The Editor, Re: "Mounties' Musical Ride gallops into town," News, Aug. 30.
I'm sure some folk find it entertaining and deeply patriotic watching horses prancing around doing Cavalry drills at the RCMP musical ride, but one really has to question the incredible amount of money wasted on this.
As a hard working, tax paying Canadian, I would rather see the money spent on practical things like crime prevention, policing, victim services or much needed police training. Many people may not know it, but the outrageous sum of $11 million every year is frittered away on all the pomp and ceremony at these events with no tangible return for our investment. All this while budgets are cut for essential services.
The public is also spending hundreds of thousands of dollars defending lawsuits by riders claiming unsafe practices and there has been a lot of recent criticism about horses being ridden despite being injured, at the PNE in particular.
If the taxpayer has to continue to fund this, perhaps we could use a couple of those horses and police at the corner of No. 3 Road to catch dangerous drivers on cell phones? At least that would be useful.
Alan Bennett
Richmond
