I just knew there was a reason the maple leaf is RED! Have you ever seen a RED MAPLE LEAF in real life? Of course not. Here’s proof why the maple leaf is red:
Nationalize oil firms, almost half of Canadians say
Montreal — Almost half of Canadians wanted to see their petroleum resources and their gas companies nationalized as fuel prices hit record levels, a new poll suggests. (Globe & Mail)
The V.P. of O.I.L. (below) will not like this one bit. He’s probably on the phone with Rummie and the Pentagon to polish the plans for the invasion of Canada. (John Candy, our nation turns its greedy eyes to you!) They have oil, and we want it for ourselves! As we know, there’s only ONE WAY to get the oil, and that’s to TAKE IT!
Say, did you hear that that that Castro puppet Chavez seized the Heinz plant in Venezuela? Watch it, Hugo. We bleed red, white and blue for our ketchup! …
In truth, the Heinz plant has been closed for years. “‘The governor decided to seize the plant so it can be protected from looters and later be put to use,’ Rivero said.”
headed by Rene Levesque thought that the seizure of Hydro Quebec by the people, nationalizing it, would be the answer to many problems. As Levesque himself later wrote, he thought that the unions would never strike against their own company. WRONG.
Oil and Gas are mainly located in Alberta, the richest province headed by an entrenched right-wing government. Most of the rest of Canada don’t think AB Premier Ralph Klein should have control of all that energy wealth. Catnip could fill you in on Ralph Klein et al.
I could but my head would probably explode. He was on the teevee today saying that he can’t lower gas taxes because there may come a day when the bottom falls out of the market. That’s the kind of ignorant crap this province has been dealing with for far too long. Damn conservatives. Our surplus due to all of this oil money is pegged at over $2 billion and we are now debt free thanks to Klein cutting and slashing every possible social program, including health and education, since the early 90s. People have suffered terribly and here he is warning about a bloody recession! Holy flipping tight-ass, greedy crap, Batman! Seriously…
(head_explosion_warning_system_elevated)
lately? He is a corpulent greedy pig. And I do mean that.
Are you kidding? He could only handle that when he was drunk. 🙂
I’d say that this poll shows that Canadians don’t have a clue about oil. While there may be advantages to nationalizing the oil companies, low gasoline price isn’t one of them.
If anything, the managers of a nationalized energy system would probably look at the supply situation and say “Oh, sh*t, we are screwed!” And then jack up the gas price even more.
Are you arguing that privatization is a better solution in general?
(That’s not an attack question … I’m just confused since we so often bemoan the privatization of electricity, water, etc.)
No, I’m not saying one way or the other about privatization. The oil industry is a VERY COMPLICATED business and in my opinion jumping to a conclusion based on general arguments is pretty risky. One–like myself–who is not familiar with, for example, the details of the special meaning of the word “participation” in oil markets, is probably better off to not have a position.
All I’m saying is that today’s “high” price of gasoline is a direct result of our using up of the available oil. Privatizing the oil industry might make a small temporary change, but the underlying cost of oil–and gasoline–is not primarily a result of public versus private ownership of the infrastructure.
Well, I’ll confess to not knowing all that much about the inner workings of the oil market, and I’m not a Canadian, either, so my opinion on the nationalization of Canadian oil is neither here nor there, as I’m neither qualified to have one in the first place, or entitled to have one in the second.
As for the nationalization of industries in general, I have a few observations to make. (Disclaimer: I actually am an honest-to-god communist.)
Prices, incidentally, are not the thing you should be concerned about when contemplating nationalization of natural resources. A well-run state agency is going to produce prices largely in line with a well-run private company in that respect. The question is: who gets the profits? With private companies, it’s executives and shareholders. With a state agency, it’s potentially schools, health care, infrastructure, and all the rest of the ‘general welfare’ stuff that the government is supposed to provide.
I dub thee an honourary Canadian. Now say “eh”.
As one of those dopes, I can tell you that everything that has been privatized in this country has cost Canadians dearly.
