Come The Revolution …
Steve Campbell | Jun 11, 2013 | Comments 64
This is not a column about Industrial Wind Turbines. Sort of. And it’s not a column about the rape and death of PEC Memorial Hospital. Sort of. It’s a story about what has gone wrong with Ontario and Canada.
If you’re an innocent man standing at the gallows with a rope around your neck, and the deck is about to open, it’s always a good idea to ponder: “How did this happen to me?”
In this case, the frame-up was instigated by our old friend, turned enemy, the provincial government. Looking at the Big Picture beyond IWTs and hospitals, former Premier McGuinty took a big black pen and erased the word ‘democracy’ from all Ontario documents. This would require a considerable amount of time, which is probably why the ‘new jobs created’ index shot up for a couple of months.
The Green Energy Act – removing the voice of County people, our Council and our MPP – was simply the culmination of a widespread government policy to ignore public input. QHC pretends, but even their LHIN bosses don’t agree with the treatment Picton is getting.
McGuinty apparently has read Mein Kampf and the Memoirs of Josef Stalin, and thought it was a keen idea to institute a pogrom on rural Ontarians. I’m surprised the Green Energy Act did not include a section on building camps to harbour those unhappy with the health effects and destruction of life and land he has ordered.
His replacement, Wynne, is now publicly apologizing for McGuinty’s misbehavior, and is bravely trying to put a Happy Face toward us useless backwoods creatures who live somewhere beyond Scarborough.
At times like this, someone invariably says to me: “If you don’t like the government, change it with your vote!”
This no longer has meaning for me. The follow-up question is: “Okay, who am I going to vote for – who will save our butts, and not just inherit the Crown and continue on with ‘business as usual’?”
The problem is not a party politics problem. There is no party platform solution. And party promises are worth the air they’re printed on.
The problem is not which party is in power, the problem is systemic.
It’s the WAY we now do politics in Ontario and, indeed, right across Canada. Decisions are made behind closed doors in the middle of some city, and these decisions are passed to places like rural Ontario – though Queen’s Park has no concept of the differences in culture and lifestyle.
Despite Queen’s Park’s view of us as a vast, empty, uncultured wasteland, they have not noticed that the demographic of the County has changed radically in the last 10 years.
County people were never the sod-stomping clods they picture in their minds. We were just happy to be left alone. As Sir John A. said: “I love the people of Prince Edward County! They vote for me time and again; they ask for nothing, and they get nothing.” We like that.
But the County now has a whole new wave of people who chose this place as their personal paradise. Doctors (in vanishing numbers), lawyers, accountants, engineers, administrators – top-notch professionals – award-winning people, even members of the Order of Canada!
They have a right to ask why simply moving to Prince Edward County has reduced their status to Third-Class Citizens.
They were once the people who drove our economy and drove our government … their opinion is now less than worthless by virtue of passing over the Bay Bridge.
Long-time County, short-time County – we were all given a promise that this would remain our paradise. Old and new, we are all rooted here. And our expectations are simple, and have remained the same for years: “We love what we have; leave us alone.”
We live in the County hoping our property will increase in value. We plan to grow old here, surrounded by a sense of community, and be supported by a once-admirable health care system.
Now health, wildlife, property values, and the very land we treasure is in extreme jeopardy. And our hospital is being reduced to a box of bandages and a bucketful of leeches.
All courtesy of our provincial government, driven from the top down. This is what has gone wrong.
Anyone old enough to remember when your MPP was elected to represent the PEOPLE to the provincial government? Thankfully we have a feisty MPP who still believes that, but his voice is a cry in the wilderness – or, more appropriately, a cry FOR the wilderness in a metro building that only knows asphalt, urban consumerism, and the unending bloated steamroller that is the GTA.
News reports also indicate that our own Councillor Quaiff is bulldogging the new Premier to produce something other than promises to save the future of the County. Go, man, go. Her promises are too little, too late – and we are already reeling under the terrific gifts that political promises have showered upon us.
Ms. Wynne needs to lose her pretend love for red-ringed rubber boots and denim bib overalls, and do something that really matters: admit that McGuinty’s dictatorial reign was a monstrous political mistake, and cancel the proposed wind projects on the south shore. That’s a premier I can stand behind.
Hell, the cancelled gas plant fiasco cost $500 mill ($900 mill – almost a billion dollars – according to other watchdogs). Wynne, if you want to buy into rural Ontario, put that kind of money where your mouth is.
In closing, a quick shot at QHC:
Even the LHIN doesn’t like you. We don’t like you an awful, awful lot. It pains me to hear on the radio about the brand new emergency rooms in Belleville, with antiseptic sinks, individual temperature controls in each exam room, and a complete set of brand new equipment, possibly including wide-screen TVs which can access porn channels – just to keep the patients happy while awaiting stitches.
They also are installing solar panels on the roof (Yay!) and a whole set of low flush toilets. The whole combo will save them $270,000 a year. No mention of the capital cost outlay, which would probably open all the wings of PECMH, and allow nurses in French Maid outfits to deliver those UCW triangle sandwiches on trays to people in the waiting room.
Yes, my friends, we are being royally screwed by the Evolution of Politics. The system is broken beyond repair, and we have only seen the cutting edge of how we are about to be victimized.
