Friday, October 24, 2008
Stopping Bakers Bridge
I was sitting in Raspberries with a group of friends and had just finished reading the last Shingle – how unusual for me!
The conversation of course was the latest mad idea – the bridge – Baker’s Bridge to be exact. Everyone agreed the idea was at best stupid, as did the majority of letters to the editor. However, given that everyone was against it and could see it’s many failings no one was proposing any concrete action to stop it. I remarked that it is like most things on Gabriola people complain but nobody wants to be the one to organize action. So I took the responsibility to begin an organized resistance to this latest government folly.
There seems to be no limit to the number of talented individuals who want to stop the bridge, however we are working against a well-organized foe. If we expect our views to prevail then we need to be organized as well. Our minimum goal should be to stop this survey – a survey will prove anything you want it to. Instead of our fate being decided by a government controlled survey we must at least force this decision to a referendum. Something that affect the whole island should not be decided by some bureaucrat, the people need to at least have a chance to express their wishes. If the majority vote for a bridge then so be it. If the majority votes against a bridge we haven’t necessarily won. The government can still Impose their will upon us but it would be a lot harder to do with a solid vote against them.
After talking with numerous individuals I realized that we needed to be an umbrella group as people were only willing to participate to certain levels of involvement. It will be necessary to have several levels and styles of opposition. There would be a group willing to write letters and talk to friends. There would be others more willing to take a more direct political route. Still others would be willing to raise funds and sell T-shirts. For others, involvement might be limited to designing T-shirts. For still others strategy and tactics may be their forte. Still others may lean towards the protest end of continuum. It doesn’t matter how much or how limited your involvement is; what matters is that you agree that we should at least have a say in this decision.
The only requirement is commitment to at least a referendum. We are not and will not become a debating society nor will we become an educational group. We want only those who have made up their minds that this is not a decision to be decided through a government survey. For those that haven’t made up your minds or who favour this end run around democracy we have no place for you.
.
We also realized that we could be in for a long fight – how long did Clayquot sound last? We thought of ways to raise funds for political action, leaflets, hall rentals, web page, etc, and decided to start with t-shirt sales. So shirts with logos and graphics ranging from “Gabriola? Island or cul-de-sac?”, “Bridges are built for burning. “Stop the bridge”. “The Battle of Bakers Bridge, 2008 till 2028”. “Let’s build a Bridge Over David Hahn’s House’ – could also make a good ballad for those inclined.
We had thought of just meeting on an ad hoc basis maybe at Raspberries until we realized two things. One was the number of people that eventually would become involved. Secondly, and most important that if we met in a public setting we would be plagued by those intent on changing our minds and also by media types just looking for print – this last group is especially banned and anyone employed by the media will be asked to leave. We will issue news updates but most of us have experienced some media who will focus on a phrase taken out of context and write whatever they had already chosen to write. So we decided to hold meetings at our homes where we can kick out troublemakers.
The first yard meetings will be held in my back yard on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons – bring something to sit on and non-alcoholic refreshments if you want. From these initial meeting we hope to recruit various committee chairpersons for everything from co-ordination, to membership, to strategy and tactics, to fund raising, and publicity.
Those willing to spend some time and energy can e-mail me or sign up on sheets, which will be readily available around the island. There may or may not be a $5 membership fee to satisfy legal requirements letting us limit our membership to the committed.
The conversation of course was the latest mad idea – the bridge – Baker’s Bridge to be exact. Everyone agreed the idea was at best stupid, as did the majority of letters to the editor. However, given that everyone was against it and could see it’s many failings no one was proposing any concrete action to stop it. I remarked that it is like most things on Gabriola people complain but nobody wants to be the one to organize action. So I took the responsibility to begin an organized resistance to this latest government folly.
There seems to be no limit to the number of talented individuals who want to stop the bridge, however we are working against a well-organized foe. If we expect our views to prevail then we need to be organized as well. Our minimum goal should be to stop this survey – a survey will prove anything you want it to. Instead of our fate being decided by a government controlled survey we must at least force this decision to a referendum. Something that affect the whole island should not be decided by some bureaucrat, the people need to at least have a chance to express their wishes. If the majority vote for a bridge then so be it. If the majority votes against a bridge we haven’t necessarily won. The government can still Impose their will upon us but it would be a lot harder to do with a solid vote against them.
After talking with numerous individuals I realized that we needed to be an umbrella group as people were only willing to participate to certain levels of involvement. It will be necessary to have several levels and styles of opposition. There would be a group willing to write letters and talk to friends. There would be others more willing to take a more direct political route. Still others would be willing to raise funds and sell T-shirts. For others, involvement might be limited to designing T-shirts. For still others strategy and tactics may be their forte. Still others may lean towards the protest end of continuum. It doesn’t matter how much or how limited your involvement is; what matters is that you agree that we should at least have a say in this decision.
The only requirement is commitment to at least a referendum. We are not and will not become a debating society nor will we become an educational group. We want only those who have made up their minds that this is not a decision to be decided through a government survey. For those that haven’t made up your minds or who favour this end run around democracy we have no place for you.
.
We also realized that we could be in for a long fight – how long did Clayquot sound last? We thought of ways to raise funds for political action, leaflets, hall rentals, web page, etc, and decided to start with t-shirt sales. So shirts with logos and graphics ranging from “Gabriola? Island or cul-de-sac?”, “Bridges are built for burning. “Stop the bridge”. “The Battle of Bakers Bridge, 2008 till 2028”. “Let’s build a Bridge Over David Hahn’s House’ – could also make a good ballad for those inclined.
We had thought of just meeting on an ad hoc basis maybe at Raspberries until we realized two things. One was the number of people that eventually would become involved. Secondly, and most important that if we met in a public setting we would be plagued by those intent on changing our minds and also by media types just looking for print – this last group is especially banned and anyone employed by the media will be asked to leave. We will issue news updates but most of us have experienced some media who will focus on a phrase taken out of context and write whatever they had already chosen to write. So we decided to hold meetings at our homes where we can kick out troublemakers.
The first yard meetings will be held in my back yard on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons – bring something to sit on and non-alcoholic refreshments if you want. From these initial meeting we hope to recruit various committee chairpersons for everything from co-ordination, to membership, to strategy and tactics, to fund raising, and publicity.
Those willing to spend some time and energy can e-mail me or sign up on sheets, which will be readily available around the island. There may or may not be a $5 membership fee to satisfy legal requirements letting us limit our membership to the committed.
