Jerry J. Fortin

They saved 170k in 18 months? I find that to be amazing. However do you think that a majority of Alberta youth can say the same thing?

I simply can't agree with you on this point. The system gives special treatment to business. I can see that there are not enough people to support the concept of real change so I will just shelve the idea to a certain degree. I will undertake a small business myself and realize the benefits others get that are denied to me. Since I am in the process of starting to build a house I will make this little plan work for me.

We need to change the system. Violent crimes must be considered to be a threat to society, with that understanding that justification for removing the threat to society can be found in permanent removal from society. Lock them up, and throw away the key, there is an effect means of prevent any re-offenders for you. Once under lock and key the individual can be given the opportunity to earn limited freedoms and privileges, or chose to live in isolation from others. Given the available choices I am sure that they would desire to work. Those that sought penal employment could be used at the pleasure of the government to preform duties in the service of the public such as construction efforts or any endeavor involving labour. Working to earn the keep would have an entirely new meaning to individuals. It needs to get done folks. They need to understand that crime really doesn't pay.

Well Bayman, it seems as if you actually understand the situation. Many Albertans cannot, for reasons that escape me. While we all know how good it is here, we don't really know how bad it is here.

That is what Canadians need to have happen, put the leaders on trial after an election.

I don't hate small business, I don't even hate big business. I HATE the special treatment they get from the government that is all. I desire a level playing field with EVERYBODY treated equally. That is why I just posted my thoughts on starting a business to take advantage of that which has been denied to me by the special treatment given to business by the government.

I suppose that on balance all one can do is roll with the punches. The solution is to get everybody and their dog into small business and avoid as much tax as possible.

What I want is the government to leave me and my family alone. I want to be able to determine my own fate, I don't want help from the government at all. All that I desire from the Government of Alberta is to leave Canada and reduce my tax load. The so called boom has inflated the hell out of the monthly budget, and I see no reduction in taxation. The problem in Alberta is the reduced amount of disposable income for families and individuals. Granted business is doing well, and there are the wealthy few who have reaped great benefit from the rise in economic activity. Don't get me wrong here the citizens have benefited from increased employment. However there is always a down side to wild swings in the economy. In the present situation, my children will have a hell of a time trying to buy a home. Real wages have not gone up very much, and the big employment bucks exist way the hell out of town. Our infrastructure is crumbling and we still haven't seen the return of funding for all the cuts made in social programs to pay off our provincial debt. Meanwhile the government and the political parties fail to realize that for the average guy or family in Alberta things have simply got more expensive. It isn't getting cheaper to live it is getting more expensive to live. The only way around the problem is to increase the disposable income of citizens, and that means tax deduction.

There is no reality more harsh than knowing that in Alberta we have some of the biggest social problems affecting families and individuals, and the government wants to do nothing about it. Meanwhile the concentration of wealth continues, the living standards of the middle class are degrading and the ranks of the poor are growing. All this is happening during a massive economic boom, and not just the government but most of the opposition party's desire to make no move at all toward actually addressing the pressing social issues to the forefront of a public agenda during an election. Those partisan groups seek to hold political power and govern the citizens but have no desire to stand up and take action to ease the burdens of over taxation and crushing economic realities. A sad commentary on those who desire to lead.

MSJ is a tax accountant, don't ask such a person to think outside of the box. The reality is that they see everything through the rules and the rules are always right. To break the rules is a bad thing from their perspective. Therefore don't talk about breaking the rules because it is a bad thing. The entire concept of right and wrong is lost on such an individual. Income tax is wrong, but this individual lives off of that mistaken form of revenue stream creation.

Both leading contender democrats promise to pack up the tents and bug out of Iraq. That would leave the citizens of Iraq to bury their dead in the middle of a civil war, the USA does not need to be blamed for that. Iraq is a millstone, that is true, but there are ways to deal with the problem without bugging out and leaving a civil war in the wake of America's departure. What the USA needs to do is break out the Iraq constitution and have them vote for it in a door to door process where the people are protected. This will take a great deal of time, but in the end they will be able to say that the people were supporting the constitution. The next step is to fully support Iraq through rebuilding its ruined infrastructure. While they are doing this they must setup hundreds of small business efforts by Iraq citizens. Their way out is to raise the standard of living of the Iraq people. The Americans know this, and they know the price of doing this is very high, but they must do it to retain their superpower status. The effort to do this can only be seen as one of benevolence. That is the key to retaining the American empire, if they fail to do this they will lose their empire.

I don't see the democrats in the Whitehouse during this particular war. This one needs to be finalized, and the fat lady hasn't sung yet. They can't stay, but they can't leave yet either. For them to pull out would be to admit defeat, I don't think that is a very good idea while contending that you are a superpower. From my perspective McCain is the only viable choice for America at the moment. McCain wants to WIN in Iraq, and he wants to bring Bin Laden to justice. That is what they need to do in order to close the book on 9/11 and move forward. Since they can't go back, they must go forward and that means dealing with the final solution to 9/11.

