Publisher's welcome:

The Koebel brothers and Mike Harris...
Good Ol' Boys who kill

By: Ish Theilheimer, Publisher, Straight Goods

  It's a good thing Stan Koebel is a white male. Try to imagine the kind of talk if he had been, Black, Arab, Chinese, Aboriginal, Mexican, or Female. We'd hear all the stereotypes that get hauled out, or at least they'd be implied: dumb, sleazy, cunning, callous, ignorant, backwards, incompetent or all of the above.
  Reporters would have been sent to the place where Stan came from to interview family members about how dumb, sleazy, callous, cunning, ignorant, backwards or incompetent his people were. There would be calls for curbing immigration and more police. Panelists would wonder what we could do to help the disadavantaged community that produced him.
 

Stan Koebel is Canada's Homer Simpson. We don't hate him because we know him too well.

  But no, Stan Koebel is white so no one will ask why he thought he could get away with being so dumb, sleazy etc. nor with why his "betters" never said anything. And we don't expect any racially motivated attacks on schools and churches in the Walkerton area.
  Stan Koebel is Canada's answer to Homer Simpson. We don't hate him because he bears such a striking resemblance to so many average white Canadian guys. We know him well, too well.
  He's not that bright. He doesn't like to work too hard. He thinks things are OK and would like everyone to just take it easy and not worry too much, so he sweeps away inconvenient bits of administration.
  "Never mind what bureaucrats and eggheads say," say Stan and brother Frank. "Just flush the pipes and throw in a little Javex. It'll be fine. It's common sense."
  As it turned out, everything wasn't fine.
  Did Stan Koebel vote for Mike Harris, like most folks did in Walkerton? We'd imagine so. His "common sense" approach fits with Harris' apparent disregard for science, ethics, civil rights and the common good. Harris thrives on the support of people who want government out of their face, who want to pay less taxes and have fewer bureaucrats.
  Canadians have plenty of reason to distrust all-powerful bureaucracies. From Darlington to tainted blood, they produce more than their share of waste and incompetence. The case of Walkerton illustrates, though, what happens when you let the good ol' boys rule the roost.
  Last May I interviewed Gary Palmateer, the man who used to monitor Walkterton's water for Ontario's Ministry of Environment before Ontario privatized this function. It's clear from this and other accounts that Stan Koebel was able to get away with his Homer Simpson antics because the government found public safety and consumer service too much of a burden, too expensive. It was "common sense" to farm out such expensive services to the private sector.
  Now Californians and Albertans are finding out what happens when you take the common sense approach to public utilities like electricity and natural gas. We expect B.C. and Ontario won't be far behind. (For a view of what's in store for BC, check out our feature.)
  Readers may wonder why a consumer site spends as much time on "politics" as Straight Goods does. Every day we see that politics has a huge impact on consumers. Too often, that impact is negative, as good ol' boy politicians like Mike Harris and Ralph Klein let their good ol' boy friends get away with murder, figuratively and literally.

- Ish Theilheimer
- Killaloe, Ontario
- December 25, 2000
- ish@straightgoods.com

Season's greetings from the whole wonderful crew at Straight Goods. We love what we do and the readers we do it for. Please have a good holiday, try to love one another, and stay away from that $%*^&!*%$ computer and spend a little time with people - except of course to check in at Straight Goods!

Thanks from the Straight Goods team -

The Board of Directors of Straight Goods News Inc. consists of Norm Jesin, Larry Solway, Ish Theilheimer, and Mel Watkins

The Straight Goods production staff consists of:

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