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28 Comment(s)

Singing anthem a waste of time

To The Editor:

So come September, all our little New Brunswick children will be forced to sing 'O Canada' every morning before they start classes.

What a crock!

In 1963, I was a student at College Militaire Royal at St. Jean, Quebec, about 25 miles south of Montreal.

It was the height of the Cold War. Less than 12 months earlier, there had been the Cuban missile crisis which drove the Soviet Union and the United States to the brink of nuclear war. In November that year, President John Kennedy would be assassinated in Dallas.

Take my word for it. If there were any places in Canada overwrought with patriotism, it would be this nation's (at the time) three military universities.

So did we sign patriotic songs such as 'O Canada'? Or even 'God Save the Queen'?

Not really!

Now four plus decades can do odd things with people's memories. Mine included.

But as I recall, I only sang 'O Canada' once during my one year there.

As new officer cadets, we were informed that we all had to 'volunteer' for the glee club. I had already had dismal experiences with glee club in high school, so I suspected my audition would go badly.

And it did!

I marched into the room, was asked to sing the national anthem, and am fairly certain I was dismissed before I got the word 'Canada' out.

Will Kelly Lamrock's determination to force elementary school children to sing the anthem encourage those students to be more patriotic than some of my classmates at College Militaire Royal? Classmates that include senators, retired generals, members of the House of Commons, law professors, and the list could go on.

As I said, the Lamrock plan for the anthem is a crock.

John Steeves,

Sussex

Where are gov't priorities?

To The Editor:

It boggles my mind how our government can allow our children (the future of our self sufficiency) to go without library services and teacher assistants for the paltry sum of $2.9 million, and force our children to walk 2.4 km to school in this day and age along some roads that are less than safe for adults to walk along at the best of times.

Wait until the sides of the roads are clogged with snow. One child injured or killed is not worth the risk.

Also, we are in desperate need of new schools in Gunningsville and elsewhere in the province. Yet, here we are spending $68 million (plus - because I'm sure this will go over budget) on removing a causeway in the hopes a few phantom salmon "may" decide to come spawn up the Petitcodiac.

Forget that there are dams everywhere else that use fish ladders that work just fine, and forget that an eco-system that has developed over the last 40 years will be destroyed in the process. How hypocritical can these environmentalists be when there is a dam on the Turtle Creek as well and just about every other river in the province.

For example, here's an excerpt from a Canadian Press article arguing the opposite about a lake in Nova Scotia, and I quote "Nova Scotia environmentalists oppose tearing down of old dam Card Lake, N.S. Environmentalists are arguing against removing a dam from a Nova Scotia lake, saying it would have devastating consequences.

"Nova Scotia Power had planned to remove a deteriorating dam it owns on Zwicker Lake, near Chester, N.S. But the co-chairman of the Card Lake Conservation Society argued that would have damaging consequences on the entire Avon River watershed.

"Removing that dam would have huge impacts on the natural ecosystem in this area," Brad Armstrong said. "It took 80 years for nature to adapt to that dam, and now to remove it would reverse the whole process. It's a step backwards."

The dam, built in the 1920s, is not used for power generation any more, and the utility has said power customers shouldn't be saddled with the costs of repairing the structure."

It seems whatever cause someone can dream up, there will be a band of tree huggers willing to push the government to correct this "grevious error" and find enough data to support their claim.

I can put together any statistics you want and skew them in my favor by data manipulation in order to further my cause. The fact of the matter is, our children should come first and foremost and that's where "OUR" money should be spent.

Fact two is the upper lake of the Petitcodiac is a healthy, thriving eco-system with plenty of fish and wildlife that will be destroyed in the near future when alternative measures could be used that would see both sides appeased for a lot less money.

Where the heck are our priorities? Again, it boggles the mind.

B. Devereaux,

Moncton

Where are the Liberal backers?

To The Editor:

Reading the changes that Premier Graham has made to his cabinet, as outlined in the Times & Transcript of June 23, the only phrase that came to mind is that this is ". . . shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic"!

Each of the four ministers who has been redeployed, has created serious controversy during their time in their previous ministry. Former Finance Minister Victor Boudreau broke the N.B. Liberals' pre-election promise not to increase taxes almost immediately after they were elected, and then two years later when he retracted the tax increases in 2009, he crowed that ". . . his government was reducing taxes for all New Brunswickers". What a sham!

Former Health Minister Mike Murphy caused controversy by reducing the number of Regional Health Authorities from eight to two, and there is at present, a case before the courts as a result of this. A second case against his former ministry is being promised by the doctors of this province because of the government's failure to honour the wage increase that was negotiated last year.

Then Education Minister Kelly Lamrock had to retract from his Early French Immersion changes when a legal challenge was made against him, and then just before leaving this position, he has created a furor of protests due to the firing of school librarians and teacher aides due to budget cuts, and enforcing a 2.4 km limit on those children who can be transported by school buses, impacting all of those with school-age children.

Finally, we have former Justice Minister T.J. Burke who is responsible for reducing financing to Legal Aid and by abolishing mediators who kept a number of domestic cases out of the courts, both of which directly affect the most needy citizens of the province.

And let us not forget Energy Minister Jack Keir, who made such a complete hash of the Home Heating Assistance program earlier this year that denied thousands of New Brunswickers the help that they had received in previous years, when he handed the responsibility for running it to the Salvation Army. And he also was guilty of breaking a pre-election promise that his government would remove the tax on home heating bills.

And each of these ministers walks away, smiling smugly as they proclaim that any of these problems are now someone else's mess to clean up! No doubt Premier Graham is counting on the fact that voters have quite short memories and all of these controversies will be forgotten by the time the next provincial election rolls around in September 2010. Don't count on it Shawn - that iceberg is getting awfully close to your foundering Titanic!

What I find astounding is the total lack of voices being raised in praise of the actions of this Liberal government. Where are all of the Liberal supporters who voted for this motley crew? Even Liberal stalwarts like former premier Frank McKenna and Times & Transcript Saturday contributor Bill Belliveau have shaken their heads in disbelief and expressed concerns at some of the actions of these N.B. Liberals.

Keith J. Tindale,

Shediac