Dear Editor
Where is the Government when you need them?
A letter was sent to the Honorable Minister Fasbender, Minister of Education for British Columbia, copy to our MLA, Ms. Tegart back in late June or early July regarding the renaming of the school in Ashcroft. The same letter was sent to the Honorable Minister Bernier who replaced Mr. Fasbender with a copy to our MLA, Ms. Tegart. This letter was from the petitioners asking the Board of Trustees SD74 to revisit their decision regarding the name given to the Ministry for the newly renovated K-12 school in Ashcroft.
To date there has been no response from either the Minister of Education or our MLA. I understand that both are probably very busy and this is a relatively minor matter in their overall portfolio, but an acknowledgement of the receipt of our letter would have seemed in order due to the fact that 648 constituents had appealed to them and asked them to reply to our appeal.
A copy was hand delivered to Ms. Tegart’s office in Ashcroft and a letter was sent to the Minister of Education’s office in Victoria. The same letters were sent via e-mail to both.
I was brought up in environment where common courtesy was to reply to correspondence from others. I realize that times have changed and perhaps that axiom no longer applies, although I see it all the time as people text one another and receive e-mails or facebook postings. I may be old fashioned but I really enjoy letters and cards from friends and family and often receive postings from various groups asking for funding, these sometimes include various political parties which comprise our government. Why do they fail to respond when we appeal to them?
The silence is deafening at this time.
The issue is not dead until we give up and we must join together to right a wrong. Many people have commended me for my efforts and the letters I have written in The Journal over the past few months regarding this issue. I have travelled to Lillooet and Seton Portage (Shalath) to represent you and now I am asking as many as possible of those 648 petitioners any others interested to join me on the evening of Nov. 3 at the newly renovated school in Ashcroft at 6:30pm. My appeal is to students, parents and all others in the general public who may have concerns regarding the name of the school in Ashcroft. Thank you for joining me in this endeavor. Together I believe that we can make a difference.
Mike Baldwin
Ashcroft