Saturday, September 28, 2013

The Passion Within, The Resurrection



Hello friends, just wanted to give you a bit of an update on the progress of our project.

New glass, home-crafted window trim, a whole lotta elbow grease, sanding and oiling the middle window wood, that wood is old growth fir..

And let me say, painting fiberglass is such a chore....

I have maintained the colours Dad loved..

This boat was originally gold coloured, Canoe Cove(boat make) ...Canoe Cove gloden fiberglass was their stock colour, Dad liked his grey, blue and white...

Right now the sides and main colur is white, , the flying bridge stripe is imperial blue...the walkway colour is battleship grey..

The back-deck has been rebuilt, fiberglassed, new engine rooms, ..

I still have painting to do on the back, the fishing area, the port engine is about to be put back together and fired up, new hydraulic steering lines, ..

Everything takes time and everything in priority order...

The stairs to the top of the dock needed to be replaced and the top ramp decking needed replacing, ...

To tell you the truth I`m exhausted, my leg is ready to fall off and sleeping is very hard, between my leg pain and lack of sleep, as stated before I suffer from severe sleep apnea....My machine died two weeks ago, I have come to Vancouver to get it replaced, they provided a loaner sleep machine and last night I finally got some REM sleep, and boy oh boy did I dream, boating, fishing and smiling..

Unfortunately the damp weather wreaks havoc on my bad leg but damn it...I will prevail because..

Because everything I do on the boat, in the yard, stairs, dock work, every corner of the yard, the boat images of family, of father and mother, it is like Dad never left and one day I will fish and family with him ....again.

Meanwhile my leg will soak in ice to bring down  the swelling, my sleep will be restored and the projects completed..

Dad`s boat with me skippering has a date in Kitimat....

I have been thinking a doing a new series of posts starting next spring, a view from the coast, voices and stories from rural coastal British Columbia, ..

In other words a British Columbia coastal adventure, blogging all the way, ..

The boat will be ready, mentally I`m ready the only hold-back is financial, ..

We`ll see about some sponsorship for boat expenses...Something will come up, voices from Prince Rupert to Kitimat, Campbell River and Haida Gwaii need to be heard..







There is no money to hire anyone to do this work, either the Powell River Persuader does it or it will be left to rot away to nothing..

We live in fascinating times, anything you can`t do someone has youtubed a video on how to...

And yes, the persuader has viewed countless videos on engines, on fiberglass painting and plumbing repairs..

And lastly, I was in Vancouver 2 weeks ago for a medical procedure with a camera, the results were excellent, looks like I will be around for a long time to come, funny though, in the recovery room where you relax and doze..

The have wires and finger grips to monitor your vitals..my alarm kept going off, thus startling the staff, it was my oxygen monitor, it tends to beep when you stop breathing, ...Ever since blood clots from my injured leg penetrated my lungs breathing has never been right..

Well, that is sleep apnea for you, I told the nurse to chill out, or give my a sleep machine, ...They sent me home instead..and now that I have a functioning sleep machine my mind is sharp and refreshed..

The stories of love for family, for environment, for animals will continue, the exposing of corruption and hypocrisy and crimes against humanity will continue as well, professor Robin Mathews will enlighten too..

Go dance in the rain, wet, warm and invigorating..


http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2011/11/cedar-trees-and-earl-grey.html



P.S.....I wish our lazy media would stop calling this sweet rain and weather a "storm"...rain is not a storm, snow is not a storm, winds blowing 30 kilometers per hour isn`t a storm...The media so wants to distract people`s mind from the reality of today, ...

Again, media please stop calling normal weather storms...







I took these pictures from north Burnaby at 6:30 pm Saturday night,

Enjoy




The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open


Tuesday, September 24, 2013

LNG Black Swans Appear, Christy Clark Keeps Clucking


Harvey Oberfeld is so old, so stale and I believe, now senile, besides him ranting about perceived Quebec racism and First Nation`s robbing Canada blind he really has become a bore...Oberfeld`s latest advice to the NDP, allow all big industrial projects to go through, greenlight everything, don`t bother with those pesky environmental reviews, ..Oberfeld wants jobs jobs and more jobs..

Thank goodness Harvey Oberfeld is close to being finished, imagine if he was deciding your children`s future, a tired old man who`s views went out with the tide decades ago, ...Just look at Alberta, they have never extracted more tar oil then now, they have never pollutued as much as today yet with all that development Alberta is shuttering hospital beds, cutting services and running massive multi0billion dollar deficits, five straight years of red ink with number with number six approaching..

Enbridge pipeline if built would create maybe 100 full-time jobs, LNG plants if built would create maybe 200 full-time jobs, yet one major oil tanker spill would destroy 10,000 jobs, .....

Harvey Oberfeld`s post from the 1950`s is here...

http://harveyoberfeld.ca/blog/ndp-needs-new-philosophy-and-policies-not-just-new-leader/

And I found this comment from Laura to be the most compelling, and yes, Oberfeld ridiculed and blew her off, Oberfeld is a RED..:Retired extremely dangerous,... his ideology is dangerous, his mental faculties diminished,
__

Laura // Sep 19, 2013 at 11:06 pm.

 
Harv, the policies you advocate don’t work. You stated that you need government to give the go-ahead to all these projects so as to pay for the social programs NDPers want to see.
Well, we’ve had that kind of government for the last 12 years and social programs are worse than they were in the 1990s and debt has ballooned to a size nobody would have expected back in 2001.
You and lot of the posters here were raised in the 50s and 60s and still advocate the same policies in vogue then. This isn’t 1950 anymore, we know from experience that wide-open development doesn’t generate lasting wealth or great social programs.
Booms eventually turn to busts and bills have to be paid and land cleaned up.
You older guys still believe in a free lunch, that you just start cranking up the machinery and mow down a forest or two and divert a river and bob’s your uncle, we’re all rich.
The world doesn’t work that way any more. If it did we’d all be rich after 12 years of Liberal rule.

____________

And Laura is right, British Columbia for the last 13 years has been Governed by business friendly BC Liberals, they said yes to Run of River..yes to expanded coal mines, yes to outsourcing, yes to smart meters, yes to fish farms, yes to privatizing our crown forests, yes to deregulation and just look at us now..

wild salmon stocks are in big trouble, diseased farmed fish are killing our natural British Columbia wild salmon, the forests are sick, tree planting and reforestation ignored, BC Hydro is broke, our Government is racking up $5 to $10 billion dollars in new debt each year, from a provincial debt of $29 billion in 2001 to a provincial debt of $170 billion in 2013..not counting BC Ferry debt, BC Hydro debt....After 13 years of following Harvey Oberfeld`s advice BC Ferries are unaffordable for most, BC Hydro rates are about to skyrocket and Translink is going digging for coins in all your pockets, bridge tolls, user fees and services being cut... And Oberfeld`s advice to the NDP is to ramp up the same policies that have driven us to near bankruptcy.....

