In my monthly rent, hydro and accomodation are calculated separately. Over the past five years, my rent increases have totalled less than 12% while my hydro has gone from $40 a month to $95 a month, more than doubling!
Now most rents do no separate accomodation and hydro, therefore I strongly suspect that most recent rent escalations have been fuelled by massive hydro increases.
B.C. cabinet minister Joan Smallwood has recently been on the Vancouver interview shows and has been published in the print media both praising and defending a new Landlord-Tenant Act, one which she proclaims "a better business approach."
Well, maybe so, but she then proceeds to use phrases such as "consumer protection for 450,000 B.C. citizens" and "practices of rent gouging" — a vocabulary not unfamiliar to observers of critics of our economic system.
B.C. Hydro has been directed to pay a divident to the B.C. government. This dividend almost certainly benefits from increases in hydro bills.
So while our political masters fulminate over "rent gougers" and piously proclaim "consumer protection" the government itself becomes a prime beneficiary of the monies allegedly gouged!
As our government bravely guards us from our exploiters, who then guards us from our government?
Mike WalshFrom the local media I learn that you wimpishly might send a letter of protest to Chretien re: Bill C-18 — Withdrawing Proposal for Redrawing Canada's Electoral Map. (We are entitled to a minimum of two more House of Commons Seats, if not many more!)
You call yourself a "statesman"!? Asleep at the table at the Charlottetown negotiations, when your cohort Bob Rae had to wake you up and suggested that you should ask for our legitimate entitlement of additional B.C. seats in the House of Commons!!
You know perfectly well that the only way to get results in/from Ottawa is to threaten separation. Look at Quebec — how successful they have been in securing everything they ask for from the federal politicans, e.g.:
However, what have we got? A bag full of empty promises such as the cancellation of the promised projects for the Polar 8 icebreaker and the KAON atomic accelerator.
While our transfer payments for education, health, welfare, etc., have been frozen by Ottawa, Quebec is getting $6.9 billion per year in equalization payments, when they so eagerly profess that they can manage much better on their own!
We in B.C., are very fortunate in having a large land mass, a long ocean coast, a good climate, a promising economy, an educated population. We are, therefore, ideally placed to go our own way, if need be.
But what we also have is a yellow-bellied, weak-kneed provincial government which is afraid of defending the legitimate rights and aspirations of the voters in B.C. !
When are you finally waking up to the threats of being continually shafted by Ottawa and are holding a binding referendum in B.C. on the question of whether to separate or not, if the shenangians in Ottawa persist to the detriment of us in B.C.!?
Yours very apprehensively,Alberta contributed $165 billion more to Ottawa than it received over the past 30 years, says a University of Calgary economist.
That nearly matches the extra benefit Quebec has received from Ottawa from 1961 until 1991, said Bob Mansell, who has studied and charted transfer payments to and from Ottawa.
The sum, although huge, reflects the political reality of Canada: Alberta lacks effective representation at the federal level to protect its interests, he said Tuesday.
Over that period, Alberta has been the only net contributor — though its per capital income is less than in Ontario and British Columbia.
The provincial government has often raised fears of another National Energy Program. Mansell, who estimates that program accounts for $70 billion of the $165 billion in excess contributions, said those fears could be justified.
"Where does the federal government go if it needs more money? To Central Canada? No, because of the population base. So they'll go to Alberta.
"There's a real danger unless this is corrected."
A number of factors account for the remaining $95 billion in excess contributions, say Mansell and Liberal MLA Mike Percy:
Mansell dismissed figures cited in a recent Canadian Tax Journal article showing Alberta contributed $32.9 billion more than it received between 1977 and 1992. They're only rough figures from Statistics Canada that don't include the necessary adjustments, such as the cost to Alberta of the National energy Program.
But factoring in those adjustments doesn't make the picture any better, he said.
"What it means is that the situation is far worse than it seems from Alberta's point of view. It has been by far the largest net contributor on a per capita basis."
According to Mansell's figures, in 1992 Alberta contributed $4.1 billion more than it received, while Ontario contributed $3.6 billion more than it received.
While it isn't unfair that Alberta should be a net contributor, since it has a strong economy, the province should ask why it isn't being treated fair relative to other provinces, Mansell said.
"When we boom, we should pay in and when we bust, we should take out.
"In the case of Alberta, it's been a one-way street. It should be an insurance policy, but it isn't. Why should Alberta be the biggest net contributor when it isn't the highest income province?"
Those sentiments were echoed by Percy, who raised the Canadian Tax Journal figures to demonstrate the system is "not as sensitive to the unique features of Alberta as it should be."
For example, when oil prices dropped in the 1980s, Alberta should have received more than it contributed.
