Archive for March, 2014
Open letter — Constituent Disagrees Profoundly with Canadian Government Policy
by admin on Mar.11, 2014, under Writing and Editing
As a Canadian who is very upset with the current government policy, I am writing to my MP.
Update: After I posted this letter and sent a copy to my MP, I found that someone had hacked into my website. Please use the following shortlink when sharing this post because there is now a hidden code if you copy the URL. http://vix.ca/blog/?p=1239 I do not know how to remove this hidden text. You can only see it if you copy the URL and paste it.
Wai Young MP Vancouver South
Hello MP Wai Young,
The Fair Elections Act is the last straw.
Corrupting our electoral process in an attempt to maintain power reveals the dictatorial policies of Steven Harper.
I know that as an MP, you have very little say in policy. However, I see that you are allowed to stand up in Parliament — when it is permitted to be in session and not suspended from operation — and spout the party line with conviction.
Reading from Conservative Party approved text?
How can you part of a government that is destroying the rights and freedoms of Canadians?
My mail contains many letters from your office, the latest one glorifying income splitting for wealthy pensioners while the government is delaying retirement pensions for two full years to the age of 67, for those who rely on them — but this fact is not mentioned. Tax savings initiatives are enumerated while poverty among our seniors is rising.
The Conservative government has consistently revealed their strategy of slashing taxes for the wealthy, especially corporations, while depriving Canadians of needed services that we depend on our Government to provide.
“Building a stronger future for Canada” has so far included a “fair trade deal” with China that gives Chinese companies the right to ignore our laws and to sue the government in a secret court if environmental regulations or other Canadian cultural values prevent them from profiting. Canadian taxpayers could be liable for millions of dollars in damages, but of course we will never know because the proceedings will be secret.
China trade deal — Canada borrows cute panda bears — China gets rights in Canada for 35 years! Fair Trade?
Now Harper is so eager to sign away more of Canada’s future in a deal with S. Korea that opens our market to their cars, but does not include clauses that the US found essential to prevent non-tariff barriers. No provision for Canadian jobs, just more benefits for others.
Craig says the South Korean government has continued to protect its home market and subsidized its exports through non-tariff barriers and active intervention in its currency.
“No Canadian manufacturer can compete with a market controlled by non-tariff barriers and currency manipulation,” she writes, adding the new agreement does not address these key issues.
Oil companies are in control of our environmental policy and the Northern Gateway ads on CBC radio are a national scandal!
Look at Norway’s oil management policy.
Because the government [of Norway] is highly invested, (oil profits are taxed at 78 per cent, and in 2011 tax revenues were $36-billion), it is as interested as oil companies, which want to maximize their profits, in extracting the maximum amount of hydrocarbons from the reservoirs. This has inspired technological advances such as parallel drilling, Mr. Lindseth says.
Look at the revenue Norway gets from oil and tell me why Canadians are in debt.
Norway produces 40 per cent less petroleum than Canada and has one-seventh our population, but has saved more than $600 billion in oil revenue and counting. This is equivalent to about 140 per cent of Norwegian GDP, or about $120,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. In contrast, every Canadian is in the red about $16,000 due to our $566-billion national debt.
There will only be the very rich and the very poor if these policies continue!
However, Harper will not say what his staff are earning!
Andrews and Simms weren’t the only MPs left with fundamentally unanswered written questions after the government tabled more than a dozen responses on Thursday afternoon.
In fact, the latest batch of answers reveals what would appear to be an ongoing effort to shut down one of the few remaining avenues of inquiry for parliamentarians hoping to pry loose the occasional morsel of information on the operation of government.
Secrecy and lack of accountability are firm policy in the Harper government.
Many Canadians are becoming more informed on these matters and I will do my part to try to let everyone know how the Conservative government is destroying our identity as Canadians.
Canadians who care for the less fortunate and expect health care and pensions to be paid for by our taxes and contributions.
Canadians who expect corporations to pay their fair share and governments to protect our land for future generations.
Canadians who support fair and democratic electoral process.
You are my representative in Parliament — tell them they have gone too far and the constituents are getting angry.
We will not stand aside and let Harper destroy our land and the future of our children.
How can you look at the faces of your children while allowing Canadian children to be poisoned by fracking and oil development?
The tar sand mines of Alberta are the site of the second fastest rate of deforestation in the world, behind the slashing on the Amazon Rainforest.
These citations are taken from Canadian media outlets, like the cbc and the globe and mail. These stories are not fantasy, these stories are Canadian reality.
Enjoy your trips to China and the many perks you receive — just think about how other Canadians are struggling as this government gives to the rich and dismantles the middle class.
Please think about these issues and look at your conscience — I know Harper has none — however, I hope that all Conservatives are not only out to get as much as they can for themselves and their supporters.
If you send me another letter — I will send you one in return.
Regards,
Victoria Gibson
If the video above doesn’t work try this link http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/13939494
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Leave the Oil in the Ground News Feed
#banfracking
British Columbia's dirty natural gas secret
nationalobserver.com
Three LNG projects in Squamish and Kitimat would require over 13,000 new fracking wells over the next 30 years between them. While industry and government tout this brand new fossil fuel industry as the 'cleanest LNG in the world' there’s little talk of the explosion in fracking operations it woul...#sustainable #futureA new poll by Abacus Data Inc. shows that Canadians believe climate change poses a serious and immediate threat that warrants an emergency response. Our politicians underestimate public opinion on #climateaction. Let’s make sure they hear it loud and clear this election: bit.ly/31BVSdE
Full polling results can be found here: abacusdata.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Climate-Emergency-Polling-July-2019-RELEASE.pdf
Analysis by Seth Klein: www.policynote.ca/climate-poll-2019/#nopipelines
cbc.ca
Community members and legal experts are concerned about provisions in benefit agreements between First Nations and companies that ask leadership to dissuade their community members from speaking out against the project.#gosolar
"An innovative thermal battery being developed by Curtin University researchers will be key to a solar power system capable of producing electricity overnight, rivaling fossil fuels as a viable source of power for commercial and heavy industries around the world.
Professor Craig Buckley said the thermal battery was part of the Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) system being developed by United Sun Systems, which requires a battery to store and release energy to enable non-stop solar power generation.
"Storage has long been a stumbling point for renewable energy but our prototype thermal battery is able to store and, as required, release solar energy without reliance on sunlight at all times," Professor Buckley said.
"While a lithium battery stores electrical energy that can be used to provide electricity when the sun is not shining, this thermal battery stores heat from concentrated solar thermal, which can be used when the sun is not shining to run a turbine to produce electricity."
Development of this thermal battery for solar energy is one more step in science's quest to consider and refine every possibility to make forms of renewable energy viable as a completely reliable alternative to fossil fuels. The transition must start now.#EndofOil
"Plunging prices for batteries and renewables are driving an electric vehicle (EV) revolution so rapidly that the economics of oil “are now in relentless and irreversible decline.”
That’s the startling conclusion of a detailed new analysis for “professional investors” of the economics of EVs versus gasoline cars produced by BNP Paribas, the world’s eighth largest bank by total assets.
The report is good news for humanity because it means peak oil demand may be less than a decade away, which in turn means ambitious climate goals will be more affordable than previously thought."
Good for BNP Paribas; at last a bank is admitting what has been obvious if one disregards fossil fuel propaganda. Electric vehicles and renewable energy are the best choices economically, both in continually decreasing energy cost and long term benefits of not causing pollution and warming damages of oil. Now, when will all you other banks get with the program?
