i : — . | The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 3, 2005 - AS "~ ‘PARADE RESULTS: ‘Best commercial entry: - _ 4. TC Mushroom Shack | ‘:2. Terrace Credit Union Twilight Spas Best non-commercial entry: . Royal Canadian Legion B.C. Old Age Pensioners °3. Skeena Valley Fall Fair Best vehicle: 1. Skeena Valley Cruizers ‘2. Harold Cox 3. George Little House : Best group: 1. Ried Hat Society : =: Best overall: Mills Memorial - RAINY’ RIVERBOAT DAYS PARADE - (clockwise from top): Veteran Fern’ Gagnon stands in front of the Royal Canadian Legion float « Rayna Bowles; nd Bev Epp. lead the Red Hat. Society down the street « Aldon McDonald. with a furry friend, Oriole the Hama at the Afternoon for Kids at ae cata ’ honour the Year of the Veteran ¢ Steven Parker peers out of Thornhill Plaza’s' tiny car * Nisga’a dancer Vincent Lincoin is the man behind the mask « Style Force break dane: r Eric. Bolton busts a. move for the parade. ames ten ae rr ~~ Seer CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD | The Mail Bag | Make it local, eh Dear Sir: Just recently my wife persuaded me to go shopping with her, but only when I was promised one of my favou- rite foods, strawberries. To my surprise the sweet and wonderful B.C. grown strawberries were ‘nowhere to be found, only the pulpy clumps grown in the USA, masquerading as strawberries. So no strawberries for us. ’ Instead I investigated Safeway’s total produce. area, only to find that the vast majority of fruits and vegetables were grown in the USA. « Apples, pears, beans, peppers ‘and some potatoes as an example are marked as grown in US/Canada. Are they grown on the long undefended border? With the exception of the strawberries, there is prob: -ably nothing wrong with US produce. What is. wrong is : that Safeway is not supporting the Canadian growers, who are fully capable of supplying these items. This store is instead supporting a country who i irrespec- tive of court rulings and international tribunals, continues _to steal billions: from Canadian lumber producers. It’s a country who preaches free trade, but practices protectionism as seen regarding Canadian beef, etc. 1 have, as have others,‘ raised this issue with Safeway before to no-avail. I for one am not prepared to. support the’ US exporters while Canadian farmers struggles. If you agree, tell Safeway, or refrain from buying this produce. * John Jensen, Terrace, B. Cc. a Something’ S wrong here Dear Sir: As a father of two sons and also a B. Cc. Hydro em- ployee I wish to comment on this situation involving | B.C. Hydro and Northwest Community College offering a pre- | apprenticeship power line technician program to First Na- tions people. : I have attempted to get my sons into the B.C. Hydro or- ganization but was informed by a local B.C. Hydro man- ager that I had more chance to fly to the moon. It was stated at a job fair at Caledonia.Senior. Second- - . ary by the same manager that they were not interested in Caucasians or males applying because they did not - ‘meet B.C. Hydro’s criteria of being a visible minority or First Nations. Also if one does not have Grade 12 physics and Grade 12 math, forget it. Now I see the standard has ~ dropped for certain groups. Are we talking reverse race ism? ° * I along with many others that have tried | to get their. offspring into_this workforce are angry and frustrated at these recent statements by. B.C>Hydro’s high paid media spinners. There is.no shortage of northern applicants, as I stated earlier. They just don’t meet B.C. Hydro’s criteria. _ Jock Halley, Terrace, B.C. So will he listen? Dear Sir: Jn a recent newspaper article our newest Skeena MLA, . Robin Austin, suggests that if the citizens of our neigh- bouring riding find that their MLA isn’t listening to their issues, then they should give himatry. oy ae, yh ‘This is the samie Robin Austin who stated at the Neth. west Community College “some” candidates forum dur- ing the election that he does not feel he is there to help - people in business with issues that relate to profits and that, in fact, he hates profits. This is a curious and troubling viewpoint since most enterprises are of the for-profit variety. Does his brand of socialism exclude those citizens involved in vand employed by for-profit enterprise? Is he just there to help non-profit enterprises which one might take to mean enterprises such as church groups, unions, professional organizations, service clubs. and. the like? What type. of help could you expect, for example, if. you ’re involved in the: transportation business and feel- ing the crunch of skyrocketing fuel prices. Who can you expect to turn to to get your problem the attention you need? Robin Austin? Well try it and find out. Maybe he will listen, maybe he will act, but since this is a profit re- ’ lated issue and he stated rather clearly “T hate profits”, will | his efforts amount to much? -Think about this example. You are a truck driver whose — employer cut back the hours of work available to you due to the effects of the higher fuel costs. Is Robin Austin do- ing anything to help, is he involved in anything that might help, or is he just going to say that your involvement in a _ for-profit enterprise precludes his interest in the issue? Perhaps he'll say that you shouldn’t be involved in such an enterprise in the first place. The answer is up to Robin Austin and his NDP handlers. Since Robin Austin is not a member of the party in power he can actually say and do more things than a member of the ruling party who © has to toe the party leader’s line. Robin can take the time to listen to his counterpart from the federal arena of government in the months leading up to the next sitting of the legislature. He may find it in his best interest to act on the issues raised by his constituents — “whether they are for-profit issues or non-profit issues. The regional NDP fortunes in the next election rest in no small part on how he handles these types of things. Moe Naguib, Terrace, B.C, Of bridges and bears ’ Dear Sir: What a shock to find the tentacles of progress stran- _gling the historical significance i in my: boyhood town of. Terrace. ’ Shame on the powers-that-be whom, I trust, must have so piously decided that the cost-benefit of a generic, ev- eryday steel deck on the Old Skeena River bridge — a lo- cal, if not national landmark — outweighed the irreplace- able importance of such a revered structure. My gosh!, I can just envision the “(s)think-tank” be- hind this affair espousing such rubbish like the safety con- cerns during winter, or the on-going expenditures toward its maintenance. Is nothing sacred anymore? I guess all that is left for these folks is to back a little genetic engineering experiment to rid the area of that ghastly white bear. Shame! , David Donnelly, Koh. Samui, Surat Thani, Thailand ‘About the Mail Bag The Terrace Standard welcomes letters. Our _ address is 3210 Clinton St., Terrace, B.C. V8G 5R2. You can fax us at 250-638-8432 or e-mail us at newsroom @ terracestandard.com. No attachments, please. Name, address and phone number required for verification. e