blueblood

Charest and Harper were tight at the beginning of haper's gov't. Something happened... Alberta was where the reform party started and partly caused the whole mess in parliament. Albertans now know supporting a "national" party furthers their interests. There have been gains in BC, Ontario, and the Maritimes, refer to the election. If your believing the Liberals wouldn't go into this situation and come out without running a deficit, your living in a dream land. Good economic handling will be judged by the Canadian public in the next election.

Harper handed Charest a boat load of money. Did Charest do any campaigning or give advice on Quebec? Charest screwed Harper. Well Quebecers don't like a fiscal conservative option. Harper threw every bone, and gave conservative policies, Quebecers have shown they don't like fiscal conservatism and justice legislation. Harper has to get elected all over Canada, not just Quebec. If Harper goes to far to Quebec like Mulroney did, we get 1993 all over again. If Quebec's inferiority complex is more important than gov't policy that's their problem, Alberta learned that lesson the hard way. If Harper either calls a snap election before the libs pick a leader or handles the economic crisis well, I see a tory majority. Harper is also gaining a lot of ground in the rest of Canada. Ignatieff has to fight the bloc, Harper, and a small NDP surge in Quebec. Also for English Canada, Harper is making inroads and gaining ground. If Harper bungles the economic crisis, he is toast, Quebec is a non issue next election.

Don't bother reasoning with him, he's as coherent as a japanese game show.

That depends on how the tories handle the current economic situation. As for Quebec, Charest royally screwed the tories. Quebecers don't like fiscal conservatism, thems the breaks. There won't be majority govt's for some time.

And Alberta has the best managers of all, score one for team right wing!!!

Does Alberta have sky high taxes? Is the oil industry nationalized? Are there private businesses? Face it socialism sucks.

Alberta has a balance, it's called agriculture. It's also a very big industry for Canada. Alberta has also spent some of its oil money on those windmills in southern alberta. Alberta's service sector is also growing. There is a lot of oil still in Alberta, still plenty of time for a strategy. Like hell we can't compare to cuba. Their ridiculous government screwed their country over. Don't want to play by the american's rules, live in squalor, it's that simple.

Terrible comparison my ass. Look at how the average Albertan lives to the average Venezuelan. By that logic the citizens of the NWT and Nunavut should be millionaires as there are only a few thousand of them and oil and natural resources are plentiful up there. No my comparison still stands. I'm happy you brought up Norway. The average Albertan has a bigger house, nicer vehicles, and larger bank accounts with less taxes to pay on top of it. Alberta is doing much better than Norway is with their nationalized petroleum sector. Not punishing people for getting ahead allows for people to do well. Socialism is a pathetic dated joke and has been rejected for good reasons by Albertans. By not having socialism has enabled Alberta to be one of the richest areas of the world, Norway isn't even close to the living standards Albertans enjoy. Chavez is a piss poor leader. Kuwait and Dubai were at one point very poor regions of the world, now with oil money are doing well. Not Alberta well, but well enough and better than Venezuela. Chavez basically has a gold mine and is pissing it all away. That only reaffirms my position that socialism is a pathetic dated joke. The venezuelan's had 10 years to clean up their mess with socialism and they're still living in squalor.

Whoo! Buy a new Super Duty and get a free Ranger. New loaded GM silverados are only 28 large. Time to go shopping!!

And here's a fact where nationalization screws Canadian business ctv In your position, it makes sense that oil prices are high. When oil prices go down, it hurts you more than other people. Your logic is certainly lacking. Lowering the price of what we produce for the sake of lower prices is stupid economics. Everyone can pay world price for private goods. Those private companies employ a lot of people, contribute to the TSX, our country is a lot richer when we have private companies do well. Nationalized countries also have people living in shit holes. You tell me who is better off, the average Albertan with our private system or the average Venezuelan with their socialist nonsense. US gas is lower because of proximity to oil refineries as well as taxes.

