To the editor:
Prime Stephen Harper’s snubbing of Chief Theresa Spence is a quintessential representation of his attitude towards Canadians in general.
He has been granted the power of prime minister and become more like “The Wizard of Oz,” conducting his machinations behind the curtain of secrecy.
For starters, where is he? How many public appearances does our beloved PM make? Is he in hiding? Does he exist? Is he on trips all the time?
Then, of course, are his minions —the PM’s MPs. They don’t seem to have any real thoughts, merely Conservative spewing of memorized (programmed?) sound bytes.
If we ask them anything off their agenda, it does not compute. I guess that’s what we pay them the big bucks—to repair and upgrade.
I can’t say I’m at all satisfied with how Harper’s selling us off to China, nor Premier Christy Clark’s pipeline fetish. They both seem very short-sighted in scope, perhaps detrimental in less time than they think.
We have to do something drastic, we must stop funding the machine. Stop paying taxes? Not really.
I’m recommending a national referendum regarding our municipality’s place in Canada’s Constitution, which currently doesn’t exist. How will this affect national and provincial politics? Let’s give the municipalities the lion’s share of taxes.
Sure this is open to corruption, but have you looked around? I’m not seeing many benefits for our taxes that we couldn’t handle ourselves with more of the kitty within our reach.
The best part of this is how accessible those local tax-holders will be compared to those in the Ottawa fortress. Will chaos result?
Most likely, but again look around. There is the problem of the smaller local communities, but I’m sure the mayors and councillors can work out some fair sharing agreement. Maybe that could be part of the vote, too.
It makes sense that if these politicians want to play the money game, we can play a hand in that too.
Hit ’em where it hurts and rub a couple of zeros from those flush bank accounts. I don’t disagree with paying taxes, but I have some pretty strong feelings against how they’re being used.
If our government refuses to respond to us, let’s give them a message that they can’t ignore.
Darrin Fiddler,
Kelowna
