Yesterday was Queen Victoria day in Canada.  Let me belatedly celebrate the old lady by ruminating on the glories of empire, resource development in the colonies, and the benefits that accrue to the politicians, businessmen, and priests of the ruling class. 

On Sunday I rode along the dikes of the Fraser River past wealth unimaginable, and folly unassailable.  On the one side is the sluggish river dotted by an occasional tug or barge transporting goods to Westminster.  On the other side are large new houses–hundreds of them going on and on and getting bigger and more opulent as you wind down-river. 

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