April is birthday month for five members of my family including my two youngest granddaughters. GD#6 will be nine on April 25, GD#7 will be six on April 29. And there’s the rub. GD#7 doesn’t think it’s fair that her birthday always comes last. She thinks it’s about time it came at least before her sister’s.
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There used to be a joke in the Chilcotin that newcomers came to the area to get away from it all, but once settled in, they wanted to bring “it all” with them (good roads, hydro, etc.) Oldtimers thought it was the lack of those amenities that made the place desirable. In the fuss about rebranding Williams Lake, one question isn’t being asked. Do we want to be a small town with no line-ups at the traffic lights or do we want to be a big city where there are? How far forward do we want to move?
One contentious issue relating to local municipal affairs is resolved, I was delighted to hear the city and CRD reached an agreement on fire protection.
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There is so much news recently some stuff gets lost. Like the symposium planned by the Spruce City Wildlife Association (Prince George). The plan was to have biologists, hunters and conservationists discuss the dramatic drop in moose numbers, but organizers had to postpone it when they were told the regional biologists scheduled to speak are not allowed to discuss government business until after the election. On another front, a leaked report said a new study found only 58 caribou left in the Wells Gray herd that numbered 400 in recent years. We don’t hear much in the main stream media about concerns over wild salmon, either. I can’t help thinking when species are disappearing, we should be concerned enough to find out why.
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.