Letter to the Editor re: Bennett and the TPP
It should come as no surprise that Kootenay East MLA Bennett, one arm of the C/BA – the Clark/Bennett Axis – has given his mindless and idealogically stunted support to the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) showing us clearly where his priorities and loyalties lie (The Free Press, April 29)
Bennett, who has always claimed transparency in his politics, supports a ‘partnership’ which has been negotiated since 2010 in totalitarian secrecy.
He supports a ‘partnership’ which will grant his ideological comrades in the board – rooms of transnational corporations, overweening regulation and control over our environmental and labour laws, over our health care system. Essentially, over us.
Bennett’s ‘partnership’ will expose Canadian Medicare to pharmaceutical piracy which will control and limit the action of our provincial or federal governments, should they attempt to legislate against rising or unsustainable drug pricing.
The ‘partnership’ of NAFTA has already destroyed swathes of North American industry and the jobs and communities which it once supported. Likewise, the TPP is dedicated, not to social or economic justice (two concepts foreign to Bennett’s nature, politics, philosophy and world-view) but to the erosion and eventual destruction of secure Canadian jobs, standard of living and quality of life.
The TPP is, in fact, dedicated to supporting C/BA values which lie, not with B.C. workers and their families, but with people like those private corporate donors who pay Big Money to schmooze with B.C.’s premier and watch their donations to the B.C. Liberals suddenly transformed into an additional $50,000 per annum for Premier Clark, to be invested in that other C/BA – Christy’s/Bank Account.
In the last analysis, Bennett is in the same boat as the Tea Partiers in the US Congress who are the most rabid supporters of the TPP in the USA. By advocating for the ‘partnership’, Bennett has aligned himself with the Republican freak show, currently scratching and snarling over the US presidency.
He is in the most appropriate of company.
JC Vallance,Fernie, B.C.
Letter to the Editor re: B.C. and climate
What was that? I thought we had agreed to transition away from a mono-culture carbon based economy. Global investment has already recognized that the carbon boat is sinking. Why would anyone today choose to invest in a sinking ship?
Apparently Christy Clark is one of those. Why would anyone want to sign on as crew for such a limited voyage? Apparently many people in B.C. have been lured in to the illusion that the ship won’t sink. If someone were to ask into which economic basket I would put my investment eggs, it would be renewables and non-carbon based technologies.
The current and future jobs are there along with long term return on investment.
Global investment organizations tend to look at the “big picture”, where is the global economy moving – those in government tend to look at the four year election cycle and the short term promises that can get them re-elected.
The global future of energy investment is very clear. Why then, would our government not want to be part of that future? In to which economic basket would you wish your investment eggs to be placed?
Ron RobinsonNelson, B.C.
