Dear Editor,
Letter to MLA Lisa Beare.
I spoke to you on the phone last August just prior to the provincial election.
I had a great and informative conversation with you, which resulted in you getting my vote. I see you are now the education minister, which is great (my wife is a teacher in District 42), but as our MLA I have some feedback for you and Premier Eby.
Recently the on again/off again tariffs and the actions of Donald Trump are dominating the news and all that Canadian politicians are talking about.
It is excellent to see Premier Eby fired up about Trump’s incomprehensible comments about Canada and the rest of the world, and I applaud a firm response.
Sometimes we talk about this in our household where my 20- and 22-yearr-old sons live.
It was interesting to hear what my kids think of the situation.
They are pissed off that they still cannot afford to buy any kind of home in this province. They are both disillusioned with all the talk about Trump and a lack of talk about housing affordability. My son said "why don’t we buy our own wood and build some friggin' homes!"
This was an ‘ah ha’ moment for me.
I realize it isn’t simple.
However, I took his point. Imagine being a 22-year-old, finished at BCIT, and now in the aviation industry with a full-time job as an aircraft mechanic, but not being able to see the possibility to buy any kind of home in the foreseeable future. This is a problem.
All this ’Trump talk’ is exactly what Trump wants. He has no idea what he is going to do 10 minutes from now and he has displayed he’ll change his mind anyway – it’s infuriating.
We do need to have a game plan for his antics, but we should stop letting him dominate our lives.
Let’s stop talking about Trump and the tariffs and start focusing on what matters to British Columbians.
Let’s fix this housing crisis once and for all.
Look to Austin, Texas where rent and buying costs have dropped every year for the past 20 years because they fixed the housing crisis by building and building. We have the lumber and we have the human resources and skills to fix this housing crisis.
I have CC’d the premier (I hope he responds to me). But, I also request that (as our MLA in Pitt Meadows) you’ll raise this issue as often as possible – our kids deserve it.
Greg Smith, Pitt Meadows
