The radio towers are proposed for Point Roberts, but make no mistake, this is very much a Tsawwassen issue.
While speaking a few weeks ago to a Point Roberts member of the crossborder coalition fighting the installation of these radio towers, she lamented how those in the tiny American peninsula were bucking up at a far greater rate than their Canadian counterparts. The letter last week from Steve Graham, a Tsawwassenite involved in the battle, shed further light on that situation with news that 51 per cent of the cash donations have come from south of the line, a startling figure given the massive discrepancy in size between the two communities.
The origin of the cash in the war chest suggests, to me at least, that people in Tsawwassen aren't convinced it's an issue that should concern them or perhaps it's one they simply think isn't such big a deal. If you're of that mind, you're wrong on both accounts.
Just listen to the good folks south of the border in Ferndale to find out what blanketing interference is all about and how it can wreak havoc with simple everyday tasks like logging on to the computer or even just watching TV. It's become so bothersome, and is such an irritant on a daily basis, they've been lobbying public officials for years to have the towers removed from their present location.
If that's not enough to scare a few bucks from your pocket, then look at the map that shows the direction of the radio waves that would emanate from the site of the proposed towers. Because the radio station is beaming the signal into Canada to reach an audience on this side of the border, the blanketing interference goes as far north as Highway 17, essentially encompassing all of Tsawwassen.
What's ironic is that about two-thirds of the tiny American peninsula would actually avoid the worst of the offending radio waves because of the direction of the signal.
Tsawwassenites have always been ready to fight anything believed to be a threat to their quality of life, yet in this instance the pushback hasn't been anywhere near the level seen in previous struggles. There are some members of the community on board, but for an issue that has the ability to impact pretty much everyone, and is just plain wrong on several levels, the tepid response is most un-Tsawwassen-like.
The time to fight is now, because once those towers are erected, getting rid of them and their annoying radio waves will be a heck of a lot more difficult.
