Reducing gas prices in Canada

Kev

New member
May 13, 2002
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I recieved this email. It rambles on but the idea is to reduce gas prices? What do you guys think? Could it work? --- Kev

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Dear friends,

I hear we are going to hit close to a $1.42 a Liter by the summer. 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 it and join with us!

By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $.80 a liter is super cheap. Me too! It is currently .78 to .89 depending on what day it is, for regular unleaded gas in Montreal, Quebec. We all know that we're being screwed by the oil companies. Does everyone remember how they drove up the prices closed to a dollar and got the gas prices to where they wanted them, claiming there was a shortage of oil. Well, there isn't any shortage now, and the oil is more abundant than it was 35 years ago when the price of a gallon=(5 liters)of gas was 29 cents!!!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a liter of gas is CHEAP at $0.78-$0.85, 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 cant just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here is the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), PETROCANADA, 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 PETROCANADA and SHELL buyers. Its really simple to do!! Now, don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and Ill explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to at least thirty people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ... and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation 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, lets 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 email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! Ill bet you I 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.



PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $0.64 OR LESS RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK!!!!!!!



PLEASE take a few minutes and pass this on to everyone you know!!

If you can't e-mail it to at least ten people, please print out a bunch of copies and hand it out to your family and friends!!
 

AsianBrother

Exploring Member
Jan 25, 2004
392
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Here. There. Everywhere.
It could work...but it does take a whole whack of people to do it along with massive media attention that, in the face of a bottomless advertising budget from the oil companies, would dwindle because they can throw money at luring us back to the pumps but we, as consumers, don't have the collective money to throw back at them...

In other words, everyone's gotta be in on this.
 

Calgary69

Had enough...now retired!
Dec 2, 2003
218
0
0
Calgary
My answer to this problem is this:



The first chance I get I'm getting one of those or one of these...




gas milage is 4.3l/100 km:D :D
 

sushiman

Tempura too ;)
May 12, 2002
303
0
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Vancouver - sort of
This is just a repeat of a chain letter that has been around for years. Seems to me that it surfaced when gasoline was crowding 60¢ per litre (oh for those days). As semi-apathetic as Canadians are, I doubt that we could muster enough support to make any of the gas companies change.

The real problem is that we are tied to the world price for raw supply, not the cost of production here. Someone told me recently that gas is under 10¢ per litre in Venezuela. :mad:
 

CaryGrant

New member
Apr 12, 2004
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This assumes that the oil companies CAN reduce the price of gas (without invading any more countries). Meaning, the assumption is that they are colluding to gouge us and consumer pressure will force them to drop their prices. What if there really are external factors that have driven up the cost of oil, and the oil companies are simply passing those costs along? I realise our free market is only partly so, but still....
 

Kev

New member
May 13, 2002
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Hifi...This wasn't my suggestion. I received this letter in my email. I was wondering if its some sort of prank or if there was any sincerity to it. --- Kev
 

Kev

New member
May 13, 2002
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No worries hifi. I just thought it important to clarify that. Cheers :) --- Kev
 

tunatacoeater

28 - 18
Sep 13, 2002
18
2
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Vancouver
Setting aside any mention of Bertrand, Cournot and their other buddies, lets look at some numbers, 1) The price of both gas and the underlying asset of oil, while high in terms of numerical value, are both relatively low priced, (historically), in terms of inflation adjusted numbers. EIA numbers show the cost of a gallon of gas, (US numbers), to have hit $2.99 in march of 1981 when adjusted for inflation. And while I can't dig up who ran the numbers I do remember seeing where, when adjusted for inflation the alltime high for oil would be around $70 US. The price we are currently paying is, when inflation is accounted for, roughly equall to the price in the 50's.

2) All major sellers of consumer gas in Canada are publically traded companies. If they are raping the public at the pumps and making ridiculous profits, anyone of us can participate by buying shares. However, lets not forget that a large portion of the pump cost of gas is Federal and Provincial taxes. Since these bodies base a large portion of the taxes off of a percentage of the sale price; and incurr none of the cost of exploration, pumping transportation, refining, yet more transporting, and distribution; it would seem to me that they are effectively collecting windfall profits. Unlike with the oil companies their dosen't seem to be any way for the average Canadian to benifit from this.

Given the length of this I'll end it now, (yes I know many will be screaming for the rest of it concerning recovery rate increases, the effect higher oil prices have on the introduction of new field technology ect, ect...)

But I will make an offer to anyone complaining about the price of gas. If you come over and push my car as far as it would go on a litre of gas, I'll pay you twice what gas is selling for from my local station. Push it as far as ten litres will take it, and I guess you'll be making yourself a cool $20.00.
 

Kev

New member
May 13, 2002
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duff although you may not have a car gas prices do affect you. Public transit, cabs, and so on will be paying higher prices and in turn will be reflected in the transit fares or cab fares you pay. --- Kev
 

wolverine

Hard Throbbing Member
Nov 11, 2002
6,384
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E-Town
Don't look forward to a reduction of fuel taxes either. I would say no to that as well...that is, if said fuel taxes were actually applied to their initial intent of building and maintaining the transportation infrastructure.
 

Kev

New member
May 13, 2002
1,617
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duff no need for strike action Kev has one slightly use bicycle for sale that would solve all your problems and turn you into lean mean banging machine. --- Kev
 

pizzapest

Banned
May 7, 2004
61
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Only thirty million people in this country, how is reaching 300 million going to help?
 

Cock Throppled

Well-known member
Oct 1, 2003
5,306
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Upstairs
Think gas prices are too high? Think again. They are obviously not high enough because SUV sales are still climbing (even for ridiculous wastes of space like Hummers) and every day as I drive the freeways around Vancouver almost every car is 10 - 20 km per hr over the speed limit. Lowering your speed is the easiest way to reduce consumption, but I see almost nobody doing it. Hey, if you can afford a few $5.00 coffees a day what's a few more bucks for gasoline?
 
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