LETTER: How to run a country down, or what Canada’s leaders shouldn’t do
Published 7:00 am Friday, February 27, 2026
Editor,
Turning 85 last year, living in Canada almost 60 (the third country), I have seen a lot.
Extortions in Canada: aiming and shooting at somebody’s house is not unlawful discharge of a firearm; shots fired straight up in the air would be, but they weren’t. Who is the brain-dead who approves a charge like that?
Building a four-lane bridge (instead of eight) between New West and Surrey is another work of brain-dead heroes, overtime and budget.
How about the sewage treatment plant in North Van? This crowns everything: $850,000,000 originally, $3 billion as of now. Almost 400 per cent overrun.
Immigration: in 2024 or 25, 1,150,000 people came to Canada without having the proper infrastructure (housing, hospitals, roads, schools, doctors, etc.). The time we came with my wife in 1967, 10 years on until 1977, 1,850,000 people came; there was more time to catch up on infrastructure and check backgrounds of our immigrants more thoroughly.
Today, everything that we do or build seems to be for before yesterday instead of for after tomorrow. The whole system reminds me of a joke:
Two friends meet, the one says, “I didn’t see you for awhile.”
“Exactly five years,” says the other one. “A brain surgeon removed my brain to do experiments with it and I got $10,000,000 for that.”
“What did you do in the five years without your brain?”
“I worked as an MP.”
My way would be concerning few problems: overdose – mandatory detox; criminal immigrant – strip him (her) of citizenship or landed immigrant status and one way back to country of origin.
Eight years ago we had the softwood lumber problem. Until today we didn’t think about diversifying our trade with different countries. Now at once (under pressure) we, or our politicians, woke up to do what we should have done at least eight years ago.
Finally: Moving around federal government ministers doesn’t make them experts in another field; foreign affairs, public safety, finance, defence. Come next election, I will think hard about who to vote for, and everybody else should too.
One more thing: the Sumas Prairie floods are another proof of incompetent politicians.
Adalbert Licsko