Once again I am driven to make a political comment. Forgive me. It separates us, I know. But honestly, that is not the intention. The intention is to have integrity, to tell the truth. “For evil to be done, good men only have to do nothing”.

I will rant again covering the most pressing matters right now. Be assured – new matters come daily and I try mightily not to burden you as a rule. BUT OH-MY-GAWD!

Our Foreign Affairs department finally drafted a plan for evacuating Canadians from northern Japan. I quote from the CBC broadcast: “They will be allowed to board buses already chartered by Germany, New Zealand and Australia which will take them to Tokyo where they are free to go wherever they choose!”

Wow! Allowed to board buses. And that is different from taking a bus into Tokyo on your own – how?

Reminds me of the Dept. of Foreign Affairs rescuing our citizens in Egypt. “Well, the first plane went in and left because there were no Canadians there at the airport!”

Turns out the airport was blockaded (duh) and so we left with an empty plane. Didn’t occur to us to wait.

Later, when we were embarrassed by the world into returning, we went back, chartered some buses and brought the Canadians to the airport but not without charging them airfare first. Then the Egyptians extorted another $200 from each of them. Our govt. didn’t step in there, either. As long as all the costs were covered, our government came through.

It is absurd! This is a country that has recently decided to spend $35 billion dollars on new fighter jets! But we can’t afford to charter a bus in Japan? Or our own planes in Egypt? We can’t afford to replace aging, rusting, failing ferries carrying our own people in our own country but we can afford to buy fighter jets!

For those of you who don’t travel internationally, you will be surprised to know that most Canadians seek help (if they need it) from the British Consulate when abroad. Why? Because the British Consulate will do what it takes to fix the problem even if you are Canadian. The Canadian consulate never does anything.

I distinctly recall reading that our Canadian peacekeeping troops in Malta or Cyprus or, perhaps, Somalia were expected to do their patrols without ammunition for their rifles at one time. Seems we couldn’t afford the bullets. My nephew trained in the Canadian Forces in Cold Lake Alberta under the same conditions. Bullets were deemed too expensive.

US fighter jets, on the other hand are indispensable. And we can afford them! You know why? Because the Americans are getting Tar Sands oil in payment, that’s why? And water. And a lot of other things. We have sold out our heritage for, amongst other things, useless-to-us fighter jets.

Think about it: for battling whom would fighter jets come in handy for Canada? Norway? Greenland? Russia?

Yeah, right!

Our Coast Guard flies helicopters that crash with alarming regularity but we are going to get fighter jets! We can’t afford to man the lighthouses!!! We can’t afford ice-breakers, we can’t afford coastguard ships or even government wharves anymore! But we can afford fighter jets!

When was the last time Canada declared war on anyone other then themselves? We last declared martial law in Quebec, remember. Trudeau got ticked at the kidnapping of Pierre LaPorte. Or maybe the Indian uprising at OKA?

Fighter jets would not have helped.

Fighter jets help no one. They do harm, instead. It is in the nature of the beast. Harm with extreme prejudice is what they do. So, who benefits by this? Why the Americans, of course. They get $35B plus ongoing contracts for parts. Plus we are now in a position to help the US turn North America into Fortress North America. And, I suppose, we could use them in Afghanistan if the Americans gave us a lift over. And who wants that? Why the Americans of course. They are charging us $35B to protect their interests!

“Oh, Dave, you are getting carried away.” Yeah. I suppose so. So let me say something that Canadians seem to place a lot more value on – their own personal pocketbooks! Think about this, folks: 90% of US oil imports come from Canada NOT from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, the North Sea or even Iraq and the gulf states. It comes from Canada. It comes from the governments that charges it’s own citizens 30%+ more than the Americans pay for exact the same oil.

Just another way your government has let you down. And the examples are myriad. Continuous. Constant. We are the 51st state without the benefits of even statehood.

This will make you laugh – you can buy a propane freezer here in Canada that is made in Canada for $2500. You can buy that exact same freezer (made in Canada) in Colorado for $1500.00. NAFTA will Shaft ya. We pay more for the product when we have an export market (lumber, apples, etc.) and we pay more when we import it (cars, boats, etc.).

Do a vehicle price comparison. Try boats. Food. Anything but medical care and even that is damn close if you have a good medical plan in the US. If you really want a good medical plan, go to Thailand or Japan.

Canadian taxpayer? Spell us S-T-U-P-I-D.

But seriously folks, back to BC – Christy Clark’s new economic adviser wants to sell Canadian water to the US. And they have the mechanism now in place with which to do that by way of the Run-of-river permits. Rich Coleman has been given the Energy portfolio and he was the one who gave away huge tracts West Coast land to developers.

Why do we vote this way? Why do we let these rapers and pillagers, these liars and crooks, these greedy, stupid, corporate puppets control our lives?

Why?