Santa’s dreaming of a green Christmas

Agar Adamson



Dear readers,

I have just received a letter from Santa and I thought I would share it.



Greetings, dear boy!

Once again I am writing to ask for your help. Yes, I am still very concerned about New Minas. Indeed, while participating in my parade recently I noted that the traffic congestion is even worse this year than it has been in the past.

I thought with the high cost of gasoline and the great interest in protecting our environment that something would have been done about the New Minas mess, but, no. It’s just the same old traffic imbroglio.

This surprises me because when I heard your local boy, Scott Brison, cry out in Montreal, “It’s the green economy, stupid!� I thought it must be a new light shining forth in your part of the world. Well, if there is, it is certainly under a rock! At least Scott has got the message, but what about the rest of your local politicians?

I know I have ranted to you about this before, but why do so few politicians and policy manufacturers get the message? Things here at the North Pole are getting desperate. The ice keeps melting, the tundra is thawing and the reindeer are suffering from hoof rot. If something is not done and done quickly I am going to have to move my workshop. Just think of the cost of having to move all the equipment, as well as my elves and their families.

Do you think your new premier, big-hearted Rodney, who seems to be so liberal with your money would give me one of those forgivable loans if I moved my workshop to Grand Etang?



I continue to wonder why it is that people in your country have been so uninterested in the environment. Why do you permit the sort of urban sprawl that one finds, not only in New Minas, but also from coast to coast? Why do your automobile manufacturers continue to build those gas-guzzling SUVs and why do you continue to buy them? By the way, can I purchase ethanol in New Minas in case Rudolph has a nosebleed?

If global warming continues you will have a new province called Prince Edward Islands and that General John Cabot Trail character will no longer have to cry out, ‘down with the causeway’, because it will be under water.

But I do see a glimmer of hope for you. Not all of your politicians appear to be members of the King Canute public policy club. Not all of your industrialist and politicians appear to be luddites, not even some automobile manufacturers, nor all of ‘big oil’.

Recent leadership contests for both the Liberal party and the Alberta Conservatives illustrate that the younger members of the party want change. Perhaps that’s the problem in local politics; you need younger members of both genders at the council table.

I am hopeful that the election of Stephane Dion will bring about a change in Canadians attitudes toward global warming.

Similarly, Ed Stelmach seems to be more interested in and about the environment than his predecessor King Ralph ever was. As a rancher he must be more concerned about the water situation in Alberta than that city boy Ralph was. Perhaps he will have respect for the nerds whose scientific knowledge based upon their research and their powers of observation tell us repeatedly about the dangers of global warming.

I have noticed as I listen to those who visit me or write me that the number of cancer patients has risen. I do not have any answers for those involved in this epidemic, but I do listen to the scientists who raise issues such as clean air, clean water, pesticides in the food chain, poor eating habits, smoking, the lack of medical professionals who deal with this illness and the lack of ammunition for those who are in the frontlines of this fight.

I am told that you have a national health programme in Canada. Well, then, dear boy, could you please explain to me why certain provinces will pay for drugs to assist cancer patients while others will not! Talk about second-class citizens! You have no idea how many children have asked me this year to bring them the drugs that a member of their family requires to fight cancer.

Then there is AIDS, which is also a world issue, an issue that makes the Black Death of the Middle Ages look like a mild flu epidemic. I support those who are campaigning for Stephen Lewis to receive the Noble Peace Prize in 2007.

Well, I must be getting back to my lists and I apologize for my rant. But every time I hit the New Minases of the land I get angry. I wonder if the children whose homes I shall be visiting on Christmas Eve will inherit a planet that is sustainable, or one that is in rapid decline. On each stop this year I shall be leaving a reminder about global warming and the environment. A white Christmas can be a green Christmas!



Happy Christmas,

Santa.