Jerry J. Fortin

Strangely enough out here in Alberta we are as isolated as Quebec. From my own perspective I tend to agree with you about the size of government. Implementing democracy over an expanse the size of Canada is a daunting task. Perhaps a task that the current round of politicians are incapable of accomplishing. On a person by person basis, from a western perspective, we tend to disapprove of the appointed Senate, disapprove of the equalization formulas, disapprove of fiscal imbalances at the federal level, and particularly in Alberta folks do not like the federal debt load. For an Albertan to figure out that when more of their tax dollars are leaving the province than coming back, is to be saddled with an additional federal debt burden on a per capita basis! We have no provincial debt, even with the last couple of years in a budget deficit position we never went back into debt. From an Albertans perspective, at least this Albertan, the question of how do we choose to vote in a federal election is simple, we side with other Albertans against the wishes of Ottawa. At least that is what we used to say when the Conservatives were not in power. With a majority conservative government, we are far more circumspect with our political views. Ottawa has become a front for our interests. That is not idle boast, it is a fact. Money talks, bullshit walks. The former industrial heartland of Canada, that Hamilton to Montreal corridor, is currently in a state of disarray. Most foreign investment is in the west and the north. Domestic investment is another story, and a far smaller story than most Canadians really know. Its only the banks and not private ventures from the east that are investing out west at all. This is the land of black gold and foreign capital. We vote to preserve our interests. Folks in eastern Canada should know all about that.

It should be clear that having governments bailout business failures is contrary to the basic principles of capitalism and in fact it reeks of corporate governance. The very essence of our political and economic infrastructure will be viewed under a microscope, and be seen to reveal corruption and incompetence. Just knowing that the Government of Canada is involved in an investment strategy gives me pause for concern. The citizens of the nations, from one end of the world to the other, are being taxed to cover the banks and the business failures that we continue to see pop up here and there. Entire nations are yoked with debt burdens to those same banks and business efforts. Hopefully sooner rather than later, those folks in charge of things need to start an effort within its own group to consider a general debt amnesty. If you ever wanted to gain public approval of a policy, this is the way to do it. It is time to rethink the things that have been done in order to avoid doing other things.

Can we deport convicted felons to the local Native self government run reserve? Let the other First Nations tax paying citizens pay for the incarceration. Or is that asking too much?

Given the current budget environment I would say that there may be smoke where there is fire. The F35 meets the Canadian DND budget, guess who wins......

OAS is the smallest form of pension I have ever seen. How the hell can a person live on that! Lets be honest here folks. Forget the program and the cost OF programs. Sit down and design the 'Canada" plan. Governance should not depend on fiscal prudence at any time. Nor should it ever. Government needs to do what ever it is that is right then find a way to pay for it. The Canada that folks want has not yet been defined. What we have here is a lot of unfinished business, about what you expect during a MINORITY government. It should not be expected with a majority government. Here is a chance for Harper to have a real legacy! What we are getting is the death of a penny. Wow, an 11 million saving!!! Mr Citizen. the government now says you will work longer and wait longer to get a pension. The government gets a virtually free pension that allows you to get full benefit pensions working only a small fraction as long as the citizens do. I will not bet on the citizens being very happy with the concept to start with. Through a little lime light on it and see where it goes I guess. I suppose you can't expect much from a guy who got to be the Prime Minister without ever having a real job. The man that never worked a day in his adult life is now in a position to TELL the working class citizens of Canada any damned thing he wants. I do not think that is a good thing at all. I think its a little disrespectful to the citizens who had to work for a living. Then again that is just one working citizens view. I have two years left to work to get my pension. That will make the economic butchers bill to be thirty five years of my life to QUALIFY for a pension. Go ahead and ask me if I think that the citizens in Canada are treated equally. Perhaps they should ask me if I thought the politicians were worth their expense.

