Dear editor,

Before voting on May 9, I encourage everyone to read Darren DeLuca鈥檚 hunting guide website (http://www.vancouverislandguideoutfitters.com/). Mr. DeLuca actually engages in trophy hunting and his BC Liberals have granted him an extra-long season with a two-cat limit. Until I read his website, I was unaware hounds are used to tree cougars before the kill.

Also, there is a sanitized photo of a guy holding up the paw of a dead, black bear. It must have been a huge, magnificent bruin. My dad who was a hunter would have been disgusted by this picture because he considered it immoral to take the strongest and healthiest animals out of the gene pool.

All across our province, there are serious declines in wildlife populations. Hunting and conservation organizations alike are rightly taking the BC Liberals to task for their incompetent mismanagement of BC wildlife. In my opinion, anyone running a trophy hunting business must surely belong to the cult of materialism and I highly doubt that such an individual would care about the suffering of B.C. children living in poverty, or the sub-standard care seniors experience in residential facilities.

However, please do not consider this letter to be an endorsement of the NDP. Few people know it was a Canadian bomb that murdered an innocent Libyan family and how the supposedly 鈥渁nti-war鈥� NDP voted en masse two times to bomb Libya. Please note, the provincial NDP and the federal NDP are the same club. My heart goes out to the Libyan father who grieves every day for his massacred family.

One day, I pray those who govern and those who influence those who govern will develop a deep-abiding respect for ALL of God鈥檚 sentient beings.

Ellen Chambers

Port Alberni