Tony Clement: Tough on Gas or New Con Smoke Screen?

Tony Clement announced yesterday that Industry Canada and the Government of Canada would pursue fines against anyone caught tampering with gas pumps.

Unfortunately, this is a well-timed smoke-screen that is another attempt to get gullible Canucks to side with the most scandalous leadership on the planet.

I’m not a gas pricing expert, nor am I a logistics expert, but I have done a little reading about this.  The question is whether or not certain pumps clog or get impeded and then, in most cases, unintentionally give the consumer less than what was recorded.

On the surface, this is a very noble effort, but let’s pull it apart a little:

• The potential variations are likely to be a maximum of a percent of a percent of your overall spend on gas and you may even wind up getting more gas than was recorded
• The timing is perfect for the launch of the ‘summer driving’ season (the time when most Canadians start their road trips and visits across the country)
• The timing is also perfect in that the Cons desperately need a ‘good story’ to deliver to the public, hopefully diverting our attention from the massive array of scandals that are strangling this government from doing anything but choke on its own filth
• This crusade is a lot like the Con’s general goal of being ‘tough on crime’.  It makes for great marketing, but little substance
• The actual effort will likely translate to an assault on small businesses and independent gas suppliers, most of whom do their best to keep gas prices competitive
• Nothing will be done to address the overall ridiculously high price of gas given the climb in the Canadian dollar

I’ll address the last comment:  when the Canadian dollar has been rising as it has, the price of everything else should be dropping.  Over the last decade or so, we’ve seen nearly a 50% increase in the value of our currency vis-a-vis the US dollar and yet we’ve seen little to no reduction in the cost of gas, books, vegetables, fruits and other things we import on a daily basis.

Canadians are being gouged and it’s time that Tony Clement and our other so-called leaders look at what I call ‘Price Parity’ issues with imports.

As I mentioned, gas is just the tip of the iceberg, but it’s a massive portion of our disposable expenditure.  The high price of gas also has an impact on nearly ALL of our daily activities.

Of course, if pushed, I would also say that gas should be $5 per litre, but that’s more because we need to reduce our reliance on gas, but as long as we’re trying to find the cause of ‘high’ prices, let’s be sure that Tony’s tantrum doesn’t misdirect us from the true cause:  suppliers are gouging us.

In future blogs, I’ll address two things:

1. How to address our addiction to gas (and how to end it)
2. Price Parity Policies that will put more money in the hands of Canadians