Pubdate: Sat, 21 Sep 2002
Source: Halifax Herald (CN NS)
Copyright: 2002 The Halifax Herald Limited
Contact:  http://www.herald.ns.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180
Author: John G. McKay

FREEDOM, ANYONE?

Dear Editor:

If you really want to find out how free you are in Nova Scotia, this 
"democratic" non-socialist heaven on Earth, try growing a little tobacco or 
pot for your personal use or try marketing Aunt Carrie's medicinal 
blueberry wine or, heaven forbid, manufacturing your own alcohol. Try 
holding a weekend poker session with cash in the pot. Do all these things 
and, in your exuberant enjoyment of freedom, let a few of your friends know 
about it. Try fishing a few more smelts than will feed the cat or, for that 
matter, fishing gaspereaux on a weekend.

In all of the above instances, you will be in jail by Monday because all 
these areas of "freedom" are the exclusive domain of the provincial 
government and its friends. Booze, tobacco and fish are the cash cows of 
government and its corporate cohorts. Smelts are $3 a pound in your 
favourite supermarket, no limit; while government sanctions casinos and 
owns golf courses and high-profile inns, all in direct competition with 
private enterprise.

All this, while the socialist hordes are effectively denied the opportunity 
to inflict their horrors upon us. How lucky we are, how absolutely 
mollified. Freedom, anyone?

John G. McKay, Amherst
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom