Dear Editor:
OK, now that Canada has won gold and bars are actually open for regular hours, I would like to draw attention to our two-faced government and their inability to decide what side of the fence they are actually on.
After telling us that Redford’s government would never make decisions in law that were already decided at a federal level, they swept a drinking and driving campaign in that was more strict than and not in accordance with federal laws on the subject.
Scientists worldwide have decreed that .08 is the acceptable standard, yet we are now subjugated to a limit of .05 due to the Redford corner’s requirement to pay for the MADD votes.
Just like the teachers’ union, they had to give them what they had promised, for fear that the truth about how they got their votes in the first place would be revealed.
Now, all while touting the benefits of heavier penalties for drunk driving; the safety of families, streets and so forth, they’ve attempted to create an air of social stigma concerning drinking, to the point where we are able to have one beer and then drive after one hour. Which means we should drink one beer every two hours if we hope to still be able to operate a vehicle and even then, if you are pulled over and the officer decides otherwise, you haven’t a leg to stand on, much less a licence.
Which leads me to my latest beef with this “criminal government”. Yes, I said “criminal.” The mere act of unravelling Klein’s prosperity fund should have been construed as theft; such were the laws had Redford’s ilk not rewritten them.
On Sunday, bars were allowed to open and serve liquor to patrons who wished to watch the Olympic gold-medal game at 5 a.m. That was also done in locations in Saskatchewan. Now don’t get me wrong, I am happy that Canada made it and I am happy that they won and I don’t even care in so much that people were drinking at 5 a.m. A veteran drinker myself, there were plenty of nights where drinking at 5 a.m. was commonplace, but mostly because we hadn’t quit in the first place. One of the biggest excuses they gave for the impaired legislation in the first place was that it would help curb binge drinking, but opening a bar at 5 a.m. and allowing the consumption of alcohol for a hockey game seems to me nothing more than a great excuse for some binge drinking.
If you think that the majority of the patrons of those establishments actually got a good night’s sleep before, then you must still have your beer goggles on, as most of the people I know didn’t even take a break. I don’t drink the way I once did and truthfully would rather watch the game at home that early in the morning, even if I did.
I am leery of our their motives anyway and imagine the RCMP are only too happy to sit outside the door of most of those establishments waiting to charge hockey fans with impaired driving at the drop of a puck.
That being said, I don’t really care if the bars opened early and in this climate where the industry has been suffering from dwindling numbers as of late, opening their doors to money only makes economic sense. What does make me furious about the situation is the flip-flopping and the wishy washy way in which this government goes about their business. They’re truly “organized criminals.” They write the laws to fit their agenda and carry on a “screw campaign” in front of the voters’ faces with little regard for consequence.
They feed us a line to get us to buy their shtick and then once they have accomplished their goal, they promptly forget all the items in their press junket as quickly as they walk out the door for a $10,000 flight. At least have the decency to keep your lies straight so that we could pretend that we could trust our government or that they had what was best for us in mind while in governance.
That’s my rant. Thanks for those of you that made it this far and congratulations, Team Canada, on your gold-medal performance! You deserve your accolades as much as we deserve a fair and just government.
Shaman Crowe,
Stettler