Cut it Out

Seriously, the NDP needs to stop entertaining these ideas:

New Brunswick MP Yvon Godin, the party's critic for intergovernmental affairs, said it is time for Canada to act like a federation by sharing energy resources internally at lower prices. He said fishermen in his northern New Brunswick riding are often spending more money on gas for an outing at sea than they make selling the fish.

"Are we a country or are we not? Maybe Alberta is upset about it, but right now the whole country is upset that the price of oil is too high," Mr. Godin said. "When we have a province that has a problem, we ask the federal government to help. When a province is doing good, they say we want to be alone and leave us to all our money. Then what is a country?"

Therefore, Mr. Godin (a good maritimer, one assumes) must therefore be fine with Newfoundland sharing it's hydroelectricity with Quebec at below-market prices, right?

I thought not.

I would like all my readers (that's right, both of you) to memorize a simple sentence:

GAS ISN'T EXPENSIVE. I know, $1 a litre sounds like a lot, but it isn't. If you don't want to pay it, don't drive. If unnecessary commuters (people who could take mass transit) stayed off the roads, gas prices would come down in a hurry.

When gasoline becomes more expensive than bottled water, then come back to me. When people stop paying $5 for a half-litre of steamed milk and coffee with a pretensious name, I might entertain the idea that gas is expensive. In the meantime, the NDP needs to stop talking about interfering in the energy market. This doesn't have a good history, period. The most effective thing the NDP can be doing is actually what it's already accomplished - getting more funding for cities and mass transit. More of this, please. Less of the other stuff.