LETTER: PoMo ‘stunt’ worked: mayor

The Editor,

Re. “PoMo protest” (Opinion, The Tri-City News, Dec. 12).

The Tri-City News’ editorial regarding the Murray-Clarke Connector said Port Moody council’s demonstration Monday probably would not have the desired effect. Well it did have the desired effect. Port Moody and TransLink are now proceeding with detailed engineering of the Murray-Clarke Connector.

The Tri-City News sat down to write a defeatist piece calling TransLink board directors lame ducks. I guess Port Moody council could have sat down to write an apology to our electors for not doing everything possible to represent their needs.

We didn’t sit down. We got up at 5 am. If your editor had been on the road with us, he would have heard commuters from Port Coquitlam and Coquitlam applaud our protest as they drove past the traffic jam.

While The Tri-City News may think we were doing this “stunt” for our benefit, commuters from Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam understood that we were doing this for them. Only one third of the traffic in the Murray-Clarke corridor is Port Moody residents. Two thirds of the traffic is driving through from points east and west of us, and they need the Murray-Clarke Connector as badly as we do.

While commuters may have been inconvenienced for a few minutes Monday morning, inaction has been inconveniencing them for decades.

Your editorial says: “There is no question the Murray Clarke Connector is necessary.” We agree, there is no question. But if you just sit in defeat, there is no answer, either.

We acted and got an answer. That answer was worth an extra $25 million for the Tri-Cities.

Joe Trasolini, Mayor, Port Moody