Harper Inaction NOT Worthy of a Majority

I find all sorts of interesting stories in the old papers that I paw through while lighting the fire each morning. One this morning caught my attention. It came from early December 2010 called "Tories say they will change number of Parliament seats".

A quick Google search revealed that, yes indeed, the Harper CONservatives had introduced a bill with that very purpose way back on April 1st, 2010.

This would increase the number of ridings in Alberta, BC and Ontario, because, with their rapidly growing population, these provinces are disproportionately under-represented in the House of Commons. I was whining about this way back in 2008 after the results of the last election.

So why was this story interesting at this late date? Because the bill was never called for debate by the CONservatives and we go into Election 2011 with the same dis-proportional representation that we've had for years.

Oh, I get it. The bill was introduced on April 1st, 2010.

Subsidies for Home Heating Costs? A Bad Idea.

Oner item missing from the recent Federal budget, a budget that already didn't contain much to begin with, was any mention of subsidies for home heating costs. This was a demand from the NDP.

Subsidies distort the market. Real market prices are what people use to make decisions about how to allocate scarce resources (ie: their money). Every place in the world where subsidies have been used they have failed, whether it's reducing the price of bread or encouraging people to buy houses they can't afford. They are always bad. (And, while we're at it - let's cut subsidies to corporations).

If home heating costs are rising, people will make decisions like adding more insulation, installing a more efficient heating system, lowering the thermostat, and the like.

The NDP is advocating short-term political gain and turning a blind eye to the long-term economic consequences. It doesn't make any sense. Here in BC, the NDP criticized the carbon tax during the last election. They claimed that it was faulty, didn't tax the real polluters, etc, etc...blah, blah, blah. (The carbon tax was probably the best thing that the roundly hated BC "Liberals" did in the past few years). The tax raises the cost of fuel (although not nearly enough) and encourages people to make choices like driving less or buying a smaller car. Imagine what would happen if there was a subsidy on gasoline.

The question has to be: what are these people thinking? Sorry NDP, but you're losing your way on these issues.

Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right...

...Here I am, stuck in the middle.... " a tune that's been playing in my mind as more and more nonsense pops up, from sources all over.

Here at home, we have a BC provincial government that is starting an education campaign on the benefits of the HST. It's only about 2 years late, but better late than never, I say. The Federal government is caught committing campaign fraud but manages to call it a "discussion" between Elections Canada and the party about how to "interpret the rules". As another party leader pointed out, the government seems to think that "illegal" is a sick bird. Our Prime Minister on the issue? Oh well, "you win some, you lose some".

In Egypt, the (now ex-) President declared that he would not be stepping down. The very next day, he stepped down. Seems to be a disconnect with reality here. Is there something people like this don't understand about the concept "the jig is up"? Who will the next nut case be forced to step aside?

The military of an (un-named) invading world power is exposed gunning down unarmed and wounded civilians but has the temerity (and twisted morality) to be outraged when Wikileaks tells the world about it.

Big Oil has so subverted reason and democracy that governments can't/won't take action on climate change. So it looks like we really will get to see the results of this world-scale experiment.

Overall fuel efficiency of our North American vehicles is actually getting worse. Makes me kind of wish for $200 oil.

Although a few years out of date, an ex-Nixon aide was once quoted as saying: "What you have to understand is that conservation isn't a Republican ethic". ??? So waste and profligacy is the way to go, you're saying? Doesn't look like that "ethic" has changed much since the Nixon era.

Despite Canadians great lack of desire for an election, it seems like we will have one. Is this the 4th election in 7 years? Right, that was the effect of "fixed election date legislation", just one more useless bit of work by the Harper CONservatives.

Speaking of "CONs", we have the prospect of buying (and paying for) a bunch of fighter jets but we aren't being told (honestly) what the price will be and even why we really, really need them. Here's a story that us disgusted taxpayers need to read.

MP Jason Kenny accuses the CBC of "lying all the time". I'm not sure where some politicians find the nerve to accuse "anyone" of lying. I think his problem, and the problem of probably anyone in government, is that they can't stand voters or the media disagreeing with anything. What we don't need is the kind of polarized insanity endured by our neighbors to the south. And we certainly don't need a media outlet acting as the government mouthpiece the way FOX does down there.

We seem on the verge of a month of election campaign, where we certainly won't get any intelligent discussion of the real issues. The Conservatives desperately want a majority, but if Canadians don't trust them, I hope they won't vote for them. Personally I don't think they deserve our support. The NDP have the same old message. Sigh. And do the Liberals really think Iggy is electable? Not much to choose from here, and our system will make sure that the variety of opinions in this country won't be represented in Parliament once the dust settles. Prepare yourselves for a month of partisan spin, silly promises and vitriolic attack ads, and remember that if you want some real change, think about voting for something completely different. The "old" parties have had their chances and failed. Miserably.

Reflecting on UBB

Although the flutter has subsided in the past couple of weeks, you might remember the outrage when the CRTC ruled in favour of Usage Based Billing. Despite the fact that most Internet users don't even come close to using their "quota" each month, you'd have thought the sky was falling. While the advent of Internet TV, Netflix and other distractions might point out some shortcomings with Canada's current Internet system (ISPs, bandwidth, lack of competition, charges, etc), I have a different take.

Out here in rural BC, all these discussions and the outpouring of rage are of only academic interest. We get our Internet connection from Telus. You know, the phone company out here. It's almost the only option we have for an Internet supplier. Netflix? Ha! We can't even stream CBC Radio 2 reliably using the Internet and watching a 2-minute YouTube video is often nearly impossible. Sometimes when it rains, or when it's cold, or at irregular times or phases of the moon, the DSL signal just disappears. And let's not bother talking about download speeds. It's faster than a dial-up modem, but that's about all I'd say for it. Right now, I'd settle for something that was always on - reliably.

Life in the 'Slo Lane continues.

Lost Ledge to Rossiter

A quick decision was made to do a ski traverse from the Lost Ledge cabin (near the headwaters of Schroeder Creek) to Hwy 31a via a pass near Mt Schroeder and Rossiter Creek. Accordingly, a half-dozen enthusiasts gathered at the cabin on Wednesday facing weather forecasts of frigid temperatures to come. This time, the forecasters were right. Thursday morning at 2000 m, dawn came with clear skies and a temperature of -25C.

Departure was delayed briefly to allow the sun more time to do it's job and to wait for 2 additional group members to arrive. They had the early start, leaving town well before 6 am to drop off a vehicle and make the ride and ski up to the cabin in the dark and the cold.

Just before 8:30 am, we started, with the run down through the forest to Schroeder Creek. Skins went on the skis, where they stayed until we reached the pass south of Mt Schroeder at 12:30 pm. We climbed through old-growth cedar and fir forest, across and up wide bowls and open slopes, where, despite the air temperature, the sun and the climbing kept us all quite warm.

The pass was cold, so other than removing the skins and admiring the view across to Rossiter Ridge and Mt Brennan, everyone soon started the descent to the valley bottom. The terrain leveled out there and what remained was a gentle descent along the creek alternating with, for me, somewhat hair-raising runs through West Kootenay woods. The road was reached at 3:45 pm where we all managed to cram into Webster's truck for the ride back to town, where it was still -10C. Photos of the trip can be found here.

Back from the Bend

After a nice hike and climb up into the sunshine at Zion, the clouds started arriving and the time had come to leave for home. Even on the I15 it took 5 hours to reach Salt Lake City, but 7 pm on a Sunday evening seemed like a good time to pass through a major city. That night, just a couple of hours north of SLC, was the last night above freezing that we were to have.

The next day, as we drove through the bottom of Idaho and into Montana, winter returned with temperatures we hadn't seen since leaving the prairies. We stopped for lunch in Dillon (I can recommend the hamburgers at Papa T's in town) and continued north to the I90, taking a short detour through Anaconda and stopping for the night at the rest area just east of Missoula.

Missoula was a bit warmer, being quite a bit lower in elevation, but there was a cold prairie breeze as we did our shopping. Skies were clear so we took Rte 200 northwest to Sandpoint, an excellent alternate route. Much of the route follows one of the branches of the Clark Fork and eventually ends up on the Ponderay River. It's very scenic, avoids the traffic on the I90 and doesn't have any elevation gain or loss, since it follows the river downstream. It was exactly 300 km from Missoula to Sandpoint by this route and even with the slower road, it took us only 4 hours.

A quick lunch and we were on to the Canadian border, crossing in record time. The agent didn't even bother looking at the list of purchases and receipts that I had organized. Unfortunately, we just missed the Kootenay Lake Ferry and had to wait another hour and a half for the next one. Another good time to have a camper, where we could keep warm, have a snack and lie around reading while waiting.

This time when we arrived home, we were able to drive into the driveway, barely. The snow was gone but in its place was about 2 inches of solid ice over everything. The desert of western Texas was starting to look pretty appealing!

Traversing Central Arizona

So far in Arizona, we've explored the west side and the east side of the state, but the one route we haven’t done so far is right up through the middle of the state. The only logistical issue here is trying to avoid Phoenix (referred to as the blob that ate Arizona). Our route took us through Tucson and north, then slightly east. We ended up going past Lake Roosevelt, which is apparently one of the reservoirs that supplies Phoenix. This turned out to be a National Recreation Area with free campgrounds, solar-heated showers, nice views and easy access to Tonto National Monument where there are some cliff-dwelling ruins to see. We also had a continuation of the sunny weather we’d been having for the past 2 weeks, so it was a great place to spend a night.

The next day, we pretty much finished off the trip north through AZ. Along the way, we went through some really nice scenery and great areas that will warrant future visits. One notable area was Oak Canyon, between Sedona and Flagstaff. Quite spectacular but apparently somewhat overshadowed by the nearby Grand Canyon.

North of Flagstaff was a volcanic area that we wandered around and another set of native ruins, which were quite nice. Then it was further north to the Colorado River, which we crossed at Navajo Bridge, downstream from Page and the Grand Canyon Dam there. We ended up, sort of by accident, at Lees Ferry, the location of one of the first crossings of the Colorado, at a very scenic area on the Colorado. We spent the next morning wandering around the area and one of our views is in this post's photo. We also saw 3 California Condors, perched on rocks below the bridge.

A couple of more hours of driving got us to Zion National Park, our last place to visit before the long drive straight home.