Before moving to Victoria in 2012 my wife and I lived in Honolulu for 20 years. Aside from clogged freeways and potholed roads long overdue for repaving, driving there befit a paradise.

A mantra a malihini learns upon arrival is “two scoops rice, no talk stink, no honk horn”, emphasizing that it is deemed most uncool to blast your horn unless the situation is dire.

To do so otherwise is interpreted as an invitation to trade blows.

The silence is lovely. Folks routinely yield the right of way, pull over so the guy in a hurry can pass, allow one to merge on the freeway with a smile and a shaka. I was flipped the bird a grand total of four times in two decades; three of those were tourists and one was a case of road rage which happens because no place is perfect.

I have been flipped off in Victoria twice in a day.

Taxi drivers, old ladies, little kids on bicycles; everybody is in on the act. Canada is a tough town. Drivers here disappoint me.

They cut no slack, tailgate mercilessly, honk their horns and scowl.

As far as I’m concerned, anyone I encounter on the road is in hockey player mode and will smash me into the boards if I’m in the way.

All that being said, I read the California driver’s article and thought jeez, lady it ain’t that bad.

Were you driving a Tesla with a Trump bumper sticker? Were you sporting a MAGA hat? Otherwise those glares, honks and digital discourtesies … it’s just another day at the rink.

I don’t think a U.S. licence plate is that much of a trigger by itself. Might enrage the odd person but otherwise Victorians are generally hip to the fact that a majority of Americans are just as dismayed as we are by the political nightmare playing at Uncle Sam’s place.

You’d be doing the locals a disservice were you to continue to badmouth them. They’re decent folks, driving habits notwithstanding.

No talk stink.

David McDonald

Oak Bay

Re: “Clover Point picnics are certainly not monthly,” letter, May 7.

The Clover Point Picnic Club had a ­little chuckle together about the outraged claim that we can’t possibly meet there year-round. You got us: in the 33 months since we started meeting back in September 2022 we have, in fact, cancelled one monthly picnic due to wildfire........

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