HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2006-06-29, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2006. PAGE 5.
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Just check those gasp!rices
Quiz time, folks — who said, "Ethanol
not petrol. will power the
automobile". Ralph Nader? Al Gore?
Jack Layton?
Believe it or not, it was Henry Ford, 'way
back in 1908 when he was introducing his
brand new Model T to the world.
Henry was a tad premature at best, but
perhaps not wrong. He just didn't allow for the
single-minded viciousness of the oil industry
which plumped for petroleum while
shouldering the ethanol idea on to the back
burner.
But perhaps Henry's day is finally a-
dawning. I note that quietly and without
fanfare, General Motors Corporation has
announced that this year will be the last for the
Hummer HI.
To which an observer can only respond:
"Well, duh."
I don't know what the going rate for
gasoline is in your neck of the woods, but I
paid a buck-twenty a litre the last time I filled
up. The Hummer H1 Alpha weighs a little over
four tons and delivers eight miles to the gallon.
Who, aside from Daddy Warbucks, Arnold
Schwarzenegger or a platoon sergeant in
Kandahar, would be idiotic enough to want to
own one of these lumbering, gas-swilling
dinosaurs?
Answer: not many.
GM sold a grand total of 98 His this year.
That's well down from the 875 they sold in the
vehicle's peak year, 2000.
Ontario gays are winning surprising
new friends on their march to
acceptance, but there are indications
the path is still bumpy.
,The opposition Progressive Conservatives,
who have never been on good terms with the
gay community, wished it well in its colourful
26th annual parade here, a symbol of gay
strength and determination, and other events
making up its Pride Week.
Associate justice critic Christine Elliott said
she hoped the events seen by more than one
million people will help defeat prejudices that
still linger and will help gays to live without
fear.
Elliott and Conservative leader John Tory
attended a gala to raise funds for the events.
Tory, chosen leader in 2004, said he marched
in several before becoming leader, would have
marched. last year but was out of town, and
would march this year.
This is in stark contrast to earlier
Conservatives. Mike Harris as premier was
asked, but refused to join the parades, giving
reasons including "I' m taking my son to camp
that weekend and that's my priority" and "I
don't do parades."
Harris also played on apprehension about
increasing gay rights to win votes, claiming
with huge exaggeration the Liberals and New
Democrats put more priority on improving gay
rights than the economy.
Earlier Conservatives refused many requests
to make discrimination against gays a breach
of the Human Rights Code.
The Conservatives have become warmer to
gays under Tory, who last year persuaded most
of his MPPs not to vote against enabling
marriages between couples of the same sex.
The turnaround is important, because the
Conservatives have been in power more than
other parties, so any group would want them
as friends.
Gay activists who have tended to support the
Liberals and New Democrats are not likely to
rush to desert them • and support the
Conservatives, but their antagonism toward
Consumers are beginning to read the writing
on the wall — or rather the digits on the gas
pump — and nowhere more earnestly than on
the gas pumps of our neighbours to the south.
A recent survey reveals that 70 per cent of
American adults believe that rising gas prices
threaten their financial well-being.
And well they should. Every penny increase
in the price of a gallon of gas erodes the-
buying power of American consumers by $1.3
billion U.S. And that price tag is going up, not
down.
How bad could it get? Well, Americans are
now paying over $3 a gallon (a 20 per cent
jump from two months ago). Meanwhile,
British motorists are paying the equivalent of
$6.62 U.S. a gallon.
Wait a minute — the U.S. and Britain — aren't
those the two countries that invaded Iraq in
order to stabilize oil prices? Nice job, fellas.
The dreadful irony is, every time we fill up
at the pumps, we're financing the war on terror
— for the bad guys.
As Thomas Friedman writes in The New
York Times, "Through our national fleet of gas
the Conservatives should diminish.
One odd personal twist is that Elliott is the
wife of federal finance minister Jim Flaherty,
who as Harris's attorney general was noted.-for
opposing gay rights and almost had apoplexy
when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled he
had to bring in a law to increase them.
Flaherty said grudgingly the law was not on
his agenda and was forced on him and even
made this clear in its title, so there might be
some differences of opinion expressed around
the Flaherty-Elliott dinner table.
One indication gays still have problems was
given by Kathleen Wynne, a Liberal elected as
the second openly-gay member of the
legislature in 2003, the first being George
Smitherman in 1999.
Wynne said she is lucky to be a gay living in
Toronto and able to follow that lifestyle
without fear of persecution.
She said many gays come to live in Toronto
because in some small communities they are
more likely to be criticized, shunned and
harassed.
Wynne said the only reaction of other MPPs
to her homosexuality has been some
opponents snickered when she mentioned it in
Final Thought
I hope our wisdom will grow with our
power, and teach us, that the less we use our
power the greater it will .be.
• — Thomas Jefferson
guzzlers, Americans are sending tens of
billions of dollars to Islamic states every year.
