BC Rail

I don't know how much ("taxpayers"/public) R&D money was invested in BC Rail (PGE-BCR), since February 27th, 1912, but in 2004 Premier Gordon Campbell's Liberal Socred-Con government broke its election pledge not to sell it.

http://pgrfm.bc.ca

It was owned by the public as a crown corporation from 1918 until 2004. In September 2011, Gordon Campbell became Canada's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. A terrible mistake, 2003.

spybots & fire sales

The Canadian government is selling embassies, e.g., Paris 35/37 avenue Montaigne, 5 rue de Constantine (UNESCO). It sold One Grosvenor Square last month, where John Baird vacationed with six friends Christmas 2012.

Macdonald House

These do not include Canadian embassies that now are shared with UK embassies or the Buffalo N.Y. consulate that first was renovated ($1.5m) and had a 10-year lease.

In other news, Canada set up spy posts for the National Security Agency/ Central Security Service (NSA/CSS), the 'main producer and manager of signals intelligence (SIGINT)' for the United States of America; PM Harper allowed Six Eyes foreignersNSA to spy at a billion dollar G20 summit in Toronto, 2010. And what about that Muskoka and infrastructure fund to reduce border congestion.

In other fire sale news: selling a Crown corporation (AECL) for $12.3 million to SNC-Lavalin, without a value-for-money audit.

bronco goes to dc, little black lies & the castle

Well, Gary Mar came back from the Alberta Embassy in Washington for the provincial Progressive Conservative (PC) leadership race, which he lost, so now he's being shipped to China Hong Kong. Asia. The U.S. vacancy will be filled, as was Mar's position, i.e. without due process, by former Calgary mayor Dave 'Bronco' Bronconnier for about nine months. Hopefully, Ambadassador Gordon Campbell in the UK, Bronco in Washington and Mar in Asia can birth their many bouncing baby pipelines, mines, logging inroads.

Lettuce earnestly hope that no mention will be made by these 3distinguished gentlemens of an Alberta grizzly bear expert, who lives in self-imposed exile (Missoula, Montana). Anyway... a new book by Jeff Gailus is upcoming. 'Little Black Lies: The War on Truth in the Battle for the Tar Sands' will be published by Rocky Mountain Books in Fall 2012.

Of the Castle Special Management Area, he says:

It was ostensibly “protected” as part of the Alberta government’s Special Places Program in 1998, but unlike other candidate parks, it wasn’t protected by legislation; it was simply managed as one under government policy, which has been ineffective to say the least. Logging and energy development continue to this day.

In 'Legislation, not policy, foundation of environmental protection,' Fast Forward Weekly, Nov 3, 2011.

A provincial park is still waiting: Andy Russell - I'tai sah kòp Wildland Park was proposed in 2005 for the Castle and/or Castle-Crown Wilderness. See the media release, notes and letter.

CN, Bill Gates or The Colours of War (Matt Cohen)

Now that Bill Gates is the biggest shareholder in CN (Canadian National Railway) at 10.04%, a percentage that he's been working on increasing since 2006 and like Warren Buffet who ventured into (coal?) rail in the USA and formerly did Boystown in Omaha - the two of them took a fly-over at the tar-and-oil sands in 2008 - or, even like Gordon Campbell's BC Rail [redacted], it makes The Colours of War seem like SPP or SP or CCEE and Fraser Amero soft-sell, soft war backwash, at the moment.

"Every day it seemed there were new declarations of emergencies and martial law. Not exactly a new law; things being the same as always but carried one step further."

The map of the train, John Boy Bush Harper (Johny Crackle Sings), Theodore Beam (the light at the end of the tunnel), Christopher Columbus Perestrello.

I was reminded again of old stories of the depression and the vast armies of the unemployed crisscrossing the country; when nothing else is possible, motion promises to fill the stomach"

The quiet revolutionaries in executive councils. He wasn't kidding. You won't recognize Canada when I get through with it.

True, there are coaches where bona fide travelers, unaware of the real purpose of the journey, are crowded together and give an appearance of ordinariness to the train. But there are also sealed vans, and these are filled with arms and ammunition, and are in the control of a group of guerillas. Armies Moving in the Night: The Fictions of Matt Cohen, George Woodcock

It's a supply chain management story, from helmets to hard hats, from freighters to box cars with a lot of teddy jam and ammo, or make that ordinance, from sea (Vancouver) to shining sea (Montreal Port Authority).

Machines of War: Blackwater, Monsanto, and Bill Gates
Guess who's coming to dinner.