Urban wins, Rural loses – again

Steve Campbell | Jun 16, 2014 | Comments 19

Steve Campbell

The provincial election is over, and I’ve almost stopped crying myself to sleep. It isn’t that I’m not proud of having a lesbian women who bears an uncanny resemblance to Orville Redenbacher as premier, it’s just that there is no indication that she is any different than McGuinty.
After first assuming the office, she promised to return decision-making power to municipalities on Wind Turbines. Nothing happened. Hours before the election, she told the press the Green Energy Act needed to be revamped. We’ll see if that happens.
The Toronto Star trumpeted, basically, ‘Urban wins, Rural loses’, labelling us a bunch of whiners. They disregard the fact we supply their food and resources, and vacation and retirement opportunities.
But, remember, these are the same Toronto people who stand firmly behind Rob Ford, who would have been dragged out of the County on a cedar rail after his first crack incident.

Meanwhile, Ontario holds a debt that surpasses almost every other province or state in North America and we, the voters, have given a mandate for that train wreck to continue.
National economists are eyeballing this very debt, and questioning if Ontario Savings Bonds, once a secure investment, may suffer under the load.
I believe that Ontario is in for a fall.
The disparity between the very rich and the rest of us is an ever-growing gap. As a student of history, I know that, when that thermometer blows, there’s only one corrective course: Revolution.

Witness Czarist Russia in WWI. The elite dined and danced, while peasants starved. The French Revolution, and the socialist revolutions in China, Cuba and throughout the Far East, are all reminders that, occasionally, the people will be forced to level the playing field. As Dylan said: “If you got nothin’, you got nothin’ to lose.”
Sadly, socialism – like democracy – builds its own bureaucracies. This ultimately serves the people in power, at the expense of the people it allegedly serves … and the whole cycle repeats itself.

To bring this concept closer to home, let’s look at the recent Economic Crisis in the U.S. which, thanks to the one-sided deal of Free Trade, came to us as well.
Ordinary people did not see this coming. Why? Because we are not remotely players in the world of national economics. It is driven by the elite, which honours power and wealth, and is driven by greed.
And it’s greed that drove us into the Crisis. And nothing has changed. No lessons learned.
No political party will examine the huge amounts of money made by top government employees – they only focus on the jobs of the people at the bottom, who actually do the work. That’s us.
Nor will they take a look at the bloated management salaries of large corporations, because the corporations give the political parties the money they need to maintain what they want most – power.

Greed for Power has driven our provincial bureaucracy to add more and more legislative control over us. They claim to create jobs, but the jobs created are government jobs – such as LHINs, and enforcement officers to execute fines based on the daily legislation they enact.
We are policed to the max, and not just by the OPP. Every government ministry has its own enforcement teams, who seek us out to fine us – or worse – demand compliance to legislation which is simply not affordable to most small businesses. Health and Safety officers alone are playing havoc on rural Ontario businesses, enforcing legislation which can easily be handled in rich, well-serviced Toronto, but may bankrupt local businesses who don’t have access to town water, sewer or proper regional transportation. (More specifics on this in a later column.)

People who believe they can operate their homes and businesses using common sense and careful procedures should take note: There’s a whole new boss in town – and it’s moving us closer to a system in which the State controls everything. The rules, regulations, fines, licensing fees – most of which are not even applicable to rural Ontario businesses, from Timmins to Cornwall – will drive us all into compliance with a Metro Toronto mentality – or face extermination.

I know this sounds like crazy talk, but I’m disturbed by the direction Ontario is taking. On the one hand: enormous debt, destined to increase; removing the rights of rural residents and their councils to determine their own futures; and the growing rift between urban demands and rural supply.
On the other hand, I see more and more people across the province turning to the government for survival – as their companies fold up or move to provinces and states that are more conducive to running a business (perhaps using some of that free excess electricity Ontario hands out to everyone but us).

More people are seeking unemployment payments, stress leaves, welfare, disability claims – all of which tax out an already overspent budget.
This is socialism in its true sense – the very thing that struck fear in our hearts in the 1950s and ‘60s. Good jobs are government jobs, created to drive out independent businesses (who are not under their control), and claim the field as their own.
This is what Ontario voted for. I, for one, am not going to stand for this treatment.
Because I have a plan …

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Urban wins, Rural loses – again

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