An accident on the North Shore (tragic, actually) closed the Lions Gate bridge today.  It was morning rush hour and we were ensnared along with thousands of others.  Tens of thousands.  We managed to join the madding crawl to the 2nd Narrows bridge and arrived at our appointment in town 2.5 hours after we left home.  With no traffic (that never happens anymore, we are told) it would have taken 30 minutes.  Tops.  We had allowed an hour……just in case.  It wasn‘t enough.

Distance-as-the-raven flies?  Maybe 6 miles.

I am not complaining.  The poor sods who suffered from the accident had it very bad and we were just ever-so-slightly inconvenienced and the doctor we were scheduled to see had also been trapped on the wrong side. No big deal for us or him.  Not really.

So, what is the point? (the point is Moo)

Today’s incident stood in such stark contrast to our normal ‘commute’.  That is the point.

We live on a remote island, fer Gawd’s sake!!  And yet, in 2.5 hours I can go to our nearest shopping district and do a complete two-or-three store shop.  (OK, we can’t get back in that time but 2.5 hours is most of the job done, anyway.)

My time is taken up with riding in boats, traveling logging roads, schlepping totes and a short 15 minute ferry ride (usually much less than a half-hour wait).  It is rarely spent in line-ups.  And it is NOT ever stuck in traffic!  I don’t have crowds, jams, accidents or construction delays of more than a few seconds….OK, a minute….maybe a pod of Orcas now and then to distract me…that is about it.

Even in town (albeit a small town) one never has to stay stopped in traffic at any particular light for more than one change and, to be fair, there are only a half-dozen controlled intersections to deal with as a rule anyway.

On a good day – in the Big Smoke – I can make it through 1 mile of downtown in 15 to 20 minutes.  On a bad day……well, see first paragraph.

I forgot how insane that is.

But I am being reminded.  Every day.

If all goes well, we are given say, 80 years on the planet and 1/3 of that is spent sleeping.  Another good portion is spent eating, pooping and showering. And shaving.  Another third is spent working or in school.  God knows the balance of what is left is mostly inane conversation, TV, shopping and other assorted colossal wastes of time (like reading this blog!).  So I really don’t think spending any time in traffic, queuing in line-ups and/or waiting on others is the way I want to spend any more time at all.  And a traffic jam is amongst the worst places to waste time I can think of (airports are the worst!).

I admit that this blog verges on the edge of another rant and that is also not the point.  The point is that we are being herded and corralled and controlled and Orwelled in the city to such a huge extent that it is literally wasting our life.  And I can no longer see the point of that.  Not a bit.  Maybe a short time for young people to access the gene pool but there is not enough money to warrant a longer duration.

But young people don’t know that.

This new perspective may be an age thing.  Probably is.  But, honestly……..how can we allow our life-force to slip away like that?

I did, tho.  I did.  Till I was 55!!  How mad is that!?

And speaking of Mad Cow, I watched a beautiful young woman walk her new baby-in-a-pram along a busy road.  She was dressed like a model in leathers and fluff and high heels and gobs of makeup.  Traffic roared around her.  Buildings loomed everywhere.  It was bedlam-in-grey concrete Hell.  But she was so pleased with herself.  Justifiably.  She had made a cute kid and was strutting her stuff.  She had scored in the gene pool.  God bless her.

But I suspect that she and her husband will now work like dogs to pay off a bazillion dollar mortgage………………………

And all I saw was just another head of cattle and her calf…………  

Second hand.  Not a big thing.  Small, actually.  Dinko.  But it will do the job.  I think.

I am going to purchase more solar panels and that plan – when executed – will require a new frame and post setup for the whole panel assembly.  The cost of the welder is 25% of what I would pay a guy to do that for me, so I’ll just do it myself.

Oooh….shades of macho, independent-man, eh?

‘Course I have managed to damage myself in every new independence undertaking so far – especially the macho ones – so Sally is not all that pleased with this new acquisition.  “You are goin’ to kill yourself, you old fool.  At least electrocute or burn yourself – probably both!  And the frame will fall apart and all our panels will be destroyed.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be the nurturer here?  You know, supportive?  Whatever happened to the woman behind the man, eh?”

“Oh, I’ll be behind you, alright.  With a fire extinguisher.  And a first aid kit.  You loon!”

“Good.  I knew I could count on you.  Now, would you just hold this electrode-thingy while I turn it on?”

