Captain CampBULL

to the Rescue!

BC Liberal Caucus - May 2010
As of mid-day today, it appears that the Mississippi Delta may have at least temporarily dodged a bullet and the icky goo may wind up inconveniencing beach goers and such to the east in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida rather than killing off the complex ecosystem of the delta and the fauna, fowl, marine and plant life it supports. Of course there is no end in sight for the end of the flow of fresh goo and in the upcoming months the winds could easily distribute the icky goo to almost any or every coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

But never fear, Captain Campbell is ready to come to the rescue. The BC liaRs are so confident in their expertise (or just so greedy and inconsiderate) that just an hour ago Blair Leckstrom, our excuse for an energy minister, stated that the ongoing tragedy off Louisiana hasn't dampened the BC liaRs, intentions to ship icky goo from the tar pits of Texas North across Northern BC by pipeline to be transported, and almost assuredly dumped in the Hecate Strait, that remaining oil that hasn't already been dumped directly from the pipeline itself into the Fraser, Skeena or other watersheds in Northern BC. And, oh yeah, as I indicated at the start of this paragraph, our great leader has offered OUR assistance to the people of the Gulf.

Keep in mind that this is the government, whose "awesome" Minister of the Environment, Barry Penner, had to be informed, after the fact, by the US Coast Guard of a potential spill off the Gulf Islands recently. AB, or Awesome Barry, was probably too busy chasing, with a fire extinguisher, his cat who caught on fire from a candle during lights out for earth dinner. Fortunately for the Gulf Islands, the ship that ran aground happened to do so during a rising tide, and was able to be floated without breaching and thus no damage was done. I guess if any spill had happened the US Coast Guard would also have been the first responders to contain the damage, right after the local islanders themselves.

Of course, these guys would rather talk about anything other than say, the BC Rail scam, the dying seniors in care, the underfunding of education, the ongoing theft of our rivers and emasculation of the BCUC and on and on and on.......

If it seems like I'm not blogging as often as sometimes, it might be because there is so much to point out that it is difficult to pick a topic. But certainly it would appear that the current regime is done like dinner. The only question is how much will be left of our province, of our legacy, by the time we pry what's left from their greedy (preferably cold, or at least incarcerated) hands?

From my Mail

A couple hours after posting the above, I checked my e-mail and found the following from a regular correspondent who lives along the old BCR line between Quesnel and Prince George. I'll let the letter speak for itself.

From: John Wood
To: Nathan Cullen ; Jack Layton ; Michael Ignatieff ; Stephen Harper
Cc: BC Federation of Labour ; Carole James ; Bob Simpson ; Gordon Campbell
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 12:20 AM
Subject: OFFSHORE DRILLING AND EXPLORATION IN CANADA - SPECIFICALLY WEST COAST AREA


To everyone,

Please read the links below, about the dangers of offshore oil and gas drilling and exploration. Especially given the fact that Canada has not yet experienced the problems currently found in the Gulf of Mexico and previously, the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.

Given the current trend to deregulation as proposed by the Conservative government of Canada and the Provincial Liberal government of British Columbia, serious lessons must be learned from the problems currently plauging the USA.

As a retired Marine Engineer with 35 years at sea on ships - the last 25 years working as Chief Engineer; having sailed deep sea, coastal, artic oil exploration 1983 - 1987 Beaufort Sea and on the Great Lakes: I can say with utmost certainty that Canada does not have the experience, equipment, organization or the manpower to deal with a major oil spill on the West Coast of Canada - despite what the Premier of BC misguidedly claims.

I ask that you all give very serious consideration to the problems associated with oil and gas drilling and exploration on the Canadian coast - all around the country. Most of the potential areas are in hard to access places, suffer from extreme weather conditions and have little or no amenities available.

The problems in the Gulf of Mexico are pretty much self inflicted, by the US government allowing deregulation of an important industry, whereby the industry has failed miserably, to ensure the safety of not only personnel, but the environment and the oil itself. It behoves the governments of Canada and British Columbia, to respect the environment for once destroyed, will never recover back to a satisfactory level.

It serves little purpose to pander to companies like Enbridge Pipeline - a foreign company to boot, to build a major pipeline to transport Alberta Tar Sand (dirty oil - not green) oil to a major tanker terminal on the west coast. This terminal to service the oil industry with VLCC oil tankers carrying crude oil - mostly to the USA. There are already pipelines in Alberta - lets continue to use them to ship the oil to the USA.

We are not a USA state and should not therefore, be subjected to their wishes over Canadian wishes and needs.


Gulf Spill from Tyee



Saltspring News



Death to Halliburton


Thank you for reading this email - I sincerely hope that you have taken the time to read the links above. The safety and well being of Canadian people would be put at risk by crazy hair brained schemes - thought up by US companies.


John Wood (one very angry pensioner)
woodjh@xplornet.com

The Canucks are Rockin' in the USA -

Vancouver 2 - Chicago 0 at 5:02 of the First Period. The Canucks have two goals, the Blackhawks have one shot on goal.