GASSING TORONTONIANS

BIG SMOKE SUCKERS

There is a routine media announcement every night about the price of gasoline in Toronto. There should be an ad that runs with it that says "hello there suckers, gassing up your car in T.O is stupid."
On my weekly jaunt to the Kawarthas, to sit on my point on the Trent River and rejuvenate, I routinely pay a nickel or a dime per litre less than the standard price in the Big Smoke. A few days ago I paid .15 cents a litre less than was being charged at the Esso stations closest to my home in Etobicoke.
I mention Esso because I recall many complaints from Imperial Oil fatcat PR chiefs over the years as they explained to the "stupid" newspaper editor that just because the world price of oil had plummeted, our pump prices would stay high because that was the gas that they had bought months before.
I would point out that it was truly miraculous that the price at the pump would never fall months later because then the world price was back up and they could use that as their excuse.
Torontonians like to think that our retail prices are generally lower than out in cottage country because of all the competition and all the stores. Chain operations have kicked that smug argument in the slats but prices are higher in independent shops. But it certainly isn't true when it comes to gasoline.
So my question, dear reader, is why do our the big oil companies continue to steal from the residents of the biggest city in the country when routinely their identical product is sold from their identical gas stations for less whenever you drive outside our fair city?
The answer, of course, is because they can get away with it.
 So much for pretending to be good corporate citizens when they join the national jealousy that loves to screw Hawgtown.