Dear Editor,
May I commend you on your editorial where “vote” is your favourite four letter word (New Westminster Record, Aug. 5).
I recently had the opportunity to perform in Europe with a local community band.
After playing Arnhem and Huizen (two concerts in one day) on Holland’s Liberation Day, a few days later we played the Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, Belgium.
A few hundred yards from where we played is a memorial to the fallen. There are so many names that, if one soldier were honoured and remembered every day, it would take over one hundred years to complete the list.
While we were not invited to perform in France, we visited Vimy Ridge and Juno Beach, where again the list of the names of the fallen was too long to count.
The reason I bring these issues to the attention of your readers is to remind them the sacrifice many made so that we can vote.
You also reminded us that many would be voters use the excuse that their vote won’t matter. A little closer to home on this issue – wasn’t it only two school board elections ago that an incumbent candidate won by one vote, which increased to two votes on recount? So, yes, every vote does matter.
And I hope you will assist the voters by asking the questions that the powers that be may ignore when asked by a simple person like me.
Chris Dumfries, New Westminster
