You've probably all received at least one of these in recent weeks – another brilliant idea about how to force the oil companies to their knees so they lower gas prices. Here's the most recent to land in my Inbox:

GAS WAR – an idea that WILL work This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It' s worth your consideration.Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $1.15 a litre by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us! By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $0.85 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $1.05 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre of gas is CHEAP at $1.05 to 1.15, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace….. not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.Here's the idea:
For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), Esso and Shell. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Esso and Shell gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out at this point…. keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people.

I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to at least ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300) … and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =3D 3,000)…and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it….. THREE >>>>HUNDRED MILLION >>>>PEOPLE!!!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all. (If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people…. Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am, so trust me on this one.)

How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you? Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from ESSO & SHELL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $0.85 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.

THIS CAN REALLY WORK!!

Yeah, this could work – about as well as the hot stock tips, free software deals and penis enlargers I get emails about.

The oil companies know that nothing will change the way we drive, so they keep jacking up prices – we haven't seen anything yet. SUVs are the "in" thing – then people whine that they use a lot of gas (they didn't think about that when they were in the showroom?????) Only when riding buses or bicycles and driving tiny hybrid vehicles are the norm will they care even a tiny bit what we think (yeah, like that could happen!!). Notice that no such suggestion is ever made in these emails. In January I parked my big gas-guzzling Ford pickup and bought a Subaru Outback which gets 3 times the mileage (and is much more fun to drive), but now I spend more time behind the wheel, so it isn't as big a saving as it might have been.

The picture to the right (click on it to enlarge it) was taken around Jasper, Alberta, as Cathy & I were driving to Kelowna, BC, to spend Christmas with my folks. The return trip was over 5,200 km – most people in Europe don't drive that far in a year, but we do it on a 10-day holiday because that's the way North Americans live. There is already a fair bit of talk online about how gas prices will affect Yukon-Alaska tourism this summer. I have no doubt that many RVers will stay much closer to home. Others will make up for higher gas prices by parking at Wal*Marts along the way rather than in RV parks. The question is not whether gas prices will hurt tourism, but how much.

I tend to ignore events Outside because I can't deal with the atrocities that are happening in my country and around the world. Today in eastern Canada, insensitivity is added to atrocity. At 6:20 this morning, the bodies of 4 soldiers klilled in Afghanistan on Saturday arrived at CFB Trenton in Ontario. Lieut. William Turner, Cpl. Matthew Dinning, Bombardier Myles Mansell and Cpl. Randy Payne were killed by a roadside bomb. The media has been kept away, and the government has not lowered our flags to half-mast to honour them. I think this is appalling. Canada.com stated this morning that: "It was the first such event deemed out of bounds to reporters since the Afghan mission began four years ago. Some accused Mr. Harper of imitating U.S.-style tactics, where images of returning war casualties have been banned as the Bush administration attempts to control their damaging effect on public opinion." Sixteen Canadians have died in Afghanistan since 2002 (including 4 killed by an American bomb that was dropped on them) - that's 16 too many.

Addition: at almost midnight Ottawa time, I received a reply from my Member of Parliament (Larry Bagnell) about this:
"Murray,
Thank you for your views on these issues, to go along with a number of others I have had from Yukoners, with varying perspectives on the situation. Some of the feedback that I received was the same as yours.
The day these issues arose, our Party raised them a number of times in Parliament, but the government would not review the situation.
Thank you again for adding your heartfelt feedback to that I have received from other Yukoners.
Larry"