BIRD TALK

Dear Bird Talk,

I read with interest two letters in Bird Talk Fall 2008 Edition.

The first by Stanley Knight. My comments on his story are as follows.

I retired from the Air Force after 22 years. By chance, not design, I wound up in B.C., as I had one job to go to when I retired.

At the time, I held (and still do) an Alberta inter-provincial ticket as a heavy-duty mechanic. Now at that time, it was not compulsory to have a ticket to be a mechanic in B.C. However, when they started truck safety inspections in this province, I wasn’t allowed to do them, unless I procured a B.C. ticket.

Also back when Dave Barrett was the premier of B.C., he decided to “help” the people of B.C. and to do that, he raised the price of gas & diesel fuel so that everyone who came to the province paid extra. To help the residents, he lowered the cost of car insurance a little bit. By doing this, he ripped off tourists but made the residents feel good.

They claim (the government, that is) that B.C. is the best place in the world.

The second letter by James Wells made me chuckle.

When I was in the Air Force, some of my best buddies were Newfs. These guys were crazier than a bag of wet snakes.

You couldn’t ask for a better bunch of guys to work and live with. These guys were absolutely hilarious. Didn’t matter if you were working or partying, they were always the same, laughing and telling jokes, and the best jokes were about Newfs and told by Newfs.

Yours truly,
J.G. Van Alstyne

Response:
Ed: Our family certainly loved B.C. on the three or four occasions we visited.

As to the Newfies (that’s what Bluenosers from Nova Scotia and Herring Chokers from New Brunswick call them), they are universally loved for their kindness, humour and love of life. Perhaps an Alberta government spokesman put it best in September 2006. For more than two decades, the slang term for Newfoundlander had been on the list of words restricted from personal licence plates in Alberta, but it is now allowed after being challenged.

Government spokesman Eoin Kenny said the director of motor vehicles recently decided that the perception of the term Newfie has changed over the years. The word is now considered a term of endearment. “We based our decision on input from folks,” Kenny said. “People spoke and we listened and we decided to act.” Thanks to CBC News for this tidbit.