RED....and not worth reading...anymore, senility has taken hold, selective garbage in means selective garbage out, ....A Stephen Harper bootlicking toad...

  Anywho, this article is about the cluck cluck clucking coming from Christy Clark on natural gas...

It really is getting silly, we had Rich Coleman announcing $115 million in subsidies on a "proposed $320 million dollars" worth of little projects, this was, is a sign of desperation, this so-called $trillion dollar industry needed a subsidy to get some upstream roads built, some short well-head pipeline connections, and..and the reason why these tax breaks were announced is because none of these projects are getting done unless someone, anyone decides to actually build a real LNG plant, these little projects are cart before horse operations....

And more, Tides Canada released a study on how dirty our BC natural gas is and that scrubbing technology and carbon capture and storage must be implemented by the big energy companies...now let me be clear, Tides Canada is correct, our BC gas is dirty, despite Christy Clark blathering about how clean our gas is and how cold it is compared to other jurisdictions..

Those are both flat-out lies made by Clark, we have dirty gas and deep gas, the deeper you go underground the hotter it gets, thus costing more to freeze..Well, science, facts or indisputable data never did get in the way of Christy flapping her gums..as one pundit blogger said of Christy Clark...

"wiggle the hips and shoot from the lip Christy"...Priceless..

And then there is the group of mayors from rural BC and the useless Robin Austin of the NDP...These northern mayors are asking for LNG revenue sharing, asking for revenue sharing on something that doesn`t exist today, tomorrow or even in 2018..There might be a single operation up and running by 2021...8 years from now, surely there must be issues of today worth discussing, ..

There are some major LNG happenings going on, bad happenings, as in bad news for British Columbia..

Japan, ...Japanese electric utility companies are going broke buying LNG, Chubu Electric for the first time in 33 years can`t pay a dividend, the same situation is happening with all of Japan`s electricity suppliers, they are either losing money or barely breaking even and they can`t pass on anymore of the cost to consumers, a catch 22 situation...

_________


Chubu Electric to forgo half-year dividend payment, 1st in 33 yrs

 

Chubu Electric has not decided yet what to do with year-end dividend, according to the sources. It will likely come up with a decision after watching how far it can streamline operations to balance costs and profits.
Electric power companies are under stress after nuclear power plants have been taken off-line after the Fukushima crisis in March 2011.
In the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2013, six of Japan's nine major utilities that have nuclear power plants have decided to forgo dividend payments.

In the April-June quarter of this year, six utilities, excluding Tokyo, Tohoku and Hokuriku electric power companies, posted consolidated losses. Kansai Electric is planning to skip semiannual dividend payments this year.
Chubu Electric marked 32.1 billion yen in consolidated loss in fiscal 2012, the second straight year of loss, but managed to pay 50 yen per share in the annual dividend by drawing down on reserve funds.

 http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/kyodo-news-international/130913/chubu-electric-forgo-half-year-dividend-payment-1st-33

 

_________________________________

It is just a matter of time, either cheap LNG or the nuclear facilities are starting up, money talks, energy blackmail from LNG energy companies and British Columbia walk..


The below data is from a very interesting PDF file ...The very last line cut n pasted says it all....

_______________

 
The Fukushima disaster has since mid-2011
led to a surge in LNG demand to compensate for the loss
of nuclear generation capacity (at a time of slow growth in global LNG supply)This has resulted in a redirection of LNG supplies (contracted and flexible) away from Europe and towards Asia. Although this could be expected to lead to a
major shift in European gas supply patterns this has not occurre due to a continued slump in European natural gas demand through a combination of the economic recession, and increased power generation by coal and renewables at the expense of gas
.
In Japan the loss of nuclear generation capacity and the consequent increase in the use of LNG at oil-indexed
prices has resulted in the power generation utility companies being unable to pass on the full costs of generation to end-consumers.
As a consequence most are either losing money or at best barely breaking even. Not surprisingly this has led to increasing discontent with continuing with LNG pricing mechanisms based on a linkage to crude oil prices.


A ‘prospective’ Black Swan which is exercising minds from Moscow to Tokyo is the increasingly probability of the export of
significant volumes of LNG from the US.In part this builds onthe
second bullet whereby the emergence of shale gas growth post 2008 in the US rendered the 200 bcma of regas facilities constructed in North America almost redundant.These stranded assets however serve to provide a base for conversion to LNG export facilities at a lower incremental investment costs than
greenfield LNG projects in the rest of the world. We will return to this development and its possible consequences later in the paper.


What can be learned from the developments of the last 20 years in terms of regional gas markets and the
impact of unforeseen changes? We observed
that due to the low energy density of natural gas, regional
markets historically tended to develop in isolation LNG in its early (pre 2005) era tended to follow a ‘tramline’model with rigid long term contracts defining specific supplier to consuming country supply routes. Absent the ‘Black Swan’ events bulleted above we might reasonably have expected the status quo to have continued with the key natural gas consuming regions existing in parallel universes with their own specific contracting and price formation mechanisms. What these 
events did however, was to offer individual players the option to 
a) stick with established behaviours and incurlower financial rewards or even losses, or, b) take advantage of unforeseen
opportunities, even where this may require contract renegotiation or infrastructure investment. Enlightened
self-interest generally tends toward
s option b) and as in the wider history of commerce, inter-regional trade exerts a powerful influence on its participants as they adapt to changing circumstances. The evolutionary adaptation in response to the gas world Black Swans has set in motion a ‘Darwinian’ dynamic, currently playing out in Europe and potentially to be catalysed in Asia through US LNG exports.
What we can conclude from this can be summed up the following simple statements:
•The ‘old’ systems based on separate regional contracting structures and price formation mechanisms
were/are ‘fragile’ when faced with Black Swan events.
•Things change when buyer and seller both see value through inter-regional new trade opportunities.
•Things change when big players lose big money
_____________

I recommend you read the whole PDF, a good read..
But let me cut to the chase...Japan is going to be doing several things, these things Japan will do are a matter of financial survival..

Japan will restart their nuclear facilities.

Japan will have LNG futures linked the Henry Hub pricing in north America..
Just think about these scenarios,  Japan is going bankrupt over LNG prices, the people of Japan can`t afford higher energy prices, ..

Japan is the wealthiest per capita of any Asian country..Christy clucking Clark is talking about LNG to China and India..

