Editor:
I wish to compliment Coast Reporter for the extra layer of depth it offered in its reporting of campaign financing in Gibsons (Coast Reporter, March 30).
While CKAY and Coast Reporter both noted that businessman Klaus Fuerniss was a major contributor to the five candidates who ran as a team, each medium gave the story a different focus.
For CKAY, the donations were significant in that Fuerniss is "heading up a group that wants to build a hotel on the waterfront." For Coast Reporter, the essential point was that Fuerniss is local and not offshore. This ability to look past the obvious shows the newspaper to be attuned to community sensibilities.
Do we not expect, as a matter of course, that someone pitching a major project will spread money among political candidates in the hope of securing the necessary approvals?
What must be avoided above all is that the proponent of a real estate development named Tugboat Landing should show up for meetings wearing a sea captain's hat.
David Stow
Elphinstone
