In the August 19 Citizen there was a guest editorial by Willow C. Arune with the heading "Trudeau positive for Canada." On August 20th we had a letter by Don Gavins under the heading "Trudeau a shirtless fool" I disagree with both of these statements. Trudeau is not a fool when it comes to promoting himself and the Liberal party. But is Trudeau positive for Canada?
Stephen Harper, who Trudeau often degrades, was able to have signed a five year renewal of the U.S Canada softwood agreement, but negotiations are now stalled, in regard to having this agreement extended when it comes to an end this fall, and this will not be good for B.C forest industries.
Arune spends much ink telling us about the sunny ways of Justin Trudeau in contrast to the somber face of Stephen Harper, that this is a return to the Trudeau mania of the 60s when his father was prime minister. Trudeau has said in words to the effect that Canada does best when Quebeckers are prime ministers, but this might depend on where you live in Canada.
Trudeau senior had the national energy program whereby Alberta was forced to sell its oil to eastern Canada at prices for below marked value to the ruin of Alberta's economy and he also had the equalization program whereby tens of billions of dollars was transferred from the west into Quebec and the Maritimes.
Today, Trudeau junior has not been much help to the west, his friend Obama has vetoed the XL pipeline, while Trudeau has killed the Northern Gateway proposal by banning oil tankers.
He has also put roadblocks to the Energy East proposal by suggesting we need a social license for it to proceed.
Trudeau senior's borrow and spend to buy votes in eastern Canada gave us a debt load that took decades to get under control. Justin seems to be imitating his father in this too, with his deficit budgets. As for other Quebec PMs, Mulroney gave us the Airbus scandal, Jean Chretien and Paul Martin gave us the sponsorship scandal. Justin, before he was an MP, would charge tens of thousands of dollars to speak at charity events. Harper gave us almost ten years of good government with one scandal: the 90 thousand dollars Nigel Wright wrote to cover Mike Duffy's expenses.
In 2012, Harper got a change made to the unreasonable lavish pension plan for MPs put in place by Quebec MPs. This change saves taxpayers millions. Harper personally stands to lose one to two million dollars in pensions, depending on how long he lives.
Svend Serup,
Prince George
