Will PRA move the 1000 Islands Poker Run out of Kingston?
 

There is a small minority of self-rightous eco-hippies who have been kicking up a lot of waves for the past couple of years in the city of Kingston regarding the 1000 Islands Poker Run. They are a small group of probably no more than 30 people, who have gone before City Council (aka The Gong Show) protesting the event and attempting to force Council to "shut it down". They have presented council with loads of bogus facts, bunk science and TONS of propaganda. The sad disgusting problem is, Council appears to be buying it. This article comes from one of the local ragazines that is published every month.


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Here are a few more links to articles regarding the poker run situation and the primary adversary, SPLASH. I recommend reading the ones in bold

http://k7waterfront.org/Topic/__KEMC20090305

http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1689562

http://<b>http://k7waterfront.org/fi...it2009.pdf</b>

http://www.emcfrontenac.ca/20100114/...ding+to+report

http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2368002

https://www.cityofkingston.ca/pdf/ci...nutes_0110.pdf

http://<b>http://kingstonelection201...poker-run</b>/ (contains a rather interesting quote from one of our ignorant council clowns)

Over the years the 1000 Island Run has moved up and down the St. Lawrence River. Been based in Brockville, Kingston and Gananoque. Spent many years in Gananoque till the PRA folks figured it was worth more than the community was willing to ante up, so I hear. Apparently Kingston seemed to be a better fit for the high roller Poker Runners these days, being a big city and all. Personally I think PRA is it's own worse enemy here. They have become so elite that the average guy just does not fit anymore. Don't get me wrong here, I'd hate to see it die, it is entertaining to go out on the water and watch. I do miss the days when this run was just a bunch of hot rod boaters just out for a day of fun.

move it somewhere else, where they would figure out 3 to 5 millions $ in tourism revenu is not worth asking 10k in carbon fees and loose the show...

Carbon Offset

what a joke... Global Warming is found to be a hoax...Change the phrase to Climate Change. Dang still can't prove anything... I know it pollutes the air. YAY, they can't deny that one. Just keep trying the shoe till it fits guys. Funny how all these "phrases" still equal one thing. Your doing wrong, oh but your money will fix it. What a joke! Who keeps putting these bleeding hearts in power?

The biggest problem here is that this small self-interest group SPLASH is actually being able to convince our council that the MAJORITY of people in this area do not want the poker run here, which is the exact opposite. The poker run is by far the largest event in Kingston in both attendance and revenue generation for local businesses. This is the only event that these clowns are targetting, meanwhile they completely ignore the fact that there are hundreds of other environmental destroyers right in front of there eyes every day. Examples: The city run tour boats: Any one of these boats dump more pollutants into the water from their bilges and lack of proper maintenance then all the poker run boats do in a season, they generate much larger shoreline damaging wakes in a single pass then the entire poker run fleet all weekend. The Confederation Tour Trolley: essentially a city bus that has been modified, this noisy contraption runs all day every day from about Labour Day weekend through to Thanksgiving. It travels throughour the historic downtown core taking people by many of the historic sites from Fort Henry all the way to Kingston Pen. It passes by my house about 12 times a day and quite often with as few as 5 people on board. One day it went by with only 1 person. The overabundance of charter tour buses: There are literally several dozen of these things coming into and leaving the city each day. These buses are usually full of group tourists from Asia. They travel past many sites and finally stop downtown for about an hour so the passengers can get off and stretch their legs. The buses will sit down near City Hall idling the entire time while the people take a few pictures and maybe buy a hotdog at the street vendors, then they load back up and head on down the highway to Gananoque where they spend their money to go on the real tour boats or at the casino. Kingston City Transit buses: If you have ever had the pleasure of being stuck behind one of these in traffic and gotten so sick from the fumes that you turn green, you will know what I am talking about.

My point is, it starts with a few people that don't like performance boats then it moves to another few people that don't like the Snowbirds or the Buskers Rendevous or Blue Fest and so on and so on. It is all about small groups that wind up dictating how the rest of us live our lives and what we can or cannot do/enjoy until we are a nation of mindless drones waiting to be told what to do next.

The Carbon market is a joke. You understand that there are people out there that actually believe they are polluting less because they are buying offsets?! What do these people thing their money is doing? Buying giant carbon filters? Wrong, you're paying for Al Gore's jet & mega-home.
Give me a break.
I am involved in a "green industry" & some of our projects actually make more money (most times double) in carbon offset credits (tax credits) from the government that the gross dollar they actually produce by selling "green" electricity. It's not a small number either. We're talking upwards of $400k in credit per year per project on the smallest of projects. Projects that would only have made $400k in a year if they were lucky.
California is the biggest "player" in this game. Projects that weren't viable 4 years ago are now huge money makers simply because of the tax credits.

This would pretty much cover it. The solution, or at the least the counter effort, would be for those in favor to get motivated and organized and speak their piece as well. If you do not speak it is hard for others to take stock in what you have to say. If the business community in Kingston feels there is value in the Poker Run then they should speak up. It is afterall their livelyhood, and as such theirs to protect.