Editor:
Re: Civic party plans 2014 comeback, June 19.
Your coverage of “Surrey council’s unelected opposition” described the party as “left-leaning.”
The Surrey Civic Coalition has never described itself as such, but the label keeps being applied year after year.
On the other hand, Mayor Dianne Watts’ governing party – which takes close to a million dollars from developers and the firefighters’ union at election time and rewards them all with sweet deals – is never described as “right-leaning.”
In the interests of journalistic fairness, toward which the Peace Arch News strives, it is best to label all parties or none at all.
The SCC certainly has left-leaning members, but it also has right-leaning members who question why mayor and council do not pay taxes on their full salary, why they are borrowing so much money to build a palatial city hall, why large utility fee increases go unreported and why they ignore their own bylaws, such as on secondary suites.
Jim McMurtry, Surrey
