Jerry J. Fortin

Even then I wouldn't hold my breath. Today Israel offered peace, again, to the Palestinians in Gaza. Their response, as they launched some more rockets, was that they want the west bank as well. Go figure.....

He is still a Tory, that means we will have to wait and see what happens. The days of the Tories are numbered in this province. This is a free mandate, the next one will be the last.

The Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, and the west? Okay I will go along with that, no problem! I will even take on the territories that the rest of Canada will not allow to become provinces. Get a grip folks, it ain't gonna happen. I can see Quebec with enough balls to go it alone, like my province of Alberta, but I don't see Ontario liking the idea, or the Maritimes for that matter.

Look at it this way; in 1867 we bought a political vehicle. 100 years later the damned thing was out of date needed major upgrades and we screwed around for a dozen years without actually doing anything about it. Then we decided to act on the notion that the ancient critter was getting harder to start in the morning. A couple of years later, after taking it apart in theory, the political mechanics put it back together changing practically nothing while it in fact restricted its movements even more. Some guys didn't like the finished product and would buy it in 1982. Now twenty odd years later we want to look at doing the same thing, just tweak it a little is what some folks want. I say if you want to open the can of worms be prepared for what crawls out. Every individual citizen, each of our mutiple layers of government want to see changes, but we all want different things. Its going to be a free for all, a knock down drag out donnybrook that will clear the benches. In the end, the only way its going to end is when all every skeleton has been hauled out of all of the closets and every lump under the rug has been found. There will be no stone left unturned and no two rocks will stand together ever again. That is because we are ALL distinct societies with specific concerns and wants. There are the rich who do not want to give and the poor who don't want to work, there is literally no end to our diversity. For that reason we will ultimately fail as a nation. You see its all about policy, and that is the ultimate political tool of division. It works as long as you are using it with a majority, but in the case of minorities it simply does work. If you want to revise the constitution the only functional means of doing so would be to clearly define the parameters of specific levels of government, what each level is responsible for and accountable for and then let the chips fall where they may. You cannot open the debate with only the feds can make the rules because who in their right mind would want to play? In simple terms decentralization of power is the only viable option that the feds can use to open that can of worms. Without that carrot it will be mayhem in negotiations. The feds need only be in control of national defense and foreign policy, thats it. In terms of the social contract the feds should be in control of defining standards and enforcing them. Any province should have the ability to custom design social programs that met the needs of their citizens, provided that they can fund it of course. Having said that, there is still more that needs to be considered within the framework of constitutional reforms such as democratic reforms. Fixed election dates, recall legislation, an elected senate are all items of consideration whose time has come. I don't think Harper has the stomach for it, or the balls. In fact I think that the political parties are deluding themselves if they think they can get away with just tweaking that little piece of parchment. That simply won't do as far as most citizens are concerned.

Exactly! These folks have pumped billions of dollars into production infrastructure in the tar sands and they are not likely to walk away from it. The profit margin is rather fat or they wouldn't have invested to the degree they have.

While the Americans are far from perfect, I prefer them to any other of the great powers. Just think obout that for a second and you can see that the alternatives are far worst. China and Russia are your alternate choices. Do you really think that you would be able to act in the same manner in a society controlled by them and their state actions, or do you think maybe that you have a higher degree of freedom in this society? The choice is your to make of course, thats the way we view things over here. The same cannot be said there. If you favour free will and democracy then you must choose this side of the fence. As messy as democracy is the alternatives are not very desireable.

In order to gain power politicians promise to spend money, once in power they spend money. The fly in the ointment is that it is our money they are playing with. People don't seem to figure this out very well. In order to pay for all this the government taxes us. When they can't get enough from us in taxes to cover the expenses they simply borrow money from the banks and then have us pay for it later. Not a good plan, but it is the plan they use.

