Democracy at its Finest

The PEI Liberal Government will stop at nothing to work under the radar and enforce hardship and concern upon its constituents. Just today, it was revealed that they are forcing the region's only pork processor to fork back $1.5 million in loans by Monday, the total time period being 10 days. This is for a company that's just in the first year of a five-year restructuring plan and they clearly don't have the cash to pay that back in 10 days.

Why does the government need the cash so bad that it's willing to put Island workers out of work? Is it because they switched a $2 million dollar surplus from the Pat Binns PCs into a $44 million deficit when they came to power? Is it because they've cut taxes on housing and petroleum products, a move that will lower their income and encourage people to build larger houses, or drive more with their big vehicles, since the hit on the pocketbook isn't so great, and now they need to raise back some cash to pay for the MOST EXPENSIVE election promises in ISLAND HISTORY? Or is it because they hate agriculture, having already threatened to shut down the region's only beef producer, which is facing similar problems? A recent promotion to buy local beef was successful, maybe the plant will be profitable soon. If given a chance, maybe the hog plant could do the same.

Then, later today, it was revealed that CBC was being charged upwards of $12,000 to receive information regarding loans to the Rodd hotel chain, the largest privately owned hotel chain in Atlantic Canada, which is being sold. Under provincial law, the requester must pay the costs of acquiring the material, but the fee can be waived if the requester can't afford it (no luck, CBC), or if the records relate to a matter of public interest. The CBC is obviously taking the government to court over the desire to hide the truth and I don't blame them. As an Islander, I want to know exactly what happened to our tax dollars. That is clearly a matter of public interest, and the dodginess of this government needs to stop. Considering they were out of power for 10 years, there certainly can't be much that the Liberals need to hide, or have they already been lining pockets? That'd explain the deficit.

Well, until 2011, the suffering will continue. All hail Robert Ghiz!