One last (?) blast at County Wind

Steve Campbell | Feb 16, 2012 | Comments 12

The clock is ticking on the fate of Wind Farms in Prince Edward County. I always figure that this is the last column I write on the subject, but it’s never the case.
Sure, the discussion has evolved. But we’re no further ahead than we were two years ago. The factions have formed their lines, and they continue to go at each other with baseball bats, as if the ‘last man standing’ will win.
Former MPP Leona Dombrowsky is among the combat victims, standing by Dalton’s Glorious Legacy Dream until the bitter end. Newbie Todd Smith won the day in the last election and, because he apparently does not know how politics works, decided to represent the people who voted for him.
The crazy guy actually followed through on election promises, placing a bill before the Legislature to return decision-making power to the municipalities – the people who are ultimately affected by the project.
Clearly, he did not read the ‘How To Be A Successful Politician’ handouts. Item #1 is: “Do not make an attempt to serve your people.” There is only heartache and disappointment in that, plus the emotional grief of actually caring for the people you represent.
Instead, go to Item 2: “Hey, pretty soon you’ll get a nifty pension, so just stay quiet, vote the way the Leader tells you, and keep a low profile.”
Item 3: “Try to figure out how you can wangle yourself a private jet, or at least some free helicopter rides. Make sure you foster trade agreements in the Mayan Riviera, so you can visit Mexico regularly, and charge everything to your expense account, including that stupid-looking giant sombrero.”
I have no idea why MPP Smith would ignore this sage advice, which has been tried and true since 1867, except for the jets and helicopters. But you can bet Sir John would have used them, if they had been invented then.
So this poor fool decides to have a meeting with ‘The People’, to get a handle on the feelings about Ostrander Point.
The pro-wind people wrote this off as an ‘anti-wind’ meeting, so mostly boycotted it. This neatly allowed them to cry foul, since they weren’t properly represented, since they decided not to attend.
This is what is called a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’.
Note that our not-yet-corrupted MPP pointed out that many offers were made to government officials to attend, but were declined.
(This is Item 4: “If you are asked to a venue in which the people are demanding specific answers to probing questions, go to Cancun.”)
Countylive.ca (if you haven’t visited it, do it! It’s a blast!) did a poll which indicated that people do not want Wind Farms, particularly at Ostrander Point.
An attempt was made to wipe it away by a recent Letter to the Editor, claiming that the vote was not tightly controlled. Still, it’s about the only statistical info we have, so it needs to carry some weight. Pro-wind people had an equal opportunity to ‘fudge the results’.
So we might assume the numbers weren’t skewed by one guy who stayed up 48 hours, propped up on Red Bull and Jack Daniels, firing endless votes into the system, under different e-mail addresses.
I sent in a submission to the Ministry of Environment, after a long and painstaking effort to find the link in the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ websites that governments love.
In the end, I found the source. Every submission on Gilead Power’s plan for Ostrander Point had to go through ‘Shannon’, and nobody but ‘Shannon’.
When I tapped the ‘send’ key, I felt I had done my civic duty. And the reply?
Shannon is on maternity leave until January 2013!
There was a note to send material to ‘Sandra’ but, being somewhat paranoid about government activity (I’m sure you figured that out by now!), I had to ask myself: “Knowing you’re about to receive 100, or several hundreds, of submissions – why would you assign this job to someone who is leaving for a year, come January 2012?”
I know a set-up when I see one, and this one screams!
Meanwhile, back in the County trenches, the battle continues, waiting for the Ministry of the Environment to vote for killing birds, bats and turtles, and destroying their habitat, in the interest of protecting our environment, which once contained birds, bats and turtles.
I wrote in one of my columns that the pro-wind people had their hearts in the right place – trying to build a better world. I was wrong.
After watching the argument play out in the papers, I would like to amend that comment. Pro-wind people have their Brains in the right place, but not their Hearts.
The people with ‘heart’ are trying to prevent a devastating blow to our County ecosystem. The people with brains and statistics and logical arguments can explain it all, and tell us it will pay off in the Greater Health of our planet.
I used to be an Engineering student at Queen’s, because I was raised in the world of math and science, and everything could be explained logically.
I left that world because there was no room for my soul, in a profession that had no soul.
Instead, I became a writer, whose income can be determined by taking the $150,000 a year I could have made as an engineer, and subtracting $250,000. (For you logic people, that’s $150K – 250K, integrated with n and possibly b and extrapolated to eternity or when I die, whichever comes first.)
I’ve learned to trust more in my heart, and my experience, than in my brain. And, when you throw politics into the mix, it takes all the heart, experience and brains you can muster.
And, oddly enough, politics always wins.

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One last (?) blast at County Wind

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