I love the Peace Bridge design. I can’t wait to bike through the futuristic bridge when it is lit up by LED lights at night. In time residents and tourists will laud and be proud of the bridge. Perhaps it should have been named after Druh Farrell, who put her neck on the line to get it built. Hopefully more such architectural marvels will grace our city in time. Imagine how cool the Peace Bridge design would look on that eyesore better known as the Calgary Tower.

Hopefully the squawking will rest in peace too. We all know that the uproar was not about the bridge cost ($24.5 million). On a per square foot basis, the cost of the bridge is lower than ones currently being built in Edmonton, Winnipeg, and London. The money for the bridge came out of the City’s capital budget and did not lead to higher taxes. As even Roy Clancy, the editor of the Calgary Sun, said, the bridge cost is a fraction of the cost of overpasses that seem to go up daily in our city. No one seems to complain about these costly overpasses. It passes them by.

Though the bridge is named for peace, it really represents a war on two fronts. The first front is about real wars. The only war that Canada was a part of that was justified was WWII. The Nazi’s really did want to rule the world and had the capacity to do so. They were a threat.

            

No other war that Canada has fought in was justified. Memorial Park has a statue commemorating the Boer War. This was fought in South Africa. It is incredible that soldiers from Calgary would fight in this war. Britain was in so we were in.

Our soldiers went all the way to South Africa, but what did they fight for? They were told that they were bringing freedom and democracy to South Africa. In reality they were fighting to allow England to colonize South Africa. Soldiers were fighting for control of resources so that companies like DeBeers could control the diamond mines (Cecil Rhodes controlled DeBeers. The stealing of resources allowed people like Rhodes to become wealthy and to give out scholarships). England during the Boer War put Africans in concentration camps. There are no movies or memorials to remind of us of this though.

Memorial Drive here in Calgary was named for the troops who fought in WWI. Does anyone remember the reason for WWI? The main reason was that most of the world had already been colonized by England, France and other European countries. Countries like Germany had only recently unified. They were too late. The world and its resources had already been carved up.

Germany though was rapidly growing and becoming an economic power house. But Germany needed precious resources to keep growing. Competitors like England had oil secured in the Middle East and other resources in Asia, North America, and Africa. Germany didn’t have that access.

WWI was really about not letting Germany have access to the rest of Europe’s colonies. This is what Canadian troops fought and died for in WWI. Sadly no sign, memorial, museum or school text book talks about this. Canadian troops were even treated as inferior, as a colony, by England and were often the shock troops. Sadly this is what the trees along Memorial Drive represent.

Even now Canadians are being told that the war in Afghanistan is about freedom for women and democracy. This is not why we entered the war. This is like pretending the Peace Bridge was originally meant to be a tribute to our troops.

Instead these noble goals are the masks of war, and most of us fall for it. Groups like the Women for Women in Afghanistan are used like pawns to even divide peace groups.

Incredibly we are not even looking for Bin Laden, we have already forgotten. The only Afghans benefitting are the warlords who control the opium trade. The only Canadians benefitting are the war contractors (General Motors, Bombardier, General Dynamics, and SNC Lavalin are the largest and many have offices here in Calgary). By 2011 it is estimated that the Canadian government will have spent $25 billion to enrich war contractors (yet we have only spare change for homelessness, affordable housing etc).

We never learn from previous wars. We don't seem to remember much during the Remembrance Day rituals either. When was the last time you heard the Legion speak out against a war? The vets know the horrors, yet they are the first jump on the war bandwagon. We just sign up no questions asked. We just support, no questions asked. Nationalism is peer pressure to the extreme. Freedom of speech and democracy is muzzled. Ideas we fight for abroad we don’t even exercise here at home. As Orwell said War is Peace.

Orwell is alive here in Calgary. The second front of the war over the bridge is an ideological battle going on here. Public versus private. Spending versus saving. Fossil fuel versus renewable fuel.

Reality doesn’t matter is this debate. Talk doesn’t mean anything. For example, many so called fiscally conservative members of city council want low taxes, but continue to pour money into roads, overpasses and urban sprawl. They want free parking and high security at train stations, but don’t suggest how to pay for it. They resemble George Bush – spending wildly and cutting taxes – creating a disaster and perhaps the end of an empire. Thankfully it is not as disastrous here, for city council hasn’t been able to lower taxes, so at least there is revenue coming in. We need more marvels, less overpasses.

The military connection to the Peace Bridge is shameless. It is just to quiet down the naysayers who are foaming at the mouth. It is just pandering to the war mongers.

Instead we should be celebrating beauty and architecture that inspires and that shares our hopes and dreams - creating a sustainable, equitable, and peaceful world. 

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