people's feelings about This Very Important Matter

 


To understand the background story to Save The Mile Houses!, please click here

"It should be very simple. Leave the names as they are, "100 Mile House" etc. On the signs put "km" after the metric distance numbers. Lets face it, all of Europe and most of the rest of the world has gone metric, with the great exception of the stuck-in-the-mud Americans."

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"Surely the Europeans are not that stupid.
canada is metric. So the distance is kilometeres
easy to figure out
keep the old mile names and leave things as they are "

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"If this happens, I will sell my house and move closer to 100 Mile - to 108 Kilometre House."

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" I do not agree that Canadians should live in the Queens' era.
I think it is about time they caught up with the twentyfirst century in measurements, too."

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"Doesn't the feds see the obvious.... 100 Mile House is a name not a distance so is exempt from metrification. Question...does the name of 100 Mile House change if a person is two miles or two hundred miles away?"

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"Yes, this is pure insanity. I voted to keep the names as they are.

All they have to do is put quotation marks around '100 Mile House' so it's clear it's a place name, not a distance measure. What a waste of time and money, not to mention our heritage."

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"Holy s**t! Unbelievable. I'd be first in line to chop down the new f*****g signs."

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By the way, just so you don't confuse anybody completely, I doubt the councellor would have called them "lumberjacks". There are no lumberjacks in BC but there are thousands of "Loggers". Lumberjacks live in the east where the whole thing started in the first place.

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"Absolutely not!

Nothing wrong with Imperial . . . evidenced by all our housing measurements still being in square feet!

I voted a big 'No'"

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"the whole province should be up in arms and screaming, "NO!" to VANOC and the the government.

Since when do foreign visitors here for a very short period of time, get to dictate this kind of idiocy to the people who settled this country, named their towns and put their blood and sweat into their communities???

Stand up! All of you! Yell out loud and clear that VANOC and Campbell and all the other idiots CANNOT do this to us!

DO IT NOW!"

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To understand the background story to Save The Mile Houses!, please click here

 

The reasoning behind the decision to rename the Mile Houses, according to VANOC, is that European participants and spectators for the 2010 Olympic Nordic events (being held at the 99 Mile Ski Trails) may be confused by the names and distances on Highway 97, the only direct route to the area from Vancouver. "We wouldn't want the Lapland Biathlon team missing their events because of the old Imperial system, would we?" an official was quoted as saying. "The first sign on Highway 97 states '100 Mile House 105'. Now this can be confusing. Is it 105 miles or is it 105 kilometres?"

There seems to have been very little local consultation in the Cariboo Country regarding the name changes and many residents of the Highway 97 corridor are less than happy. "We've always been proud to be 100 Mile House" said lifelong resident Knut Svenson "and now we're going to be '161 Kilometre House'. It's madness!"

When asked to comment, an unnamed VANOC official stated "They should be glad it only went this far. The Bloc Quebecois representatives wanted it changed to '161 Kilometre Maison'. We fought them tooth-and-nail on that one." He added. "Places like Axe Lake may have Frenchified their names to make themselves sound more cosmopolitan, but we're not going down that route any time soon. If it were up to me, we wouldn't use any French phrases in this Province, period."



The town of Axe Lake changed its name to 'Lac La Hache' in April 1984 on the advice of a Montreal-based PR firm. As of March 2009, the town was still paying the bill.


Ravi Purana of the Hare Krishna-affiliated 'Maha Mantra Retreat To Get Ahead' centre outside 100 Mile House has attempted to diffuse the situation by offering a viable alternative to the proposed name changes. "In situations like this it is important to think positively." He explained. "I understand the problems with the Imperial names, particularly coming from an ex-British Colony, so how about we change the name to '100 Smile House'. That would be pleasing to everybody!"

When a local council official was asked to comment, all he had to say was "100 Smile House? Well, that's just silly. This here is lumberjack country."



Many local businesses are going to be badly affected. The 83 Mile House Farm Museum is having to manufacture new signs and change all their printed literature and memorabilia. "If we don't do this right now" their marketing manager told us "no-one is going to able to find us. They've told us that on all the maps we are now going to be 134 Kilometre House. Loads of tourists are just going to overshoot when Spring comes in July."

Rancher Chuck Kastner is annoyed for a different reason. "I live on the 133 and 1/3rd Mile Ranch. I've always lived here, and it's easy to remember eh? When I heard about the name changes I looked it up on the Google [sic]. My address is now going to be '214.525 recurring Kilometre Ranch'. No one's going to remember that - I find it hard enough myself and I live here. And what's that 'recurring' thing anyway?"



The 59 Mile Roadhouse, which for 59 years has claimed 'We Haven't Closed in 59 Years!', has closed. Management, while not wishing to go on the record, have hinted that this is due to a combination of 'troublemakers' and 'Federal interference'.





Since the official announcement of the Highway 97 name 'upgrades', there have been a growing number of wildcat strikes and spontaneous acts of civil disobedience throughout the Cariboo Country. Several local attractions have had to close their doors temporarily due to 'staff unrest' and the RCMP have increased patrols (both mounted and unmounted) on the highway in an attempt to discourage troublemakers.

Some army specialists have also been called in to provide support and advice to the police. We managed to get an interview with Imię Nazwisko, an Army Ranger of Polish descent, who has recently returned from a tour of duty in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. When asked how things were going out there, he told us:

"It's tough. The terrain is tough, the people are tough, the job's tough. In summer it's baking hot for months on end. The winters' are bitterly cold, the snow is eight feet deep in the mountains and it seems to go on for ever. It is hard to get around any time of year. It can be difficult to get to know the people, but when you do they are really warm and hospitable. I think they understand what we are trying to do for them - it's all about 'Hearts and Minds', but these insurgents are a problem. They don't wear uniforms, and they just blend into the population, but then the Cariboo Country has always been like that. Oh sorry... so you were asking me about Afghanistan?"

         

The Cariboo Country has been hit by a growing number of wildcat strikes and spontaneous acts of civil disobedience


A glorious Spring day on Highway 97.

 


people's feelings about This Very Important Matter