Well Christy...if Japan and Japanese people can`t afford imported LNG, if Japanese electrical utility companies can`t afford LNG how do you expect India to afford high-priced LNG?...Those Indian`s average wage is 1/10 that of Japanese people, those 25 cent per hour garment workers, hundreds of millions surviving on $1 dollar per day, how much LNG can they buy?...And China....Russia has export capacity available and pipelines directly into China, ....and again, Chinese people make far less money per capita than the Japanese..

That Asian price premium in the future is gone....

Henry hub will in my opinion rise to $6 dollars and Europe and Asia`s LNG price will fall to $10 per BTU...

There is but one thing to remember about BC`s LNG fantasy..

"•Things change when buyer and seller both see value through inter-regional new trade opportunities.
•Things change when big players lose big money"

________

P.S....

A note to all my readers, I can be harsh and critical,  the Fraser institute and big industry have had their way for decades, corporations are getting wealthier and paying less tax, nation after nation is going deeper in debt, VAT taxes, consumer taxes, road tolls, services cut, pensions cut, we give more and more while receiving less and less...At one time one parent only was needed to work to support the family, now it is two parents working, less kids and more debt, British Columbia`s lower mainland has become a stagnant shithole, millionaires and peasants, families are leaving B.C..

Wildlife and green-spaces are becoming rare, species going extinct, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results....you know, like the corporates are going to take care of us, we just need to give more, take less and look the other way...

The Fraser institute and corporate powers are taking over, the false promise of jobs and prosperity if we just give them more, ...

Harvey Oberfeld is too old and stuck in a time warp to comment, a nice man but now delusional..

Without fresh water, salmon filled rivers, clear skies and breathable air, without those few items we will become another stinky hell-hole like Fort McMurray or a smoggy lung choking den of corruption like Beijing China.

Corporations don`t care about you or your children, and those close to the edge should shut their mouth..






The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Saturday, September 21, 2013

British Columbia Media, Blinded By Science, Or Stupidity Pills?




Written by Grant G

I really didn`t think it was possible but since the election of Christy Clark our media has become even more stoogier..

Perhaps Smyth, Palmer and Sean Leslie believe it`s trendy and neato to be a ditxy dummo like like Christy Clark, I mean really, how many Adrian Dix articles must one endure, let us be clear, very clear, Adrian Dix has been a dead duck since the election, it wasn`t a matter of if but when, Vaughn Palmer threw a hail Mary pass to save Adrian, ...Michael Smyth has been blathering about the election loss since that fateful day..

I wonder why the real issues facing British Columbia are being ignored, well...That answer is simple, Michael Smyth and Vaughn Palmer have been relegated to selling newspaper cookies door to door in a bid to save their jobs, therein lies your answer as to why the stupidity bug has infected our media, yes indeed, we must play nicey nicey with the BC Liberals for we need advertising $dollars.....Idiots, doesn`t the media realize that big advertising $dollars from Government are years away..

The Massey tunnel replacement, with a big 10 lane super bridge for the nominal price of $2 to $3 billion dollars, construction to start the week before the 2017 B.C. provincial election...???..Maybe..

Yet there is no money allocated, no business plan, no mention that any replacement bridge would have to be tolled, ..$5 dollars each way, $10 dollar round trip, and yes the Massey tunnel would be closed, blocked, there will be no free way to cross, ahh, except the Alex Fraser bridge, the free-alternative-a-mere-hour-out-of-evryone`s way crossing..

But yea, .Our life it will improve, by 2020 there will be a new crossing available, just seven more years until a new crossing is built(maybe)...And our astute media stooges ran with this story no questions asked, just like Christy`s election promises, ..our media, heads down counting gum stains on the floor, hands in pockets and stenograph at the ready, for when one reports a bogus political press release accuracy matters, does it not Dirk Meissner?....

And more from Dr. Dirk, the repeater of political spin Meissner...imagine this, a revenue sharing deal between rural communities and the province, sharing mythical LNG revenues...I wonder if anyone noticed there still isn`t one shovel in the ground, no final investment decisions..Christy Clark is promising revenue sharing on a industry that doesn`t exist, this imaginary revenue will be used to build northern city infrastructure and hospitals to service the hundreds of thousands of LNG workers..Even Robin Austin, the useless NDP critic, ..oh indeed, Robin Austin was previously the NDP critic on education, a role he relished, and ketchuped, and dined out on, yet delivered nothing for public education, now Robin(BC`s version of Herve Villechaize from Fantasy Island)..is also a plane and train spotter...



Robin Austin, a Christy Clark bootlicker, a failure, how on earth can this clown pretend LNG is real when there is nothing, no shovels, no deals, no concrete, we have major energy companies who want massive tax relief, royalty relief, capital building write-off relief and Robin Austin is standing on the corner like a badly dressed hooker asking for revenue sharing...My gawd, Robin Austin believes LNG is real because by george, he spotted a jet aircraft in the north..only LNG people fly in jets..

__________

"Generally speaking, now there's tonnes and tonnes of industrial development taking place in the northwest, and it is a region of the province that has been really hard done-by historically and is in a huge deficit in terms of infrastructure," said Austin, the NDP's natural gas critic.
The Haisla bridge over the Kitimat River that links the community to an industrial area where work is underway on a Rio Tinto aluminum smelter upgrade and the site of proposed LNG plants is in need of a refit because there are concerns it cannot withstand the weight of constant truck crossings, he said.

