Editor: I read the Aug. 13 Aldergrove Star article titled 鈥淲arawa facing five challengers in riding鈥� with great interest.
The article listed some of Mark鈥檚 supposed accomplishments and apparently, amongst others, Mr. Warawa is responsible for building the new Aldergrove Border Crossing.
Personally, I鈥檓 a bit skeptical, but taking him at his word, I thought I would have a look at some of the other things Mark must then be responsible for; given his influence and the fact that he is our only representative to the federal government.
As our MP, I would think he should have his finger on all things of interest to us, his constituents.
In 2004, when Mark was elected, our national debt was $503 billion. Today it is $616 billion.
So Mark鈥檚 policies have put us $113 billion further in the hole in the last 11 years.
A couple of times a year Mark sends out literature to his electorate sometimes stating that we will have a 鈥渂alanced budget鈥� two years hence.
It鈥檚 always the same 鈥� a balanced budget in two years. When questioned last spring, the finance minister said he would 鈥渓et his granddaughter worry about the debt.鈥�
Is that what Mark thinks? Is that what we think?
What else has Mark been up to?
We do have all of those free trade agreements. You know the ones that send our jobs away to countries where the wages are much, much lower.
We sell them our raw materials, they turn them into finished goods and we buy them back.
So with our new 鈥淢ark approved鈥� Canadian dollar (he needs to take responsibility for that, too) we sell our raw materials to them with 75 cent dollars and we buy the goods using the US dollar worth $1.31 Canadian.
They will take all of the cheap raw materials we can ship, but how much longer we can afford to pile up credit card debt to buy their goods is yet to be seen.
It鈥檚 all kind of a 鈥渟ell low, buy high鈥� scheme.
And, with the latest free trade agreement, it is estimated that 60 per cent of our 鈥渇amily farms鈥� will disappear almost overnight.
But don鈥檛 worry about the farmers, because the Canadian taxpayer will foot the bill for that one. We鈥檒l get cheaper milk someday and pay higher taxes for a long, long time to pay the expense of buying out the farmers.
And regarding my comment about the Canadian dollar; Mark would say it鈥檚 just a glitch tied to low oil prices. It鈥檚 obvious it is tied to oil prices, but why is our dollar also losing ground to all of the major world currencies?
Could it be that we have tied our entire economy to the price of oil? We used to manufacture things but much of that鈥檚 gone now.
Mark鈥檚 policies work OK as long as we鈥檙e digging up the tar sands and selling it at a good price, but as soon as the price drops we鈥檙e in trouble because we have nothing else to sell to balance it out.
And the oil in the tar sands? I doubt if even a bucket of that is owned by a Canadian company.
It鈥檚 all foreign interests who pay a royalty when prices are good and pay nothing or less when the price is low.
The price of oil drops too low and they can just stop digging, it will still be there in 10 years, so they can wait. And what happens when there is none left?
It鈥檚 OK, we can let our granddaughters worry about it 鈥� the same ones who鈥檒l have to worry about the mountain of debt we left them.
Enough about Mark鈥檚 鈥渁ccomplishments.鈥�
The other parties aren鈥檛 making much of an effort in the 91原创/ Aldergrove riding because they think that the voters in this district are too lazy to get out and vote, and they may be right.
Last time, only 22 per cent of us voted and 60 per cent of those were Mark鈥檚 supporters.
We let 13 per cent of 91原创/Aldergrove voters decide who was to govern our great country. We can鈥檛 do that again.
Remember to vote on Oct. 19; mark it on your calendar. You owe it to your granddaughter.
Larry Kydd,
Aldergrove
(Editor鈥檚 note: The article in question also appeared in the Aug. 12 issue of the 91原创 Times)