"If you look at it as an insurance policy, it would be nice to think you can draw down on it, " Percy said.
The MLA said he wasn't raising the figures in an effort to bash Eastern Canada, but to show they indicate the system could be fairer.
Premier Ralph Klein said the system is as fair as it can be and it's no surprise Alberta contributes more than it receives.
"It just shows we're willing to do our fair share for Confederation," he said Tuesday. "I just hope we're not punished unfairly for being generous and prudent."
Mansell said that for Alberta, the transfer-payment system is nearly at the breaking point. If it weren't giving $4 billion a year more to the federal government than it should, the province wouldn't have a deficit.
"The point comes where they're taking so much away from me to give to you, or vice-versa, that the net contributor is going to revolt."
Freedom's Voice
The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life flow no longer into our souls.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, address to National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1890
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
President Harry S. Truman, message to Congress, August 8, 1950
Don't join the book burners. Don't think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech at Dartmouth College, June 14, 1953
No man and no force can take from the world the books that embody men's eternal fight against tyranny of every kind.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, statement to the American Booksellers Association, April 23, 1941
Weep not that the world changes — did it
keep
A stable, changeless state, `twere cause indeed to weep.
William Cullen Bryant, "Mutation" 1824
Government cannot coerce individual conscience. A way of law does not automatically become a way of life.
Spiro T. Agnew, speech in Cincinnati, February 11, 1969
Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens to conscience like individual responsibility.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, address to National American Woman Suffrage Association, 1892
Whatever limits us, we call Fate.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life, Fate, 1860
Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, First Series: Self-Reliance, 1841
I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD
William Lloyd Garrison, the Liberator, January 1, 1831
Resolve, and thou art free.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the Masque of Pandora, 1875
We need men who can dream of things that never were.
President John F. Kennedy, speech in Dublin, Ireland, June 28, 1963
Profile: Christie's Concept of Western Canada
The following article appeared in the Victoria Regional News of June 15, 1994 and was written by David LennamWestern separatist, man with a vision of a Canada without the East
When he was in Grade 6, Doug Christie's teacher asked the class, "How many of you believe in God?"
As Christie puts it, everyone's hand went up except his. Then the teacher asked how many of the students didn't believe. And whose hand went up?
"I stuck up my hand. I was the only person," Christie recalls. "I couldn't believe the look on their faces."
Although the Victoria criminal lawyer-cum-Western separatist does believe in God now, he makes the point, "I had doubts then and I was honest about them."
Honesty, truth, integrity.
They are the three legs the 48-year-old says he has propped himself up on through the controversy of defending the likes of Toronto neo-Nazi publisher Ernst Zundel and rural Alberta schoolteacher Him Keegstra, both tried for "spreading hate" (sic) in their denial of the Holocaust.
Without referring specifically to either case, Christie, huddled in the confines of his tiny office, a converted parking attendant's hut across from the Law Courts, says he's too trusting. "That's my main problem. I learnt that the hard way and I keep learning that. Perhaps I'll never learn it."
What he has learned, however, is how to gauge public opinion, how to manipulate the media and how to turn seemingly hopeless cases into cases that gain him a grudging respect from his peers. His style — "rough and tumble."
In this fashion, the UBC Law School grad has built himself up from the legal wrangling where mud is frustratingly slung like grenades of animosity. His founding of a populist Western separatist party (originally the Committee for Western Independence) in the mid-1970s built him a new platform from which to pontificate — a political garden ripening to ideas that the four Western provinces could go it alone.
The message, delivered through his Western Canada Concept Party, seated an elected member to Alberta's Legislature in 1982. Gordon Kesler, in an Olds-Didsbury riding by-election was the first and only WCC candidate to hold office, though his triumph was fleeting and he was defeated in the following vote, only 10 months later.
"If anyone cares to know," says Christie, almost defensively, "I have no trouble giving honest answers about myself, about anything I've done. What I've done is serve my country, serve my fellow man and serve God to the best of my ability. I don't think there are too many people who have sacrificed as much for their principles as I have."
Some of those who have opposed him in the courtroom would not agree.
Following the seven-week Zundel trial in 1984 (sic) — which drew a national spotlight and spawned as much hatred against lawyer as client — the opposition lawyer David Lissom, told reporters about the Christie he'd watched. "I don't think he would deny he's rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. He's the black sheep of the bar. He marches to a different drummer."
"I know Canada is going to break up. Even the Canadian elite is beginning to get a little shrill and a little hysterical."
He is convinced of Quebec's separation, suggesting they've already severed emotional attachments with the rest of the nation and are starting to realize that it might be in their best economic interest to split.