"There's a lot of work to be done, but it has to be done quickly because we are already feeling the incredible effects of all of this activity," said Austin.
"There is a huge demand on services, but we have very limited hospital services in the northwest. We have very limited school services. We have very limited transportation. Right now, everything is being stretched and we're not even close to a final investment decision on an LNG plant."
At the UBCM on Friday, Clark said the government will fund grants totalling $150,000 to northwest communities to perform needs assessments to study the impacts that LNG developments could have on community water and sewer systems, roads, health, safety and social systems.
Prince Rupert, Kitimat, Terrace, Port Edward and the Kitimat-Stikine and Skeena-Queen Charlotte regional districts are eligible to apply for the grants under a community, sport and cultural development ministry infrastructure planning program, said Clark.
"We're going to work with you to assess your needs for housing, water, sewer, health, education and justice," Clark told UBCM delegates. "This is just the first step in this process. We need to continue to work together so that communities can meet the challenges of growth."
Clark's Liberals say LNG development in northern B.C. could translate into a trillion-dollar economic opportunity that generates 100,000 jobs. The government is currently drafting tax laws to earn revenues from the proposed developments.
Prior to the May election, Clark announced the creation of a prosperity fund the government plans to develop from oil and gas revenues. She said the fund has the potential to help wipe out the province's debt within 15 years.
B.C. debt is currently more than $62 billion.
Austin said he and members of the Terrace council and the Terrace-Stikine Regional District met with Clark and discussed a revenue-sharing proposal she announced during the campaign.
Austin said the municipal leaders and the province are looking at an area-wide agreement similar to provincial revenue-sharing deals in place for the oil and gas sector in the northeast and the Columbia Basin Trust in the Kootenays.
"The (municipal leaders) want to be part of the conversation on this agreement around revenue sharing," he said. "They don't want something that's just worked out down in Victoria and then imposed."
Austin said local leaders want their communities to be better prepared for what appears to be an oncoming surge of new residents.
Northwest politicians are already feeling population growth pressures and they "don't want to end up with a Fort McMurray, where we hear stories about what happened with the boom there and the community wasn't ready and it got overrun.
"We don't want that to happen."
Federal International Trade Minister Ed Fast told UBCM delegates Friday that Ottawa supports infrastructure development projects that will help ensure Canada's oil and gas resources find new markets.
Fast told reporters after his speech to delegates he was not about to say how the federal Conservative government will react if a federal joint environmental review panel rejects the proposed $6 billion Northern Gateway pipeline project from Alberta to northwest B.C. to export oil to Asia, but Ottawa remains committed to supporting infrastructure development.
"We've made it very clear that we need to put in place infrastructure, the critical infrastructure, that's required to get Canada's resources out to market so that we can enhance the value that we receive for these resources," he said.
Austin said Terrace and Kitimat are already in a midst of what he called a pre-boom and none of the proposed LNG projects is even at the go-ahead stage.
"If you go to the Terrace-Kitimat airport now, Air Canada used to have three return flights a day. They went to five flights a day now and West Jet is in here in November," Austin said.

"This is huge. We haven't had jets flying into Terrace for 10 to 12 years."

 http://www.vancouversun.com/mobile/news/vancouver/premier+meets+with+northern+leaders+about+revenuesharing+deal/8937203/story.html

__________

I wonder what those jets were doing in Terrace 10 or 12 years ago..they must have been laden with LNG workers and energy executives..

Hey Robin Austin.."Da plane, da plane"....Well, I wonder if Robin Austin has seen the jobs report, we keep losing jobs, we rank near last place in Canada in job growth, people are leaving British Columbia and yet..

And yet Robin Austin must have consumed a double-dose of Christy Clark stupidity pills....

Oh goody, a new toll bridge over the Fraser river by 2020 and or a LNG industry by 2023...isn`t that special..

My money is on neither happening..

Lastly...Adrian Dix`s replacement..George Heyman..The previous head of a public union...I don`t think so, just hand another term of power to the corrupt BC Liberals..David Eby, a man who when was employed by the B.C. civil liberties defended the notorious blackhoods, you know, the ones who smashed windows at the beginning of our 2010 Olympics...Hand over another term to the BC Liberals..Mike Farnworth????...I respect you Mike, you are a hardworking MLA..However, the Bible belt and those bigoted B.C voters won`t vote for a gay man...cue the family photos, children, typical traditional family photos, the church, faith and the future..Just imagine what the haters like Jim Sheppard and Phil Hochstein will do with Mike Farnworth..

There is only one choice at present for new NDP leader, his name is John Horgan..

Anyway, how are you, my little boat project has turned into a little bit more..

She needs to be sea worthy for a trip through Hecate Strait and a date in Kitimat..

And lastly...Robin Austin..Keep on looking skyward, da plane, da plane is loaded with revenue sharing dollars..

Enjoy the stoogier pills, talk to Smitty, I hear Michael Smyth has a source for lifetime stoogier pill prescriptions.





The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open



Friday, September 13, 2013

Christy Clark Walkin And Talkin Tough While Donning Jackboots


 Above picture is Tony Abbott, Christy Clark`s newest mortal enemy, is it me or..or does Tony Abbott have a devious never lose look about him, contrast that with Christy Clark who still struggles with the English language, .."ya know, ya think", ..


Who wins that argument, well...Oh, who is Tony Abbott?...Details are at the bottom..

_____________

Christy Clark putting on the Jack boots...

Smart Meters Financial Assault Or Political Suicide 


Smart meter diaries, yes indeed, first off, this proposed $35 dollar per month fee to read my analog meter will not be tolerated, BC Hydro for years and years haven`t sent out a person to read my meter or anyone`s meter once a month, billing is every two months and up here in Garden Bay, and at my Mom`s home in Burnaby months go by when no one comes to read our meters, estimations are sent out, estimations which end up being corrected up or down at later dates..

The BCUC has yet to approve any meter reading fees and...And if a meter reading fee is enacted my bill will be paid...Paid $35 dollars shy, or $70 dollars every two months and if BC Hydro cuts me off the grid so be it, I have batteries and a good generator.

People have the ability to rewad their own meter and once, maybe twice per year does anyone from BC Hydro need to confirm the usage amount, in fact there are hundreds if not thousands of people in British Columbia who read their own meters and relay that information to BC Hydro..And more, a Fortis representative has to read your natural gas meter and report the usage every two months, this person was already reading BC Hydro analog meter at the same time, in other words BC Hydro isn`t sending a meter reader now..And I am in the possession of dozens of BC Hydro bills where the statement confirms that the stated usage bill is but a .."Estimate"

So now Christy Clark wants to Jackboots average British Columbians, she wants to now read their meter once a month when for decades a mere reading every two months was sufficient...Dozens of BC Hydro bills in my possession that state estimate, and those bills were notoriously high, BC Hydro months later adjusted the bills back when finally a real reading took place, albeit from the Natural gas reader..

So Christy Clark now wants to read my meter 12 times per year when in the past BC Hydro read our meter a mere 3 times per year...Also, this threatening letter was sent out months before the BCUC has had a chance to review the smart meter reading issue..

Let me be clear, BC Hydro does not come to your home once a month, at most every two months, and for some, 3 times per year, there are thousands of British Columbians who read their own meters, is the BC Government now going to p[ay these private home and business owners $35 dollars a month to read their meter, something they have done for free for years???

Hear me clearly Christy Clark...If you are going to send a meter reader once a month to my home, I want a knock on the door as proof this person is coming for real, and, ...And this person can`t be the same person who is reading my natural gas meter...

