Heroes and zeroes

Did you see the news clip of the guy jumping the violent goon at the G-20?

Amazing…as fellow masked cowards stood there cheering for their thuggish comrade smashing up private property, here comes Joe Citizen to the rescue. Setting aside his own safety he put himself in harm's way, tackled the creep and stopped the criminal behaviour.

In the process he did far more than that. In stopping one idiot he also stopped the senseless destruction from being picked up by others and spreading.

He also sent a powerful message across the country and around the world. That is...we Canadians are not docile. We tend to be polite and respectful but we don't care much for bullies and thugs and we'll step up and pay the price if we have to.

I'm going to recommend this dude for a medal.

As I attended Canada Day events in Penticton, Summerland, Okanagan Falls, Peachland and the Westside, I was frankly surprised by the number of people who were quick to share with me their utter disdain for the violence and goonery which we all witnessed during the G-20.

The theme was consistent. Canadians are proud supporters of diversity of opinion and freedom of speech. But most of us have zero tolerance towards those who use or support lawbreaking with their protesting.

I heard all day long the need for tough and significant jail time for abusers and many of those telling me that were veterans.

Think about that.

The soldiers who have put their lives on the line to protect such freedoms as speech and expression had no sympathy at all for the abusers of those rights. They joined the overall chorus of concerned constituents who are in dismay if those acts of destruction and terror seem to go unpunished.

The fabric of domestic peace which we all cherish must be protected from the worms of destruction or it will indeed become permanently torn.

We have our heads in the proverbial sand if we think we are immune to the results of not deterring the agents of anarchy. Look at the terrorist explosion this weekend on one of our army bases.

Whoa...hold the phone. On one of our army bases!

To all those constituents who spoke to me this past weekend, you have my commitment. In my meetings in Ottawa through the summer with my colleagues I will make sure your feelings (and mine) on this issue are brought forward with conviction and clarity.

Talking about local heroes, did you ever think about how many volunteers it takes to organize a community Canada Day event or parade?

Consider Peter Klein's famous Canada Cake on the Westside or Laurel Burnham and her tireless annual organizing of Penticton's Gyro events, or the orange-vested people who protect bystanders from traffic along the parade routes or all those businesses and organizations who prepare the floats which delight the children (Ben Stewart and his wife Ruth were a hit in their Mad Hatter routine), and on it goes.

Let me just say a giant 'thank you' to each and every one of you who do that extra work to make somebody's day just a little bit more special than it would have been without you.

Along with all of that this week was a remarkable tour we took of the Okanagan College new building which is getting attention as one of a few in the world for its energy and environmental breakthrough technology.

Then we did the official opening of the new bike and walking trails at Gellatly Bay, part of a bigger community vision of a trail that will someday go from the Westside Bridge all the way to Peachland...someday.

Then there was the federal/provincial announcement of $5 Million to our BC Tree Fruit Industry, underlining the ‘state of the art’, high tech things going on in environmentally sensitive fruit production, packaging and storage.

All in all it was quite a week. This week I'll be doing a series of meetings in the Lower Mainland and Northern BC.

I'm available again next week here in the constituency for meetings in my office or at your place.

See you then.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.