I don't think the Americans get to pay for everything. I do think that America is the weirdest global power the world has ever known. What they can't control with commerce they control with military presence. They fight wars with dollar bills and take down a superpower like Russia, destroying the Soviet Union once and for all. They form alliances and support their friends, they are the first ones to show up in the case of any kind of disaster. WE still complain! Leave the Americans to their own designs. They are harmless friends of ours. That is because we mean them no harm, and they know it. They put up with their silly northern neighbor because they have concluded that we pose no threat to them. Instead of us detracting from their strength, we should be supporting it. You want F35's, trade them some oil for them! Alberta can buy the damned planes if they want to. They don't want to. We need to grow up in political terms. This country is different, we need to remember that.

Just curious, where did you stand with the bailout of Detroit, or the bailout of Wall Street?

I would be okay with the government spending the money here.....

Talk to the clever folks at Bombardier. Lots of engineer types floating around over there, all on the tax payers dime I might add. That company owes the nation a deal of money. Since we will never get it back anyhow, then why not just toss them their last bag of dollar bills until they produce what would amount to a sixth generation fighter. The Americans got two aircraft for less than 700 million. They picked one and we bought it. Figure a way to build an aircraft a month, no more than that until final production model rolls off the lone. At that point production can be doubled or tripled depending on capacity per location. Spread the program cost out to three or four regions or production facilities. Design and maintain a single central final assembly facility. If every dime is spent in country we will effectively tax back the costs of the program. No reason to ship tax dollars out of the country if we can avoid it. WE can and should avoid it.

The only alternatives I am aware of are no longer airworthy; that is the doomed X-32 Boeing bird, and the Northrop YF-23 bird that lost out in the competitions in the first or should I say last place. Russia has a bird at about the same production stage as the F35, their Sukhoi T-50/PAK FA and it is costed out at less than 60 million an aircraft. China has the Chengdu J-20 running at about 110 million an aircraft. The F35 is simply the bird that lived.

The F35 is a dog, not a bird. Lots of development issues to say the least. There is no alternative to the F35, unless we want to wait for generation number six.

This should be interesting.

This is surprising news. The PC's actually have a race to lose. New leaders from both parties mean that they are relative unknown qualities, and even so people are picking sides. If the electorate shows up to vote the PC's could very well be deposed.

Too late, the entire concept is overdone. Both sides acting in a manner non conducive to settlement, we are doomed to continue the farce. You cannot a mandate settlement, the best that can functionally be sought at this point is to begin a true dialogue. That would take more courage and fortitude than many of our political representatives have available for public use. Even so there really is no time like the present to begin. I think this is something that needs to get done, and to delay means to impede resolution. In my mind getting in the way of resolving outstanding issues with the First Nations peoples of Canada, is tantamount to criminal neglect. If we understand that the Government of Canada is mandated as custodian of indigenous people, then we can understand the urgent need to act within that purpose. This really means delegating the necessary authority to NEGOTIATE as equals. The Canadian nation needs to do no more than invite any First Nations representatives to a conference and establish protocols for discussion. Once procedures are established then true discussions begin within an open format. Everything must must available to be put on the table with the intent of resolution. If Canada can pull this off it will create an international stir, and set a new bar of conduct in terms of governmental behaviour and act as a model for international dispute resolution. The key is simple, place the items of dispute in front of the negotiators, with an impartial referee between the two parties. Discussions then become more serious very quickly.

Goes anyone here believe that those who were involved acted in a manner considered criminal? If not then would you vote in support of the partisan party involved? To me these are the only real questions to be answered. Those questions can only be asked in a general election. The opinions of all mean nothing in the absence of an electorate exercising democratic rights. Is that odd considering the nature of the question? There is no doubt of it at all, and yet it is the only solution. With each exercise we need top make changes and go through it all over again. That is the way the system actually works. Its time to wake up to the power and nature of real democracy. You can say what you want as long as you vote. Let the people decide, always.