And that much will buy a very nice house in rural canada and you'll still have money in your pocket. And then there's the houses in Lynn Lake...

Hydro as far as I know is all run by crown corporations. They can offer some nice discounts.

i have no problem with crown corporations, none at all. I've made that point clear in other posts. Some people don't like the idea of spending money on oil. A refinery in winnipeg would be useless. There still would need to be a pipe line out east. A refinery would be better suited in Southern Ontario and perhaps another one around Lloydminster. However refineries are billion dollar operations, would you like your tax dollars to increase to pay for this?

Why the need for caveats? That caveat (nit pickingly) does limit my right to freedom of expression. What you are talking about with the FN's is treaty obligations. Has there been any laws passed protecting their culture like there is in Quebec? Yes that is all we need the CCC and Charter, no Bill 101 and no immigrant technicalities.

Try getting lefties on board with spending billions of dollars to set up a company and construct these huge projects. Billions that could be spent elsewhere. We have a very good situation now.

It shouldn't be two tier pricing, it should be one price, the world price, and that's where it is. Canada is benefitting from that. That is the problem westerners have, we could be selling oil for X dollars, law is enacted that oil sells for 85% of X dollars. Thankfully that program got scuttled. The oil price crash of the 80's is irrelevant.

If I was Obama, first thing I'd do is have a nice loooong nap. I liked Obama's agriculture policy, but I didn't think he would pull off the win. Oh well I was wrong. Both were pretty good candidates nonetheless. McCain did a good job considering all of the baggage of the previous administration and his twit of a VP pick.

Alberta is not in trouble. Oil is holding at a price floor and won't go down. there is other oil in Alberta and Saskatchewan and Manitoba and BC other than the oil sands. Alberta has enough oil for 80 years, plenty of time to diversify.

And I will be happier when Ontarians elect a gov't that is a lot more business friendly, and has better economic policies. Let me be clear, I am grateful that those Ontarians like Kengs, get taken down a peg. I won't be grateful if your gov't keeps its bonehead economic policies going and the equalization payments end up to being as large as Quebec. We had the LPC and their abysmal agriculture policies, that benefitted Ontario, so historically yes. But now we have better agricultural policies so my area of MB per say is doing well economically, the central portion of the province that is near the lakes or in the bush, not so. Call that a wise investment, you guys will get cheap power, and we get off the welfare train. NEP, anyone. If they want to implement NEP so easterners get cheap oil, why not implement a manufacturing policy so all of Canadians get cheap Ontario manufactured goods?

Getting screamed at for talking to my buddy by someone half my size for just speaking English is IMO oppression. Had that happened out west, we would be labeled bigots. Same goes for signs, if say I set up a business, I should be able to write what I want. The FN's don't have laws as sweeping as the Quebecer's unless you count treaty obligations. Then there are the other minorities, shall we have laws protecting chinese, east indian, viatnamese, sikh, etc.?

Your making the wrong argument with Ontario buying locally. There is a large population there. You should be making the argument that why is Ontario allowed to export grain on their own while westerners go through the board.

It might be bullying, but is necessary. Harper's job is to pass laws and he'll see to it that it gets done. Martin could have done the same thing but chose not to. Bullying is how Harper is getting things done. It's not his fault the Liberals are in a mess. All Harper is doing is going through with his agenda, the ball is in the opposition's court. It's not Harper's fault the opposition are dancing to Harper's music.

Ahh, but the doha talks is the equivalent to opening a can of worms. There is a chance some things will happen there. In an economic downturn, Canada is in a position of leverage. I'd wait until the talks are done until figuring out the fate of the wheat board. This we do know, the tories are quite clear in defending the wheat board and supply management there.

its a wait and see as to what happens at doha.

The Doha round is back on at the WTO, it will be interesting if there will be any agreement and what it is. Europe has been calling for the head of the CWB and the tories aren't caving on that. Due to tough economic times, I think and am hoping an agreement is made.