Sleigh Ride
_GMP5484tu.JPG, originally uploaded by grahammichaelpowell.
We had a wonderful sleigh ride near my dad’s farm, at a place called Wagons West, not too far north of Roblin, Manitoba. It was like a Christmas card. I met our two horses that would pull us up the road, Gypsy and Beauty, sisters. It was a wonderful day. All the kids loved it, and I snapped as many photos as I could.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!
Graham
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. HARPER MUST GO!
It’s time for Stephen Harper and his Tory wrecking crew to go!
The harm this administration has already done to our country is profound.
Harper has led Canada into the role of an international pariah.
……………………….. UNCLE SAM HARPER………….
His addiction to US policy and his devotion to George Bush are there for all to see.
……………………….THE ENVIRONMENT.
Thanks to Stephen, my country went through the humiliation of winning a “fossil award of the day” at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Indonesia late last year for his perverse position on the crisis.
Harper’s henchmen weren’t satisfied with simply steering a different course from much of the rest of the world. They actually seemed intent on sabotaging the predominate will which was to do something meaningful to cut harmful greenhouse gases.
Only after the US actually repented a bit to allow for further meetings, did Canada, shamefully, agree to go along!
Shame Stephen! And shame on the entire Canadian delegation!
This dispatch from Bali at the time gave little hope to those of good will who wanted to see real progress made;
“The federal government has taken its deceit and manipulation to new heights in reference to climate change. I am a member of the Canadian Youth Delegation to Bali,and I just witnessed a shameful event. This evening the Canadian government was scheduled to present their climate change policy, but the opportunity was wasted. Instead, our government was conspicuously absent and duped their audience into sitting through a completely different presentation. Although Environment Minister John Baird was scheduled to speak, he skipped out shortly after stopping by in his flip flops, failing to say anything at all about Canada’s climate change policy titled “Turning the Corner.” The Canadian government refuses to listen to Canadians or world opinion on climate change, and I am alarmed at what’s around the corner.” – Rosa Kouri
Examples of Harper’s addiction to the policies of President Bush abound.
For example, Bush has rejected the Kyoto Accord. So has Harper.
(Harper once referred to global warming as a “socialist plot!”)
And he has lied about it from an international podium.
At a meeting of “APEC” earlier last year, he tried to convince us that no country is meeting Kyoto targets for greenhouse gas reductions.
The truth is, the European Union is well on its way to doing just that!
Its emissions are already below 1990 levels.
That’s because the EU has the political will. Harper does not.
Hell, even the tiny nations of Costa Rica and New Zealand have come up with complex and deadly serious plans to actually become carbon-neutral; plans that put Canada and the Harper bunch to shame.
He and his band of merry men continue to embarrass our country on the international stage at Bali parading their lack of leadership on climate change as if it were a badge of honour.
………………………..CORPORATE CONTROL.
George Bush gives the rich corporations free reign to do as they please.
So does Harper.
Our Prime Minister’s refusal to regulate the emissions caused by the companies exploiting the Alberta tar sands, is reprehensible.
These companies are destroying millions of hectares of pristine boreal forest. Due to their insatiable demand for water in the production process, they are depriving people downstream of this precious, life-giving resource.
They are poisoning rivers and sickening those who drink from them.
The tar from the sands, in greenhouse gas terms, is three times as dirty as conventional oil.
But the US needs the energy to power its war machine and the lavish lifestyles of its people.
So Heaven forbid Harper should stand in the way of that!
Now, there’s a new outrage; Royal Dutch Shell.
(See the video link “Sacred Headwaters Threatened,” to the right.)
As you may recall, that’s the corporation which has turned the Niger Delta in Nigeria into perhaps the most polluted spot on earth. Its callous methods of oil development have threatened the lives of the Ogoni people who live there.
(Remember Ken Saro-wiwa? He’s the Ogoni activist who had the courage to speak out about Shell’s atrocities.
He was executed by Shell’s “partner,” the stinking general who ruled the country at the time.)
