Conservatives are best choice
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Dear Editor:
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I have to believe all candidates running in this election are good people.
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But the choice this cycle is the BC Conservative Party, a free enterprise party, with common sense policies, who served us well in the past, starting from W.A.C. Bennett evolving now as the Conservative Party of sa国际传媒 with a passion to help and serve.
Or we have the NDP, a Socialist party that doubled the debt to $107 billion in just seven years. If they knew how to fix our health care and everything else they would have done it already with the $50 billion already spent. David Eby and his cabinet and caucus are the CEO and board of directors of this biggest corporation in sa国际传媒 called Government, and we are its shareholders.
We the people must come together and fire all NDPers for their incompetence and vote Conservative.
And, while most independents running come from the same right-of-center thinking as the Conservatives, we cannot take a chance to elect any of them.
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They will split the vote and let the NDP govern again. Their naivety of this process alone should warn you against voting for them.
The clean-up of our elected is long overdue, and that can only happen if Conservatives form a healthy majority government.
Rosalie Chalmers, sa国际传媒
Reform, protect our health care
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Dear Editor:
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British Columbians are facing a health care crisis with many citizens without a primary care provider, long wait lists, ER closures and overworked health care professionals.
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Meanwhile the BC Conservatives, who plan to cut funding and shift to more private health care, are getting increasingly evasive when questioned by the media. Do we want our public health care in the hands of a party that has anti science, anti vaccination and conspiracy theorists running to be MLAs?
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Letsa国际传媒 consider just some of the measures the BC NDP have taken:
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1. For the short term they have hired many more doctors and nurses
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2. They have opened another medical school, for which we will reap the rewards in the future
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3. They negotiated a new payment model with primary care physicians called the 鈥淟ongitudinal Family Physician (LFP) Model鈥 which has been well received.
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4. The NDP increased salaries of other health care professionals which I have been told has delayed the retirement of some badly needed workers.
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5.They have allowed pharmacists to prescribe medication for many basic conditions and thereby lessened the load on family physicians.
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6. Increased funding for mental health and drug addiction rehabilitation services. The Conservatives call this reckless spending.
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Rather than cutting funding as the Conservatives plan, many health care providers have said that our current health care delivery model needs to be reformed to increase efficiencies.
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One such person, Dr. Jane Philpott, a family physician, and author of a book 鈥淗ealth for All鈥 is a strong proponent of all Canadians being assigned to publicly funded multi-disciplinary care homes (outpatient clinics).
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Doctors would not have to hire staff from their own salary, and would work alongside nurses, nurse practitioners, and other allied health professionals. doctors would have far less paperwork and administrative work to do, allowing more time for direct patient care.
Local unaffiliated candidate, Tracy St. Claire is a proponent of health care reform before privatization but the reality is that an independent politician would have no power in Victoria.
I am a retired physiotherapist who worked in health care for almost 39 years and I want everyone in sa国际传媒 to have what I have, access to a family physician in a publicly funded system.
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Hence, the clear choice for me is Tina Lee, our NDP candidate who is in the race to help all sa国际传媒 citizens and will give us representation in a newly re-elected BC NDP government!
Beverly Boden,听Penticton
American system is a bad idea
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Dear Editor:
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Most residents of the Okanagan are aware of problems in the health care system: long wait times for surgery or to see specialists, a shortage of family doctors and closed emergency services, especially in the smaller cities such as Oliver, to name a few. 听
We know that this situation is not unique to sa国际传媒. The COVID pandemic exposed weaknesses in virtually every public health care system in the world.
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The problems had been growing for years and little was being done to address them. It will take time to make the necessary changes to rebuild the system to the level of care sa国际传媒 residents expect.听 While the time has come to implement solutions we need to be sensible about the range of those solutions.
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The current sa国际传媒 government is making strides in upgrading the system. More health care workers have been hired. A new medical school is under development. More resources have been directed to mental health, addiction treat-ment and access to care.
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Telemedicine will help improve access in the rural areas. More reforms will be implemented with funding from the federal government.
Telemedicine will help improve access in the rural areas. More reforms will be implemented with funding from the federal government.
What does not seem sensible is the BC Conservatives recycled proposal of cutting and privatizing health services. This seems based more on ideology than analysis or innovation. Experimenting with a mix of public and private delivery systems is one thing.
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However adopting an American-style system seems like a particularly bad idea given its history of inequity and denied care.听
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I hope the citizens of sa国际传媒 recognize how easily we could find ourselves having to pay for medical expenses we currently access for free thanks to our publicly funded healthcare system and that they vote to support the party working to strengthen it.
