Hugh Mackenzie
Huntsville Doppler
Enough Already!
I bet I said that to myself half a dozen times this week.
From people complaining about how Huntsville Council fills vacancies on that body, to rotating strikes across the province mandated by teachers’ unions, to activists hijacking the Canadian economy by blockading our national railways. Really, enough already!
Here in Huntsville, there has been a lot of debate around whether, in the wake of former-mayor Scott Aitchison’s election as our member of parliament, his position should be filled by election or appointment. Ultimately it was filled by appointment, but there was a lot of fuss and bother and back-stabbing until that happened. Then, there was more concern about the decision to fill the vacant seat on council by appointment. At the end of the day, it all turned out fine and we saved a hundred grand or so to boot.
We have a hard-working and competent mayor in Karin Terziano and an experienced and energetic councillor in Bob Stone to take her place as the representative for Huntsville Ward. The process council came up with to fill the vacant ward seat on council was a good one. Only one person could win but it identified a number of qualified people dedicated to Huntsville and to public service. It should make the next municipal election interesting!
But now it is time to move on and let this council get back down to work. Many challenges face our community, from roads to infrastructure to protecting our health care facilities to growing our economy through appropriate development and finding ways to increase affordable housing. Generally speaking, we have a good group of people representing us, all of whom, at one point or another, have successfully faced the electorate. We need to let them do their job.
Moving now to the provincial level, the escalating altercation between the Government of Ontario and the teachers’ unions is disturbing to say the least. As I have said before, I do not blame the teachers. I honour them and the serious responsibility they have in educating young people. But it is those very students that are being hurt. These walk-outs can only be disruptive for them and for their parents.
I do blame the teachers’ unions and the government, however. They have had time to settle this dispute and have failed to do so. In my view, three things need to happen and to happen soon.
First, teachers need to be legislated back to work. Most would much prefer to be in the classroom than on the picket line. Most importantly, students need their teachers and they need them now.
Second, current issues between the teachers’ unions and the government need to be settled by an independent arbitrator without ties to either the government or the unions. Both have had their chance. It is high time to get on with this.
Third, and I think very importantly, there needs to be a serious examination, perhaps at the royal commission level, of our education system in Ontario, which in my view is badly in need of reform. In many ways it is antiquated, divided, and much too loaded with bureaucracy and dysfunctional school boards. We need to spend more time thinking about whether the system actually works and whether our young people, in this day and age, are being properly prepared for a future which will be much different than that which many of us have experienced.
We need to reinvent our educational system with a new vision, thinking outside the box. There are many good examples out there. Scandinavian countries have education systems that are highly rated, deal very effectively with the ‘whole child’, develop relevant skills for practical applications, and do this within a relatively reasonable economic framework. Ontario needs to take a hard look at that.
And now to the highest level of government in Canada. This disruption of our national rail service needs to be stopped now. We may not feel the effect in Huntsville, especially as we are denied passenger rail service as a matter of course. But it certainly is having an effect on our economy. Products across the country are not getting to market. Badly needed supplies are not getting to their destination and passengers along urban routes in Canada are not getting to where they need to be for business or personal reasons.
I am shocked to hear myself say this, but there are times when I would prefer to have Pierre Elliott Trudeau as our prime minister than his son Justin. This is one of those times. I saw a quote from P.E.T. posted recently where he was characteristically clear in his view about blockades or disruptions of any kind that denied Canadians freedom of movement. He was equally clear about what he would do about it. “Just watch me” comes to mind.
Our current prime minister says it is up to the police to enforce the law, and the government should not interfere. Nonsense. He certainly felt differently when it came to SNC Lavalin. Government’s first responsibility is to safeguard the well-being of Canadians. Their well-being is at serious risk when some groups, no matter how incented, are allowed to hijack a major part of our national transportation system and ignore the rule of law. It is not something to talk about, at least not for very long. It is something that requires definitive action.
Where is the leadership in this regard? Is it more important to be in Africa campaigning for a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council or to be bowing and scraping to a senior Iranian official whose country had only recently shot down a plane that murdered 57 Canadian citizens? In my view, at the first sign of a national blockade, Justin Trudeau should have flown home.
Indigenous people and the non-Indigenous activists who support them have the right to protest even when many of their Indigenous communities disagree with them. But they, or any other group of individuals, have no right to cripple our railway system, harm our economy, disrupt our freedom of movement, or threaten our safety.
And so, I say once again: enough already!
Hugh Mackenzie
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I have always wondered why it is that after a two month long summer break from actual teaching, the teachers and school board can’t seem to have negotiated a contract before the start of the actual teaching year.
It would seem that a mandatory requirement would be to have such a contract negotiated, signed, sealed and in place BEFORE the start of the school year. That way the students would not be caught in the cross fire part way through the instruction year and at risk of losing the credit they need for their year of work. This holding the students as hostage items is and always has been unacceptable and seems totally unnecessary.
The current situation is not acceptable, never has been and should not even exist.
As for train blockades, this is not the way to settle a grievance either. A totally disproportionate way to protest. There are other, better ways that might even make some sense.
And, for the record, if we have to move oil or gas, the safest way is a pipeline. Witness the Trans Canada Gas line, a double line that passes right through Huntsville and runs all the way across the country. Most people can’t even tell where it runs, it is that well hidden from every day life but it is silently moving enough gas to power all of Eastern Canada.
