All County, All the Time Since 2010 MAKE THIS YOUR PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY HOME...PAGE!  Saturday, December 14th, 2024

Standing on our own … and growing!

Steve Campbell

Steve Campbell

Some people think that I am like Chicken Little, always shouting that the sky is falling. But to me it’s more like the ‘canary in the cage’ in the mineshaft. As the province steamrolls over property and individual rights, as well as wildlife and the remaining remnants of nature, the canary is indeed dying.
And I can’t bear to look back and say: “How did this happen? How did we allow our County to be destroyed?”
“I told you so,” won’t cut it.

The provincial government is ruining Ontario. This is not an attack on Wynne’s Liberals – it is now standard operational procedure for governments across the country.
Somewhere along the line we gave up our ability to innovate and plan for our welfare and our future. We gave the job to government, who found political solutions to the problems – from Health Care to Energy – which have effectively removed us from the equation.
This is why I see Separation as a viable solution. It’s the only way we can return our lives and lifestyles into our own hands.
We can indeed reinstate some of the common sense laws that Ontario has brought to our social order. But we must also be allowed – even obligated – to remove decisions which stand against our established ways, our sensibilities about right and wrong and, above all, protect what we have in the face of a political force that has no concerns about our welfare, other than in general “for the good of the people” terms.
Sorry, that measuring stick works for Glorious Metro but, move west, east and north and the natives are very restless about unbridled authority devoid of proper research, planning or consultation.
So let’s return to how the County can do something different.

Policing:
A lot of people, in typical Word on the Street fashion, have told me we are overpoliced here in the County. In fact, there’s a local rumour/legend that Prince Edward is a training ground for new OPP officers – so they can cut their teeth on people who don’t regularly pack handguns in their glove compartments. The theory is that this prepares them for their next posting in Scarborough, where the driver’s licence and registration is taped to a Glock 9mm.
It’s not that I want to go back to the days of the County’s lone cop, Burt Biddle, who – no kidding – did not own a car and would walk to Main Street and flag down a passing driver, who would willingly take him to the scene of the incident.
Still, why not back up just a little bit? We don’t need dozens of police running spot checks on seat belts and wine tasters. Why not go back to the old way: Spot a guy with no seat belt on, speeding, weaving back and forth? Pull ‘im over and check ‘im out. Way less manpower, way more focused towards people who are genuinely a driving hazard – not just an offense to the digital level on some machine.
In all fairness, I think we should allow the local OPPs an opportunity to re-apply for the County Police Force, since many of them have established families and connections here.
But they’ll need to remember they won’t have the same budget they got from the old province. They can still have Kevlar, but woven into a friendlier cardigan-style vest – more like Mr. Rogers than a Navy Seal. Even hardened drug dealers respond to Mr. Rogers with less aggression.
Also, no more big-block cars or Charger RT Interceptors. Get used to a pre-owned Kia or Hyundai, equipped with a Costco gun rack and a slick hands-free Bluetooth phone that will work almost everywhere north of Milford.
The number of cops we will need will be based on covering three 8-hour shifts per day, plus someone to answer the phone. So I’m thinking four to start, and an answering machine for night: “Hi, this is Constable Dave. I’m sleeping right now, so if this is a real emergency, please hang up and call again. If this is the usual foolishness people call to complain about, call in the morning.”

Hospital Care:
I think we should strip down our rural hospitals until all pain-in-the-butt rural Ontarians die by attrition. Oh, wait. I was reading from the official Ministry of Health operations manual. My mistake.
I actually think that all decisions that have nothing to do with politics – such as hospital care and operation, technology, and engineering research and development – be removed from the political arena, and placed in the hands of people who know how to do the job. Can’t see a downside to that.
Dr. Elizabeth Christie, while dead asleep or in a coma, can build a better plan than the entire brain trust at Queen’s Park. Plus we get to ask for all of our equipment to be returned, along with our beds, which are probably in a storage locker in North York.

Business Innovation:
The common perception is that Canadians have forgotten how to make stuff. And the stuff we are allowed to make is stifled by competition from foreign trade agreements and cheap offshore labour.
Time magazine reports that, for the first time since 2007, globalization appears to be reversing itself. This is partly due to demands for increased wages by Chinese workers, and partly the increased costs of fuel, shipping and transportation.
This is leading some American manufacturers to reopen U.S. plants, with new cost-saving equipment and technologies, and bringing the American worker back into the picture. Time calls it an early indicator of an economic upswing in the States.
For us in the County, we need to shake the federal and provincial mind-set that everything is cheaper elsewhere.
County people know how to create. Our farmers already know that top-quality food products can be produced right here … they are already in demand right across the province, especially in urban areas where time-lags stand in the way of fresh Ontario-grown food.
In manufacturing, there’s plenty of room here for tight plants with up to a dozen employees, serving the County market to start, and then exporting as it grows. This may not work for cars and tractors, but it can work for furniture, fans, caskets, clothing – all of which are already being made here.

  In other words:
Shut down all imports that can be turned into County manufacturing businesses. The result? The economic growth, full-time, year-round employment and decent wages that have eluded us in a world in which we are not allowed to change the rules.

Filed Under: News from Everywhere ElseSteve Campbell

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