Home »
Pedestrian crossing to election views
By Peter Christensen
Op-Ed Commentary
There are few crosswalks outside of downtown Invermere; no one walks anywhere, they drive. I am much more aware of this now. One afternoon last week I was standing by the bus stop outside of Sobeys waiting to cross the street to the ally below 10th Avenue where a few businesses are accessed.
The traffic was backed up for the red light on 7th so I looked around and started across. I tried to catch the eye of the driver of the stopped car I was going to cross in front of. She seemed to ignore me, so I waved my hand a bit. She looked my way, a nice-looking professional woman in her thirties in a cut jacket driving a sporty grey SUV; she waved back.
I thought she was acknowledging my quest for access but actually, as I realized, she was wagging her finger at me. When I was about midpoint in front of her car she let off the brake and tried to bump me. She waved her finger at me as if I was a naughty boy and gave me a nasty impatient look. I jumped ahead off the road so as not to be hit. The light changed and she raced off. She had a B.C. license plate but I did not get the number.
Well, that was a surprise! What the heck was going through her head? Does she hate pedestrians? Maybe too much coffee? Did she figure she’d give the old man a little scare, put him in his place? Afterall who the heck does he think he is trying to cross the street? The light might change and she would lose a few seconds? Teach him a lesson, to stay off the street? Is the business of the valley so important that pedestrians need to stay off the street?
I suppose I should have walked the long way around, down to the light and back up. My mistake to assume that because the traffic was stopped a driver would be courteous and let a person cross!
As I watched her car race off and was safe I felt inexplicably angry, very angry. Adrenaline was pounding through my body. I felt very vulnerable. One should be able to cross the street in Invermere without fear of being run down by mid-career professionals. But hey, let bygones be bygones! Cheers to the women who tried to run me down, she did not break my legs!
What an interesting election turn around!
While deciding which candidate to vote for I came across an hour-long interview with John Rustad. I did not know much about him so thought I would tune in. During the hour and 15-minute interview with Aaron Pete he answered a province wide range of difficult questions. He did not dodge questions. Rustad was a critical thinker, a capable and informed person. I admit I voted as much for his leadership as for the individual candidates. The unelected Eby ran a self-satisfied slander campaign that lacked momentum and vision, something I have had my fill of.
All governments know how to spend money, that is the biggest part of the job. However, the Conservative Leader John Rustad was the only party leader who had ideas on how to enable prosperity. In my little world acknowledging that distinction has been important and useful.
Eby and his dyed-in-the-wool ideologues, so far, hold one more seat than the Conservatives, all in the communist fleshpots of the lower south-west part of the province. Though one seat ahead they have lost the confidence of most of British Columbia. As expected, the old urban NDP ridings on the Coast continued their self-centred support for a party that sees its role as one of taking from the rest of the province and buying their support. Thank goodness we are seeing the end of this.
Hearty congratulations to Scott McInnis (Columbia River-Revelstoke) and Pete Davis (Kootenay Rockies) for their respective wins! Good for you and for the Province of British Columbia.
– Peter Christensen is a Columbia Valley based writer and poet
