The Plumbers - Joe vs Guido

The US election has their `Joe the Plumber` but I`ll bet our plumber, Guido Hatzis is way more fun .....

go here > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=domXumvTVI8

One more snub

Vannoc's recent decision to send twenty-five million dollars to American workers is just another snub of British Columbians. Gordon Campbell's government has no confidence that BCers can do anything.
We've lost control of BC Hydro to the private 'run-of-the-river' power projects, where those companies can eventually sell their power outside of our province without any power going to us in time of need.
BC Ferries is run by Americans who put surcharges on the fares at the drop of a hat and then ignore the plunging oil prices when it is time to eliminate them.
We've lost our very own railroad, BC Rail which resulted in the bypassing of many community stops for British Columbians who depended on it.
Those shiny new German ferries were built with 542 million dollars of British Columbian`s tax money sent to help German workers buy homes, cars, stoves and TVs. Nothing for capable BC ship builders and no spillover into OUR general economy.
And now when BC workers are scratching for every dollar they can in a threatening economy we award a contract to a Milwaukie company to build tents for our two week spendfest called the Olympics. Again, a 25 million dollar contract that spits in the faces of many capable British Columbian companies.
Just another snub by a government who has shown time and time again that they have no respect for British Columbians or their families.
I`m voting for the party that says `British Columbia first`.

Pesky pesticides

Normally I don't admire Quebec, but those Quebeckers can have a feisty attitude when they want. And I think we all should in this kind of case: The Canadian unit of Dow AgroSciences is suing the Province of Quebec for banning one of its products in a sweeping move of pulling more than 200 pesticides and herbicides from shelves. The specific product in question is
2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, and the name is enough to have it banned in my opinion.
But get this - They are suing that government under Chapter 11 of the NAFTA Free Trade Agreement that includes a provision that allows private companies to sue the federal governments of any of the three countries if a member country enacts laws that "expropriate" their profits.
Yes, if children start being born with three eyes and five legs, we are supposed to respect company's profits first!
Oh my Gawd where have we gotten to? We've seen Wall Street greed spashed across everything we read lately and now we are seeing the ultimate: - profits before public safety. This company, Dow Chemical, is now in the realm (if it wasn't already) of the cigarette companies insisting that smoking is still good for you and fish farms saying sea lice are not hurting our wild salmon.

I hope those feisty French-Canadians are up to the battle and I think they are. They are the only ones in Canada prepared and brave enough to go after the biker gangs in their province, we have to give them an applause for this too. And encourage other provinces to follow their lead.
Hourra car vous, Quebec!


I know this has nothing to do with the Union Carbide spill in Bhopal, India, but if you want to see a quick bit about the damage chemicals can do go here - http://www.bhopal.org/whathappened.html