Editor:
In your editorial of March 15 (“The ugly side of Coastism,” March 15) you warned against toxic ‘Coastism’. Indeed, the meme du jour is ‘stay away’.
Highway 101 is overburdened. Likewise Vancouver and Burnaby – we Coasters should ‘find another way’ to points south, east, and YVR, to minimize their traffic congestion! Until then, perhaps we park our cars occasionally and take one of 17 daily Sechelt-Gibsons buses?
Water shortages and calls to stop all development? The carpenter next door can survive on sawdust, right? Meanwhile, let’s each take the money we save on unmetered water and practice self-reliance, for instance by each stockpiling one week’s worth of water before summer.
Acreages cleared! Trees felled! To build more houses? Luckily, our houses were all built with hay bales on hardpan! Consider our own impact – it takes up to 50,000 trees working through the duration of a cross Canada flight just to absorb the CO2 associated with one passenger. Instead, let’s force government to uphold community plans, demand intelligent development that reflects future requirements (livable, walkable, bike friendly, safe, less square feet per person), and each reduce our own footprint – while not telling others how or where to live.
We’ve got ours. None to share. Stay away. Government, protect us!
When Americans complain about illegal immigrants taking jobs, and Europeans complain about refugees requiring social services, we dismiss it as mere racism. What then is our excuse? Did everyone think they might be the last one in, locking the door behind them? Canada is growing, and Canadians enjoy freedom of movement. Despite evident challenges, it’s better here – otherwise people wouldn’t be coming.
The Sunshine Coast itself is unique. But it seems many residents have forgotten that we are all in this together, proving so far only that people are the same wherever you go.
Alan Donenfeld, Gibsons
