The Wonders of Tomorrow

With Revenue Canada's deadline to file income tax returns approaching on Monday, many working Canadians are thinking about their money. Meanwhile, students across the country look forward to graduation. There are a lot of people thinking about the future, and a couple of moves just made by Federal and Provincial Governments has this page strongly encouraging readers to think carefully.

Yesterday Federal Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn announced that all incandescent light bulbs in Canada will be replaced with fluorescent bulbs by 2012. Fluorescent bulbs consume less energy, but will they be more cost-effective for Canadian consumers? The answer is: all the fluorescent bulbs in the world won't help you save on your hydro bills if deregulation and privatization of public power continues at its blindingly arrogant pace. The economic benefit equals the environmental benefit of power profiteers generating the electricity for these bulbs from coal-fired plants and ripping up a sensitive river ecosystem.

Also yesterday, Attorney General Wally Oppal introduced legislation to end Mandatory Retirement in British Columbia, with other provinces likely to follow suit. Does this mean that would-be senior citizens will be able to supplement their pension incomes with a little part-time work? Wait...what pension incomes? As long as Corporate Canada continues the war on Defined Benefit Pension Plans, we'll be smilin' and wavin' down at the Wal-Mart until someone has to scrape us off the floor.

If this the kind of crap we're going to have put up with over the next few years, imagine how the people on Planet Goldilocks will react when we export even worse ideas to them in the distant future.