This is a fascinating insight into Len Barrie, the lead man behind Bear Mountain.  I think the defining moment of the article was this part early on:

Since 2002, when Barrie started knocking down trees in the hills northwest of Victoria, he has enraged environmentalists, town councillors, local residents and aboriginal groups–and done it with a certain amount of glee. “What you see is what you get,” says Barrie. “I call a spade a spade, and if you don’t like it, who cares? I have lots of friends.”

   I’m not a big fan of someone showing casual disinterest to those that have concerns about their actions, especially when those actions affect the whole community, and saying that it doesn’t matter because they have lots of friends.  I’m not a big fan of “might means right”, personally.  I think the best development occurs when developers co-operate with local government, and when local government listens to the concerns of the community in shaping their approvals, or lack thereof, of development proposals. Rightly or wrongly, a lot of people in Langford don’t feel they really have a say, and in this article Len Barrie sounds like someone who doesn’t feel the concerns of the community should matter to him or, more shockingly, that the concerns of the community are an impediment to his plans. That says a lot about the political climate he’s operating within, in my opinion.

- Steven Hurdle -

A second editorial on this news story appears here.

A third article on this news story is available here.

A fourth note on this news story is posted here.

The fifthe comment on this news story appears here.

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THE BULL AND THE BEAR

In his quest to build the massive Bear Mountain resort–the largest planned development in Vancouver Island history–former NHLer Len Barrie has Read the rest of this entry »

The new Focus Magazine is on the news stands, and it has a number of articles and letters of interest to Langford. The letter reprinted below is from Colleen Milne, who has had terse words for people in Langford before in other letters to the editor.

It’s hard to be absolutely certain what she’s addressing, as she doesn’t reference what “article” she’s responding to and there have been a few on Langford in Focus magazine recently. An educated guess is that she’s referring to Sam Williams’ article entitled “Storm Clouds Over Langford” which addressed a broad range of issues of concern to many residents of our community.

I think the most striking thing for me is that so many comments from Langford Council and its supporters begin with a phrase like Read the rest of this entry »