Remove all barriers

Rookie Conservative MP Dan Albas wants to get rid of Canada’s arcane interprovincial trade barriers on wine. Here’s a better idea: get rid of ALL interprovincial trade barriers. Why start, and stop, with wine?

I hope the member for Okanagan-Coquihalla doesn’t think the wine industry is worth more to this province than, say, the rest of the agricultural sector.

Albas’s motion has support from Kelowna Conservative MP Ron Cannan. One wonders, are these two even aware that it’s easier to import meat from the United States than to buy it from a small abattoir in another province?

The B.C. Liberals destroyed the meat industry in this province through over regulation. Local abattoirs were driven out of business and ranchers have been forced to reduce their herds.

Politicians claim this was done for safety, but where’s the evidence that we were unsafe in the first place. And, are we any safer now with 99% of our meat coming from huge industrial facilities in Alberta and the United States?

Massive meat recalls resulting from E. coli and listeriosis indicate quite the opposite. And meat prices are through the roof because, guess what? there’s no competition anymore!

Wine is important to the BC economy, but you’d think Albas and Cannan might want to do something about the much more fundamental business of filling a family’s shopping cart with safe and affordable groceries.

Mischa Popoff