Editor, The Times:
After many months of biting my lip, I’ve decided it’s time to stop the bleeding!
I’ve listened to all the monotonous repetition of “climate change,” “the Arctic is melting,” “stop the pipeline,” “carbon tax,” “raise the price of gas!”
It’s time to cut the crap and face reality. Let’s start with the pipeline.
The question should not be whether it should be built or not; it should be why do we want to ship in excess of a million barrels of oil per day to China when B.C. consumers are paying the highest price for gasoline in North America?
Then there’s the carbon tax, another harebrained scheme initiated in B.C. by the now defunct Liberal government. If this money were going toward finding alternatives to oil, I’d be all for it, but it’s not. It’s mostly squandered on stupidity!
Now the NDP and the Green Party (now known as the “Orange and Green Party” or, for short, “Greenpeace”) have increased the carbon tax. This is a direct attack not only on the old and the poor (who are sometimes one and the same) but also the lower portion of the middle class. That includes anyone who has to drive to work and can’t write off fuel as a tax break.
This tax increase doesn’t only affect people who drive. It also increases the price of everything from groceries, clothing, heating, fuel, or anything you buy that has to be delivered.
Then there’s the good old “gasbuddy.com.” (“Gas prices jump overnight” posted online on Nov. 7, 2017).
Dan McTeague, known as the “gas guru,” is a man who worked for years with the government and with big oil companies. They must have some extremely interesting conversations.
Jointly they have to come up with all these reasons for the jump at the pump price increases. When oil was $110 per barrel, fuel was $1.25 per liter. Now, oil is around $60 per barrel and gas is still $1.25 per liter.
The excuses: two refineries are down for maintenance, the wholesale price has gone up in the U.S. Midwest, or a sparrow farted in the Gulf of Mexico!
The real reason is price fixing and gouging!
With the exchange on the dollar and conversion from U.S. gallons to liters, the price in Washington State is 89 cents per liter. In Vancouver, it is $1.50 per liter.
This kind of shows you how badly we are being seduced!
This will only change if the people of B.C. stand up and say enough is enough! Maybe we need to do alternating boycotts of gas stations. For instance, for two months everyone boycotts Shell and Esso, then Chevron and Husky, and so on.
Jim Lamberton
The Rambling Man
Blackpool, B.C.