"The cow has run dry. They're not stupid. They're very sophisticated voters."
Christie even chuckles thinking about how Quebec might milk Ottawa into giving them equalization payments, using their unpaid portion of the national debt as a trump card in a high-stakes poker game of blackmail.
So as the swirling tides of discontent attempt to erode our national borders, Christie, who never let go of the WCC dream and remains head of the party's B.C. wing, is reviving the concept. A Friday evening public meeting at Saanich Commonwealth Place attracted at least 80 people (of those approximately 15 were dissidents). "The only time Western Canadians are willing to examine Canada is when someone else, namely Quebec, takes the initiative for them," says Christie.
This seemingly done, the notion of a free and unified West is on the table. WCC logic says Western Canada has six million literate people with a common culture and language, no debt, the advantage of Pacific Rim trade and the recipe for smaller, efficient, lower-taxing government. It would be a country rich in resources and free from a Canada believed to be approaching third world status, free from a bickering giant with a bloated debt, non-competitive manufacturing and overburdening bureaucracy, free from an overtaxed, wasteful government.
Eighty per cent of the callers to a recent Rafe Mair radio show spoke in approval of Western separatism, says Christie, and MLAs Gordon Wilson and David Mitchell have both suggested it as a "plan B" in B.C.'s Legislature.
"No one's going to hear it (the WCC message) until they've exhausted the other answers. If you try to tell them when they're not ready to listen there's no way to convince them," says Christie.
"My goal is education in terms of new people and new thinking."
And if others start ringing the death knell again, if WCC popularity stalls and even if the whole thing becomes known as "Christie's folly," the party and its principles will persevere, he says.
"I'll tell you what my strategy is," he says, leaning forward. "It's called persistence. I've always believed you have to survive until the time comes when you are necessary.
"Have you had enough? Have you had enough? If you have had enough, let's do something....Let's quit whining and solve the problem."
As the party's leader Christie will run on the WCC ticket, but claims to be a statesman, rather than a politician. He is quick to make the distinction, using his Quebec counterpart.
"I don't consider Mr. Parizeau a politician, I consider him a statesman. He has a vision of a state, an idea, a concept of how a state should be," Christie says as though lecturing. His statesman would lead in a direction not trod by others. He mentions statesmen of some infamy — Stalin, Hitler and Churchill.
Christie points out the strength of an idea is not served by the strength and power of its source, but by its consistency. A 1982 interview quoted him as saying, "I believe I have already been the most powerful political force in Western Canada because I told the truth and stood for independence. There is power in truth. Freedom and a new nation must be based upon the truth — and that is power."
And yet, for all his political brooding, Christie keeps his head in the good air.
"Personally I have nothing to complain about in terms of the enjoyment of life. I don't operate out of a mold of personal animus to the system. Sure I get discouraged, but being despondent doesn't accomplish anything ... The things that make me happy are a run in the morning, a swim in the lake and my two children."
What he can do without is the criticism that drags behind him like a prehensile tail, wrapping itself around controversy like a vice.
When Christie said, following the Zundel trial, "If I had a dog, I would treat him with more respect than I was treated in that courtroom. If that was the way they behaved at Nuremberg, I can understand the result," he was roasted.
Six years ago Vancouver radio show host Gary Bannerman summed up the sentiments of many who didn't know Christie, but knew of him and judged him.
"Doug Christie has aligned himself so many times with these perverted monsters that he has to be viewed as one himself, in my view," Bannerman said on air.
Christie sued for libel, but lost.
Despite all, his motivations continues to be a defence of freedom and truth, tempered by a degree of patience. Twelve years ago he said, "We'll keep working from here to independence. I almost said from here to eternity — but it won't be that long." He maintains that "glorious vision of a nation that is yet to be born" despite encroaching grey and a tiredness in the boyishly defiant blue eyes.
A poster-sized photograph of American Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee (dated 1865, five years before his death) plasters a wall behind his desk.
So I ask, "Why Lee?"
The answer is instant.
"He was a gentleman, a Christian, a great man and a general," says Christie, revealing something of himself by adding, "and apparently from what I've read, he never hated the enemy."
The good general was also a model of a man under great stress who showed patience and consideration and humility, he notes.
A role model?
He looks thoughtful, careful, for a moment.
"Maybe in a sense you might say that."
A Separatist Speaks
by Douglas ChristieOn one hand it is encouraging to see the truth being told, but on the other hand it is discouraging to see apathy to the injustice that the truth has just revealed. This awareness was stimulated by the publication reported herein of Robert Mansell's revelation that Alberta has been stripped of $165 billion in the last 30 years, while Quebec has been the net beneficiary of an equal amount. The reaction to this news was milque toast.
