Welcome to Insp. Milo MacDonald, Williams Lake’s CAO. We wish him well in his new career. The city has been without a permanent senior administrator for — is it six months? I’m sure Walt Cobb, who was doing double duty as mayor and CAO, will be relieved to be relieved of the administrative duties.
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Clothing was an international topic last week. It left me wondering about our standards and values.
1. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was inadvertently caught in a wedding photo at a Tofino beach. The photo was widely distributed, and horror of horrors, he was bare chested. The Conservative party was so offended it used the photo (without the photographer’s permission) in an ad dissing the PM. There are plenty of reasons to criticize Mr. Trudeau, but his bare chest isn’t one of them.
I wonder what the bride and groom thought of it all.
2. Burkinis vs bikinis. The body-covering outfits worn by the Egyptian women’s Olympic Beach Volley Ball team were an issue.
Traditional women’s garb for this event is the itsy bitsy teensy weensy bikini. Didn’t hear any complaints about the men’s teams overdressing in T-shirts and long baggy shorts.
Why is it OK for women in skimpy bikinis to leap about in front of the world but it’s not OK to breast feed a baby in public?
3. French authorities have banned the burkini from Riviera beaches because, they say, the Muslim dress code makes an unacceptable religious statement. The city of Montreal also plans to ban the burkini.
Does it really matter what people wear? If you don’t like it, don’t look.
Mind you, there are exceptions. Life-sized statues of a naked Donald Trump are appearing in the U.S. and they really are offensive. But then, many people find the real Mr. Trump, fully clothed, offensive.
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Question for Premier Christy Clark. Why did you appoint a panel of experts to advise you on climate change policies when you apparently know better than they do?
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.
