Snakes in the Grass

I know you probably don't care, and won't have a clue what I'm talking about anyway, but on Thursday, we're having our provincial elections here in Ontario to elect our new premier. For the past eight years, we've been under the jackboot heel of the Progressive Conservatives (I sure as hell didn't vote for them, but apparently there are a large number of idiots populating the province) who've done as much as they possibly could to privatise social services and tear things like health care, education, and electricity to tiny little shreds.

What really irks me isn't necessarily all the crap that they've foisted upon the Ontario people, sure it contributes to my near pathological disgust of the Tories, but the sheer arrogance and ignorance inherent in their very being makes me want to wretch. Just lately, Ernie Eves -- currently our premier and a Tory -- mentioned that if the Liberals are elected that our hydro bills will go up. You can read about it for yourself here, although that link will decay in a few weeks.

Anyway, what he's not telling you, is that several months ago, during the beginning of the summer, due to the deregulation of prices and privatisation of hydro, many people were being shut off -- almost immediately -- when they failed to pay their now exorbitant electric bills. Now, I'm not one who would disagree with the idea that those utilising a service in the private sector don't deserve to have that service terminated if they fail to meet their fiscal agreements, but something like electricity is supposed to be public here and we never should have been in the situation in the first place. The problem only started there, though. In order to be a smiley gladhand and try to sweep this under the rug, Eves decided to put a cap on energy prices at something like 40 cents a kilowat, when it actually started skyrocketing higher and higher. Sure, it's a quick fix that allowed our air conditioners and refrigerators to keep running during the summer, despite an increased drain on the power grid, but there's the little problem of who's paying for the overage? If the actual price is something around five dollars a kilowat -- and honestly, when he placed the cap on prices, the amount per was getting ridiculously out of hand and much higher than the set price --, who's paying the remaining $4.60?

It's still us, we just haven't been hit with it yet. It's been rerouted through creative accounting by the Conservative government, as if we're not supposed to notice the giant elephant being hidden under a doily. It doesn't matter who gets elected on Thursday -- PC, Liberal, New Democrat, Marijuana, Green, Gorilla Grodd -- we're still going to get hit with an increase in hydro bills in order to fix the mess that Eves created serveral months ago. I don't know if he's just deluded, or what, but it's like he fails to see the amount of crap that he's caused.

On a related note, apparently being tenth in terms of education and health care is a good thing, and that a $4.5 billion dollar deficit is balancing the books. I guess the Conservatives were aiming for a deficit, and that the substantial "growth" they keep talking about in health care and education is "negative" growth, causing us to spiral down to being the worst in the country. I mean, if we're tenth, we're fucking last -- there are only TEN provinces and the territories are never included in the rankings.