Dear Editor:
"Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won."
- Louisa May Alcott
Wow, Councillor Harper, you have more nerve than an electric eel to accuse (in your Oct. 8 letter to the editor) a citizen (Mr. Dave Lundy) of "misinforming" the electorate about Anvil Centre and office tower financing when you and your New Westminster and District Labour Council-endorsed council crew have been masters at folding, spindling, mutilating and hiding the facts about the office tower financing scheme.
You accuse Mr. Lundy of "misleading" the electorate? Talk about a man in a glass house throwing stones. Your declaration that the sale of the office tower resulted in $5-million profit to the city was a nose-stretcher of gargantuan proportions, and you need to set The Record straight.
Councillor Harper, what a bunch of verbal bullies you and your Labour-endorsed councillors are as you choose to attack the character of those who criticize (with sound, rational thoughts and facts) your council's actions pertaining to the Anvil Centre and office tower's financing.
You attack Mr. Lundy with your sly and insidious tangled web of allegations of him "misinforming" the electorate when his information is valid, sound and supportable.
I have respect and admiration for Mr. Lundy, a fellow New Westminster council watcher, who dares to put his head above the trenches to criticize your city council's actions and gets mocked and ridiculed for his efforts.
Councillor Harper, you and fellow Labour-endorsed councillors Chuck Puchmayr and Jaimie McEvoy have shoveled verbal waste on me (and others) for years while fellow Labour-endorsed colleagues councillors Lorrie Williams and Jonathan Cote sat silently watching your abuses. Silence is consent here. Your colleagues chose to not intervene to stop fellow councillors from verbally bullying delegations and using character assassination to discredit valid critiques. You and your colleagues use scorn and ridicule to rebut fair and reasonable questions from delegations to council.
I do worry what the prospective Labour slate of endorsed candidates will do if elected. Will the rookie Labour-endorsed councillors sit silently and watch as you and the other old pros practice your Whack-A-Mole routine on the character of those at the delegation microphone?
You extol the leadership virtues of Coun. Cote, yet he did not respond to Mr. Lundy's cogent concerns but left it to you, the old pro at the "black arts" of hardball Real Politik, to respond.
I wonder if Labour-endorsed councillor Cote will be a man or a marionette if he is elected mayor. Will he be strong enough to call you or your colleagues out of order for your scornful and ridiculing ways towards public delegations?
Councillor Harper, it is a shame that you and your NWDLC-endorsed colleagues have such rich financial resources at your beck and call for the upcoming election. The smoke and mirrors effect of the blizzard of newspaper ads, robocalls, bus shelter posters, flyers and postcards unfortunately distracts many voters from looking behind the public façade. People of integrity who are running independently for office in this fair city may not have the kind of money backing them that you and your Labor-endorsed colleagues have, but they have my vote.
Councillor Harper, you and your fellow Labour-endorsed council and mayoral candidates will not have my vote on Nov. 15, as I do not think bullies should be rewarded for their efforts.
Christopher Bell, New Westminster
