To the Editor,
Much has been written about the folly of predictions, and most of us remember Yogi Berra’s classic : “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.”
While politicians try to impress the voters with their visions of what to expect in the future, most such visions end up as broken promises.
However, as our B.C. government could most probably be headed for the Opposition benches after the upcoming election, please allow me to play politician and make a prediction of my own.
Should Premier Christy Clark taste defeat in May, and is looking for employment, Prime Minister Stephen Harper would come to the rescue.
He rescued disgraced Premier Gordon Campbell by setting him up as High Commissioner to the Court Of St. James’s; I foresee an appointment of Senator Christy Clark, who will be a perfect fit into Ottawa’s Red Chamber of Misfits.
Who knows, her visions through rose-coloured binoculars of a utopian B.C. may just come to pass in about 30 years time, just as she retires from the Senate at age 75.
Since taking over in Victoria two years ago, Clark has pathetically fumbled and stumbled in Campbell’s inept footprints; the latest straw she’s clutching at is bringing huge reserves of natural gas to market.
B.C. will form a prosperity fund eventually capable of paying for every citizens’ needs. The extraction process is by hydraulic fracturing of shale rock with a technology using high pressure water and chemicals to release the natural gas that is at great depths.
This relatively new process is known as ‘fracking’; it has already been embraced in several parts of the world, notably in the U.S. where fracking produces huge volumes of natural gas, and greatly reduces that country’s dependence on other forms of energy.
Of course our B.C. politicians are far more adept at talking the talk than they are at walking the walk; with natural gas production spiraling in Poland, Australia and many other countries around the world, it will naturally result in huge reductions in the price of the commodity.
To put it quite bluntly, by the time B.C.’s natural gas comes on line for export to the world markets, it may well be too late.
Bernie Smith
Parksville