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Proclamations not necessary

What you do for one, you’ve got to do for all and it’s actually rather meaningless
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Councillor Christopher Justice wonders whether the municipality should make proclamations and alter its long-standing policy. (File photo)

The question of whether North Cowichan should begin to make proclamations again has a simple answer.

No.

New councillor Christopher Justice brought up the matter recently and urged the policy against having them that’s been in existence since 1998 be looked at again.

There is really no purpose in the municipality making them. In almost all cases, it’s just a matter of the self-serving interests of various groups trying to gain promotion.

If it’s attention that’s required, those groups can purchase an ad in the newspaper or put posts on Facebook like everyone else about whatever it is people think a municipal proclamation will magically create.

It’s only some verbal mumbo jumbo that says North Cowichan declares it This and That Week or Who Cares Month. The provincial and federal governments are actually at fault for the acceleration of proclamations by agreeing to just about anything.

As a result, we now have B.C. Beef Day and B.C. Wild Salmon Day and every food item honoured in some way, although we’ve yet to see Cauliflower Appreciation Week.

There are literally dozens of proclamations made every month by the province and the feds that are truly a waste of time to even announce. Every disease has a week or a month when, in all honesty, the awareness of those issues should be in effect year-round and not during a particular time period.

Same for things like National Safe Boating Awareness Week and Invasive Species Action Month.

Here are some others that have come across our email recently: Local Government Awareness Month; National Be Tire Smart Week; Police Appreciation Week; National Mental Health Week; World Ovarian Cancer Day; Mining Month; Privacy Awareness Week; Child and Youth Mental Health Day; Creative Industries Week; B.C. Book Day; International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia; and Day of The Honey Bee, to name but a few. There’s no end to it.

When you start making proclamations, you have to do the same for everybody. It’s not necessary.



Don Bodger

About the Author: Don Bodger

I've been a part of the newspaper industry since 1980 when I began on a part-time basis covering sports for the Ladysmith-Chemainus Chronicle.
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