Dear Editor,
Re: “Birth Bumping a 1% problem, at best,” Letters July 27.
Letter writer Mark Lee had my interest with the statistics that he provided about the number of non-resident births that are occurring in B.C.
But then he undermined any perceptions I might have first developed about his motivation in writing the letter and the validity of his data when he concluded with the phrases “project fear.”
I assume this refers to the fact that Canadians, like those in many other countries in the world, want to ensure that they are not being exploited in any way by non-citizens and “the Western world,” which one could be excused for thinking could be a sort of code phrase for something that begs more precise definition and clarification.
It is my understanding, for example, that countries such as Korea, Japan and Malaysia are also concerned about some of the same things we are in relation to foreign ownership of property and non-resident births. And the last I looked they are not part of “the Western world.”
And if they are participants in this “project fear” (project, by the way, is defined as a carefully planned collaborative enterprise) that Mr. Lee alludes to he might consider widening the scope of his perceptions and designations because this “project” whatever it is, doesn’t seem to be confined to only us “westerners.”
Objectivity begets validity, but it’s always counterproductive when questions about the former cast doubt on the latter.
Ray Arnold,
Richmond
