As I admired my newly built driveway I heard the sound of cloven hooves trotting down the street towards me. I raised my head to be welcomed by the liquid eyes of four bright and bushy-tailed deer. The three-legged mamma and her three fawns were returning to my garden where they were born last year. They winked and whisked their tails at me as they pranced to the bright lights and Swiss chard which was beginning to rise from its winter dormancy. They scoffed the chard within minutes.
My legs wobbled and I panicked. I wilted and I sat down in despair and sobbed. I was angry. One of the reasons I built the driveway was because of the devastation the deer had wreaked. They had destroyed the garden. It made sense to replace the garden with a driveway as the deer had turned what had been my pride and joy into heartache. They had trespassed beyond redemption.
For close to five years now the deer have ravaged people’s gardens in Penticton. What has the city mayor and council done to alleviate the situation? They have procrastinated and obfuscated with such deviousness that surely they could be charged with misrepresentation and mismanagement.
The local mayor has had the brass to enter his name as the Liberal candidate in the upcoming provincial election. What a joke. If he cannot get a handle on a few deer in his own backyard, how is he going to deal with the wolves and jackals and smart politicians which festoon the hallways of the legislature? He will be road kill. If he is elected, when confronted with a problem he will do what he does best in Penticton. He will look for an expensive lawyer or consultant or turn to his buddies to sit on a committee to deal with the issue. He will become a classic MLA.
The mayor has to decide that if he wishes to soar with the eagles in the legislature he cannot afford to graze with the deer in the gardens in Penticton. He needs to illustrate he can solve a problem. His handling of the deer situation is one measure of how comatose he deals with situations.
I am sick and tired of spending hundreds of dollars on my garden only to see it destroyed by the deer. If the mayor and council are going to do nothing about it, the only recourse I have is to send a bill to the city for compensation for the damage. I suggest other people do this also.
The deer problem will be an election issue for the mayor. Gardeners usually turn out to vote. The mayor’s intransigence to the deer problem highlights his ineffectiveness.
Jim Calvert
Penticton
