Letters to the Editor

It seems that “the lady doth protest too much.”Gloria McCluskey (“Out of bounds” letter, Aug. 31) was not the subject of my Aug. 19 letter, but by assuming things about me, she has made herself the subject of this one.

My factual letter about the proposed golf course, to be built on a 10,000-year old ecosystem, was met with a personal attack on my lack of knowledge about golf, my inability to see the benefit of golf and a delirious claim that I cast aspersions on her beloved home course. She assumed things about me without knowing anything about my background. But why let facts get in the way of a good story?

It’s a steal! And no, I am not talking about the secret backroom deal to sell Owls Head Provincial Park, all 750 acres and five miles of coastline for less than the cost of an average Nova Scotia home. 

I mean the robbing of that most precious finite resource: our time! How many volunteer hours have been spent trying to save something that we thought was already saved? Owls Head Provincial Park was slated to be protected as site No. 694 of the Parks and Protected Areas Plan because of the well-documented scientific evidence of its high ecological and conservation value. 

From my perspective, the handling of the proposed sale of the Owls Head Provincial Park shows a serious lapse in ethical standards and accountability and raises serious questions for the Nova Scotian public. I hope voters will give all of our candidates the opportunity to address this issue, and will consider their response before voting.

The recent ruling by Justice Christa M. Brothers of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court on the proposed Owls Head golf course sweet deal exposes more smoke and mirrors than any logical voter would imagine.  

Under the legislative fine print, The Tartan Sultan and The Pretender did nothing wrong! Wow! Why, there was no real legal protection at all!

Silly voters! Didn’t they remember Nova Scotia’s motto: NOIRANOIA — No One Is Responsible And No One Is Accountable?

The under-the-table aspect of this bothers me. The lack of respect for the voters of Nova Scotia — well, that’s no surprise to me at all.

In a province now dotted with yard signs, there’s one in particular that the Liberal party should take heed of: “Stop the Gov’t Sale, Save Owls Head Provincial Park.”

Premier Iain Rankin is portraying himself as the candidate who will tackle climate change and biodiversity loss. But during his tenure as minister of Lands and Forestry, he endorsed a clandestine deal: offering to sell a biodiverse park to an American developer, who plans to grind it into sand (seriously).