Stuck in the traffic jam in Kelowna, this is in reflection to your editorial of June 30, 06, about leadership foresight, or rather the lack of, in government. Well taken is the example you refer to – the recent Kelowna Mission pool case, the decades old bridge issue and Central Okanagan Bypass plan and healthcare – managed to fail? Unfortunately, these are only a few examples of government’s failure to provide foresight; i.e. timely analysis, planning and intervention. The forestry, fishery, and First Nations are other examples where decades of interconnected, social, economic and ecological issues, unsolved, are allowed to escalate into adversity causing irreparable harm to society. It is about the Government’s accountability to society, that which is not

Recently, the Mayor of Summerland dismissed members of the community questioning the state of affairs in the Municipality, as a small group of malcontents. One must assume the Mayor’s assertion was a brief slip-up and does not indicate disregard of the very fundamental in our parliamentary democracy. When elected to office politician from municipality to provincial and federal level, is accountable to on and all in the community, and nobody is malcontents. Unfortunately, sometime politicians ignore of forget this basic standards, or may simply lack the wisdom and courage to invite to debate. The underlying problems in Summerland as in so many other municipalities are the lack an Overall Community Planning that is based on prudent socioeconomic and ecological scientific

Explosive interview with Michael Ryan is tendentious. It should be stressed this is about the social, economic and ecological issues the community is facing it is about issues not persons. In his interview with Michael Ryan, the Osoyoos Now Society, Robert Shuster tendentiously or rather blunt blatantly promotes the Town’s economic development model and contract with Destination Osoyoos. Hopefully, people don’t buy a car because an ad or TV commercial shows the car sitting on a mountain top. Hopefully in their guise as taxpayer and voter people will recognize tendentious political purpose driven interviews and educate themselves on the issues. One must assume that the major concern for the Osoyoos Now Society, and Michael Ryan and all other’s, is the

In reflection on the Osoyoos Times British Columbia editorial August 25, 2004 regarding the Chamber of Commerce vs. Town of Osoyoos, in British Columbia, – issues vital for Canada at large. It is reasonable to believe that any reasonable thinking person in Osoyoos, BC and elsewhere agrees with the leader in the local paper. That the disputes between the Chamber of Commerce versus the town and the town’s contractor the Destination Osoyoos Corporation, is negative for the community. Needless to say, working together with other organizations in the best interest of the Chamber members and the community, promoting the community as a nice place to do business, live and visit, which is a natural part of the Chamber’s activities. However,

Vote and do something about it! Osoyoos British Columbia – a lesson in democratic failure? In the early democracy of ancient Athens, when a small group of bullies and their followers took power and violently oppressed the opposition, people discovered democracy is no guarantee against bullying and abuse. More importantly, people also discovered that the problem was not the bullies and followers. As Albert Einstein stated: “the world is a dangerous place to live in, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” Roughly, 2400 years later in Osoyoos BC, the action of a small group of people in concert with the Town Council, against the Chamber of Commerce,