Actually all three remaining candidates favour a public review of resource royalties. The previous governments designed them to attract foreign investment in the wake of the NEP. The provincial tactic was successfull because it was a tax holiday as compared to the tax grab the feds made. That investment was what placed us where we are today, buit there was a great cost to the tax paying citizen to do it. So the tactic was a success, but it was never envisioned that the price of oil would double. Now these record profits are working against us to a degree. There is room to renegotiate the rates. Increasing them to the same as Alaska charges would almost double our revenues on paper. That of course does not take into account the reduced revenue from conventional oil, which has a far higher rate of royalty associated with it. The main problem is that our tar sands oil is labelled bitumen and that has a far lower price associated with it. That is the main reason we need to renegotiate the rates, because prior to exporting it it becomes synthetic oil and as such needs to be valued at a higher rate. There is another reason we need to renegotiate these deals, and that is the issue of refining. We need to discuss the implications of the loss of value added profits associated with the export of raw material. Our economy would benefit from an expanded secondary industry, which of course provides a far higher degree of employment than primary industry. All three candidates for Premier favour opening for public consideration these issues. This could facilitate a fundemental change in our economy. If successful, you can expect Alberta to nearly double its provincial revenue stream from royalties alone. Along with that increase from resource revenue an expanded secondary industry would provide large corporate income tax revenues. In addition the increased employment would provide the usual 8 times more in personal income taxes for the province. So all things considered it becomes a way to fund the required infrastructure investments to provide government services such as healthcare and education to the growing population. When you take into consideration the increased emplyoment and investment as an effect of economic expansion what you also realize is a large pool young working families. This would pay for a provincial pension plan and provincial police force. In Alberta we have a great opportunity before us, if we don't screw it up first. The next Premier has a big job before them, never before have we been so close to finally getting our house in order. All it will take is a little planning and a lot of forward thinking.

Open the damned constitution and lets get it done. Freaking cowards is what these fools are. There are so many areas that need to be addressed that it is actually critical that we deal with these problems immediately. Every issue is a festuring wound on the body of our society. If we don't have the guts to deal with the problems we don't deserve the right to call Canada a nation. This is another of the reasons I want Alberta out of confederation, the damned politicians are afraid of their own shadows! If this nation wants to survive it must adapt to the political realities it faces. It is the function of elected representatives to govern, but if they decide not to legislate what is the point?

Alberta could have, without much effort or fuss a revenue stream based on our resource royalties that would be sufficient for our needs. We can eliminate provincial income taxes. This I do advocate very strongly. It does not however address the federal component of taxation, that we can do nothing about while remaining in confederation.

I never said that the constitutional ammendment formula had changed or was over-ruled. Nor did I even suggest that the feds must actually conclude an agreement. Once again for your learning curve, I said a process was outlined that the government was obligated to follow. That doesn't surprise me at all. Have you tried walking and chewing gum? You don't seem to understand what you are saying then...... No I wouldn't think that at all, but obviously you would. Income trusts, the gun registry, same sex marriage, the track record is being recorded. Or is breaking election promises okay Fig? What would you base your continued support on? Perhaps you like being lied to, we don't out here in the West. It kinda cuts into the credibility of the effort don't you think. Its a little obvious that Harper is doing whatever he thinks he can get away with just to position himself for a majority, maybe not to you though.

Every human being is entitled to an opinion. That is a personal right. Special interest groups are a horse of a different colour, and deserve no rights. Lobby groups are the bane of modern political existence and need to be considered carefully and yet rejected without proof of representation. Religion and morals are black and white issues to most people whereas politics is the art of colouring issues in shades of grey. They are like oil and water, they just don't mix.

That number is actually low balled. Had our resource royalties been on par with an international average we would have seen at least 30 billion alone from 92-97. Keep in mind the Tories stopped putting money into the fund in 83. That is a long time ago, and revenues could have been put in that would have increased the size of the fund greatly.

Yeah, I guess in the greater scheme of things this format of discussion makes more sense than others to a degree. Who knows maybe in the future an internet application of direct democracy will enable citizens to straighten out governments before the poop hits the fan.

I just found out that all three top candidates support the Pembina Institute's call for a public inquiry into royalty rates!! Now I am a happy camper, maybe there is hope after all for the citizens of my province. We have already lost about 50 billion with my math and perhaps a lot more, but maybe we will see some action. If we get that crap straightened out, then fix the Heritage Trust Fund we will actually be doing something for our children. That reformation seems to have a little steam in the three top guys too. Just think about it for a second, if we return to properly funding that bank account and reform it into what the Socreds created it for we will have the Alberta Permanent Fund. A fund which pays every man women and child of this province a dividend every year!

Okay spin doctors, tell me why Quebec who is not a signatory to the 1982 Constitution can lay any claim to any part of it such as the not withstanding clause. Now knowing that they are not a party to the constitution we currently have does anybody think that they would be party to any other constitution when they can sit back and reap the rewards of the sweat stained efforts of others. Wake up people the French are way better at this game then they are given credit for. Harper is dumb enough to take the bait and he will get called on it.

You want to solve ther problems of the Middle East? Very nice, delusional but nice. Those problems are for them to solve who live there, not us. Our opinions don't matter and it certainly isn't our place to interevene there. Best thing we can do for them is take two steps back, support no side in the conflict and refuse to give the conflicting parties any more than humanitarian assistance. Taking sides in a domestic dispute isn't too bright, it can get you killed. Both parties can turn on you at any time.

Who cares? 911 did happen. Bin Laden is being hunted. Afganistan was attacked and now Iraq is living under the same people who went in to get Bin. The Americans are pissed off at whoever attacked them, I would be too. The war on terror has begun, and it won't end this is a life work for a government not an engagement. This is Nam on roids so to speak, only the Yankees are committed to win this time. If you wanty a good conspiracy to chase look into Roswell New Mexico. Lots of questions about that one.

There is a place for religion, in the hearts and minds of its followers. It has no place in government or political policy. Render unto Ceaser and all that is about as accurate as it can get. Don't mix religion with politics because religion is personal and politics is social. The Christian right is as bad as it gets in this regard. They criticize other religions and governments on a regular basis but should really stick to their knitting. Its none of their business. Look at the hypocrisy of advocating the death penalty when the religion is supposed to be based on forgiveness. How about the abortion issue, what happened to go forth and sin no more? Fanatics from any corner have no place in politics, it should be broader based than that for "God's" sake.

Why do we need to blame anybody for the damned weather? Hello....McFly....... Get a grip people the weather is changing. Believe it or not it does that now and again. So lets not get to worked up about it. Sure industry pollutes the environment, it also employs you. Sure the environment has been beaten up since the industrial revolution, but we are not share croppers any more are we? Lets not cut our throats here but instead learn from our mistakes and start working on the real problem. Its the same problem that humanity has had since we came out of the caves, adapt or die. The weather changes so we adapt, that what we have to do. We do need to clean up the mess we have created, but having said that lets not fire everybody and shut the place down to do it. The thing to remember that the environment WILL recover. It will simply take time. So why not implement green legislation for ALL new development, that would be adapting to the problem. Once that is done we can start dealing with existing problems after we have addressed our survivability. Its a queston of priorities and political direction. Granted we have had leaders that are less than stellar in terms of visionary ability, but it is we who can select the people to do the job. From my perspective we would be better off seeking representatives who support our opinions on the environment as the big priority as a candidate. Once the get elected then they can effect the changes we want, but they have to get elected and work from the inside to do it.

Of the remaining choices Morton more closely represents my position, withe the exception of privatising healthcare.

If you shut down every industry and source of man made emmissions on this planet it would not stop the effects already acting upon the environment from three centuries of industrialization. We have dumped lots of stuff into the atmosphere, the land and the water that wasn't there before and the earth is reacting to these things. Our climate is changing and no amount of effort will change that. Forget the blame game and start dealing with the real issues, adapting to the changes. Granted that we should stop emmissions, but doing that means serious adverse impact to our society. We have made mistakes, and we need to learn from them. We can't change what has already happened but we can begin to mitigate the effects and we should. Having said all of that it will take individual effort to succeed. Without a vast majority of public support base change will not occur. Its not industry's fault, we made the industries so its our own fault. Its not the governments fault because we elect the governments, its our fault. Its us that has to change, not them. When we change then they will change, not the other way around. In Canada we need to start thinking about development, not economic but social. Look at the building of new communities for example. Why not grandfather existing business and development for now and legislate all new development to only proceed along green lines. Lets try residential development with internal power and heat production unique to the specific community. Geo-thermal loops can be created when incorporating infrastructure to the community. Utility corridors for heating and power lines can be coordinated in scale to requirements. Wind turbines can form borders for common grounds, and solar panels can be mandated into local building codes or community bylaws. There are lots of things that can be done that are not disruptive to existing business or residential areas. We need to think outside of the box to solve these problems.

There is no current political party that can address those issues, here or anywhere else on the planet. What you are describing is both accurate and scary but true.

That is not likely under a PC government. Two reasons for that, the big corporations own the place asnd don't want anybody messing around with their political capital and secondly in Alberta when we buy a politician he stays bought. We do need change, but the change that we require is not what we can get from the Tories. Keep them in power and we can be assured there will be no rocking of the boat.

Canada needs to revamp the constitution. I would support opening the can of worms just to see what crawls out of it! Fixed election dates, recall legislation, elected senate, division of powers and so many other things need to be fixed. If the country does that, perhaps I would even back off of my hopes for an independent Alberta.