That's right: we are financing both sides in the
war on terrorism."
The government response to the crisis is the
usual — throw money at it. A Republican
senator proposed issuing $100 government
rebate cheques to every driver in America.
Brilliant, senator. That'll fill, my tank today.
How about next week?
Here in Canada we're feeling pretty smug
because of those vast tar sands around Fort
McMurray in Alberta., Plenty of oil there,
boys. Biggest reserves in the world, next to
Saudi. Arabia.
Which is true, but there's a small problem.
Each barrel of oil that's squeezed out of the tar
sands requires up to five barrels of water,
carves up four tons of earth and burns up
enough natural gas to heat a home for
five days. It also adds uncounted volumes
of polluting gases to the emissions that
are turning our planet into a giant
greenhouse.
But listen, folks — rising gas prices isn't ALL
bad news. Consider the case of Lee Raymond,
'who just retired as the CEO of ExxonMobil. In
2005, while you were shelling out at the
pumps, Lee had a very good year. His
salary for the 12 months tapped out at
$69.7 million U.S. That works out to $190,000
a day.
Betcha Lee Raymond has a Hummer. With a
chauffeur.
her opening speech.
Another concern has been raised by James
Loney, the Christian aid worker kidnapped in
Iraq, who became known to have a male
partner after he was rescued.
He has claimed a Roman Catholic charitable
group in Ontario closed a youth camp where
he taught, because irfeared it would be seen as
promoting a gay lifestyle.
There also is the case of Smitherman, who
as health minister is constantly in the public
eye, smart and combative and revealed
recently he once was addicted to drugs and
thought admitting this 'would help him more
easily advise others.
Confessions of personal failings by
politicians have become common and mostly
been praised for increasing public awareness
anyone can have problems and recover and
being courageous.
But Smitherman has also been accused of
being a publicity seeker and unfit to be
minister. This raises suspicion some are
prepared to accept gay politicians, but not one
who is gay and uppity.
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In the swim
1 t is one place where everything can just
disappear for awhile. You take the plunge
into a womb-like world. grounds are
muffled, sights have changed and you are
weightless. For the most part it's an incredible
feeling, at least once you're used to it.
Depending on the circumstances, however
that first plunge underwater can be traumatic.
Mine came unexpectedly one day while
floating on an air mattress. My brother and his
girlfriend were taking me Out where no child
had gone before. Knowing the 'depths' to
which my brother would go to torment me, I
probably suspected 'some misfortune was
about to occur, but I'm certain I never dreamed
it would play out as it did.
His girlfriend was pretty much the one in
control that day, and her I trusted. She floated
alongside me, talking about things that
teenagers talk about with a child. Then for
some reason she suddenly tried to pull herself
onto the mattress and in the process flipped me
into the lake. Though they managed to quickly
snag me and bring me to the surface, it was not
before I had ingested and inhaled a fairly
substantial amount of nasty tasting water.
It had also been long enough to scare the
bejeepers out of me. I've never forgotten the
terror of finding myself unable to touch
bottom or get my nose above the water. By the
time I had confronted my fears and realized I
wanted to know how to swim, I was nine and
embarrassed to discover that the kids in the
tadpole class were babies compared to me.
Never too thrilled to be in a position where I
may be noticed for the wrong reasons, I didn't
have the gumption to brave this out and
stopped after just one class.
In the ensuing years I have taught myself to
swim — kind of. Taking the cue from the
Labrador, I can dog paddle of course. I float on
front. and back, do a variation of some kind_of
crawl, have a pretty strong side stroke, albeit
on one side and can tread water for a bit. None
of it's pretty but it serves me alright.
However, when I see someone dive from the
side, skimming under the surface with the
grace of a dolphin it's with regret. Despite my
early mishap, I love the water and hate that I
can't enjoy it to the fullest. There was
therefore, never any question of whether or not
my kids would know how to swim. Lessons
were mandatory. No tears could move me,
rebellion didn't have any effect.
It was amusing actually, the differences in
my four children. My girls took to the water
like little fishes, eventually becoming
lifeguards. My youngest, though more
comfortable on land, passed all the exams. My
eldest was the most reluctant, spending two
summers sitting on the edge of the pool for my
registration fee. Even when he finally jumped
in he never found it pleasant. He learned
because basically I wasn't letting him stop
until he did. To this day, he avoids swimming,
but I'm comforted in knowing Ile can.
Swimming is good exercise, fairly
affordable and accessible. But most
importantly it may prevent a tragedy. In this
day and age, when people naturally assume
everyone knows how, the scenario of being
pushed into deep water by enthusiastic people
at a party, who may then be oblivious of your
plight, is not far-fetched.
Parents are constantly educating their
children on ways to stay and play safely. When
I see the crowded pool every summer, it's nice
to know so many recognize the value of water
safety too.
Ontario's Tories wooing gays