CF Miley,
Opinions Editor

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Memo to Gordon Campbell

February 17, 2005

Dear Gordon,

I’m pissed off. I’m a student at Douglas
College in New Westminster, and am
graduating in April. Now, due to the
ongoing labour strife with the BCGEU,
my semester is all messed up. Due to the
weekly rotating strikes, I can’t seem to get
into the swing of it. My grades are dip-
ping and I’m worried about how I’m
going to financially survive the extra
weeks that may get tagged onto this
semester. Your offer of “zero, zero, and
zero” to the union seems unfair to me. As
a matter of fact, with the current budget
surplus that your government has, [’m
wondering why you won’t give a tiny slice
back to the people that helped amass it.
Being a working poor person sucks,
Gordon. It’s time for a little compassion.
I’m also pissed about the hypocrisy

 

FEBRUARY 23/2005

 

inherent in the recent “tentative agree-
ment” your government reached to save
the Vancouver Boat Show. Could some-
one explain to me just why the Boat
Show is more important than this year’s
crop of BC’s future taxpayers? Oh yah, I
guess we're not putting millions of dol-
lars into government coffers. Hold on,
yes we are. When you take tuition increas-
es (a short-term boost to government
funds) and add them to the elimination of
BC Grants, as well as the immense
amount of taxes that we—as educated
workers—will be paying for the rest of
our lives, it adds up to a hell of a lot more
the Boat Show So,
Gordon, what gives? Why don’t you care

than generates.
enough about students to negotiate some
sort of reasonable settlement with the
BCGEU?

By the way, I saw you at the Chinese
New Year Parade last Sunday. I was the
guy who yelled, “How about you settle
with the BCGEU so I can graduate in
April?” Remember? It was right at the
start of the parade route, and I was the
one with the nine-year-old blonde boy on
my shoulders. I must say, Gordon, your
tan was fantastic, but your collarless “Pm-
so-Asian-pandering-that-it-hurts”
gold-coloured shirt was awful. Royal gold
is not your colour, Gordon, despite what
your dictator fantasies may be telling you.
It makes you look plastic, like something
out of the Royal London Wax Museum in
Victoria. In fact, as Will Ferrell said in the
extra features of Anchorman, “When I
look into your eyes, it’s like looking into
the dull, lifeless eyes of a mannequin.”
But your fabulous tan did remind me of
your “Booze and Cruise” trip to Hawaii a
couple of years back. You sure got over

that debacle pretty fast, huh?
Granted Gordon, your government

did throw students a bone in the recent
“We Really Want to Buy Your Vote and
Erase the Last Four Years of Anger and
Disgust” speech—ahem, I mean Throne
Speech. Capping tuition increases to mir-
ror inflation is a decent start to curbing
the drastic increases students have faced
since 2001. But on closer inspection, the
bone you threw us has already been
chewed to a nub.

In Finance Minister Colin Hansen’s
recent budget, BC’s post-secondary insti-
tutions were promised increased
provincial funding. But isn’t this increase

being largely funded by the elimination of

 

 

grants for second- through fourth-year
students? As a single parent trying to
make ends meet, I really could’ve used
that BC Grant this year, Gordon. But, hey,
judging by your unwillingness to solve the
recent strike, your willingness to screw up
my last semester at college, and your
apparent joy at funding seat increases by
eliminating grants for students that really
need them, it’s not like you actually give a
shit about students.

Happy Year of the Rooster, Gordon.
I’'d wish you good fortune and prosperity,
but according to your recent budget,
you’ve already got it. Now, if you could
only explain where mine went....

 

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_ for a new photographer.
Got a keen eye?
Good at shooting from the hip?
Give us a try regardless!
Contact the editor at:
othereditor@yahoo.ca

 

 

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