I had to laugh while reading Henry Stern’s response to David Sutch’s letter regarding government involvement in the oil business; not only because I had read it once previously.
The world is ever changing; yet, Henry can say with conviction what will never be. My reasons for considering the ideas of someone like Mr. Sutch are threefold:
Number 1: it doesn’t hurt me to hear even an absurd idea.
Number 2: we do live in a democracy (in which freedom of expression is ostensibly encouraged) but it’s only a representational democracy. We can only hope and pray that our representatives will endeavour, as a first priority, to consider and present our concerns; especially, when there are such great inducements to toe the party line. After all, everyone likes to party but MPs and MLAs ought to remember who’s paying for all the fun.
Number 3: We ought to remember that NAFTA (with all its benefits and problems) was brought in not by bad-old-Trudeau with his National Energy Program (Canada’s first effort to secure a dependable national energy resource) but by the current governing party under Mr. Mulroney. Let’s all pray (it’s our only option, now) that Stephen Harper can rule with greater consideration for the desires of all Canadians than did his predecessors Mulroney and Trudeau.
Steven Bruce
Penticton
