Editorials

A developer hoped to generate public feedback and discussion when it hosted an open meeting on a proposed development on a prime piece of beachfront real estate in Parksville last week.

Well, the mid-Island’s summer festival season is in full swing, drawing anywhere from dozens to thousands of residents and visitors.

While highlighting the start of Parksville’s annual Beach Festival and last weekend’s Quality Foods Canadian Open Sand Sculpting Competition and Exhibition, Coun. Teresa Patterson also noted the volume of traffic and people in Community Park had “doubled overnight.”

In the 1989 film Field of Dreams , the character played by Kevin Costner is told by a mysterious, disembodied voice, “If you build it, he will come.” The line has become a catch phrase, most often altered to “they” will come.

Whatever else can be said about major disasters, they do have a way of focusing one’s priorities.

Well, the sky hasn’t fallen yet.

The iconic and picturesque beaches of Parksville and Qualicum Beach draw visitors from across Canada — and beyond. But until now a stroll along the shoreline has been off-limits to local residents limited by mobility challenges.

Jonathan McCully was a lukewarm supporter of a Colonial Union. As a contributor to the Halifax Morning Chronicle , the major Liberal newspaper in Nova Scotia at the time, he expressed his views strongly and frequently.

As Canada gets ready for one of the biggest parties in its history, it’s nice to see Parksville Qualicum Beach celebrating those who occupied this vast land long before the British North America Act was ever conceived.

Last week in this space, we used the occasion of a collision in a school zone to caution motorists to obey posted speed limits and put down distracting devices.