A Rant

I don't sleep very well. For years, while I generally fall asleep quickly, I am awake by 3:30. I then spend the next two-three hours tossing and turning. Too tired to get up; too awake to fall back asleep.  I have never known why. But I think I have discovered a possible reason. It seems as if when I don't watch the CBC News at 10:00, it is more likely that I will get a better night’s sleep.

What keeps me up? I am so damn irritated at our government that I think I am going to bed in a rage three nights out of five. I suppose the answer is to stop watching the news. A better answer would be for the government to stop being such idiots. This week’s irritations…………..

The government’s shill on the pipe line being planned to ship oil from Fort McMurray to the West Coast announced this week that “foreign radicals” were the ones who were protesting against the building of the pipeline. He was clearly stated that these radicals were trying to disrupt the Canadian economy.

1)      when did we decided that the First Nations of the BC mainland were foreigners and

2)      radical is not a dirty word. How dare my government imply that people who disagree with them are radicals and therefore somehow dangerous.

 I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that in the government’s mind the possible risk to a couple of thousand First Nations individuals and their lifestyle is less important than benefits that will fall to foreign owned oil companies. I am however, always surprised that they are so arrogant,  supremely confident about their opinions and that they have no shame.

Then last night it is announced that they (the federal government) are planning to reduce the number of Employment Insurance (now that is a silly name!) offices from 122 to 20 over the next three years. Which I suppose makes some kind of sense. If you don’t want to help or even be aware of unemployed people, make it harder for them to get help. A side benefit of this is that it will be harder for unemployed workers to communicate with each other and perhaps much more difficult to share stories or to organize. But what is beyond a shocking display of arrogance is that according to the CBC “of the 20 processing centres left, more than half will be in Conservative ridings and only one will be in a Liberal riding.” (http://www.cbc.ca/m/ touch/news/ story /2012/01/13/pol-service-canada-closures.html). 

CBC goes further and states “In Nova Scotia, several processing centres including Sydney and Glace Bay in Cape Breton — both in a Liberal riding where unemployment is high — are closing.
But two sub-processing centres are being kept open — one in Defence Minister Peter MacKay's riding of Central Nova, the other in Conservative Gerald Keddy's riding of South Shore-St. Margaret's.

 In Newfoundland, seven Service Canada offices, including Gander and Corner Brook, will stop processing EI claims despite high unemployment rates in those communities.
Most of the work will be relocated to St. John's, where the economy is booming. But the one riding with a Conservative MP —Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Peter Penashue — will continue to have a processing centre.” (http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/2012/01/13/pol-service-canada-closures.html).

All Canadians should be alarmed. John Ralston Saul in his 1999 book Reflections of a Siamese Twin argued that if Canada did not stop its trend of having right of centre governments that we would be at risk of going back to the style of government that existed before confederation. That is government of a few, for a few. (and the hell with the rest)

Sorry John – not enough people read your book. We are already there.