But, as I say: Come the Revolution, all of this will change. Surprisingly, I’m getting more nods than laughter when I say this now.
Free the County, let’s get back where we belong. Let’s play our own game.
Filed Under: News from Everywhere Else • Steve Campbell
About the Author:
Keep up the good work Steve, I spend 4 days a week in the big Smoke, and as far as most people are concerned there ,Canada starts at the Rouge river on the east and ends at the Humber on the west. They don’t give a damn, and could not care less what happens outside those bounderies as long as they get their hot shower in the morning and the air conditioning blasting all day and night.The worse part is there are enough votes in the GTA to carry the entire province. SIMPLE SOLUTION,PEC does not have to secede The GTA should be a separate province and then the rest of Ontario including PEC could get on with life and tell them to screw off.
You’re welcome to your point of view Steve but stop trying to inflict it on those of us who don’t share it. You cannot speak for all of us or presume to tell us how we should feel even if you do bill yourself as County Steve. We are all smart enough to understand that change is inevitable and that it’s impossible to live in the past. That does not mean that we have to delude ourselves into thinking that life in the county today is a huge improvement over what we had. If it is so wonderful now there would be no inclination to recall the past with such nostalgia.
I think The County is still full of great people and although it will never be what it once was its a great place to live and raise Children all one has to do is read the story about the PECI Students raising all that money that they donated to different organizations to see what Prince Edward County is all about….
For God’s sake! Stop this! This is not doing anyone any good. I’m finding myself starting to agree with Mark1, so I may have to kill myself.
This argument will last unto eternity, and I’ve heard it all my life. Wishing we were back in the Good Ol Days is pointless. And the ‘Good Ol’ part comes from great memories of the County when we were left alone. Despite rising costs and out-of-control governments, we really do enjoy a better standard of living than we did in 1960. The County changed, as the world changed around us, but it’s not the fault of the ‘New People’. Small family farms were forced to become Mega-farms … or get out of the business. Industries like Lake Ontario Cement, with big fat paycheques, lots of employees and job security came to our doors and walked away. Our agricultural system restructured to preserve itself in a global economy, and small business became our only economic generator. And tourism drives that. Ask anyone who runs their biz thru the winter months. We can’t have what we used to have. And it’s not because of County people, or newcomers, or tourists. It’s a changed world.
I love our Past, but you need to live in Today. As Wolf says: Find your paradise. Don’t spend your time yearning for a simpler life in a complex world.
I think it is time to give up on the County, It does not seem worth fighting for anything here. The million dollar people at the top will do what they want.
Wolf is right about happiness being a state of mind but it was easier to be happy here before all of the changes that have taken place in recent years. I respect Wolf’s views because he is capable of offering an opposing opinion without being rude. Remember to smile when you can’t find a place to park on Main Street, the Market, or the Mary Street lot. It’s Picton just the way you like it in the summertime.
Paradise is something different for each person.
It all depends on what would make you the happiest. No one can tell you what your paradise is…it’s up to you to define it.
Happiness is but a state of mind. Happiness is not about material things or places.
The question remains…. what does coming on the internet to complain about it constantly accomplish? How is it working for you?
“The only people benefiting from the influx of tourists here are the shop owners, the wineries, B and B’s and restauranteurs”… oh no!!! Then open a shop and benefit from it.
The world must be a miserable miserable place for you Marnie.
You have hit the nail on the head Paul. The push for tourism kept on until most locals now do not go anywhere near the Sandbanks in the summer months. Try finding a parking space on Main Street in the summer or a seat at your favourite restaurant. Add to this the tidal wave of newcomers that all wanted a piece of paradise and our way of life disappeared. Who ever would have believed that there could be a back-up of traffic at the lights by the liquor store? The county should have stayed Ontario’s best kept secret. When everything that made it such a special place has been destroyed people will begin to look further afield but it will be too late for our county. Some secrets should remain just that. The only people benefiting from the influx of tourists here are the shop owners, the wineries, B and B’s and restauranteurs. Bloomfield was once a peaceful country village. Now look at it in the summer months. Home owners must hate all of those cars parked in front of their houses. The village has been commercialized and has lost a lot of its charm as a result. Now they boast that we are a destination but at what price?
The County is barely recognizable to what it was 30 years ago and the characteristics that drew so many folks here are all but gone..Its slowly becoming what so many were trying to escape from. Soon enough we will be known as the Belleville Metropolitan area, try as we might to prevent certain things from happening services being stripped away,traffic lights,crossroads being paved over all that character and the laid back feel of The County will be gone for good..
Yup. Good point M.I.. Not to mention that BGH keeps expanding with new buildings and such. But hey, they keep telling us that we’re getting a new hospital in PEC… in about 15 years… Political spin !
Does it not seem wrong that QHC seems to be able to find the time and money for a new hospital in Picton, but not the money to operate the one we have. And please, let’s not deflect this discussion because of how the funding works. Change what needs to be changed!
How shocking that someone by the handle “jethro” has that point of view.
About 25 years ago we ahd a gentleman on council who said”we should have sunk the ferry and blown up the bridges but we are too late now” I believe he was right