Editor, The Times:
Re: Global carbon tax editorial, Nov. 7 issue of the Clearwater Times
Several months ago, our editor wrote, “All I have to do is mention carbon tax or the roundabout and I’ll certainly get a letter from Jim Lamberton.”
There is a saying, Captain Keith: If you poke a bear long enough with a stick, you are bound to get bitten!
We’ll start with the global carbon tax. Carbon tax isn’t anything but a tax on the old and the poor. Your so-called climate scientist, James Hansen, is just another lobbyist wanting to make a living without having to work, and another author trying to sell a book.
Several weeks ago I brought you an article from the Oxford Journal, printed Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013. Let me enlighten your readers to a few clips from that letter. The heading was “Carbon Taxes A War on the Poor”, that they are “a catastrophic waste of public money.” It continued, “For a look at the cost of any new green regulations, let’s look at B.C.’s Carbon Tax. The first in North America. It is just the kind of fiction that fiction was made for”. My question to our editor is: Did you think the article I submitted was not worthy of repeating, or was it not really fitting in to your agenda?
All this verbal diarrhea about the United Nations Parliamentary Assembly sounds to me like another huge pork barrel, and the last thing we need is more appointed officials. I thought that you would have learned something from Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy! Douglas Casey summed it all up when he said, “Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.”
Christy Clark’s campaign promise was to freeze the carbon tax for five years. Page A13 of the Nov. 7 Times has an article that states, “B.C.’s Minister of the Environment, Mary Polak, signed a carbon pricing agreement with governors of Washington, Oregon, and California”. I guess that’s what we have to expect when 22 per cent of the voting public forms a majority government. Gordon Liddy defined a liberal as, “Someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.” Democracy must be more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for supper.
And then there are the roundabouts (plural is intentional). I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who made this intersection disaster possible.
Clearwater is the only town in North America to have two roundabouts in the same intersection! In no way do I hold the local contractors responsible. Boondoggle Junction is the sole responsibility of the Ministry of Transportation and Highways.
Let’s look at the track record. Last fall, water and sewer lines were moved and replaced. This spring the lines were dug up and replaced at the proper grade. Hydro poles were replaced, then had to be moved because they were too close to the roadway, as were the street lights. Roadways were paved, then dug up and repaved. Sidewalks were poured, then dug up and poured again.
Nov. 15 will showcase the grand opening of the roundabout. Maybe some of the red-faced engineers could be at that function to let us know exactly what the final costs, plus expenses, really are.
Jim Lamberton
The Rambling Man
Blackpool, B.C.