And a little math, the Christy Clark Jackboots Government is proposing collecting $30 million dollars per year from those who rejected smart meter, that is enough money to pay for nearly 400 BC Hydro meter readers...Before smart meters were forced upon British Columbia by the BC Liberals...BC Hydro employed a total off 500 meters readers for the entire province, 500 meters readers to service 4 million people, to 2 million hydro electric installations with analog meters..

Christy Clark`s Liberals are claiming they need the equivalent income, enough money to pay for 400 meter readers to read a mere 60,000 meters, ...Before smart meters BC Hydro was spending $40 million per year to read in excess of 1 million analog meters...

For some strange reason meter reading has become 20 times more expensive under Christy Clark..

I wonder why..

I will gladly go off the grid, not only won`t I pay the money to BC Hydro..

My neighbors will be thrilled having to hear a generator running at the strangest times, like in the middle of the night..

Looks like you better have a fall session in Victoria and enact hew laws regarding noise bylaws, of course there is no law regarding running generators during the day, bylaw be damned, batteries can be charged during daytime too..

I be writing fulltime again soon my friends, been real busy, ..

A couple of minor points, still nothing happening with LNG, nothing but more bad news, BC Group has put off their FID(final investment decision) until late 2016 and Chevron has put off their FID until 2015..in other words nothing is happening, even Petronas is delaying, they are attempting to divest themselves of another 40% of their British Columbia nat gas position..

And there was even more devastating news for BC on LNG....Australia had a Federal election, Mr. Abbott won a big majority, the Government changed hands, that means a proposed industrial carbon tax that the out going(now gone) Government was going to bring in is now history, gone, and there is also a termination of even more resource taxation, industry got their man elected, basically a Stephen Harper type, all business with little thought to anything, an oil n gas man is now in charge down-under..

Australia is vying for a secondary wave of floating LNG investment...Shell is already building a floating facility, ..Australia is extending major capital building tax credits and labour relief for this second wave of LNG investment..in a nutshell, that means that Christry Clark has to go rock-bottom to attract any LNG investment to British Columbia, because, we don`t have a Federal natural gas capital building cost tax credit like Australia has..What that means is..in Australia LNG export plant builders can write off their build cost in 7 years, in Canada it would take 30 years..

So..That my friends is one of the main reasons a fall session of the legislature has been canceled, there is no LNG taxation framework agreed upon, and there is no rush because ..

There will be no LNG shovel in the ground before 2017....And one more thing.

I have it on good authority that northeast BC natural gas is going to be piped to the gulf coast of the USA, from there exported to wherever..BC Gas will be what is called is "Feedstock"...
_________


Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has confirmed categorically – for the first time – that he would break the Coalition's pledge on greenhouse reduction targets if it cost more money than he had budgeted for.
Mr Abbott also branded the election a referendum on the carbon tax and said it would be “unimaginable” for a defeated Labor Party to stop him repealing the tax.
The Opposition Leader spent about 15 minutes of a 20 minute address to the National Press Club hammering Labor on the carbon tax. If elected the Coalition would repeal the tax within its first year in government, Mr Abbott promised.

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“A Coalition victory, should it happen, will be a warning from alienated Labor voters to their leaders,” Mr Abbott declared. “Never again sell Labor's soul to another party.”

But when asked how he could repeal the carbon tax without calling a double dissolution election – given Labor and the Greens would likely block his repeal – Mr Abbott said he thought Labor would accept his “mandate”.
“It's unimaginable that a defeated Labor Party would persist with a carbon tax,” Mr Abbott said.

“Having lost one election through support for a carbon tax, why on God's earth would you lose a second supporting the same failed policy?”
Mr Abbott confirmed he was prepared to break the Coalition's pledge to cut Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 5 per cent by 2020 (on the levels recorded in 2000

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/tony-abbott-willing-to-break-emissions-pledge-over-funding-hole-20130902-2t0fh.html#ixzz2epwtf0ts

________

Anywho, the next big LNG fact-telling, ball-busting, Christy Cluck clobbering article should be up by Monday morning..

One last point, any rumors of Adrian Dix fighting to stay on as leader and possibly getting another shot at an election win are false, it`s Vaughn Palmer and other backdoor BC Liberals who are promoting this fallacy...If Adrian Dix and Moe Sihota aren`t both gone voluntarily, or within days of our fall convention this site and others will go on the attack against the NDP..

Survival sometimes means cutting off the diseased sections, lopping off the growing gangrene to save the body..Or to quote First officer Spock in the film ...Wrath of Khan..

"The Needs Of The Many Outweigh The Needs Of The Few"

Time is up Adrian Dix, no soup, no salad, no second shot at premier....

John Horgan, a passionate, wife loving, children bearer, no baggage, stable, firm on his feet, great speaker, wit, charm and a man with the..

...Courage of his convictions..John Horgan has to be the new leader, he wants it, he deserves it, and more importantly, he can win..

Talk to ya soon



The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Fascism And Contemporary Canada...Part Three. Canada’s First Nations and TEPCO.





Fascism And Contemporary Canada. Locating The Conservative Government Of Canada Led By Stephen Harper. Part Three.  Canada’s First Nations and TEPCO.

Written by rmathews@telus.net

Two major disasters point to the Canadian Conservative government lock-in to blind neo-liberal policy … which appears more and more to the world as disguised fascism (the uniting of governments and corporations to exploit resources and repress populations in pursuit of private profit).  The first disaster – which is political - is pointed to by Russell Diabo (First Nations Strategic Bulletin: June-October 2012). He writes an article entitled “Harper Launches Major First Nations Termination Plan….”

The second disaster – a full-scale nuclear ecological disaster - is given a quaint twist in Vancouver’s 24 Hours newspaper. (Sept.9, 2013, p.3).  In an article devoted to sculpture about to be shown at Vancouver’s Aquarium, Michael Mui reports that it comes largely from the Japanese tsunami of March 2011.

But Michael Mui doesn’t mention the earthquake that caused the tsunami. Nor does he mention the Fukashima nuclear catastrophe arising from the earthquake and tsunami – all connected - all involved in creation of the floating debris (and what else?) washing up on B.C.’s coast. Was Mui under orders from the PMO? The PMO, it seems, has never heard of the Fukashima nuclear meltdown on the edge of the Pacific Ocean shared by Canada – a meltdown which grows worse and worse with each passing hour – and has been doing so for more than two years.

Both disasters involve key environmental questions – as we shall see.  And both – strangely – are connected to Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA. Allegations are that the U.S. National Security Agency (target of Snowden’s revelations) fed data to specific other allies, Canada included.  And the operations of U.S.N.S.A. have been more and more connected to “the risk of civil unrest at home triggered by catastrophic events linked to climate change, energy shocks or economic crisis – or all three” (theguardian.com, jun 14). 2013).