Sal is pretty good as a rule.  Great, actually.  But she doesn’t always get onside right away.  In fact, she never gets onside right away.  She claims the reason for that is a strong survival instinct.  But I usually get past that.  Eventually.   OK….not always……

Fortunately for me, I am charming.  And usually right.  OK…to be more honest…..I just don’t listen to her and just charge ahead anyway (sometimes) but I think of that as part of my charm so it is much the same thing.  And – if it works out – she is pretty gracious and doesn’t try to take credit for it.  Not all the time anyway.

I can hear it now……  “It was me who suggested you buy that welder!” 

If it doesn’t work out, she usually keeps her mouth shut.  Which is pretty good.  I’d be going ‘nyah, nyah’ myself.  So I consider that part supportive.  Not nurturing so much but supportive in a quiet, pretend-it-didn’t-turn-out-well kind of way.   The reason for that…?  She sorta figures that my ego is already too big and acknowledging my being right will only make things worse.  And, if my ego gets too big, I am gonna hurt myself. Which I have done.  Many times.  Ergo, for safety reasons, she has to play down the victories.  And I get that.  She’s probably right.

God help us all if this welding thing works out.

We’re in Victoria for Sal’s father’s 90th birthday.  Which coincided with my son’s engagement party two nights before.  So we are doing ‘family’ this weekend.  Life’s a whirlwind, eh?

And when I say ‘doing family’, I mean that we are engaging more fully with my son’s fiance’s family and in a similar manner as we did when my daughter got married two weeks ago and we met his family.  We are getting to know the ‘other side’.  We are meeting and engaging with – even hugging and smiling a lot – with strangers.  Plus, this engagement exercise is more than just grinning and making small talk, it is truly an undertaking in getting to know people.  Fast.  They are going to be family after all.  Sheesh.

“What is the sister’s husband’s name again?”  

“Sam.”  

“Right.”  

“But her mother’s sister’s name and her husband’s?”  

“Not a clue.  Have we met them?”  

“No.  I don’t think so.  Oh God!  What if we have?  What if they look familiar?”  

“We do what we always do……we say, ‘yo dawg!”

“No wonder we have a reputation for being weird!” 

It is a brave new world.  People travel.  People meet.  And people marry.  But when more people travel than they used to, more people are going to meet and marry others from distant places.  Consequently, families from apart will have to get to know one another and they are going to have to do that in strange new ways.  No one marries the girl next door anymore.

B is from Toronto.  He married my daughter (Vancouver).  Families had to travel to make that happen.  Thus the wedding that was held in Mexico two weeks ago (yes, I know the logic of it doesn’t entirely explain Mexico but it worked out perfectly so it must be there in some way).  My son’s betrothed is from Victoria as was my wife, Sally.  So that part is somewhat more conventional.  But still NOT the girls next door.

Anyway…this blog is about the idea of family.  And how odd the whole thing is.  Really.  When you think about it.  Family is not about the people you know – as you thought for the longest time.  It is, later in life, about meeting people you DON’T KNOW!  There you are, minding your own business, ignoring your grown children to the best of your ability while hiding out in the forest and then WHAM!  All of a sudden you are enmeshed in an intricate and somewhat intimate web of mingling with strangers who will become part of your family.

That is weird.  Don’t you think?    

There is some kind of irony here….I am now selling rock!

Well, NOT my rock.  Not home!  But the place I am staying at has 15-20 pallets of cut granite (the kind of stone that is used to build rock walls in fancy neighbourhoods).  Since I am here some of the time, my friend has said, “If anyone comes by and wants a good deal on stone, sell it to them.  We have too much.”

So, I am getting into the Craigslist business despite what I said yesterday, I guess.  At least I didn’t have to find the rock in an alley.  I suppose I can sell rock.  Well, for as long as I have the rock sprinkled about the place on pallets, I guess.  At least I’ll help out should someone come by.

Granite cut-rock in blocks like this runs somewhere between 25 and 40 cents a pound!!!  A pallet of 2 tons could retail for over $1000.  I can sell it for ten cents a pound.

And there is a helluva lot of beautiful, used-but-perfect Cedar t&g here, too.  Cheap.  Some of which may end up on the island…..

I dunno….capitalism, eh?…. “…..just when I thought I was out, they dragged me back in…..” (which was a line from the Godfather and applies to the Mafia but it is all much the same thing.)

We were laughing over breakfast, “Geez, old habits, eh?  I can’t get over the fact that I can use all the tomatoes if I want to because we can easily get some more tomorrow.  Normally, I would conserve – try to get two meals out of it.”