Tacky is what we have grown to expect from your elitist opinions. I hope you have lots of fun on your business trip. Us working class sub-humans will have to pick up the tab for it with your tax deductions. That is why we want tax reforms, so we don't have to pay the corporate welfare tab with our own taxes. It would be nice if you business folks just paid your dues like the rest of us, without special treatment.

The left has never stood a chance in Alberta, no promise from them is in any way relevant to the voters because the will NEVER form a government. Even so, the PC party has made promises and bought the support of Albertans. They were never close to the Social Credit Party of Alberta, not by a long shot. Their policies in the PC party are geared toward business, the Socreds toward the citizens, and those are two very different directions. Had Social Credit stayed in power and changed nothing about the way they governed the province the Heritage Trust Fund would be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. It was the first of its kind and was bled out early in its existence and has not been funded for nearly two decades. That fund was designed to provide a dividend to citizens, it was the model for the Alaskan Permanent Fund. The PC party has brought much wealth to Alberta, but it has not had the Ronald Regean trickle down effect to most citizens.

The legislature will not change from a majority to a minority, and the government will not fall. However I think you underestimate the political sentiment of the citizens. It is a tradition in this province to be bought with your own tax dollars, that is a PC tradition. Ralph bucks ring a bell? How about natural gas rebates? This time it is health care premiums. These were not the invention of the opposition but instead the government. The Alberta voter demographic is changing, and it is doing so very rapidly. I would not be willing to bet against the PC party losing 15-20 seat.

The NDP are calling for small interest free loans for citizens to combat the housing crisis. Want to be their percentage rises? I will venture to say that many of the folks that have come here for the boom and are living in expensive rental property will support the NDP. The Liberals are now calling for an elimination of the school tax portion of property taxes for seniors. There will doubtless be more proposals the further we go in the election process.

Nice post. Now in your considered opinion, should the nation of Canada take a position in the current state of affairs, or should we simply take a humanitarian approach and supply medical attention for those harmed?

Wait and see what happens. There is speculation that the Liberals will gain a large number of seats, many in Calgary. I think the Wildrose Alliance group will double their seats to gain a mind boggling number of two. The NDP will likely even see a rise in their seat count. This is all due to the changing demographics, brought to us with our latest boom. Times are changing in Alberta and I am willing to bet this will be the last PC government and could well spell the end of the party in provincial politics for years to come.

I am entertained. To read what some folks post gives me a chuckle of two. Here we are in Canada, one of the most taxed places on the planet and we have some people saying that we should simplify the tax code so we could do....what was it we would get by changing the code? There is no problem with people making lots of money and getting huge tax breaks, but there is a problem with the poor folks who need government services. That is just too funny! This is a democracy. Soon enough the attitudes of the affluent will give them pause for thought. I wonder how long the citizens of this nation will continue to allow the elitist governments and the perfectly trained corporate lackies to abuse the citizenry with oppressive taxation levels. The time will come when the government will be treating both legal and natural citizens in the same manner. When that time comes there will be much sadness in the world of corporate governance. The leeches who live off of the sweat of others will fall, and they will fall hard. I will make a prediction here; there is a very deep recession on the horizon. It will cause much loss in the financial markets and destroy much of the heavily leveraged wealth of the high income earners. Many jobs will be lost, but the workers will find other employment, because that is what they do when they work for a living. The business owners will take big hits with many going down for the count. It will be much harder on them, they are not used to actually having to work for a living, but they will be out looking for jobs. At that point, with much of the earth marred in recession a new government will come into power in this nation with the sole objective of leveling the playing field. The idea will be to make all citizens equal. That government will place much responsibility on its citizens both legal and natural. There will be another round of leech removals, and the beatings will continue until all citizens are treated equally by government. No it certainly won't be communism, it will definitely be a capitalistic society, but both government and business leaders will be held to a far higher standard. The truly rich will stay that way, but the leveraged wannabe will find themselves back where they started with the rest of the population. Just keep up the high and mighty attitude folks because it speeds the day when real change will come. On that day if you look over your shoulder you will see me waving at you. I will have one thing to say, I told you so.

I was responding to the link you posted. In my opinion we need to either start spending money on our armed forces or stop putting them in harms way. My preference would be to start spending some money by developing some internal manufacturing capacity, I know the risks of that path but I see it as the only plausible way to go if we decide to spend some money. Otherwise I would advocate going to the UN and trying to make a very large change in how things are being done.

That is the reason I prefer a consumption tax. It is blind to the individual or business. It is applied equally. It reduces bureaucracy and reduces the expense of government which in turn reduces the burden on the tax payer.

