Quotes

The glory days of Fall just before the heavy frosts hit.

I do a lot of reading and here are few choice quotes from the last few days.

1. In reading some great minds in the midst of their search for solutions for solving the world's economic woes, the word 'laissez-faire' comes up quite a bit these days. It originated in 1860 when then French finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert asked a merchant named M.Le Gendre what the state could do to promote industry. His reply, and the translation: "let it be". Good advice, I think.     

2. "Bankrupt entities tend to go bankrupt. Greece will default, eventually"  Eric Fry

3. Justin Trudeau in the House of Commons addressing our Minister of the Environment Peter Kent, "You are a piece of s**t"

Apparently, the acorn has not fallen far from the tree. I recall his father, then Prime Minister of Canada, travelling through Salmon Arm BC in his luxury coach giving some protesters the middle finger salute. Family traditions die hard.*More on this if you like, below.

4. Bill Bonner of the Daily Reckoning has a good definition of government: "Government is just a way for the insiders to take advantage of the outsiders."

5. My Grandson Liam (3) after losing the guitar pick inside the guitar, "Just forget about it"   

*I'm not sure about you, but I have been amused watching the events unfold at the Durban climate change meetings - they are talking about global warming again, and what bad people we are as Canadians. The fallout from this reached into the House of Commons yesterday with an outburst from the Liberal's next great hope, Justin Trudeau, calling the federal Environment Minister a "piece of shit." You can read an article about that by clicking here.

To be clear, there is no doubt that Peter Kent could have been somewhat more eloquent in addressing this matter instead of sticking to talking points. Having said that, he is totally correct in my view to say that Kyoto is over and that Canada needs to move on.

I recently spoke to a group of University of Windsor law students. During the question and answer period, which lasted an hour (the future of this country will be very bright if all university students are this engaged with their thoughtful questions and rebuttals!), I was asked about Kyoto. When I responded that Canada emits 2% of the world's greenhouse gases they were surprised to hear that it is that low. When I told them that Alberta's oil sands contribute just 5% of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions they were again surprised as they expected it would be a lot more.

Where is most of the media on this? Crickets. They want you to believe the sky is falling and that Canada's Conservative government are a bunch of red-neck dinosaurs when it comes to dealing with the environment. China gets a free pass even though they contribute over 20% of the world's greenhouse gases. The US never signed on to Kyoto and guess who was Vice President at that time - Al Gore, the 'do as I say, not as I do' hypocrite.

So, why are the Justin Trudeau's of the political left complaining so loudly when they did ZERO while they were in power? The Liberals know their own record on this file - they were all talk and no action as usual. They signed Kyoto and reaped the PR benefits of doing so without ever following through.

The federal Conservative party has rightly called their bluff, and have now said 'good riddance' to an expensive agreement that did nothing. That is the reality as to why the Liberals are so mad - they have been hoisted on their own petards and do not like the view.

Peter Coleman of the National Citizen's Coalition