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BC Needs A Hero (03.28.03)
So I heard a funny joke the other day. You ready? "We're getting a movie theatre!"
I suppose it's one of those "Squamish curse" jokes that gets better with age. It's the same reason you have to laugh when anyone says, "We're getting a ski resort" or "They're moving the train tracks blocking our town."
Truth be known, the first time I heard rumblings of a movie theatre, admission was less than 10 bucks including popcorn and butter-flavoured liquid. Now, much like the joke itself, the price is no longer funny. Fourteen dollars for a movie? Who has that kind of money these days?
Seems like since the Liberal rise in user fees, gas taxes, prescriptions, and other hidden taxes, few these days are fortunate enough to afford such luxuries. People are already giving food, shelter, and clothing the eenie-meenie meinie-moe treatment to find out which one, or even two, have to be dropped to make it to next week.
Heck, even our beloved provincial Liberals are finding it hard to make enough money simply by removing all assistance from those not born in the lap of luxury. Last week, Gordo and his single-mother/welfare-hating Liberals went behind closed doors to give away the fast ferries. Remember them? The press used those boats to bring down the NDP and gave us the government we have now.
I'd first like to put the boats in perspective. They cost $454 million to build, so where did that money go? To hundreds of middle-class B.C. workers and their families.
Yet you can't be surprised, after all, the government has a whole program of commercialization and privatization to get under way. However, there's this nagging question about whether $20 million was the best they could do. Or why should they bother, who is the "bought and sold" Vancouver press going to blame for the fiasco? The Liberals for giving away our assets, or the NDP for building them in the first place?
If nothing else, this action sends a clear message: the Liberals see no value in publicly-owned assets and they are to be sold in secret. That doesn't make me feel better knowing they're now poised to sell off BC Hydro, ICBC and BC Rail, all assets we own. It's even funnier that Gordon Campbell's Liberals actually had to change the law so they could sell these things without public input.
Now, if your blood is boiling, you're mad as hell and you?ll actually do something about it. Well, it's your last chance to fight the BC Hydro sale by joining the class action suit. There is no financial or legal risk; it's just put your name down as someone who doesn't want their utility sold to a company situated in Bermuda to avoid pesky criminal lawsuits and taxes.
It's estimated that selling BC Hydro will cost us a fast ferry a month in lost revenue and service. Sound fair? Do something about it! Contact Citizens for Public Power at (604) 681-5939 or www.citizensforpublicpower.ca.
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