“Hey!  I am turning out the lights all the time!  How weird is that?  20,000 sft of building with tools and machines and lights everywhere running all the time and someone else paying for it and I still can’t help myself…I conserve….”

“But that is good, right?  Aren’t we just being good?”

“I guess….but it kinda feels like a drop in the ocean.  One thing is for sure – we have developed some good habits for ourselves and for living off the grid.  So, that is good.  But down here?  I dunno…..feels pointless, really.”

“So, wanna go shopping?”

“Yeah, sure.  Mind if I troll a few alleys on the way?”

Conclusion: the TV is much smarter than the shows it presents.

It is like technology has advanced and writers have devolved.  Or the audience has been judged extremely wanting in the good taste and intelligence departments.  Most likely all of the above.  The viewing fare is bloody awful.  Boring, tasteless and stupid.  Like when I was listening to the 1812 overture in the background when someone was mixing eggs on a cooking channel!?  How much did they pay that doofus and the producer of that show?

And reality TV?  What the hell…..?!  Soon there will be a potty channel dedicated to people moving their bowels in odd situations.  Why not?  Sounds better than most of the crap on the screen I have seen so far.  The mainstay of reality TV?  It is a skateboarder smashing his genitals into a handrail.   I swear!

But I confess………having a remote in my hands again felt good.  Ooooh, power corrupts, eh?

Here’s something weird…………….if I go to the store and buy wood and say, pay $1.00 a board foot, it seems like the ‘market’ price.  The way things are.  But if I have a pile of the same lumber left over after a job (still shiny and new) no one wants to buy it!  Not for 20 cents on the dollar!  Now why is that?  Wood doesn’t come with a warranty.  A 2×6 is a 2×6.  But the contractor pretty much has to ‘chuck it’ ’cause no one wants to buy it and he can’t store it and the store won’t take it back.  In the meantime, some poor schmo is lining up at the counter to pay the $1.00 plus taxes for his order.

Perfectly good toilets and basins, doors, even appliances………….chucked!?

Yes, I know…Habitat for Humanity, Used Building supplies, etc.  But, really, they just want it for free………..and it is a hassle and well, most of the time there is not enough to warrant taking it to them.  Easier to throw it in the dumpster.  It is a waste.  A complete and total waste for a guy like me.  Not for a contractor, perhaps, but for a DIY-guy for sure.  I can see myself heading home in a month or so laden to the top with stuff that would be considered junk here in town.  And it is not!

OK….our adjustment is still ongoing, I guess.  I’ll start to get out of scavenge-mode and be a consumer again.  Maybe.  But I would hazard a guess that a guy with time and a flatbed truck could slowly scour building sites and, with the contractor’s permission, salvage enough materials to build a complete 1500 square foot home within a month.  In fact, I am sure  of it.    Three months if it was me (Sal is starting to balk at the heavy lifting, I am slow and traffic is heavy).  The house may not be pretty and some things may have to be purchased to make it happen in a reasonable time but I am sure I could salvage 80% of what I needed openly and honestly to build at least a cabin.  Now there’s a reality show!   

I am re-learning how to drive in Vancouver: aggressive, fast and leave the car filthy.  An old guy in an old, dented Pathfinder covered in mud and going Hell-bent is, apparently, somewhat intimidating to the clean-car crowd and we are getting about rather well as a result.  Kinda fun.

Our poor ol’ car reminds me of ‘Pigpen’ in the Charlie Brown cartoon.  If we park at the Whole Foods store in Park Royal, the other cars and drivers shun us.  And that is before we get out of the car!

We can easily find our car in a crowded lot because there is a little ‘dull spot’ with dust all around it.

Sal suggested we wash the car sometime but I am sure you understand my reluctance…………?

Still, there may be a municipal bylaw concerning that.  Probably is.  West Van got some doozies.  Seems, for instance, you are not allowed to sell lumber in West Van.  It is a bylaw. ‘No dirty, 2×4’s wanted ’round here!’  And the trades aren’t allowed to work after 5:30 pm nor are they allowed to even ‘be here’ on Sunday.  So, given that we look dirtier and drive worse vehicles than the lowly trades, you can imagine our paranoia if we are caught ‘out’ after 5:30!  And Sunday?  We stay home.

