POLLS

People love to fill out polls feeling that they are contributing something to society.

The problem is that most polls are geared to get the answer that the instigator of the poll whishes to hear.

Take for instance a recent poll regarding B. C. Hydro and their Power Smart programs.

It is obvious by the questions that the poll was at the request of B. C. Hydro and the questions are geared so that no matter how you answer them the poll will result in answers that are favourable to B. C. Hydro instead of reflecting the truth.

For instance the very last question is a multiple guess of which you can only choose one answer and nowhere in the answers is there an answer such as,` NONE OF THE ABOVE’.

There are no answers there that reflect your true feelings or would shed a negative view on the Power Smart programs and your questionnaire program won't let you continue without marking one of the choices though you don't want to mark any of them.

The correct answer is, to reduce the number of employees, and to increase the amount of profits to B. C. Hydro under the disguise of conserving energy.

It made me very angry to have to give an answer that would be favourable to something I am not in favour of.

 All of the promotions by B. C. Hydro are used to disguise the fact that they want homeowners to cut back on power consumption so they have more to sell to the states, yet they do nothing to make industry cut back. and all the incentive programs are posted to the government costing the taxpayers higher taxes.

Currently they have an insulation incentive in which the government will give homeowners a rebate if they reinsulated their home.

Why should I as a taxpayer, pay to help insulate someone else’s home if it isn’t going to result in a lowering of my hydro bill, but will cause an increase in my taxes and an increase in profits to B. C. Hydro?

Or why would I be in favour of  new power smart meters that are very expensive?

The cost of these, and the cost of installation, will be passed on to me in higher hydro rates.

The installation, and use, of them will result in: increased garbage (the old ones) going to the landfill, unemployment, the meter readers that normally go to your house once a month will be laid off; B. C. Hydro will not need to replace the cars the meter readers use which means less sales for an already dying auto industry which will result in more layoffs; all these people being laid off will result in a burden on the unemployment insurance benefit program which will, again, result in higher income tax for me.