Ever hear of the phrase too big to fail? There are simply not enough bullets to bury this dog even if it could hunt. Every two bit nation AND their dog is in on this gig. There is money flying out the door by the billions, and its going everywhere. This baby was not designed as an aircraft any less than it was designed to make money for its builders. The program runs deep in every state and even in the number of investing nations that it makes it hard to believe its true. But it is true. Good luck to you investing types of folks, for a very real reason. That reason is that the American government has made a business out of war. If any leader of that nation fails to belly up to the counter and buy some ammo, I will be a monkeys uncle. One way or another, meaning just that by the way, somewhere on the planet some lunatic is buying guns by the boxcar to conduct a war somewhere. The Americans, and very nearly everyone else by the way, make and export weapons daily. We are killing each other over nonsense instead of building schools and hospitals. Instead of actually giving a damn about their own citizens, they would rather tax us to buy guns to sell or use themselves. I think it was Ike that coined the phrase.."military industrial complex." Catchy phrase that it was, it went nowhere fast. In my view he touched the essence of the real problem, and nobody cared to listen, and that is the real tragedy. History should be teaching us that we must learn from our mistakes. Instead it has taught us all that written history is written by the victorious and not a word from the vanquished.

I find myself agreeing with you..

I watched the debate last night, and will venture to say that I actually liked Cullen of all their candidates.

You think they are that astute? I am not so sure they are that smart.

You get my vote.

If you were running for office I would vote for you dude. Damn well said.!

Is that right? You sure those resources weren't there before maybe the damned country even got its current name. You mean since the natural resources were deemed to be of more value than the overinflated egomaniac bureaucrats passing judgment over the geographic location of said resources? Get a grip. Ontario/Quebec manufacturing sectors have successfully priced themselves out of business. Oh well, rough break for those folks I guess. Maybe they should move to somewhere that they can find work or start a business. They can stay where they want for all I care. They should be free to do as they please in my view. Just stop fretting about the success of others, either join the fun and work for something you want or please stop complaining about the folks that want to work. We work, we pay taxes just like everyone else. We are in fact more alike than you might think. Success is built by individual effort, applaud it or not. We have made efforts, we have been successful. Get over it.

Alberta this or Alberta that, but no mention of the centre of your universe. No Manitoba this and Manitoba that??? That's right just beat-up the bad bad bad Albertan. Guess what Smallc? Alberta acts different just because we think we are different. Say what you want. Alberta was to start with, has been since, and will always be that way. Just a little different, neither better nor worse you understand, just different. How is it that folks from other provinces seem to leave us dumb Albertans feeling just that...dumb. We can't seem to figure out why the folks looking down their noses at us are calling us arrogant. I suppose you have no idea how much that kinda stuff tends to weigh upon us. How about for a change you look at ways to find commonality instead of division between yourself and Albertans. I have no idea why you don't think very highly of us, and I am okay with that. Perhaps what many folks, yourself included, don't seem to realize is that Alberta is the name of the province, not us. We are citizens of an entire nation, just as you are. Playing province against province may well be your cup of tea, and I am willing to bet that most other folks in this country would say that it isn't their. Maybe what you don't understand about Alberta citizens is that they are pretty much independent thinkers. Like manner others we don't like to be told what we can and should do by anybody else. Is that one of the things that make us different? Perhaps, or maybe not.....that is a perception call in my view.

Ahhh..... the oh so sweet words of reality cut a tough course for the un-Albertan! Well said, and so very well done, nice post.

The PC's could very well get tested at the next opportunity! Yet they are not dead yet. Keep in mind how they got into power in the first place. The entire government is based on the lie that was put forth in the very successful campaign that killed the Socred's. That lie was all about, yes you guessed it, debt. That was back in '71. These guys were good, so good that a few years later they actually got to blame the NEP on Ottawa. The funny thing is that they got away with it. Talk about unite the right, been there and done that decades ago. Today in Alberta the right is splitting apart in big visible chunks. So much for history. In terms of a boom, you haven't seen anything dude. This time there are serious efforts being made in diversification. This time the public is paying attention. The government of the day,is now officially cornered. It projects deficits, spends more and more to serve a growing bureaucracy made up of folks the good old boys have to hire and promote for partisan purpose. The trough is long and deep. That is the truth, whether people want to believe it or not. The word connections means everything in either business or politics. Add the word dollar bills and there is no end to the hunt for accountability. The Alberta Heritage Trust Fund, ended up being nothing like the Alaskan Permanent Fund, even though it too was designed by a Social Credit Treasurer of Alberta. The people of Alberta have been taken for another multiple decade political dynasty. This one saw much growth and wealth accumulation.