Editor:
National Post recently ran a series of articles entitled “Arrested Development” dealing with the effect of resistance from environmental, Aboriginal and/or community groups to infrastructure projects such as pipelines, refineries, hydro dams, mines, etc. The Post has identified as many as 35 projects, worth $129 billion, that are going nowhere resulting in the reduction of the economic activity that has made this country prosperous and, as such, able to provide its citizens with a high standard of living with generous benefits and pensions.
While I fully accept the right of such groups to protest and voice their opinion, what I do not accept and, in fact, despise is the inherent utter hypocrisy of their position. They are opposed to natural resource development, which has created the wealth and comfort that most of us are perfectly content to enjoy, while now decrying the very activity that brought it about.
I imagine that all the protesters fly or drive to the protest sites using fuel distilled from oil, whose production and transport they now seek to shut down. They use a multitude of products made from metal or plastic coming from natural resource extraction that they now seek to shut down. No doubt their homes are heated by natural gas, whose transport they now seek to shut down.
Such hypocrisy is monumental and despicable. If they are true to their word, let them walk the talk. Eschew modern conveniences such as planes and cars and go back to living in log cabins and hunting with bows and arrows instead of guns. Then I might have some respect for their viewpoint and actions.
The hypocrisy of the activists against even responsible natural resource development and transportation negates the value of any point of view that they might have.
Buzz Bennett, Gibsons