Even Mansell himself doesn't apparently question the socialist premise of Canada's equalization. He said it wasn't unfair that Alberta should be net contributor because it has a strong economy. What nonsense. Should we share with the east the heritage of the west while we receive no effective say in how the resources are spent? What good does this do for the West? Mansell says Canada is or should be like an insurance policy — you pay in the good times and draw in the bad times. He still acknowledges it doesn't work that way, but he says it should. How can you have an insurance policy with a bankrupt insurance company who only pays you in borrowed monopoly money? The Canadian dollar is only backed by Western Canadian resource exports, so why aren't we our own insurance company, by saving in good times for the bad times?
Even more, why can't the individuals who live and produce here keep what they earn, so they can provide for their own bad times instead of being taxed to death by the socialists in Ottawa whose goal is really bureaucratic parasitism?
An MLA said he wasn't raising the figures to "bash Ottawa". Heaven forbid! How unCanadian that would be. Imagine bashing the powerbase of media, business, industry and the Canadian way!
But Premier Klein was the ultimate in eastern sellout when he said "It just shows we're willing to do our fair share for Confederation." and that the system is as fair as it can be. This is reported without adverse comment from anyone. The silence is deafening. Mansell says without the loss of $4 billion per year, Alberta would not have a deficit. Of course this is so. The National Energy Program punished Albertans and at least the movement gained some grass roots though chaotic support. Those opportunists took the federal coin and either worked for Petro Canada or went on to become MPs.
Canada is like a gold mine operator who pays his slaves in printed paper only to be redeemed at his company store for trinkets while taking real value from the gold mine. The people of the West particularly Alberta should be in a holy outrage over the bankrupt fraud of Ottawa debt, money and phony parliament. That parliament is really Quebec and Ontario's parliament. We are a mere useless appendage of token significance in Ottawa except as a source of real wealth and production.
The west will soon be alive with this knowledge as we spread the word to "Free the West!" We can be a proud free nation, build our own culture and heritage, and preserve our beautiful land and water for future generations.
If we do not, it will be plundered to pay the debts of a fool. No wonder the Canadian elite preaches tolerance — they want the people of the West to tolerate anything.
The tour of July 20-26 in Alberta and Manitoba went well. There was a good meeting in Calgary and in Winnipeg, and a very small meeting in Brandon.
In Brandon, however, I spoke before 3,000 people at a meeting regarding gun control. There I heard speaker after speaker condemn the federal government meddling in the ownership of private property by responsible people. This was all accompanied by the shouts of people who said they would make the Liberals take notice.
Then I heard the chairman say (this is the exact quote), "If the Liberal government won't listen then I will be your next Liberal candidate for parliament." You could hear the cheers for minutes. Once more we see the short-sighted being used by the opportunists who use their frustration as a leg up in politics. This is the story of Western Canada for so long. We always send a new politician to Ottawa to protest. They are either ignored or bought off.
I couldn't stand it. I went up to the mike as the second questioner. I said, "I'm Doug Christie, leader of the Western Canada Concept. I have heard a lot of promises and wonderful words seeking justice in this parliament in Ottawa. But I suspect they will never listen and will still take your guns away. If that is so, which will you do? Surrender to Ottawa or seek independence in a nation of Western Canada where you will be free to bear arms?"
There was support from about 500 new people. The ideas was advanced and people saw it as a real alternative. It is obvious many were scared to seriously consider real politics. But on the other hand they merely can complain and nothing more, as freedom is ripped away from them in Canada. After the meeting an old friend of mine, a former judge in Manitoba who actually was the first person I ever saw fire a gun when I was a child (shooting rats in a chicken coop) came up to me and said, "Hi Doug. I want you to know more people consider that than you will ever know."
All in all I think the meeting in Brandon was the best as I got to put the idea before people who really want justice from the eastern controlled government. Unless people break free of their fear of change they will end up a mob of slaves. Our nation is the only road to liberty which today is essential to responsibility in any real sense.
The Western Canada Concept is a movement of personal freedom and responsibility. Guns are a part of both. Criminal conduct with a gun, a car, or a credit card is a matter of personal responsibility, not the fault of the car, the gun or the credit card. There is only one option for people.
A Reminder...
When you move, please advise the Western Canada Concept of your new address so that we don't lose touch with you!
August Meetings
Victoria: Friday, August 5th, Gordon Head Recreation Center, 4100 Lambrick Way, 7:00 p.m.
Vancouver: Saturday, August 6th, Surrey Inn, Surrey, 7:00 p.m.
Notices for each of these meetings have been sent directly to each member close to both cities.