2004/05/17
Gas prices
At some point in the near future I'm going to review why I am unable to vote for any of the parties running in the Canadian federal election next month. For now, I would like to site Harper's terrible proposal today as symptomatic of the short-sitedness that prevents me from supporting the Conservative Party.
The tax break would only save me a cent a litre: an amount that the oil companies could easily eat up for themselves with a quick price increase - I'd rather have that money going to repairing the roads that I'm going to use the fuel on.
If the government was serious about keeping prices low, it would re-invest in Petro-Canada; a company it created to regulate the industry through competition. Better than that, it could stop the flow of oil out of Canada. Most people do not realize that Canada is actually blessed with an oil surplus - like Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Why, then, do our prices fluctuate with the USA? Because our oil is taken from Canada, refined by American corporations, and then resold to Canadians.
Some people have the idea that government should not interfere with business - that capitalism is a wonderful thing that will regulate itself given enough freedom. However, this view is blatently contradictory to obvious evidence. Furthermore, since there is already no competition between companies - there's no capitalism to preserve (some would argue that what we are seeing is true capitalism).
I should end this rant by clarifying that I'm not altogether opposed to gas price increases. There are far too many needless vans, pickups, and of course SUVs (all SUVs are needless) on the road today; purchased because consumers were spoiled with gas prices that are often half the amount that the average European pays for fuel. 90 cents per litre hurts me a little at the pump, but if it has an impact on the purchasing and driving habits of consumers on a wide scale, then I'm ok with it.
The tax break would only save me a cent a litre: an amount that the oil companies could easily eat up for themselves with a quick price increase - I'd rather have that money going to repairing the roads that I'm going to use the fuel on.
If the government was serious about keeping prices low, it would re-invest in Petro-Canada; a company it created to regulate the industry through competition. Better than that, it could stop the flow of oil out of Canada. Most people do not realize that Canada is actually blessed with an oil surplus - like Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Why, then, do our prices fluctuate with the USA? Because our oil is taken from Canada, refined by American corporations, and then resold to Canadians.
Some people have the idea that government should not interfere with business - that capitalism is a wonderful thing that will regulate itself given enough freedom. However, this view is blatently contradictory to obvious evidence. Furthermore, since there is already no competition between companies - there's no capitalism to preserve (some would argue that what we are seeing is true capitalism).
I should end this rant by clarifying that I'm not altogether opposed to gas price increases. There are far too many needless vans, pickups, and of course SUVs (all SUVs are needless) on the road today; purchased because consumers were spoiled with gas prices that are often half the amount that the average European pays for fuel. 90 cents per litre hurts me a little at the pump, but if it has an impact on the purchasing and driving habits of consumers on a wide scale, then I'm ok with it.
# posted by Justin @ 22:33 