A pattern begins to appear. Bulldoze anyone preventing energy exploitation.  Disintegrate any organizations that demand action on climate change, extraction pollution, or on specific “natural catastrophes”. That means, in Canada that (a) organizations freely expressing opinions become “enemies”. (b) Organizations with historical rights over land/development must be erased. (c) Claims  of the citizenry to responsible regulation and information must be denied. (d) Governments must underplay and/or deny outright catastrophes … like the one at Fukashima.

Among the kinds of target groups we are talking about who have to be dealt with are environmentalists, anti-fracking organizations, First Nations, and even the general population when it becomes seriously engaged in demanding action on the results/implications of climate change or major disasters.

The Conservative government’s determination to terminate the existence of the First Nations is expressed in a number of recent bills attacking and undermining various aspects of First Nations integrity. Summing up the assault, Russell Diabo alleges the Conservative government of Canada made clear its intention in 2012, and Bill C45. Constitutional experts have described Omnibus Bills like Bill C-45 as distinctly and intentionally destructive of democracy in Canada.

But well before that, the long negotiated and completed Accord between all major levels of government in Canada and major First Nations representatives – called the Kelowna Accord (2005) – about to provide a renaissance for First Nations peoples - was stopped dead in its tracks by the new minority Conservative government led by Stephen Harper. Not only did the government stop action on the Accord, but denied it was changing policy.

The word “racism” is an inflammatory word to use at any time.
But the consistently anti-First Nations attitudes, policies, and actions of the present Conservative government look more and more like a concentrated attack on a minority racial group with the clear intention to harm, oppress, and insult it.

First Nations people (a) attempt to preserve the environment (b) sound alarm bells about climate change (c) call into question deregulation and government by Corporations (d) and they have – constitutionally – real powers over (especially) land not ceded to modern, euro-Canadians governments. 

Russell Diabo sums up the Bills in parliament and other Conservative actions as a signalling of the intention of the present Conservative government to “(1) Focus all its efforts to assimilate First Nations into the existing federal and provincial orders of government of Canada”; and to “(2) Terminate the constitutionally protected and internationally recognized inherent Aboriginal and Treaty rights of First Nations.”

Global expert on the history of ‘first peoples’ since European Expansion, Anthony Hall describes the process as a series of actions “to dismantle existing machinery of federal environmental protection and federal responsibility for ‘Indians and lands reserved for the Indians’ so that Canada’s natural resources can be more quickly exploited by foreign corporations….” (Anthony Hall, “Flanagan’s Last Stand”, Veterans Today.)

The Conservative government attack on First Nations is powerful, organized, staged, propagandized. Only coordinated resistance by First Nations and their growing number of allies in Canada will prevent the full-scale disaster intended by government in league with private corporations. The mass ‘day of action’ called for by First Nations organizations on October 7, 2013 must be a beginning. 

That day marks the 250th birthday of the famous Royal Proclamation issued by George the Third to defend the rights of indigenous peoples in North America in 1763. It demanded (among other things) that no First Nations land could be alienated from ownership without full negotiation, record, and participation of all the people involved.  The Royal Proclamation is a part of Canadian law, and it has been elaborated by courts and legislation (and the repatriated constitution) since.

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 is not a part of U.S. law.  One of the reasons for the U.S. War for Independence (1776) was that country’s rejection of the Royal Proclamation. In the 19th century, the U.S. made clear the status of people native to the land upon the arrival of Europeans. They were named a conquered people, possessing only such rights as the conqueror chooses to confer upon them. Racism rarely has clearer expression.

The Conservative government of Canada, we may conclude, wishes to place Canadian First Nations in the same strait jacket. 

Across the productive map of Canada and in almost every environmental area the present Conservative government led by Stephen Harper has cut, reduced, and/or redefined regulation … downward.  Doing so assists one class only – the wealthy class which profits from a de-regulated society.

Deregulation assists that class and it assists the forces it controls. One of those forces is the U.S.N.S.A. (National Security Agency) which has been spying on millions of people globally to guard (as already quoted above) against “the risk of civil unrest at home triggered by catastrophic events linked to climate change, energy shocks, or economic crisis – or all three.”

The Canadian Conservative government has conducted a two-prong policy of support for global corporations (the wealthy class)  as de facto government.  The first prong has been deregulation and the frontal attack on all First Nations rights and freedoms in order to open all doors to unregulated extraction of Canadian resource wealth and the unregulated exploitation of labour in Canada.

The second prong has been a policy of silence (where possible) and a policy of denial of (a) climate change (b) pollution from energy extraction and transport, and (c) the effects of industrial catastrophe.

Quickly and simply.  The Tokyo Electric Power Corporation (TEPCO, a private corporation) was completely in charge of the Japanese Fukashima Nuclear facility.  It appears to have failed to maintain safety standards before the disaster ... or even to take account of safety needs.  It seems, as well, to have been unable to manage the effects of the earthquake and tsunami. It appears to have misinformed the public about problems and to have, quite simply, lied about contaminated water flowing into the Pacific Ocean. The local result may be that more Japanese are harmfully effected than TEPCO or the Japanese government will admit.

That government’s desire to host the Olympics in 2020 (and to “save face”) may explain its more than two year failure to act and its now possibly band-aid intervention in the disaster. TEPCO has generated almost no confidence whatever among nuclear specialists world-wide.

Finally, On August 26, 2013, the Japanese government took over emergency operations at Fukashima, having lost faith in the ability (or willingness?) of TEPCO to contain the devastation.  But not before growing problems have occurred – one of them being the leakage into the Pacific Ocean of highly toxic nuclear materials.

Quickly and simply. The disaster has been and is an international one, evoking almost no serious international response.

The Canadian government has taken no precautions whatever, has put into place no nuclear pollution registering facilities in Canadian waters (or elsewhere), and tries to avoid the issue altogether.  When confronted, it asserts it receives information from Japan – a source about information on the disaster that is less and less trusted in the world.

As is the case with its secret negotiation of international economic treaties harmful to the well-being (and even the Constitution) of Canada, Conservative government handling of the Fukashima disaster is a major Breach of Trust.

There is not the slightest doubt that the Canadian Conservative government should have a clear, examinable program of Pacific waters nuclear (and atmospheric) testing, reporting the results monthly (at least) to the Canadian public. 

There is no doubt the failure of the Canadian government is tied to its support of corporations like TEPCO and its determination to undercut and destroy scientific oversight of the Canadian environment on behalf of corporate profit.  There is very little doubt that its wholesale failure to monitor the disaster for Canadians is connected to the global intentions of U.S.N.S.A. to keep information from the public that might cause it to question policy and to take action to assure public safety.

