Translink sucks about as much as the GVRD!

For those of you who stumble upon this blog and don’t know what Translink or the GVRD is I’ll tell you. Translink is the public transit authority for the greater Vancouver regional district. The GVRD is governing body for the greater Vanvouver regional district. Both these organizations are contributing to the downfall of this once great northern city by over burdening the local populace with their cash grabs.

In this day and age of concern over the environment, people would like to use more rapid transit, makes sense eh? In an effort to try to make people use their cars less to drive to the downtown core the GVRD imposed ridiculously high parking fees on the streets. When they did this it naturally meant that private parking lots raised their price as well.

Once again the idea here was to try to get people to take buses downtown and to some degree it makes sense to some degree as nobody wants to pay $20 or more per day, to park their car downtown. Seeing as this move brought more people to rapid transit what does Translink do – raise their fares.

It wasn’t bad enough that Translink raised their fairs 3 separate times in a 12 month period to more than double the price; they are trying to raise that amount again. When is it going to end?

I do not personally use transit as I don’t need to as I moved to within walking distance of my job. I rarely drive downtown as I don’t often have a need to go downtown but the times I do I resent like hell having to pay these outrageous parking fees.

I don’t know if any of you have ever played the computer game SimCity but when playing this game if you set the taxes too high, your population moves out of your city. If Vancouver were someone’s game of SimCity this city would be falling apart due to a massive exodus. If it wasn’t for the fact that I have children in this city who need me I would be so gone from this city and more than likely the province too.

CBC Snubs Western Canada

So the official call by the CBC is that Ottawa is the official team for Canada in the 2007 NHL playoffs - whats up with that! As far as I remember BC and Alberta are still part of Canada and that the CBC was a Crown Corporation that represents all Canadians and not just the ones who live in Ontario and Quebec.

Another example of why we westerners should look deeper into Cascadia, take our oil, forestery and fisheries and natural gas with us.

Canada Snubbed Again

I am not sure how much longer we Canadians should stick around the Bush led Americans and be their bitch. The other day Bush thanked all of the countries who are helping out in Afghanistan but seemingly purposely left out Canada. WTF are we supposed to do to keep this asshole happy? Isn’t it enough that our people are there dying too? Perhaps we need to sacrifice a few more of our soldiers to American friendly fire? No that ain’t it as they dissed us on that one too!

The Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P.

Back on the 27th of November I got pissed off about the whole “Quebec as a Nation within a Nation”, and wrote an email to the Prime Minister’s office. The email I wrote certainly wasn’t a rant or a tirade and in an effort to be taken seriously I included my name and phone number. Apparently I was taken seriously because I got a response from the PM’s office. Perhaps my earlier assessments of our Prime Minister were off?

I can’t say for certain that the PM actually replied himself but it did come bearing his name and is reprinted in its entirety below. Below that is a copy of the email I sent to the PM.

January 5, 2007


Dear Mr. Romhanyi:

I would like to thank you for your recent e-mail regarding the recognition of the Québécois as a nation within a united Canada by the House of Commons. I am aware that this is a matter of significance to Canadians across the country and I am pleased to have the opportunity to respond to your concerns.

As you may be aware, on November 23 the separatist Bloc Québécois introduced a motion in the House of Commons to recognize the Québécois as a nation with no mention of Canada. This was a confrontational attempt to divide Canadians and to present the Québécois as being outside of Canada, which is something that could not be allowed to happen. I therefore acted in the interest of national unity and worked in consultation with the other federalist parties in the House of Commons to introduce a motion that would reaffirm the strong place of the Québécois within a united Canada. I simply was not prepared to let the separatists define the debate.

Our motion is important for all Canadians because it recognizes the historical reality that the Québécois have a unique history, language, and culture, which constitutes a sociological nation within Canada. As I said when I presented this motion in the House of Commons; do the Québécois form a nation within Canada? The answer is yes. Do the Québécois form an independent nation? The answer is no and the answer will always be no.

I am glad that the federalist political parties in the House of Commons rose above partisanship and stood together to support this historic motion with 266 Members of Parliament voting in favour and only 16 voting against.

Please be assured that this Prime Minister and national government will continue to defend national unity not with cheap rhetoric or sponsorship programs, but through concrete actions that improve our federation.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to write.

Sincerely,


The Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, P.C., M.P.
Prime Minister of Canada


Here is a copy of my original email…

My name is Les Romhanyi and I am from BC.

I have to write to you to tell you that your movement to give Quebec Nation status is a really bad idea that will have lasting, negative affects. As a person from BC I can not believe that Quebec is getting coddled once again by the PM offices. When will it stop?

As far as I am concerned, if this nonsensical idea is passed I will actively be seeking out a western separatist party and will be joining them whole heartedly as it seems this is the only way to get anything from Ottawa. I don't want to see this country come apart at the provincial borders but what can I do about it from the west except join in this madness?


Sincerely,

Les Romhanyi

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada elected a new party leader this past weekend and guess what western provinces – good news, he is from Quebec. Just what the west needs, another national party leader from Quebec.

Stéphane Dion, da guy dat wun de election for da Libral party leadersheep tinks dat da best way to help da peoples from da western provinces iz to educate us about da people from Quebec.

Talk about being in touch as this is exactly what we need out here in the wilds of British Columbia – a better understanding of why people from Quebec need to be coddled.

Integrity in Politics?

As strange a title as I have ever written but it seems that it is true for at least one politician, Michael Chong.

Conservative cabinet minister, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Michael Chong, has resigned his post over Prime Minister Stephen Harper's stance on Quebec. Perhaps the PM should have looked for a little patriotic influence from this minister instead of sacrificing a good Minister just so he wouldn’t lose a Minister from Quebec.

Integrity = Michael Chong
Integrity + Stephen Harper = Not So Much

Only in Canada

And to think we as Canadians elected the current group of politicians to rule our country, to think we trusted their collective brain-trust to look out for our best interests. How could 266 elected politicians think that by offering Quebec “Nation” status will somehow unite this country? Completely boggles the mind.

I only have one word to sum this up – Cascadia!

Seeing as Ontario and Quebec continue to ignore the views of the average western Canadian, why not let them continue their inane dance without us? After all when was the last time western votes counted in any national election? We westerners should leave the rest of Canada to form our own country – CASCADIA.