Lumps of coal for Trump, Ford, RCMP

Each year at this time I compose a list to forward to the North Pole so that the old guy with the sleigh and reindeer can give the appropriate gifts. First are those who have been naughty and deserve lumps of coal.

Without a doubt Donald J. Trump deserves a whole coal mine rather than just a lump. He, after all, is a prime mover in trying to restore coal as a major fuel to generate electricity and pollute the air we breathe.

Others on the naughty list include the Republican-controlled Congress in the U.S. which stood solidly behind Trump as he spread havoc over the world. And here at home in Canada, Doug Ford, the new premier of Ontario gets a large lump for supporting the attack on the federal carbon tax.

I think the taxpayers of Alberta and the oil industry deserves lumps as well. First, Alberta taxpayers supported the idea of borrowing to finance an operating deficit rather than imposing a sales tax. That just meant that future generations will have to pay for this profligate behaviour. It also means that the province had no room in the budget to finance efforts to diversify the provincial economy.

As for the oil sector, they have the nerve to ask for federal support when they have, for at least three decades, neglected to seal off many abandoned wells. These sites, some 100,000 or more, are leaking methane and other noxious gases. To fix them as well as deal with the toxic tailing ponds from the tar sands production will cost perhaps as much as $260 billion.

That is 160 times the amount oil companies have supposedly set aside to deal with the problems.

Next, the RCMP deserves a few lumps as well. It appears to have the most dysfunctional Human Resources operation in Canada leading to a chronic shortage of new recruits. And consider the more than 1,000 complaints about sexual harassment. Add in the way they and the B.C. government mismanaged the problem of money laundering through B.C. casinos; prosecutions were dropped leaving us to wonder who can ensure this practice is dealt with properly.

Finally, the Kelowna city council deserves lumps for rejecting the Diamond Mountain development proposal based upon shoddy analysis and for hiring a long-serving city bureaucrat as city manager rather than looking further afield for a broadly-experienced hire who could shake council and management out of their comfortable complacency. But that’s the thing about complacent administrations; they don’t see much value in shake-ups.

Now the much more pleasant work of giving out candy canes and sugar plums. First the winner of the Giller Prize for literature — for the second time, no less — Esi Edugyan (for her novel “Washington Black”) deserves a sugar plum for continuing the proud tradition of impressive Canadian fiction writing.

Chrystia Freeland, who headed up the negotiations on the revision of the NAFTA treaty and suffered insulting and denigrating remarks from both Trump and his chief negotiator, deserves a carload of sugar plums for staying the course.

The EMS workers on the front lines of the opioid overdose tidal wave deserve recognition for their dedication to what must sometimes be a very discouraging task. Their essential role comes with great stress and they deserve both sugar plums and praise.

To the reporters of who worked to uncover the scandals in real estate, money laundering and the abandoned oil and gas wells in western Canada, a whole raft of candy canes; this is investigative journalism at its very best.

Finally, candy canes to all of the CBC’s employees and talent for holding their annual fundraising drive for food banks. Their success makes me proud to be a Canadian.

The paper will not be published for the next two Tuesdays. I will be writing to you in the New Year. Have a joyful, safe and peaceful Christmas.