Wallowing in the same old brown stuff
Grade schoolers learn very early in their education that when they mix paint colours, something magical appears right before their eyes. In fact, the transformation from one colour to another by blending two or more pigments is one of the first scientific experiments many of us experience.
And, just as a reminder to many of you far removed from grade school, the basics are: blue (PC) and yellow make green (Green Party), red (Liberals) and yellow make orange (NDP), and all of them combined make brown.
That’s right, but not by coincidence, the colours I’ve chosen for this exercise also represent the four main parties vying for the leadership of this country. And, taking this paint-blending charade one step further, look what happens when you mix red, blue, orange and green … you get ‘brown,’ like mud.
And that’s what our federal Parliament turns into once all of the members are comfortably in their seats and wallow there for the next four years to bicker back and forth with prepared rhetoric to ensure that their names appear on the daily transcripts.
I’m sure most of you have witnessed this, either in person or on television, and I hope you agree that it’s usually a sad and embarrassing exhibition of grandstanding to confirm their attendance.
In any event, as we’ve all heard for the past few weeks, each and every candidate from the party leaders down, have made hugely expensive promises for things that rarely happen once they’re elected.
In fact, I’m still amazed how politicians get away with even promising to commit hundreds of millions, even billions of ‘our’ dollars to certain causes when, last I heard, the country is nearly running on empty when it comes to money.
And the mining industry knows this better than anyone.
In recent weeks we’ve heard campaign promises to spend millions of dollars on First Nations programs, the infrastructure, daycare, power and pollution, and even incentives for tourism because Canada is a cheap place to visit now that our dollar hovers around the 75-cent (U.S.) mark, but unless I missed it somewhere, what about money to help miners and the other resources industries?
Loggers and fishermen need support too, but for now I want to concentrate on mining and ask why it’s not on the agendas of those hoping to move to Ottawa?
The last real money that I can recall being committed to mining for exploration and development was for Ontario’s ‘Ring of Fire,’ and we all know where that’s going at the moment.
It’s almost as if the federal government has given up on the development of its resource industries, and because of that, many investors are following its lead by holding onto their money, or worse, putting it elsewhere.
I know the government is supposed to lead by example, but I’m afraid that unless the candidates in this coming election step up and look beyond the obvious, and slippery issues involving the oil sands, and Mike Duffy, then I think Canada will just continue slugging its way through the same old muck created by new faces.
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