You
see, 48 hundred members of the Teamsters Local walked off the job Wednesday.
But…never
fear!
That “be-yotch”
Lisa Rait and her Harperite cronies are at the ready to take away the right to
strike from each and every CP Rail employee just like she had done previously
with Air Canada.
Well
folks, you voted in the Conservatives and they have only just begun to change
Canada as we know it and there ain’t a thing any of us can do about it besides
convincing Stephen to walk across a tightrope at Niagara Falls and hope for the
best.
Wait a
second!
I mean
no ill-will here. I simply meant that if he walked the wire, we could all hope
that he gets to the other side- safely, without a peregrine falcon pecking at
his nut-sack!
Geesh,
you guys are so judgemental before you hear the entire, freeking story!
Now
where was I?
Oh yes…Isn’t
it nice to know that Lisa is standing by ready to help all Canadians at the
snap of a finger if those rail people try something that will tear our Canada
apart.
I mean,
for Goodness sake look at us here in Orillia. Whatever would we do without
train service? Why we….
You see
it’s…the passengers would…
Oh
Hell!
We haven’t
had train service through Orillia since Jesus was a choirboy or more to the point
about 15 years ago.
Now when
I was a kid- gee that makes me sound old, there was both CP Rail and CN Rail
service and a station for each as well. These days we have to drive to Washago
and try to flag one down.
Good
luck with that.
I remember
the days at my Grandmother’s house on Front Street, South, when I would lie in
bed and both see and hear the big steam engines arrive at the Orillia Train Station.
Steam and smoke, grinding brakes and the melancholy sound of the train whistle
splitting the silence of a hot summer night.
What a
sight.
What a
memory!
I can
still vividly replay it in my mind over and over.
Those were
the days when both passenger trains and freight trains rolled through Orillia
both day and night. In fact we used to be aware of the time of day when 100 car
freights would approach the town limits. If you were off to work, or had an appointment
to keep, we “south warders” would dash down Gill Street toward Lake Simcoe to
get on the Highway 12 Bypass to reach Downtown Orillia and the North Ward without
having to wait 15 or 20 minutes in a traffic slowdown. That was unusual in
itself for Orillia- except when tourist traffic clogged both Front Street South,
Laclie Street and Coldwater Road in the days before Number Eleven shot past
Orillia on the western outskirts of town.
Trains
were a vital part of this country. It linked us from sea to sea and allowed us
to travel across every province- with perhaps the exception of Newfoundland and
PEI.
I don’t
believe rail service cracked the Northern Territories either.
So not
to worry my Dears for Dear Miss Rait is on the job and ready to piss off
another union and a company’s employees who thought they lived in a free
country.
As Dear
Lisa calls it- “The True North Strong and for Lee-sah”.