“Honest, officer, we are OK.  Just house guests of friends with low standards and high levels of tolerance for the unsightly.  No.  I don’t believe I have to provide you with their names!  I think you are going to have to impound my car and take me to the station and run my prints before we do that.  Gotta protect the innocent, you know?  Want me to go home and shower first?  Oh, sorry.  You meant the car!?”

Oh well……..adventures come in different ways……….and, so far, this is just fun.  We are enjoying it.

As you all well know, we’re cool.  We’re hip.  We’re happenin’….. in a backwoods, hill-billy kind-of-way.  Which is to say: not much.  Not much at all, really.

But we are cool with that.

Until yesterday, anyway.  OMYGAWD!  Are we hicks or what?  Pulled into our new digs in West Van and were greeted nicely by my friend who, in passing, said, “Oh, yeah…got you a new, smart TV…nice.  Got it hooked up an all…..gets internet and stuff…neat..stuff….I think….”

“Can you work it?”

“Well, Yeah.  Kinda.  No………not really.  Mine isn’t as smart as yours and I kinda know mine and, well, yours is programmed and everything….never mind…let me show you something else..”

So, we unpacked, went out for dinner and then came home.  I tried to turn on the smart TV.  Couldn’t do it.  Too stupid.  But that’s OK……we’re cool with that.  So, today we went shopping for some household junk.  Downtown Vancouver.

“So, are you feeling what I am feeling?”

“You mean kinda like a hick?  Kinda like Rip Van Winkle?”

“Zactly!  Vancouver seems so…I dunno….different….so new…shiny…. It is like we have been ‘out of it’ for so long, it feels weird!”

“Miss it?”

“Not yet.  New digs are kinda fun, tho.  But some kid handed me a pamphlet offering senior’s services.  So, I looked around the store and, sure enough, we were easily ten years older than anyone else.  Up in our community we are amongst the younger group of oldsters.  Here, I didn’t see any!  Starting to feel a smidge out of place, ya know?”

“What kind of services?”

“Never you mind!  We don’t need no stinkin’ services.  Not yet, anyway.  Pizza delivery doesn’t count, though, right?”

Sal and I are in the big smoke for a month, give or take and, even tho we no longer need or want much of what the city has to offer (‘cept friends and and a bit of work stuff)  there is no question that it is taking on the stuff of adventure.  I know that sounds crazy but so much that we see seems new to us that it feels well, adventuresome…… kinda.  Like visiting a new city but with the confusion part missing.

We do know the basic city, after all.  But there are new restaurants to try and people to see…..and, well, we are seeing and being seen with new eyes.  It’s different.  Really.

I know, I know….‘we really should get out more…..’

Anyway…….we are here. We’ll have fun.

I think we have to buy a new car, tho.  Sheesh.  A ’96 Pathfinder is a relic at the best of times but in West Van, it is like a cop-magnet.  People avert their eyes.  ‘Cept the cops and our new neighbours. Junkyards crush better cars.  Even the junkies have better cars!  Well, maybe we’ll start by washing it.  No sense puttin’ on airs, eh?

Gonna get me a banjo, tho….fer sure.

Winter is here.  And grabbing us hard by the pipes!  I turned on the heat tape wraps (around the exposed pipes) last night and that kept things flowing but the temperature is dropping and, once again, I rue my decision to having put off more insulation under the house when I had the time.  You know how it is….‘Geez, maybe with global warming….?’

Next year for sure!

Actually, the winter winds had sucked all the heat from the house over the week we were away and heating the place up took much longer than usual as a result.  Still not toasty.  18C.  We are warm but dressed in more layers and the stove is still on full tilt!  It isn’t even December yet!  Typically, November is miserable and wet but not overly cold.  Mind you, typically, Illinois does not issue a decades worth of tornado warnings within a few days either.  So, I guess things are changing…………..

Sal’s off to work at the post office today.  Intrepid worker that she is.  That old saw: ‘…..through rain, hail, snow the postman makes his rounds….’ That reputation has for the post office pretty much gone the same way as the Mounties’ reputation but there are still a few members of both forces who work on the good side and Sal is one of them.  The mail must go through!

It is minus ten for her in the boat I would estimate with the wind chill.  The seas are a bit choppy.  She is in a very small boat.  There will be an empty, cold office to greet her.  Then, a bit later, the plane will come in.  She’ll have gotten the wood stove on in the meantime but will remain bundled up till quitting time and then, in the semi-dark, she will fire up the boat and head home.  Her only link with anything being the running lights on the boat and her VHF radio.  By the time she steps back in the house, she will be cold, it will be dark and me and the dogs will want dinner.

