| Democracy à la Net |
Dateline: 3/30/99
On the first page of his best selling Parliament of Whores, humorist P.J. O'Rourke tells of driving down Pennsylvania Avenue with his editor and encountering "some or another noisy pinko demonstration".
"How come," he asks his friend, "whenever something upsets the Left, you see immediate marches and parades and rallies with signs already painted and rhyming slogans already composed, whereas whenever something upsets the Right, you see two members of the Young Americans for Freedom waving a six-inch American flag?"
"We have jobs," his friend replies.
The same thing applies to public hearings by various boards of this and that in Canada. We see these stuffy looking bureaucrats sitting at a table in some expensive hotel conference room getting paid oodles of money and listening to various leftie public interest groups bitching and whining. I can't begrudge them the oodles of money. You'd have to pay me plenty to listen to the sniveler set too.
But it seems that, aside from the vested interests whose fate is being decided by the various commissions, the only other voices are those opposed to same. A case in point might be the Competition Bureau's current hearings into whether to allow a merger between Superior Propane and ICG Propane. After all, we wouldn't want thousands of barbecuers to get ripped off now, would we?
Ordinarily ICG and Superior would present their cases and the professional do-gooders would denounce the planned merger as a threat to Canadian jobs, Canadian sovereignty, the environement and Medicare. But the times they are a changin'! The Competition Bureau is soliciting opinions in cyberspace!
While most of us pro-market types are too busy to make our way to a commission hearing and present our opinions, not to mention that most of us would find these things excruciatingly boring, free enterpisers are much more likely to own a computer and be connected to the Internet than our Luddite friends. And so the tables are turning.
A couple of weeks ago a friend sent me an email about the ICG/Superior merger hearings and the Bureau's venture for opinion on the Internet. "This merger," he wrote, "will significantly improve the efficiency of propane distribution in Canada". It would let the industry compete more effectively with other energy sources such as natural gas, fuel oil, electricity and wood. Moreover, "business decisions made by private corporations are of concern only to the shareholders of those corporations. No government body has the right to limit contractual relationships and the free exercise of property rights".
The note went on to argue that a government committed to competition should "simply remove the legal and regulatory barriers to entry in a market and must uphold the natural and fundamental right to property". Heady stuff!
A few days later the organizer of this Internet campaign wrote to say that the widespread interest in the merger had caught the attention of Competition Bureau bureaucrats who were now calling people to ask what their motivation was in responding.
The companies involved will appear before the Competition Tribunal on September 22 in Calgary. Reform Party member Rahim Jaffer has initiated an "access to information" request to reveal the results of the Bureau's Internet survey, expecting it to show broad support for the merger.
On March 22nd, MP Jaffer sent a letter to Bureau Director Konrad von Finckenstein supporting the merger and questioning the very existence of the Bureau itself. I've reproduced the letter on a separate page and recommend reading it. It is a solid and principled piece of writing.
Meanwhile, it is not too late to express your opinion by visiting the Competition Bureau's website. It is not an anonymous survey and you must reveal your identity. Participatory democracy has reached cyberspace. Exercise your right to let your voice be heard without having to brave the cold and rub shoulders with the rabble.
What's your opinion on the Superior/ICG merger or the Competition Bureau itself? Why not tell us on the Investing (Canada) Bulletin Board!
Superior Propane is not a publicly traded company as such, but sells Income Fund units that trade under the symbol SPF.UN on the Toronto Stock Exchange. ICG Propane is a wholly owned subsidiary of Petro-Canada which trades on the TSE as PCA..
Superior Propane Press Release Outlining the Merger Proposal - from July 20, 1998
Superior Propane Press Release of Dec. 11, 1998 - re Interim Arrangements as Ordered by Competition Bureau
Fraser Institute Abstract on Competition Law
Canadian Elected Officials on the Net - ever wanted to contact an MP or Senator to air a beef and didn't know how to find him? The Reform Party has posted the email addresses and home pages of every elected politician who has one, both federally and provincially.
Disclaimer: As with all my columns here, I should re-iterate a precaution. I am not a professional financial advisor. I am a financial journalist and editorialist. The views in these columns are my personal opinions. The author does not own shares in either Petro-Canada or Superior Propane Income Fund.
New Features:
I've added the Canadian Internet Stock Average as a new feature.
I've added a new Net Link category called Broadcasts which features links to sites that have audio and/or video on investing.
I get lots of email from readers, much of it asking for advice or information on something. I've reprinted some of the letters in my new feature - Mailbag - along with my replies.
I'll be adding new Net Link categories on RESPs and Entrepreneurship soon as the result of inquiries from readers.
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