I was both amazed and amused by the bold headline above your July 15 Feature Letter Campbell Is A Good Choice, and immediately thought of the saying : “Don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper.”
That adage was proven throughout the letter, signed by one Michael Berry (former High Commissioner to Australia and to Singapore) of Qualicum Beach.
He started off by accusing me of being an agent for the NDP, apparently for having an opinion contrary to his; continued with glowing praise for ex-Premier Campbell and PM Harper; and ended by suggesting that writers of “such politically driven letters (a la Mr. Smith) should be asked to declare their political allegiance.”
I have never met my accuser, nor held a party card of any colour.
A quick Google search confirmed that someone named Leonard Michael Berry was once a High Commissioner for Canada.
I wonder if the suggestion of letter-writers declaring political allegiance could possibly have been garnered from a handbook of ambassadorial notes from Berlin in the 1930s?
Or could it stem from that feeling of entitlement commonly held by so many in government service, both elected and appointed?
Maybe the kind of entitlement that gives the hoity-toity a right to their opinion, while the great unwashed hoi polloi should simply shut up and pay their bills?
Going back to “Don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper,” I may as well believe Shirley MacLaine, and declare myself to be the former King of Siam.
Bernie Smith
Parksville