The ultimate indignity in death is to be used to profit others. It was only when hearing Prime Minister Harper say it in Quebec City the other day that you could believe what we have been hearing. It is the claim that the Lac-Mégantic disaster proves that pipelines are safer than trains.
What the Lac-Mégantic disaster proves is that if you are stupid enough to allow a train to be left unattended overnight on a downgrade of a main line, it might not be there in the morning. That, in our humble opinion, is a criminal act of negligence. After the courts have sentenced the Minister of Transport, the Department of Transport people involved and the train owners, they should also find the train engineer guilty of following orders.
But whether pipelines or trains are safer is a question that academics could argue for the next 50 years. Neither method of moving goods is perfectly safe. It cannot be. It is like flying on a commercial airline: no matter how good the safety programs, you have to remember that the parts for that aircraft were supplied by the low bidder.
While there have been many leaks and spills from pipelines over the years, we have been very lucky so far that there has been no direct loss of life. That fact is getting a serious push from running pipelines through major urban centres. Reversing Line 9 through Toronto to carry bitumen slurry is akin to threatening the Gods.
The one thing that every Canadian needs to take away from this discussion is that Stephen Harper is not a people’s prime Minister. He does not give a damn about you. He hardly gives a damn about the people in his caucus in Parliament. He is a failed economist, an untrained business supporter, a hateful leader and not a very nice person.
Ask him sometime about his Economic Action Plan. If he is being honest (for once) he will tell you that it is nothing but smoke and mirrors. The taxpayer-funded advertising for this action plan is based on surveys that ask people what they are worried about. The next flight of ads tells you how he has solved that problem. He just cuts out the middleman task of trying to solve the problem.
The only good news for you is that Mr. Harper is not likely to be Prime Minister after the 2015 federal election.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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