I find it ironic that an organization that has loudly and vociferously complained about how undemocratic the alternative approval process (AAP) is has managed to use the same AAP to achieve its political goal of stalling the development of a much-needed Saanich operations centre.

If it really is as undemocratic as they say it is, then surely Save Our Saanich wouldn’t object to council rejecting the undemocratic results and moving ahead with building the project without the need for an expensive public referendum.

But then, this process has never really been about the operations centre, nor about the $150-million price tag. What this AAP is about is maintaining the status quo in Quadra-McKenzie for a group of homeowners who do not wish to see new homes built in their neighbourhood, and who continue to roadblock the home ownership dreams of a significant portion of regional residents.

They really should consider a name change from Save Our Saanich to Save Our Quadra McKenzie and drop the pretense that they are representing any Saanich residents outside their own small special interest group.

Clint Lalonde

Saanich

In a recent poll, 68% of Canadians want Prime Minister Mark Carney to take a tougher, elbows-up stance against U.S. President Donald Trump and fight back.

This sounds like tariff skiing on a slippery slope.

Let’s assume Carney did take a tougher stance and told Trump to go take a hike in his ever-changing tariff game.

Where would that leave Canadians and Canadian businesses that rely heavily on trade with the U.S.? Being tied at the hip with the United States takes time to break free. This is equivalent to turning around an ocean liner on a dime, which is impossible.

Trade deals with other dependable partners take time. Weaning ourselves from U.S. reliance needs to be done carefully while protecting businesses and livelihoods of Canadians (steel, aluminum, auto and........

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