The letters to the editor on Nov. 15 and Nov. 21 from Vancouver and Victoria are very eloquent and respectful viewpoints of the Syrian refugee crisis.
As a northern resident, I respect their viewpoint 100 per cent.
It would be nice if someone from the Lower Mainland or Victoria would write an equally eloquent and respectful letter on the doctor shortage in northern B.C. On a humanitarian basis, the Syrian refugee crisis is extremely worse than a simple thing like an acute shortage of full-time doctors in many resource communities.
Premier Clark is asking resource communities to accept an undetermined but perhaps substantial number of Syrian refugees. It is well past the time for resource communities to ask Premier Clark to step up and address the doctor shortage in resource communities.
If Victoria paid more attention to the existing problems in many resource communities, the ill will directed at the possibility of housing, educating and accepting many refugees would decrease.
Sometimes it is necessary to look inwards at existing local problems before expanding outwards to huge and complicated worldwide problems.
Wayne Martineau
Fraser Lake
