For the life of me, I can’t figure out why I switched from supporting the NDP to the Liberals a few years ago. The decisiveness, foresight and business acumen the NDP have displayed in the short time they have been in power has convinced me that they are the party to lead us into the future.
Their plan to scrap or delay the replacement of the Massey Tunnel is a fundamentally sound decision. Any economist, city planner or structural engineer can tell that a mega-project like this will cost significantly less in the future and the longer you wait, the cheaper it gets. And besides, if it does end up costing hundreds of millions more, we won’t have to worry about it, we’ll let our children and grandchildren worry about it. Maybe those people who live south of the river who have to use the tunnel to commute to work should consider one of two options. Either they find a job in their own community and quit taking jobs away from Vancouverites or purchase a home in Vancouver proper. Right now is the best time to purchase because there are so many affordable homes in the city. For example, a one-bedroom fixer upper townhouse sells for just under a million. With a little creativity, like putting bunk beds in the dining room or converting an unused closet into a baby’s room, a family of four could live comfortably and voila, no more arduous commute through the tunnel!
Scrapping the bridge tolls was brilliant. The fact that the Coquihalla highway was paid off in one generation was an anomaly. Having the cost of the bridges rolled into the general debt and being paid off in 30 to 40 years makes more sense. And if a bunch of schmucks living in Northern B.C. complain about paying for a bridge they’ll never use, get over it, either they live with it or move down here and use it!
As for the Site C dam? It makes sense in so many ways to pull the plug on it.
Sure, it’s already 25 per cent completed and we’ll have to eat the $1.75 billion already spent. As for the Liberals’ claim that the $5 to $6 billion that was to go into the completion of the dam would create jobs for the future? Big deal, what’s thousands of well-paying, long-term jobs going to do for B.C.’s economy?
When we get down to the basic facts, we all know hydroelectricity is one of the most eco-unfriendly ways to generate power. We need to get back to good old fossil fuel power generation. Besides, the need for electricity will diminish dramatically over the next several generations.
According to Bubba Hatfield, an expert in globalization and urbanization, who also teaches remedial English at Spuzzum Community College, the population growth in Greater Vancouver should be zero per cent for the next 15 years with a modest growth in the following decade. And look how global warming is affecting our winters. Many of us were out on the links in our shorts and T-shirts from mid-October to the end of February. There’s no doubt that the car manufacturers are just trying to pull the wool over our eyes when they say electric/hybrid vehicles will become mainstream in the near future.
What kind of man would trade the ear drum busting roar of a V8 for the pathetic whirring of an electric car?
I’ve saved the best for last. The first order of business for the NDP was to increase welfare, excuse me, “poverty reduction” payments (I don’t want to sound un-PC). This makes so much sense because it doesn’t take a genius to know that big business, infrastructure projects and entrepreneurialism have nothing to do with stimulating the economy. You have to pump millions into social welfare programs to boost the economy. This is what economists call “inverse voo doo economic rationale” or the “trickle-up effect.” Although doable, most off them will admit that this is much more difficult to achieve. It’s like water. It is much easier to make it trickle down as opposed to trickling up.
I know, what a sarcastic, overcritical pessimist I am. Cut me some slack, I live by the words of the Greek philosopher Homer Spockolopolous, who, when in times of crisis, political upheaval and human strife was quoted as saying “It’s funny because it’s happening to someone else!” or was that Homer Simpson?
Neil Swanson is a Coquitlam resident
