Dear Republic:

How does one master something he knows nothing about? That was the case with George W Bush when he became president. He knew nothing about foreign policy. He was elected by a bunch of cowboys who wanted to rule the world through a man who knew nothing about political competition in the world.

The latest American vote was a response to the universal conciousness. American voters have the responsibility to keep extremists away from the White House, so the world does not end up with a whole bunch of nuclear Irans trying to protect themselves from the big war-monger.

—Sam al-Jondi, Vancouver

Dear Republic:

Re: Grow yer own newspaper!, (issue 152)

The Premier's brother, a business professional, is often confused. A few years ago, he was very confused with the then-TransLink Board's decision to dump RAV. Using the pulpit from his radio show on CORUS, he railed against all those who opposed RAV. RAV was wonderful, RAV is great, and nowhere would he allow anyone with a contrary view to speak on his show. How “good ole boy” of him'!

Instead of supporting much cheaper, yet much more efficient LRT, even on the Arbutus Corridor ( which his brother, the Premier, only lives one block away from), he joined in with the metro crowd, bleating away the same old tired “snake oil” about how good a RAV subway will be. Certainly good for his friends, members on the Board of Trade, especially with over a billion more in taxpayer's money coming their way.

And I thought business types did due diligence before investing in major projects! If Campbell had done his homework, he would have found that no way could a subway could be built for under $2.5 billion; that at-grade systems are far superior in attracting new ridership than subways; that building LRT on the Arbutus corridor would be at least two thirds cheaper than a subway. In Orleans, France, LRT is being built for $11 million per km; RAV's cost is over $150 million per km!

In no way is RAV a true P-3 because the winning bidder (SNC/Lavalin - SERCo had little or no risk attached to the project. As always, the taxpayer is left holding the bag.

Ridership projections were wildly over stated. Currently, the Premier and the rest of the RAV lobby are claiming over 200,000 cars will be taken off the road, yet the most optimistic ridership projections are only 110,000 passengers a day, and out of that, 45,000 will be former bus users.

What is clearly evident is that Michael Campbell acts exactly as he characterizes people he constantly derides on a daily basis. He is just “the pot calling the kettle black.”

The selling of RAV has more akin to the selling of Bre-X shares than building a transportation system for the future. I would have thought better of him.

—Malcolm Johnston, Delta

Dear Republic:

I want to congratulate you for the wonderful newspaper that you have been making all this time. I like your “in-your-face” atitude, your power to say whats right, to tell the powerful that the people know what they are doing and that they have a voice. Yes, Vancouver needs more newspapers like yours, Vancouver needs more political power made by the people, and the world needs that.

The people are too quiet, they are all living lives that are not theirs because of the god damned "American way of life," by the "American dream" that is after all a big fat lie and illusion. You have my total support for your newspaper.

Keep on doing the wonderful job you do and never give yourself up to the enemies of the people, you know well who they are. You are our voice, you are our power. The rest will be done by the people themselves when they start seeing that all this is American tentacles reaching too far. That time will come.

"Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be."

—Daniel J. Boorstin

You decide how much it's worth to you: