To the Editor,
Noted singer, songwriter and musician Shari Ulrich wrote a letter to The Undercurrent last week in praise of mayoral candidate Tim Rhodes. She wrote that Mr. Rhodes was the best candidate because he’s the only one of the mayoral contenders who has held municipal office.
Shari Ulrich is a very nice person, but it seems that even very nice people can be infected with the urge to say unpleasant things during a municipal elections - because she also wrote that candidate Murray Skeels deliberately twists the facts, has an abrasive personality, has a lust for power, and has been plotting for years to get the mayoral job.
I have never witnessed Mr. Skeels’ abrasive personality and have never been personally abraded by it, so I can’t speak to that, other than to say I’d be surprised if it was true. A lust for power? Plotting for years to get the mayor’s job? Why did he then suggest earlier this month, when he saw that Mr. Rhodes was at that time running unopposed, that I, or others, should run for the job? Mr. Skeels has just retired after years of running two successful Bowen businesses with his wife Janice. The last thing he wanted was another dose of stress. Fortunately for Bowen, he was persuaded to change his mind. He’s been on the island for a long time and cares deeply about it.
Twists the facts? His essays on local politics in the flyer put out by his old business, the Office at Artisan Square, were constantly criticised as mere opinion during the three years of the last council. Only one side of the political spectrum was doing the criticising, and that was because he was saying what they didn’t want others to hear. The last council had almost complete political unity, with few or no internal opposition voices. Mr. Skeels’ writings provided the closest thing we had to an Official Opposition. If they were opinions, they were opinions based on fact. Mr. Skeels is very well connected, an excellent listener, and very well informed.
Graham Ritchie