(Yes, I will do both dinners….I was only kidding….) 

Intrepid and community-minded (the only reason she does it) thy name is Sally.

I’ll sit here in the meantime and write and eat bon bons.  No sense both of us getting chilled now is there?

Today’s rant/topic:  BC Ferries is going to cut services, raise fares and install slot machines.  Prediction: watch that slot machine monster grow.

How is it that a transportation company that can’t break even but can break their actual working units (ferries, docks, designs), can’t make a profit but can break the bank with management bonuses, can’t run a system that – when they took it over – wasn’t broke but now is, think they can run a casino afloat?

I already know the answer: it is not BCF.  It will be the Casino lobby connection to Christy running a piece of their business on the ferries.  This is a sop to the corporate crooks the Libs hang with.  They may eventually attempt to install slots in libraries, hospitals and Sky-Train, too……..what’s the diff?  Why not install them in the lobbies of government services including the Liquor stores?

‘Do some shots, play some slots and soon we’ll sell you pots of pot’.   

Well, hell.……… why ask such a stupid question?  If there is another way for the government to screw up and screw the public at the same time, they will do it.  Just remember: This government has been in deficit since they took over.  This government does not sit in the legislature anymore (democratic debate, it seems, is not productive for them).

And this government has lost billions of dollars from ‘paying off’ Basi-Virk (chump change) to the Convention Centre (hundreds of millions dollars over), the Port Mann Bridge (even more over), the giving away of the Fast Ferries (a $500M expenditure sold for $19M of scrap value).  And that ego parade that was the Olympics. This is the government of cutbacks for everyone but BIG industry.  Christy Clark couldn’t manage a Kool-Aid stand and she is our premier.

I wonder who is really pulling the strings?

…and some things change.

My daughter is married to BR and is now Mrs. R.  I officiated at the ceremony.  Like a hillbilly pastor. They called me Yoda.  The wedding was held at a resort in Mexico.  52 people flew down.  I thought it would be weird but it wasn’t.  It was good.  Very good.  Very, very, very good.  And fun.  Even though all-inclusive resorts are not my kind of thing – they aren’t travel and they aren’t adventure and there is little that is foreign or new – they are a helluva way of a way to host a wedding.  Who knew?

All-inclusive resorts are really just land-locked cruise ships and the people ‘on board’ were much the main attraction.  People watching at it’s best.  But the appeal for a wedding is that the families of the bride and groom get to meet one another and have a few days (not just hours) to get to know one another.  That part was the best.  We met B’s friends and father – and they were good people.  Even their friends were nice and interesting and very kind to the bride’s parents and grandparents.  It was a good way to blend families who live a country-wide apart.  They are Torontonians.  We are not.

The wedding itself was a treat.  Not boring or drawn out.  Not all gooey or weird.  Very sincere.  Pretty short.  And every one seemed moved when they should, laughed when they should and were genuinely pleased and happy for the new couple.  Except for our own wedding, Sal and I agreed that this was the best one we had ever attended.  Biased?  Us?  Not in the least.

I started to blog about it and have a few pages written but I’ll save that for a longer post that is separate.  I, personally, would have a hard time reading much more about someone else’s wedding so I’ll spare you.  Bottom line:  BIG HIT!

But there was also a turning point for me………well, several actually.  One:  I swear I will never fly again.  NEVER!  What a massive trial and tribulation flying has become!  We ‘flew’ six hours (each way), ‘sat’ waiting (in total) for six to eight hours and ‘transferred by buses and cabs for almost 3 hours.    Everyone knows the lunacy of airport security and, of course, everything is geared to the timetable and convenience of the transport companies so you end up feeling like powerless cattle.  Mooing and baaahhing all the way. We need Temple Grandin to take up the cause of travelers.

My son also recently got engaged (and this was not a spontaneous move on anyone’s part) and so the message is clear:  I am no longer really needed as a parental guide.  To be fair, I never was.  But I kinda played the Father Knows Best role whenever the opportunity presented however hapless and stupid that may have been (they used to call me ‘Big Dork’).  Now my kids have partners to rely on.  And the partners have them.  And I am now just the ‘old guy’ who can advise about leases and legal work at a consumer level.

It is not a bad role. But I have been shunted sideways.  I am no longer a parent.  I am a parental consultant (translation: unemployed until grandchildren come to town).

