Re: Cows home to roost in Gordon Head, (News, March 1)
Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard has expressed his concerns that the Alberg family are being irrational in wanting to raise cattle on their property in northeast Saanich, and that neighbours will react irrationally to the presence of cattle.
But government began the irrationality long ago by placing that property in the Agricultural Land Reserve.
How did that small piece of land come to be in the ALR while the similar adjacent land that NIMBYs live on be developed?
The irrationality has continued with NIMBYs who want to control others property at no cost to themselves.
Objections I’ve read effectively want the land to be a park for the benefit of the objectors – why don’t they purchase the land themselves?
Now Frank Leonard is playing a kettle calling a pot black in claiming the Albergs are trying to bully Saanich government – he who was very pushy with people trying to grow food on land historically used for that purpose.
Given that the Alberg property had cattle on it until nine years ago, isn’t its situation similar to Panama Flats?
While I think the Albergs are being unwise in trying to raise cattle in a small space without an adjacent food source, especially with risk of attacks on their animals, I do sympathize with them.
The collective is treating them unjustly – that’s called “tyranny of the majority”, which history shows does not feed humans. There should be no compromise of property rights with the irrationality of the collective and of politicians using the power of their office to bully landowners.
Keith Sketchley
Saanich