Editor:
Re: Peter Smith’s letter, May 6: Federal budget just another distraction.
I’m sorry Mr. Smith but you can’t just go around picking and choosing bits and pieces of what people say to make a point.
I, for one, am glad there will be a law in place to prevent our young people from taking off to Syria to join a terrorist organization.
Further, I am not a complete fan of Mr. Harper, but if it had not been for his finance minister, the late Jim Flaherty, and Mr. Carney of late of the Bank of Canada, who knows where we would rank today in the world’s economies.
The deficits were a necessary evil brought about by a world-wide financial crisis from which many countries have yet to recover.
Also, your Jeff Rubin may have written two books calling for “economic disaster” but a few short years ago when he was Chief Economist for CIBC World Banking he also claimed gold would reach $5,000 an ounce.
Be careful what criticisms you aim at the “tar sand’s nest.” Last time I looked the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, with 74.1 per cent of its $75 billion administered for the public sector pension plans, held well in excess of $3.5 billion worth of shares in those “dirty companies.”
The day I see a letter to the BCIMC written on behalf of public sector pensioners, telling them to reduce their pensions by the proportionate amount attributable to the “dirty companies,” I will believe they are true environmentalists and tip my hat to them.
In the interim, I am sure they will keep filling their cars with that dirty fuel and using everything else that is made from the byproducts.
Peter Philpotts
Williams Lake