The attack of the Conservative government of Canada upon the First Nations is a disaster – and it may result in other disasters not yet thought about. The attack has produced a ticking time bomb….

The refusal of the Conservative government of Canada to act on behalf of Canadians in the matter of the Fukashima nuclear disaster
is a shameful Breach of Trust. It may result in serious harm to the population and the environment.  If so, the cover-up will only inflame Canadians … and God only knows what the outcome of that will be.


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The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Friday, September 6, 2013

Fascism and Contemporary Canada. Part Two: The Strangulation Of Democracy in Canada. The New Global Partnerships.


Written by Robin Mathews 



Fascism and Contemporary Canada. Locating The Present Conservative Government Led By Stephen Harper.  Part Two: The Strangulation Of Democracy in Canada. The New Global Partnerships.

Calling it the Conservative government of Canada is probably a big mistake. Canadian Conservatives are learning that mistake.  The Conservative government of Canada is, rather, a gathering of goons determined to end democracy in Canada and to replace it with a police state, a “new thing”, a partnership of global corporations and an  “inside junta” of compliant Canadians – backed by an increasingly violent police force. (See Part Four, to come.)  The Conservative government of Canada will not do an Adolf Hitler. He famously burned down the Reichstag (the German Parliament Buildings) in 1933.  In the confusion that followed, he blamed the Communists and seized dictatorial power. We know the rest.

“The Conservative Government of Canada” is not about to burn down the buildings on Parliament Hill. Instead, they are burning up democracy inside Parliament … and outside of it. The Opposition Parties, for the most part, sit – almost quietly by - as if unconcerned. 

Even the one sharp eye on Ottawa affairs, Green Party leader Elizabeth May – in an attempt to see the gathering of goons and trained seals as a normal political party – recently wrote a piece, “The Third Prorogation” for The Island Tides newspaper (Aug 29, 2013, p.3) claiming it was … okay.  The prorogation is, in fact, being undertaken in an attempt to cover up the fascist legislation of the Spring, to erase the Senate Scandal involving top Senators and top people in the PMO (which means, remember, the PRIME MINISTER’S Office), and to allow the government in power to pretend it is adopting “ a new look” and a new attitude to governing.

Elizabeth May suggests the prorogation is pretty normal and not something to sweat about. That would be true, perhaps, in pretty normal times. But these are times when the government in power is violating Canadian freedoms and smashing at parliamentary democracy every day.  It CANNOT be going for prorogation (the ending of a parliamentary session and the beginning of another) innocently.  It does not act innocently in any matter that concerns the conduct of Canadian democracy.

“The Senate Scandal”, by the way, is part of “the new order”. Following Adolf Hitler’s “cool” practice to stay within the law, to use the law, to twist the law, Stephen Harper took over what was for him the hated Senate and set it to work to help destroy parliamentary democracy.  That is why the Scandal matters so much. It was not just a scattering of egotists feathering their own nests. It was the working out of an anti-democratic strategy to use Senators as Party Henchmen charged with fund-raising, Party propaganda, and other questionable activities.

It was a part of the strategy to keep Canadians off balance and to build “the new order” in Canada. As in past history, relentlessly and tragically, the Opposition tries to see the gathering of goons as a “normal” government. The Senate became, for the Conservative government of Canada, a place to locate active, unscrupulous, full-time campaigners and actors for the Party Lie.  The 2006 Election Fraud was overseen, remember, by two or three Conservative Senators who barely escaped being fingered, and charged.

The ‘big name’ Senators being thrown under the Party bus at present appear to have been told by the prime minister and his coterie in the Senate to do what they wanted, to spend what they wanted, and to fiddle accounts as best suited to cover-up. That may well be the reason Stephen Harper rarely speaks the truth about the Senate Scandal.

The Senate is just one card in the neo-fascist deck … which produces apparently incomprehensible tricks almost daily.  Remember the 2006 election fraud – proved against the Conservative Party of Canada? Remember the 200 page ‘booklet’ issued to teach Conservative MPs how to prevent Parliament from operating, to show how to stack Committees? Remember the 2011 Election Robo-Call frauds (still festering, still being covered up)? Remember the allegations of document tampering at the highest levels – Tony Clement over G8 business, Bev Oda and the Kairos’ (aid group’s) document? And the Conservative altering of a report by then Auditor General Sheila Fraser to steal praise for the Liberals and apply it to the Conservative government?

Remember the on-going destruction of institutions and laws that can fairly inform Canadians about the state of the country: the long-form census process destroyed; the already bad whistle-blowing legislation destroyed; the gagging of science researchers; the attempt to kill environmental review; smear campaigns against organizations and individuals who disagree with Conservative policy; the slashing of CBC; the “lap-dogging” of the RCMP and the RCMP Commissioner; the destruction of the Experimental Lakes Area program; the slashing of emissions-monitoring from power plants, and of the regulation of lakes, of fish stocks and oceans; and – to be discussed in another column – the refusal to test for nuclear contamination in Canada and the on-going, untiring effort to erase the First Nations from Canada, thereby destroying a search for fairness that began with The Royal Proclamation in 1763.

Think … just think of Forest Ethics Advocacy and Clayton Ruby, distinguished legal mind, taking a case against the Conservative government for attempting to strangle debate on public issues. The new rules set out for National Energy Board hearings are blatantly repressive and a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Forest Ethics argues, and they want the Federal Court of Canada to throw them out.  The case concerns the most simple and basic rights of Canadians to be heard, to express their ideas and opinions freely about major developments in the country.  The Conservative government wishes to strangle that freedom….

All the above – and more - has been evident to Canadians, even though as a scatter-gun attack on Canadian democracy. What is the purpose?  Where is it leading?

It is leading to a partnership, a coalition, an integration of chosen Canadians occupying (elected or not) government offices uniting with global corporations seeking to exploit Canadian resources without regulation and to use labour in Canada stripped of rights and protections.

Is the goal clear?  At one level the on-going integration of Canada with the U.S.A. seems to move steadily ahead.  Spokespeople for Canadian government habitually refer to an alliance with the U.S.A. in which they see Canada as a faithful, subservient partner.  There is, undoubtedly, a preference for international agreements in which the subjection of the Canadian people to global corporate demands is connected to U.S. corporate participation.

The recent, strange association of Verizon and the Canadian government reveals that.  Who began the overtures?  It may well have been the Canadian government – otherwise Verizon probably wouldn’t have moved so quickly and easily out of plans for Canada.  That would mean the Conservative government of Canada didn’t want to punish the big three: BCE, Telus, and Rogers Communications. It wanted to replace them by bringing in a U.S. global corporation larger than all three put together. Verizon could lower the cost to users. steal the market, wipe out the Big Three … and then raise rates and pauperize employees.

