Sound Off — July 2, 2012

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/07/2012 (5108 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Blue-collar life isn’t easy

I would like to give a huge shout out to all of the blue-collar workers within Westman and across our province. You are the lifeblood of our city, region and province. I had absolutely no idea how hard you worked and/or what your workday really entailed. I have never worked so physically hard and/or for so long in my entire life! Sometimes I am working 15 1/2-hour days. I think that it should be mandatory that everyone across our province and nation should work for a week in a blue-collar worker’s steel-toed boots before you ever look down on them and/or criticize them ever again. If you want a cure for all that ails you, get a blue-collar job and let your blood, sweat and tears work that thing out and off of you.

Habitat should go it alone

Kudos to Brandon’s Habitat for Humanity organization and their many talented and dedicated volunteers for all that they have done for the needy people of Brandon over the years. As they are apparently unable to “cow tow” to the Winnipeg office standards, they should perhaps just set up their own organization and continue to operate under a new name such as Brandon For Humanity!

Spay or neuter you pet!

To the incompetent pet owner who’s dog has had two unwanted pregnancies, I have three solutions to your problem: 1) Get over yourself and have your pet spayed. The reason people do this is so their pet won’t have unwanted pregnancies; 2) If you still choose not to do this how about supervising your dog when it is outside? and 3) Fence in your yard. I’m guessing you are not aware that a dog in heat will attract male dogs in the area. You are the one being an irresponsible pet owner!

The mayor’s on the move

I can’t recall seeing such a hard-working mayor in my lifetime. She’s leading delegations across the province and even to Alberta to try and make the city bigger and better. Kudos to Mayor Shari and here’s hoping some of your dreams become the city’s reality.

Thank you, Mr. Hamilton

Not only was the five-week series on the Prince Edward Hotel a fantastic piece of journalism for the Brandon Sun, but it should also be a wake-up call for the city’s leaders to stop allowing our heritage and history to be bulldozed for the greedy whims of developers of misguided sense of “moving foward” from our elected politicians. We have lost the Prince Eddy — let’s not lose any more.

Lots of traffic in the city

I would like to challenge the City of Brandon to hire monitors to document the number and type of vehicles entering our city during a day. Have them sit at each entrance to our city and document the types of vehicles and their numbers for a 15-hour day, starting at 6 or 7 a.m. to 9 or 10 p.m. on a Monday, perhaps. I am currently working with a road construction crew on Highway 10 and I had no idea regarding the amount of traffic travelling to Brandon to do business each day. Brandon is no longer the sleepy hollow that some of us may have perceived it to be within our historical past.

End of line should use flashers

Regarding the accident on Highway 10 north last Friday, an idea from a long-haul, heavy truck driver was for the last person in the line to put their flashers on so other cars could see they were stopped. I thought that was a good idea too.