Donna Schreyer,听Lake Country
Summerland sends its thanks
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Dear Editor:
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The Summerland Community Centre, Ryga Arts Festival and Summerland Fall Fair wish to collectively express thanks to our community for supporting our 鈥淗arvest Harmony鈥 event on Friday, Sept. 18.
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The event was sold out, and a ton of fun.听 People attending danced the night away and wore smiles all evening!听 Thank you to all the people who came to our community event to celebrate together and help make this a great success!
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We would like to especially thank and acknowledge the generous support of our local businesses: Detonate Brewing, Heritage Cider, Giantsa国际传媒 Head Kitchen, Sweet & Crusty Bake Co., Blossom Fruit Stand, Braden Hill Orchard and Farm, Sleeping Giant Fruit Winery, Murraysa国际传媒 Pizza and Local Motive.
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We are also grateful to the local media in Summerland and Penticton -- the Herald and Black Press, for featuring our press releases, and to Allan Gee of Move 97.1 radio for our radio interview. 听
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Three cheers to Natalie Hobbs, who raced in after work from sa国际传媒 to teach swing dancing, and to the South Okanagan Big Band, with guest singer Judy Rowe, all a huge hit with the audience and dancers. 听
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Our three community-oriented organizations are pleased and proud to have worked together on this event to combine harvest with harmony and look forward to the potential of working together again.
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The Board of Directors of: Summerland Community Centre听
Association, Summerland Fall Fair and Ryga Arts Festival
Disappointed by notable absence
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Dear Editor:
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I commend First Things First for a well-run, well-organized, and civil public meeting with provincial electoral candidates on the environment.
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Thank you to the Seniors鈥 Centre for providing the venue. I appreciate five out of the six candidates for their presence and thoughtful contributions.
I am dismayed that BC Conservative Party candidate Amelia Boultbee did not attend or provide written responses to the questions sent to her in advance.
In her silence, are we to assume that climate change and the environment are not priorities for her and her party?
How disappointing!
Pat Deacon,听Penticton
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Contradictions with print-digital
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Dear Editor:
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On Oct. 5 in your digital paper you clearly states Amelia Boultbee 鈥渋s a practising lawyer in her hometown鈥.
But in your print edition of Oct. 5, a few hours later, your paper clearly states she 鈥渨as a practising lawyer鈥.听 Could you please explain to me and your other readers how in your two papers, Ms. Boultbee goes from a current practising lawyer to a past tense lawyer in a matter of a few hours? 听
I assume you are making reference to Doak Shirreff Lawyers who Ms. Boultbee has made reference for some time now on her Facebook. Ms. Boultbee on the afternoon of Oct. 2 wiped off her reference to Doak Shirreff Lawyers.
Rick Thorpe,听Penticton
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Same old, same old party leaders
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Dear Editor:
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Three sa国际传媒 leaders released party platforms for the upcoming elections.
Letsa国际传媒 consider鈥 The Green leader has focused her efforts of saving the forests and trees to tackle climate change/global warming, while ignoring the largest polluters, China and India鈥 but what are sick and ailing British Columbians supposed to think? That this leader cares more about trees than peoples鈥 health and wellness?
The BC Conservative leader says, if he is elected, he will increase money for daycare and a bunch of other stuff about mining etc. but nothing on efforts for healthcare, homeless, suffering drug addicts, nor education.
However, since he already proved he could not make a hard decision picking the Best candidates to run for his party鈥 sa国际传媒 doesn鈥檛 need a leader who cannot make a hard decisions!
Then there is the NDP Leader, who says this is not the time to stop spending money sa国际传媒 does not have鈥 but he closes Urgent Care and hospital emergencies all over the province, all the while hiring more hospital administrators instead of doctors and nurses.
Good luck to the hurting and sick patients, getting one of these hospital administrators to see or examine you while you wait up to and over eight hours at hospital emergencies!
I believe this election, we have to forget parties and vote for the someone from our riding, who cares for us, and has common sense and wants to help people of sa国际传媒
I already voted and I urge voters to send Tracy St. Claire to Victoria, to fight for us against these same old party leaders.
Yasmin John-Thorpe,听Penticton
Supports local NDP candidate
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Dear Editor:
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Re: Penticton-Summerland riding
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I have known Tina Lee for many years.听 Tina has the qualities that make a good MLA: 听honesty, compassion and integrity. 听
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I endorse Tina Lee whole-heartedly as she is the best candidate to represent our region.
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Gerry Gilligan,听Penticton
