The Editor,
My late father (2002), a commercial salmon fisherman who was always worried about fish-farming and dam-site damage to B.C.'s wild salmon, must be whirling in his urn if he can observe what our federal government is doing - and much more frightening, going to do - to seriously damage (perhaps irrevocably) salmon habitat, amongst many other eco aspects, and to a point way beyond what Dad thought would ever be done.
So many very-early mornings, I'd briefly get up for a washroom break and see the light breaking through underneath his bedroom door and into the hallway's darkness, with my father on the other side very-slowly typewriting missives to various politicians. I must've proofread and made many grammar corrections to almost a couple hundred letters of his over the years, just on this topic alone.
Although I'd assure him that the politicians do not have or will not give their time to personally respond to each concerned writer; that they almost certainly had hired staff to read the missives and use an 'issue-template' letter return system, with a specific template ready to respond to every potential issue. All they'd likely do is typein the letter-writer's name and address and print it out to mail back -
Nonetheless, my father typed on about what were to him the greatest fish-habitat concerns of the day.
Oh, the irony.
Frank G. Sterle, Jr. Richmond