In BC the ferry service stinks since they privatized.
The pharmacare and medicare services stink since they privatized. In fact the stupid companies that took them over have been fined twice.
Food in hospitals is supplied by a branch of a British company, and let me tell you, that soft, burnt piece of toast in a plastic bag ain’t breakfast.
Chronic care has been privatized utilizing $10./hr care-givers who have 6 weeks training to replace registered nurses.
Even my bus schedule has been privatized. It is almost an inch thick with advertizements and we can’t even put it into a pocket or purse anymore.
But then since we are all dopes, we shouldn’t find these mere inconveniences.
I’ll have a bunch in my yard in a few weeks.
Crimson, Vermilion, Yellow, Russet, Orange, Sienna, Umber…
/:-)
and Burnt Umber, but only with a burn permit.
I was channeling Phyllis Shafley, the grandmother of all anti-Communists!
(Can’t believe the old hag is still kickin’.)
Um, actually … yes, I have. I see millions of them, every fall.
And asdf? If this really does show “Canadians don’t have a clue about oil”, well, I guess that would put them on par with their neighbors to the south.
Yeah … i just meant the bright red color like that in the “Demand Bush ..” ad on the left.
P.S. I really hate Fall. It means winter is coming.
I’m with you there. It’s depressing. It gets dark earlier. Give me spring anytime.
April is the end of Basketball season. “Go You Huskies…” 🙂
Now, the Iris of May; That’s a totally different story…
You refer, of course, to the Univ. of Washington Huskies.
it was an allusion to State and Main (the Mamet flic) and UConn. 🙂
I did see the U. of Washington women when they played at Gampel, maybe around ’97 or thereabouts (?). Good team. Beat Cardinal. Tara-boom-de-eh?
/:-)
Oh I love that movie! I’ll watch it whenever it’s on … it makes me laugh and giggle just like Wag the Dog, Waiting for Guffman (probably my favorite), Clueless, and even Zoolander (it’s so stupid it’s funny).
Besides being funny, there’s also a sweetness to State and Main.
Spring Forward, Best In Show (another Christopher Guest flic), The Winslow Boy (another Mamet), American Splendor, The Station Agent, Gosford Park, Far Away, So Close, Lisbon Story (or anything Wim Wenders), The Triplets of Belleville, Moulin Rouge, Topsy Turvy, Waking Ned Devine, Shakespear In Love, Lost In Translation…
Gotta keep occupied between games, waiting for the Iris that is…
/:-)
ssshhhh! You’ll start a war or something! And here I am in Alberta – the first place to be targeted by a pre-emptive strike. If that happens, I’m running down to your place, Susan. 🙂 (Make cheesecake.)
Will you take my from-scratch devil’s food cake instead?
Good. We can partner up and watch all the TV stations!
mmmmm…cake!
We could definitely be a powerhouse. That might be scary. lol
I still want to see if we can find some way to have British Columbia annex the northwestern quarter of Washington. Maybe even down to the river, and I’ll bet there are some Oregonians who think they shouldn’t stop there.
I tried to tell my Canadian friends that if they would help get us annexed to BC, we’d return the favour by helping them vote Gordon Campbell out of office. The fact that Campbell would (even assuming such a thing is possible) have to approve any such merger seemed to put a crimp in the plans. Yeah, that’s my story and I’m stickin’ with it.
http://zapatopi.net/cascadia/
I know about Cascadia, but that’s not it. I just wanted Seattle to be part of British Columbia. Colorful money and CBC and Molson’s beer and basic health care and the McKenzie brothers, eh?
Hey, if it could work for Turks and Caicoa, it could work for King County.
I love Seattle, especially Capitol Hill, bookstores, art galleries, restaurants, the Market.
I hate that I will need a passport to visit my brother in Bellevue as of Dec. 2005
I’ll write to the Prime Minister advocating annexation of Seattle. But I am greedy, I want Portland OR too.