LETTER: Paving paradise – How Joni Mitchell foresaw Canada’s future
Published 9:00 am Saturday, April 18, 2026
Editor,
“They paved paradise, put up a parking lot” and “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone”: words from our very perceptive Canadian icon Joni Mitchell back in the ‘70s that will haunt us all in the years ahead if we don’t stand up to our leaders in government who continue force feeding us with neighbourhood-destroying mandates to build ever more intrusive and infrastructure-stressing housing complexes.
The truth is that our leaders seem unable to grasp the reality that we have run out of usable living space in our communities without decimating our already denigrated natural green spaces and creating communities that are overwhelmed with ugly concrete blocks of flats that ruin whatever character is still remaining in them as well us leaving us exposed to the brutality of climate change disasters in the making.
The answer is not easy, but it must include drastically cutting our immigration levels for at least a generation to allow us time to catch up with our infrastructure needs everywhere and solve our social community woes before we welcome any new arrivals into a house that is already in disarray because we can’t say no.
We are at a breaking point in many communities, but no one seems to be willing to step up and accept this brutal truth.
Michael King, White Rock