Letters To The Editor

Sometimes you just feel like you have to write one. Here's mine:

Exercise Western Spirit is a misnomer. It should have been called Western Fiasco or at least that is how some Hudson’s Hope people have come to view it. Hudson’s Hope, a scheduled stop on this trip, and home to a Ranger patrol, got sold out for a few beers and good steak. When snow became scarce along the trail of 4CRPG’s ill fated Exercise Western Spirit instead of the "tough getting going" the "tough flew the coop". The portion of the trip between Powder King and Hudson’s Hope should have been an opportunity to experience the Canadian Rangers at their best but instead the officers in charge of Exercise Western Spirit tucked their tails in and used it as an excuse to speed their way to softer comforts. What their reasoning was we can only surmise. The people of Hudson’s Hope who had planned and prepared for months an occasion of community pride, became an occasion of community confusion.

4CRPG has been planning an exercise called Exercise Western Spirit for over a year. The trip was to take 30 members on Light Over Snow Vehicles commonly called snowmobiles across northern British Columbia, northern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan, and northern Manitoba to the coast of Hudson Bay where they would end their journey at Churchill, an ambitious trip of over 3400 km. The basis for this trip as they succinctly put it on their web site was to “showcase the unit capabilities and put to the test the skills and abilities of the Canadian Rangers of 4CRPG. This exercise is also an amazing opportunity for us to meet Canadians and talk about the Canadian Rangers.”

The sad thing is that Exercise Western Spirit and all the Rangers and VIPs traveling on this ambitious trip showcased nothing and had no amazing opportunities with the people of Hudson’s Hope because, in all their wisdom, the officers involved in making the decisions, decided that the steak and beer that the Legion in Fort St. John offered was better than the efforts of the community of Hudson’s Hope.

On February 7th, 2009 the trucks and buses that carried the supplies and people of Exercise Western Spirit rumbled through the town of Chetwynd and on toward Dawson Creek and Fort St. John in an effort to get to their comforts without so much as a sideways glance toward the road leading to Hudson’s Hope.

The Rangers of Hudson’s Hope were left to explain why suddenly Hudson’s Hope wasn’t worth stopping in. The Mayor and the RCMP who had been notified of the event were ready to welcome Western Spirit into the community, the spouses of Rangers and the parents of Junior Rangers who had bought and cooked and prepared food for the 40 people of Western Spirit, were all left high and dry.