I also noticed that I was no longer hip.  Young people, it seems, generally now come patterned in tattoos.  The resort was a veritable walking mural of doodles.  You’d see some beautiful young woman carpeted with tattoos of fish and flowers and skulls and bulls and Gawdknowswhat……….I even saw one guy sporting a Nike swoosh with NIKE written under it!?

He loves his shoes, I guess.

I dunno……..it is not my thing.  Yakuza?  Hells Angels?  Bloods and Crips?  Dennis Rodman?  And now secretaries, librarians and accountants.  Tattoo suggestion: KPMG rules!

Weird.

But interesting.

But weird mostly.

PS.  Just for the WEIRD record:  I am a big fan of the cartoon that is Rob Ford.  He’s a buffoon, too, of course.  Probably some kind of crook to boot.  And he never should have become a mayor of anything.  Not even Spuzzum.  But he is more entertaining than any Canadian politician or comedian ever.  He’s better than Martin Short or even Cheech and Chong.  This guys is a fat Evil Knievel, high on whatever he can OD on and vying with Dawg the Bounty Hunter for the stupid crown of the world. I know it is perverse but, really, this guy is showing the underbelly of Canadian politics (not to mention his actual belly).  He and Harper hang out and go fishin’………. If Rob Ford does not put some perspective on politics-as-usual to the Canadian people, nothing can.    

Our premier talked tough before the election.  Made a BCér proud to see her stand up for what is right!  ‘We intend to get our fair share of the pollution and our fair share at the trough that is being spread around to allow it!’  Oooh, what cajones!

And, because she was so tough and such a brilliant negotiator, the premier of Alberta had to roll over (in slop) and agree to our porcine premier’s demands.  Oooh….pigfight!  I am getting excited.

But, of course, it is like all political acts – it was a stunt, a sham, a lie and a distortion.  Christy lied.  Hard to believe, isn’t it?  Our premier (NOT a mayor, this time) lied to us.

Firstly, she did not negotiate anything…some ‘framework‘….which says nothing…..and doesn’t get us any of Alberta’s ill-gotten gains.  But, more pathetically, it implied that, with the two premier’s agreeing, the Enbridge pipeline is ‘moving forward’ (I hate that phrase).

It isn’t.

Well, it is, actually.  But that decision to proceed with resource exploitation had nothing to do with them.  We, the people, don’t really know what is happening.  Not really.  But we can assume the worst.  The reason?  Enbridge is not accountable to BC or even Alberta.  The proposed pipeline is 100% a Federal affair.  It is Harper and Harper alone that casts the vote.  Given his recent legislative changes to Federal environmental law that makes the decision to proceed easier, and his announcements in Asia that ‘it will happen’, and the increase in pipe construction going on, the continuance of surveying and ground crew work and the many hundreds of contracts being let, my guess is that Redford and Clark are simply posturing like groupies with smiles and pig squeals hoping to be invited to the party.

Enbridge has been a done deal since it was announced.  Environmental studies were NOT done or ignored or made unnecessary by the Feds.  The people’s voice was controlled, limited and is being ignored.  Northern Gateway hearings, my butt!  Every member of that panel was a Harper appointee and each appointee was plucked from the Petroleum sector!

Given his announcement in SE Asia, Harper may have already received some money for the oil………?  He has certainly allowed SINOC (ChinaOIL) to buy stakes in the tar-sludge.  And he has pretty much rammed through an agreement with China that states that they will make all decisions on trade matters….so, it is not hard to guess where this is all going.

China is going imperialist on oil and Canada is looking to be a colony.  Which may cause some friction with our US owners who already control so much of what is Canadian.  Did you know that CN Rail (the only transnational rail line in Canada – the one given so much land by government) was privatised and sold off in the 1990’s?  Did you know that Bill Gates is the largest single shareholder of ‘our’ national railway?   

But all that lying, cheating, greed and environmental destruction is not really news, is it? Hasn’t that been the robber baron mentality so prevalent for so long- even before the Industrial Revolution?  Haven’t we been breeding pigs for a long time?

And will we ever do anything about it?  The answer is no.  We will never do anything about it and the reason for that is ‘they‘ have established ways for the public to protest and they call those ways ‘democracy’.  It is a false democracy, of course, but we have bought it.  So we protest by electing people who have to do what their party tells them to do and, of course, our party choice is severely limited to two or three.  So you can choose to protest by way of door #1 or door #2.

And both doors lead to the feeding trough.