Now the corporate giant (described as the second-largest in the world) is setting its sights on Canada!
It wants to despoil a special place called the “Sacred Headwaters” in northern BC in order to extract “coal-bed methane” from beneath the surface.
That’s a practice that requires the injection of potent chemicals into the ground and the displacement of vast amounts of polluted water onto the land at thousands of sites in the area.
The Headwaters are the traditional home of several first nations people who want nothing to do with Shell.
They are also prime habitat for grizzly bears, mountain goats, caribou and the headwaters of three of Canada’s most important salmon rivers.
Is this the price we must pay to achieve Harper’s dream of making Canada an “energy superpower?”
If it is, count me out!
……………………………TRADE.
Bush sings the praises of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
So does Harper.
It doesn’t seem to matter that, according to the Council of Canadians, two big US-based oil companies
are now suing Canada for $50,000,000 for allegedly violating a NAFTA provision!
(Canada apparently wants those corporations to set aside some of the profits they make in this
country for local research and job development.) Imagine that!
Then there’s the Canadian Wheat Board.
The US has been pushing to get rid of it for years. So has Harper.
The US subsidizes its own farmers to a staggering degree. Yet it looks hypocritically upon the Board as “unfair competition.”
Harper’s grudge against the Board, an institution which has served western farmers well for decades, has seen him and his ministers stoop to new lows.
For example, the government clamped a gag order on the board, ordering it not to defend itself publicly.
It arbitrarily fired the able and respected President of the Board.
Then it designed a plebiscite rigged to show that most farmers support the government and its devious goals.
Despite a court judgement which ruled illegal what Harper was trying to do, he clings to some neo-con mumbo-jumbo about “market choice” and vows to continue his vendetta.
Meanwhile, the Board has recently negotiated an unprecedented return for farmers
of $10-a-bushel, and more, for their wheat!
…………………………………..SOVEREIGNTY AND SECURITY.
Bush wants to set aside individual rights and international law in his obsessive “war on terror.”
So does Harper.
While pushing to extend Canada’s tour of duty in Afghanistan, he blames
anyone who dares to criticize that mission as “giving comfort” to the Taliban!
He brushes off suggestions that Afghan authorities are violating the Geneva Convention by mistreating prisoners which Canadian troops have turned
over to them!
He beats his chest about the need for Arctic sovereignty, yet ignores the plight of the people who live there or their struggle to deal with the effects of global warming.
As the disappearing ice threatens the livelihood of Inuit hunters and their families, (not to mention
the very survival of polar bears and other wildlife) Harper speaks of deep-sea ports and drone aircraft
to patrol for some nebulous enemy.
Under Harper’s watch, the American company Omnitrax, continues to own and operate (as it did under the Liberals) the increasingly lucrative rail line to the Port of Churchill; a line the company is said to have picked up for the princely sum of ten dollars!
Meanwhile, he has entered into a secretive agreement with Bush called the “Security and Prosperity Partnership.”
Among its provisions; adoption in Canada of weaker American regulations on certain toxic chemicals and the possibility of bulk exports of our water to the US.
Some sovereignty!
But wait! There’s more!
Under Harper, Canada’s “New Government” has (along with the US of course) voted against United Nations resolutions to;
a) protect the rights of the worlds indigenous peoples; (under discussion for more than two decades,that Declaration simply outlines the minimum human rights necessary for their dignity, survival and well-being.)
b) ban drift-net fishing. (That’s a practice that “mines” the ocean floor of every living thing in its path and contributes to declining fish stocks everywhere.)
As if that isn’t enough, Canada won’t sign another UN resolution to ban capital punishment and has changed our long-standing practice of requesting the return home of Canadians sentenced to death in other countries. (Never mind that Canada has a time-honoured tradition of opposing the death penalty.)
Who is Harper emulating by supporting the death penalty? Three guesses!
So I guess if we want to enter into union with the US, we continue to support him.
If we don’t, let’s dump him!
L.P.
