Full disclosure; I can’t stand Elon Musk, and even more so, I would rather push my Dodge Ram than drive a Tesla.

He is tearing apart the American government after having been one of its largest beneficiaries for decades after all of the government contracts and subsidies he’s enjoyed.

Further, I don’t like his vehicles. There are not attractive and in my view, poorly designed, and if left long enough, they’ll likely set fire to themselves.

The Cybertruck is an abomination that resembles an old-fashioned dumpster on wheels. Tesla has had to issue hundreds of thousands of recalls for design and manufacturing flaws.

With all of that said, stop vandalizing them. I doubt that even one person purchased a Tesla product because of some love of Musk.

It’s my guess that for the most part, the vast majority of Tesla owners bought their vehicle because they thought they were doing their part for the environment, or they liked the technology of the vehicle and they could afford the novelty of it. Sure, there are those few misguided individuals who actually “like” Elon Musk, but I doubt anyone bought a car out of the admiration of him.

Vandalizing the car will only net the owner of that car an ICBC claim, reimbursing them for that car at our collective expense, driving up our insurance rates.

In the case of dealership vandalism, it will drive up insurance costs for the property holders who lease to Tesla dealerships.

If you dislike Musk and or Tesla even a fraction as much as I do, then don’t buy one. Get off “X,” write letters to editors and so on.

But vandalizing Tesla automobiles is the dumbest and least effective from of protest. It seems to me that the plunging Tesla stock and the rocketing number of used Teslas for sale says it all.

Enough already.

Stu Shields

Saanich

Last year, Saanich purchased three properties from Don Mann Excavating on Lochside Drive, close to the Saanich Operations Centre. The purchase price was $25 million.

A B.C. Assessment search told me the combined assessed property values at the time was $11.1 million. Saanich’s land agent told me the land was appraised at $17 million. The purchase price was $25 million.

The purchase price was $8 million (nearly 50% more) than the appraisal! Alarm bells began ringing.

Initially, the purchase prices could be seen alongside the assessed values, but a current search showed they had been deleted. I spoke with an assessment agent who informed me that they review sale prices to ensure they only display fair market values and that this sale wasn’t representative so it was removed from the property information.

This indicated the purchase price was much higher than the norm.

A commercial/industrial realtor in town felt the price paid for these properties was on the high side compared with other sales.

I submitted a Freedom of Information request to Saanich for all information leading to the determination of the purchase price.

After eight weeks, I was provided with 267 pages, all completely redacted except for a site map! Even the appraisal was excluded due to privacy.

Not a drop of information provided. What are they hiding? Where’s the transparency?

I had set out to determine value for taxpayer dollars. I have been shut down. Saanich........

© Times Colonist