I am not down on business at all! Power to those folks who have a business, they have worked hard to make it work and deserve all the credit for making themselves independent of employers. Small business employs a large part of our workforce and for that they are to be commended. My problem is with the system, not business. All I want is to be treated equally, meanwhile I get nothing but dingbats declaring their arrogant attitudes toward the working folks of this nation. It is despicable in fact that those citizens and those that came before them and will doubtless come after them have the audacity to seek beneficial treatment from the government. I am against any kind of lobby efforts. This kind of nonsense has lead us to where we now find ourselves. Governments have been corrupted by this kind of thing. It is not as if this is news, but what is amazing is that we the citizens continue to allow the elected representatives the opportunity to fall into the trap of lobbyists. In the case of income taxes I firmly believe that we should change to a consumption tax. No deductions , no income tax returns, no need for the bureaucracy of revenue Canada. Simply farm out the collection of taxes to vendors of products and services and have them remit those funds to the LOCAL governments. From there funding should be provided for communities, the defined balances forwarded to provincial governments. They should then deduct their defined benefits and remit the remaining portion to the federal government. The entire concept of transfer payments and equalization is a joke and wholly unfair to the tax payer. As long as the legal citizens of this country are treated in the manner that they are, the natural citizens are doomed to be leveraged into a second class category. It is well past the time when citizens should have a say in how our nations are government. We have fought wars and suffered economic upheavals just to preserve our freedom and rights only to have governments take advantage of our good and peaceful nature. The citizens will soon be heard from and they will be saying that it is time to consider a direct democracy to provide them the opportunity to interface with the government in the political decision making process. This is supposed to be a democracy, and in a democracy citizens should have a say. We are neither obeyed or listened to by our own government. We are allowed only a say in who we elect, not in what policy or agendas that those elected representatives undertake in our name and that is just plain wrong. Taxation is but the tip of the iceberg, but if people don't understand how they are being abused then we have a far larger problem than many think. Income taxes are unfair and repressive. They interfere with the ability to support individuals, families and business efforts. The government does not earn the funds they extract from citizens, they merely levy a fee which some are able to afford but others are not. A tax revolt is coming, trust me. The days of living in a classless society are coming to an end due to the greed of the individual and the collective stupidity of governments. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure this out. We don't need governments to hold our hands with cradle to grave benefits. We don't need the government to feed us and cloth us and put a roof over our heads. We need the government to protect and promote our right to take care of ourselves. We need to be able to earn our own keep, and take care of ourselves, that is what makes us free and allows us the liberty to choose our own destiny. To have government do these things for us detracts from that freedom and eliminates our liberty. With the governments making these decisions for us we lose our rights. Look around and tell me this isn't already happening. Taxes are merely a symptom of the democratic disease of apathetic politics. That is the real enemy we face, and we can see that enemy every morning when we look at the mirror. We have nobody to blame but ourselves for the lack of courage to stand up and speak out about this system of abuse that we call government in this nation. All citizens should be outraged at the efforts of politicians and media to twist the reality of our plight, the simple fact is we have been long deceived by those we place in political power and trust. Our society has reached a peak in its development from which we will never be able to move forward because of partisan and ideological division amongst citizens. The time will soon be upon us when a leader with sufficient vision and discernment will turn this nation upside down in an effort to create, promote and defend true equality. There will be absolute carnage if we allow this to continue much longer.

Lock him up and throw away the key. Violent offenders should never be allowed to live in our society.

I thnik it is time to throw caution to the wind for the Liberals and show some balls. Enough is enough, crap or get off the pot.

With all due respect, the decision to go into this operation was a political one. The rules of engagement as designed by the political decision makers are the authority under which the military operates. Therefore it is the civilian political authority that is undertaking the responsibility for the operation. The military role is defined by political decision. Front line commanders operate only through the provisions of the rules of engagement. The entire thing is a foreign policy response to international obligations defined by our treaties and alliances which were designed by political means. In short, we are there because we decided to go there. The real question is not Canada's participation in hostile aggressive military operations, that is defined through political decisions made by the Prime Minister and his cabinet, but instead Canada's foreign policy in general. What is it that Canada as a nation does in response to specific situations where our military may become involved, depends upon not military nature of the situation but instead the political consequences of that action. The question should perhaps be viewed as one in which whether or not the civilian authorities are able to design a mission for the military without first determining desired goals and objectives, viable entrance and exit strategies, strategic and tactical consequences being defined as a prerequisite for conducing operations. Once the political decision has been made to involve the nation in a conflict the mission must be administered by military authority with sufficient means to accomplish the task. Going into a war being unprepared is one thing, and deciding to go into somebody elses war is another altogether. It is a matter of choice in this particular case because the conflict does not in fact have any strategic or tactical consequence to this nation beyond that of a threat. Knowing this the political decision makers are ultimately accountable for their decisions. Had we been forced into conflict and the military was calling the ball, then civil authority would be off the responsible hook, but sadly this is not the case. We made a political decision to go in, and we did so under specific rules. The rules in place are not that of a peace keeping mission they are of a peace making nature instead. It is my opinion that this was a mistake. We should not have become part of this conflict without a far different set of rules for engagement. Half hearted attempts cause needless deaths in conflicts. This nation should either prosecute this war with the full might and intent of the people of Canada or it should remove itself from the field of operations. The decision not to do so is an act of cowardice on the part of the government who seems intent to risk the lives of our own citizens as an act of international politics.