Despite the apparent no-questions-asked U.S. connection, the wily gathering of goons that acts as Canadian government at the present wants all the hatches battened. What if the U.S. loses its position in the world and becomes, in fact, bankrupt, or is unable to head up organizations to exploit resources and people?  Or goes soft on neo-liberal repression? That’s where the (almost secret) other economic giveaways to foreign interests are being negotiated.   That’s where the strange and secretly negotiated potential resource ownership of Canadian riches by Chinese exploiters comes in (FIPA) – with Canadian claims adjudicated by business panels appointed outside Canada with greater power than Canadian governments.

That’s where (secret from Canadian parliamentarians) The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) comes in – with the proviso that the U.S. could be shifted out in a crisis. That is where the recent bizarre and disturbing agreement between Canada and China to share military information and activities comes in. Those lines are out even while the giveaway to European corporations is being negotiated. (CETA).

Only Russia seems to have been left out of the race by the Conservative government of Canada to give away power over Canadian wealth and over the right of Canadians to decide the structure of their economy, their laws and patterns of behaviour.  With consummate diplomatic bad taste Stephen Harper and John Baird regularly insult Russia’s president Vladimir Putin.

That may be because the present Conservative government in Canada finds itself considerably Right of the government in the U.S.A.  That awakens Canadian cabinet members to think of other alliances more congenial, more committed to repression and the erasure of human rights. China looks attractive ….

And … this government surfaces apparently bizarre policies and statements of non-fact that seem to be simply looney. Consider: the Conservative cabinet has declared a serious mismatch between skills and jobs.  As a result various kinds of “temporary worker” influx become credible, more permanent foreign worker influx does, too, and with the new Canada Job Grant program, the federal government appears to be doing something large – as well as putting money in the hands of employers (always a policy of this government).

Wonderful, except Don Drummond, economist (and others) say it’s all cosmetics. “He hasn’t found a shred of credible evidence that Canada has a serious mismatch between skills and jobs.” (Carol Goar, The Toronto Star, 08/26/13). Nor can anyone find any plan for serious federal representatives to meet, listen to, and consult with provincial counterparts on the program!

It gets worse.  The Lac Megantic catastrophe sets out Conservative government policy for all who wish to read it.  Policy, there before our eyes, is to shred regulation, shred information available to Canadians, destroy scientific information sources, and to close down oversight. Then when a Lac Megantic disaster happens, Conservative government cautions everyone to be patient, to wait for the scientific evidence to come in (as Stephen Harper did on the site), to depend on the regulatory body that many believe the federal government has gagged, bribed, and strangled.

Behind the scenes, Port Metro Vancouver is preparing for a gigantic increase in tanker traffic out of the port of Vancouver.  Even bragging about it’s capacity! The port has, in fact, dangerously, “600 kilometres of shoreline bordering 16 municipalities and several aboriginal communities”. (Barbara Yaffe, Vanc. Sun, Aug 26,13).  Ocean dumping of oil of all qualities is almost impossible to manage – as the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster and the Exxon Valdez spill have proved. Canadian dollar insurance demands are, anyway, useless. And the amount of oil spill allowed for in present ‘regulations’ is a joke.

Guess who presides over regulation there?  You guessed it: Transport Canada, the lapdog of the present Conservative government which – with that government’s approval – set up the conditions to level Lac Megantic, kill dozens of its citizens, pollute the area disastrously – and possess no way to force the evil-doers to pay for clean up. It’s called Conservative government protection of the Canadian population while working for large private corporations. That is completely consistent with Elizabeth May’s allegation that the federal government is using taxpayers’ money to “subsidize oil-pipeline environmental studies that should have been” completed by Enbridge, darling of the Conservative government (“Tories …”, Vanc. Metro, Sept. 5, 13).

Corporations around the world wear the same face. They exploit the natural resources belonging to others.  They pauperize and repress local labour and remove the rights of the resident population wherever they can. They fight regulation of every kind. They buy governments or make partnerships with them to provide for invisible transfers of profit. They care nothing for culture, for the environment, for people, for history, for the survival of the planet.  They care about wealth. They want to rule the world, without impediment or regulation.  The Conservative government of Canada wants to help them rule the world without impediment or regulation. In the process of reaching that goal – as the present Conservative government of Canada knows - Canada and Canadian democracy must, in effect, be erased.

And so, with perfect logic, the present Conservative government of Canada is working to erase Canadian democracy ...  as a start.


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The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Dad`s Boat


I apologize that no new articles have been posted in some time and I will try and write one in the next couple of days....


Up here in Garden Bay the boat the Wyndover III is well-known..And lately the old girl is feeling little rundown, that is about to change..



What started as routine maintenance has turned into a complete engine rebuild, anyone familiar with boats knows there is little room to work with, this boat has twin 350 chevy motors with all the extra added marine devices, such as heat exchangers...

It was running rough, checked carb..checked plugs and distributer, finally removed valves covers to discover a bent pushrod...oh oh..

That means blood, sweat and tears, and a bunch of money(which I don`t have but will manage)...

Everything has to come off and be taken apart..intake manifolds off, exhaust manifolds off, water pump, heat exchangers, crankshaft pulley, balancer, heads off, in other words..

There is no way to hoist an engine out of this boat and I have not the money to hire experts with equipment to do the repairs..

I am not a mechanic but I can think, read and watch youtube videos, ...

This was Dad`s boat and...

And I know he is looking down on me and is proud, all this stuff he taught and to do and the traits he passed on, that being dogged determination to git er done..

So besides getting the heads milled, I am putting in new manifolds, heat exchanger, water pump, ...with engines apart spent days removing rust, then degreasing, engines painted, engine rooms painted..

So having taken on this project...I decided to do it all...Meaning the outside too..Days of sanding weather and wood stain off of the old growth fir sides..

Trim removed, glass taken out, a new back fiberglassed deck, this 37 foot boat is being restored to its former glory...

Old school, beautiful wood sanded and oiled with teak oil, new trim and polished and waxed fiberglass....

Like so many other boats of time gone by, and not just boats but cars, hobby projects, homes and the like, children and offspring let go the past, they sell, dispose of and move on, or just let it rot to the ground...

That will not be permitted to happen..

I don`t know how much money it will cost....hundreds of hours of back-busting labour and counting, I`m far from done..

Having dad looking down smiling with fatherly pride..

Priceless..


The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open