Now that I’ve just past the ten-month point of relocating to Alberta, and despite the ups and downs and the ins and outs associated with the move, it is still a bit of a difficult adjustment in coming to grips with the fact that I am now living under the thumb of two Conservative governments.
In my defense though, I’m here from the Land of Common Sense where we ran the Conservatives out of the province many years ago, hopefully never to return.
Oh sure, there were a few more moderate-types that hooked up with some Liberals, some independents and even a few disgruntled NDP members who formed the Saskatchewan Party, and who now hold power over there.
Having said that, the jury is still out on whether or not the voters of that fine province made the right choice or not – but time will tell.
As for the situation on the federal level, we had a long-time Conservative MP but being in a very rural and isolated community, we only ever saw him every four years for about 15 minutes. Other than that, we never heard jack-squat out of the feds.
Unfortunately though, we’re clearly not in the Land of Common Sense.
Take that little postcard-sized invitation that we all got in our mailboxes a week or two ago.
Remember that one?
It was an invitation to join ATCO Electric and AltaLink for an informational session to discuss some proposed power lines coming through the area in short order.
Does this sound familiar to anyone?
I missed it the last time this Dog and Pony Show rolled through town, but is this the meeting where they invite everybody out, but then won’t let anyone in? Or is this the meeting where we all get a piece of duct tape to seal our mouths up? If I attend this meeting will I have spies following me around from now on?
It was almost humourous, in a sad and pathetic way, to read their catchy phrase on the top of the invitation that stated, “You’re Invited…We’re Listening”.
They’re listening?
To who?, because it certainly isn’t the public.
Maybe they’re expecting a red carpet and a full house cheering wildly in anticipation of the power lines coming through.
Maybe there’ll be hundreds of Lavesta Group members in attendance – the very people who fought tooth and nail against the lines about a year ago. Unfortunately, from the word out there, the majority of those folks ended up voting for the Conservatives in the last provincial election thereby sealing their own fates and leaving themselves wide open to get trampled on by the government and their buddies in the energy companies.
They had their chance to get themselves some real representation in the Legislature but apparently refused to give up the ridiculous notion of ‘generational voting’, (i.e.: “well great-grandpa voted for them, so did grandma and grandpa and mom and dad, so I better too), and where are they now?
At least they had a fighting chance last year, now they’ve got nothing and no one to blame except themselves.
Here’s hoping the members of the Lavesta Group that voted for the provincial Conservatives can find some comfort in what they did, or didn’t do, in the polling stations when they’re being forced from their homes or when the bulldozers start ripping their land apart.
And if that isn’t enough, how about those Bozo-type Conservatives at the federal level?
Did you happen to catch the financial figures our leader has committed in order to buy himself some shiny new toys?
In case you haven’t heard, your federal government has committed $30 billion of our money per year for the next two decades to building some big war machine. To put it another way, that’s $600 billion! To put it yet another way, that’s $600,000,000,000.00!
If that doesn’t sink in, how about one more way: with a population of just over 33 million people, that means you, me and every other man, woman and child in this country is on the hook for approximately $18,200 each.
And for what?
So our Prime Minister has something to show off to the bigger boys over at the sandbox known as global conflict?
Considering the fact that the federal Conservatives are part of a minority government, you’ve got to think it’s pretty ambitious of Harper to actually think he’ll be around in four years, let alone 20. Either that, or he’s mighty arrogant.
I don’t know about you, but just off the top of my head I’ve already thought of at least a thousand things I’d rather do with my $18,200 than donate it to fighting somebody else’s ridiculous and unjustified war.
Which brings up a few more questions like: when exactly did we go from being peacekeepers to combatants and why are our military personnel being killed in a war that, for all intents and purposes, doesn’t have anything to do with us?
And please, please don’t blame this on Islamic terrorists without acknowledging the prior knowledge and/or ‘accentuation’ of the US government. We’ve been over that already a number of times and let’s face it, if Helen Keller were still around today, even she could sense their bloodstained hands all over the attacks of September 11, 2001.
It goes without saying that our military – at least now that the Conservatives have re-opted them for another two years, our Coast Guard and other vital services are in dire need of some significant funding, but $600 billion seems just a tad extreme. In fact, it’s downright extremist!
Nope, to the casual observer, Harper’s reckless and irresponsible spending of our money on their war appears to be little more than taking another step towards the Americanization of our great country, and probably has something to do with the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) that will ultimately, and only be of benefit to the United States and to a lesser extent, Mexico.
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you never, ever saw this kind of puppy dogging from Paul Martin, Jean Chrétien or the late great Pierre E. Trudeau. In fact, if you’ve watched the proceedings from the House of Commons lately, the only one standing up for the average Joe Canadian is NDP Leader Jack Leighton, as usual.
Oh sure, Harper does a lot of standing up too, but unfortunately it’s pretty well always for the Americans and/or the Mexicans, and it’s at our expense, of course.
What’s next?
Are we supposed to start claiming that we have the God-given right to bear arms too?