Once again, Trilogy Development Corporation and its millions is on Cumberland’s doorstep. Their corporate agenda is now flooding the administrative office of our wee village with a Master Plan of monumental proportion. It is a Plan that, if executed, will fuel the same kind of billion-dollar real estate explosion here in the Comox Valley as prior Trilogy development did in Whistler. Once again, massive profits will flow quickly into the hands of an already wealthy minority.

Trilogy Properties Corporation exists, like corporations all over the planet, primarily to use money to make money for those who have money. Its costly, slick and massive marketing campaign is designed to attract wealthy investors from abroad while simultaneously swaying public opinion locally. When corporations rule the world, politics boils down to a simple formula: “One dollar, one vote.” The more money you have the more power you have. The more power you have, the more you can compel people to act in accord with your vision. This is Trilogy’s approach as it continues to march boldly into the heart of our municipal politics with promises of future amenities and usurps political control through the force of “expert analyses” and endless alterations to the existing legislation guided by our OCP.

Trilogy proudly perpetuates the corporate model that made Robert Dunsmuir the wealthiest man in BC on the backs of simple folk who labored long and hard just to put food on the table and a roof over their head -- a roof already owned by The Company. This is the top-down, power-over model of social organization common to the corporate world and is exactly the model of social organization Cumberlanders reject in declaring, "Our OCP is not for sale!"

Few Cumberlanders will benefit from an explosive real estate market that siphons off profits to a few land speculators. This is why many citizens are holding firm to their long-term aspiration to co-create a life of abundance that replaces consumerism and rapid growth with a deep respect for each other, for the environment and for a pace of life that allows for the peaceful enjoyment of their forested village. They value consultation and transparency in the political process and have a powerful historical exemplar to draw upon in the struggle to affirm true democratic process. I refer, of course, to Ginger Goodwin and to the whole labor movement that rose up in Cumberland early last century. These Cumberland ancestors fiercely resisted the greedy corporate agenda imposed by Dunsmuir and Company. They laid down their lives in pursuit of true democracy where fundamental value is given to the individual citizen. One person,one vote.

Will the struggles of our ancestors be in vain? Will we Cumberlanders willingly, or by neglect, allow the flame of true democracy to be snuffed out in our midst? Will we succumb to the rule of corporate money? If democracy is to persist in the face of the Trilogy Master Plan, we the people will have to be more than sparse in our attendance at Trilogy presentations, at Village Council meetings, at open houses, at public hearings.

A democracy is determined by individual citizens reaching consensus. If we do not speak up for our rights, allowing our elected officials to do all the speaking for us, we are in danger of losing our voice altogether. We, the people, must stand up and be counted, not as slaves to a corporate agenda seeking endless profit, but as true citizens, rightful holders of the real wealth of this community, citizens with rights and freedoms far more important than those of ANY corporation.

Freedom is as freedom does. Stand up for your rights. Shape public process by SHOWING UP!