Pipelines are orders of magnitude safer and more efficient than rail and don’t even think about trucks.
Better, of course not to have the oil moving at all because we would have figured a way to run our society without that oil being needed, but this will take some time. If the negotiations with the native people are any example of government speed and efficiency, we may be having tea with Spock and Captain Kirk at the Summit Center before this issue is settled. At least the Enterprise did not run on oil!
Save for living in Tory country, why all the local cheap shots at the Prime Minister? Yes, he was pursuing a seat on the U.N. Security Council: With a hawk for President immediately to our south, does nobody feel that it’s in our best interest to have some say in controlling his bellicose impulses? Do you think that he prefers negotiating with the blockading aboriginals to furthering those chances in Barbados?
Yet he did the right thing; and stayed in Canada. And it’s not a particularly politically expedient move either; as the aboriginals are split fairly evenly on the value of the pipeline. Also, I’m quite certain that it was Mr. Sheer who suggested police intervention. Given our history with such decisions, Mr. Trudeau would have found such an idea insupportable.
The man just returned from Africa; Parliament re-opened today; and already he’s being criticized for not being his father. Maybe he should invoke The War Measures Act, and get a few important people murdered. How quickly we forget.
Well said, again, Hugh. The vast majority of us are quite weary of the few radicals who think that their (often uninformed) opinions are more important than those of the rest of us. I wonder how many of these radicals are paid by forces outside of Canada? Who are the agitators who “support the indigenous people”? In the case of BLM in the States, for example, if you follow the money back, you will find that there are some billionaire globalists who are funding foundations which support its activities. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/riot-act/
The standoff over the Coastal Gas links pipeline is extremely complicated and anyone who thinks they have the ultimate answer is simply un-informed. Underlying the problem are longstanding issues over indigenous governance and land claims that, despite the exhaustive efforts of successive federal and provincial governments of all stripes, have remained unresolved since confederation.
Many Indigenous people in remote areas have been left out of the economy and live in unacceptable conditions. They deserve the same representation and opportunities as all Canadians. The irony is that the Coastal Gas Link pipeline offers a very much needed opportunity to remote First Nations in BC.
The CGL project is in the best interest of the Wetsuwetan, Canada and the world. The single most effective thing Canada can do to help achieve net-zero global emissions by 2050 is to help countries replace coal power with natural gas. Switching from coal to gas is the quickest and cheapest way to reduce emissions by 60% and paves the way for further reduction.
So, our current federal government is left with a situation in which a power struggle among the 5 hereditary and 5 elected chiefs of the 2,500 people of the Wetsuwesen nation is holding up a project approved by the BC government and holding up the entire nation of Canada. Is the concept of 630 “sovereign” First Nations communities across Canada averaging 2,600 people each even workable in 2020?
At the end of the day, Federal and Provincial governments must have authority to expropriate land for the national interest and indeed the global interest, otherwise the country is not governable. To put it in perspective, the 32-meter wide CGL corridor will occupy the same amount of land as was expropriated for Hwy 407 in Ontario. The 190 km or 28% of the 670 km pipeline on Wetsuweten land will occupy less than 3/10,000th of the 22,000 km2 of land on which 2,500 Wetsuweten people live. That’s 2400 acres per person.
Cool heads must prevail on all sides and we must find a quick solution to at least this one immediate specific case without bloodshed, and then move forward from there.
I agree with Mr. Mackenzie’s opinions on all points, except it does seem to me that he as many others are missing the gist of the grievance felt by the indigenous folks in BC right now. It is not just about the pipeline. It is about the principles of sovereignty of the reserves. Who among us would like to see our own back yard – Muskoka – cut apart by a potentially ecologically perilous oil pipeline? Anybody? I didn’t think so.
I agree with the first 2 topics. But The Indigeonus has been put down since time immorable, it must be settled in their favor! Thnak you,
Teachers striking and I missed putting a question mark ( ? ) at the end of my sentence ,
A bad time to have a political lightweight in charge of the well being of Canadians….Is he even in Canada .
That’s a very provocative comment, Mr. Hugh Mackenzie, but in my humble opinion it won’t move the working mass. An average Canadian is not interested in whether the liquid gas will flow to the US and from there to Europe or not, because every average Canadian knows that it does not give him anything. We have a lot of gold, diamonds and other minerals mines in the country and in other countries. I ask if we have anything of it?. Nothing. Back to the topic of teacher strikes. Introducing any arbitration committee is not the point. Mr. Ford doesn’t really care about the opinion of others, so how can you get along with a man like that?. The Indian case. As far as I know, these are their lands. If that’s the way they decide, not CN or pipeline companies. You’ll get along with everyone but you need to know that it can cost a lot. It’s not like they’re gonna keep on poor and someone else is gonna make billions. The election in Huntsville. I’ll be brief. If you don’t have what you like, you like what you have. We’ll survive somehow until the next election.
Hugh, I agree wholeheartedly! Where is the leadership to provide a forum to settle this issue, apparently the hereditary chiefs had proposed an alternate route satisfactory to them, and the company nixed it. Why can’t all of the parties come back to the table to come to a workable compromise.
Our indigenous people have certainly made their point. Good. Let’s move on.
Hugh.
Very well stated.
Do you actually expect governments to listen
let alone take any action?
This is how it’s always been in Canada.
The few dictate to the many.
Tomorrow is another day!
Well said…. Thanks, Hugh