the answer is in, don’t bother, they don’t know either!
Anyway, read on, this one is for you:
The Charlatan
By Jean de La Fontaine, (1621-1695)
“The world has never lacked its charlatans,
More than themselves have lacked their plans.
One sees them on the stage at tricks
Which mock the claims of sullen Styx.
What talents in the streets they post!
One of them used to boast
Such mastership of eloquence
That he could make the greatest dunce
Another Tully Cicero
In all the arts that lawyers know.
“Ay, sirs, a dunce, a country clown,
The greatest blockhead of your town,—
Nay more, an animal, an ass,—
The stupidest that nibbles grass,—
Needs only through my course to pass,
And he shall wear the gown
With credit, honour, and renown.”
The prince heard of it, called the man, thus spake:
“My stable holds a steed
Of the Arcadian breed,[24]
Of which an orator I wish to make.”
“Well, sire, you can,”
Replied our man.
At once his majesty
Paid the tuition fee.
Four years must roll, and then the learned ass
Should his examination pass,
According to the rules
Adopted in the schools;
If not, his teacher was to tread the air,
With haltered neck, above the public square,—
His rhetoric bound on his back,
And on his head the ears of jack.
A courtier told the rhetorician,
With bows and terms polite,
He would not miss the sight
Of that last pendent exhibition;
For that his grace and dignity
Would well become such high degree;
And, on the point of being hung,
He would bethink him of his tongue,
And show the glory of his art,—
The power to melt the hardest heart,—
And wage a war with time
By periods sublime—
A pattern speech for orators thus leaving,
Whose work is vulgarly called thieving.
“Ah!” was the charlatan’s reply,
vere that, the king, the ass, or I,
Shall, one or other of us, die.”
And reason good had he;
We count on life most foolishly,
Though hale and hearty we may be.
In each four years, death cuts down one in three.”
Still undecided?
We live in Vancouver and this keeps us busy.
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