It must be the dog days of summer. That is when all the politicos, politicians, pundits and prevaricators take time out to refresh and recharge for the political wars. Because Babel-on-the-Bay has views on municipal and provincial happenings as well as federal, we use the time to advantage. Instead of joining the puling pundits on the beaches in their Muskoka chairs with a gin and tonic, we look for the least lovable capitalists to challenge before regulatory boards and commissions.
The upcoming National Energy Board hearing on the proposed reversal of Enbridge’s Line 9 and increasing the line’s capacity is a case in point. We got our comments in on time–with two hours to spare. We told the board that we are not in favour. In fact, we made the point that buying into that stupid pipeline plan through Toronto was akin to recreating the Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937. The explosive gas in that Zeppelin was unsafe and so is forcing bitumen slurry through that pipeline.
Someone asked recently what gave us the right to challenge a company such as Enbridge. It was an interesting question. We simply said that being a Canadian gave us the right to challenge anybody at all. Mind you, you sometimes feel like that Chinese citizen did when he challenged a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989. Luckily he was wearing dark pants and people viewing the photograph were unaware that the gentleman was likely wetting his pants.
When you have built a career of challenging the pompous and the authoritative, going before boards and commissions is just another walk in the park. Our first hearing before the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was the experience that set the pattern. We had been part of the political team that had pushed for this new commission and we had no fear of it. In fact, at that first hearing, we got into an argument with the chair because he seemed to be too legalistic in his approach to the question before the commission. It was when he used our wording to explain why the commission ruled in our favour that we might have become overconfident.
It also taught us an important point with the media. When the Toronto Star telecom expert came up after the hearing and asked for my notes, I said to him that we had discussed the subject before and he knew my feelings on it. He said, “Yes I do. But you have never accused the industry of producing garbage before.”
The point is that you should always do thorough research on the subject and then you can make your outrageous statements to please the news media.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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