Bayman35
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Posts posted by Bayman35
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Before you spout off about teachers (the useless twits that they are), do some informed reading:
As long as you plan on retiring in your own province, you are a visitor. Your politics make you an outsider whether or not you want to believe it. Those of us that have been here since the beginning know what eastern Canada did to our province, and that will never be forgotten. If you want to do something truly good for the people of Alberta...abstain from voting. Your style of government will only serve to turn this province into what you "ran from" when you moved here. You are very similar to the immigrant that leaves their homeland for (insert reason here) and flees to Canada only to attempt to recreate the problem in the new country.
We need Kwebek-style provincial immigration laws in this province.
Sounds to me like the only useless twit around here is you, how I've had it explained to me by someone other then Global News or looking at a Collective Agreement (because one learns when working with collective agreements that there is the letter of the law and then what actually happens) You call your reading informed thats like me saying I just looked at some statistics from the Pembina and Parkland Institutes and now I know everything I need to about a certain topic. When they say reduced to 25 hours they mean "in class" time. There are several tasks an educator performs throughout the course of the day that don't involve being directly in a classroom.
What exactly do you think the rising Canadian dollar is doing to the manufacturing basin in southern Ontario? Its evaporating because oil prices are driving our dollar up to the point where its no longer beneficial for U.S. based multi-nationals to do business here unless they are hauling oil out of the ground. You are not a citizen of Alberta you are a CANADIAN citizen the end. Wherever I choose to retire it will be in CANADA and I am not a guest in my own country. I don't tend to think as provincially as most of you red necks out here do. I didn't run from Newfoundland I was brought here by my parents when I was eight. Its not like there is some atrocity going on out on the east coast that I had to seek asylum from or my parents for that matter. You make it sound like it was the Conservatives that planted the oil here and are harvesting it themselves and that being Conservative is what made this province rich, give your head a shake Alberta's economy rises and falls with the price of oil the end, what the Conservatives implement in policy has (frank) all to do with it. That's right I am here to recreate Newfoundland in Alberta, do you actually listen to yourself? Newfoundland's books are finally balanced do to the fact that we are taking royalties from Hibernia not because of some miracle on high from Danny Billions. No matter how much you want this political wasteland known as Alberta to be a country it ISN"T. It is in a country called Canada whether you like it or not because Saint Lougheed signed the 82' constitution or was that Dumb Getty the football player now there was a brilliant man. You can't have an immigration policy because you are JUST A PROVINCE the end.
Oh and don't count on me leaving anytime soon, my work will be finished when we get rid of these Conservatives once and for all by outnumbering them through attrition and then you can move where you should really be THE UNITED STATES, the vast majority of Canadians don't agree with you or your cohorts and thank god for that. We are making headway in Alberta and it won't stop, we will keep coming in wave after wave until these traditional Conservative/Libertarian notions have been quelled. The best part is all of you know, and deep down inside it lights a fire in my heart to know that you all feel helpless to prevent it. Don't worry because as much as you hate my politics and ideology you can look in a mirror and see those same feelings coming right back at you from our side. You wanna break out the ideological axe and start swinging then have at it Hydrant because people like you don't make me feel intimidated, bad or worse, you inspire me to double my efforts until you and your libertarian ideology is swept away under a tide of social democracy!!!
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I can be reasoned with the vast majority of the time.
With you however, I'm forced to take a different approach. There are a lot of easterners that I work with that I would give the shirt off my back. Not people like you. I hope you make a pile of money while you're a guest in Alberta. I hope you earn every penny by working hard.
I hope you leave Alberta and go home when we've used you up. And take some of your like-minded buddies with you.
Guest? I have been here since 1980 I would say that I am more then just a "guest" in Alberta. As for leaving why? as a socialist Alberta is where the fight is. This is ground zero, instead of leaving a fight this is where we on the left need to dig in our heels and fight like hell. I do work hard very hard, I volunteer at the mens shelter downtown, I volunteer at a home for battered women and am very active in my children's sports and community leagues. I'm not just an ideological socialist I actually believe an individual needs to practice what they believe. There are a lot of people from Alberta I would also give the shirt off my back to but don't take some variety of highground with me because from my perspective you and others like you are just as impossible to deal with. I am not just a guest here I contribute to the community I live in and the people in it, not because they are Albertans but because they are people that need help. I'm not just here "panning for gold" I am also here to give back to the community in which I live, the fact that I am a socialist and very proud of it is no different then how you are a capitalist/libertarian/conservative and are proud of it. So I hope also that you also make your money and move on but as long as I sit on my ideological south pole and you on the north then NOTHING gets accomplished accept more years of useless polarization from two groups who claim to have a corner on the market when it comes to the truth. I am not trying to tell you you are wrong, I'm saying I don't agree with you which are two very different things. 37 years of ANY government is unhealthy change in government is a good thing, I think the residents of Saskatchewan made a great choice to elect someone else after 16 years of NDP governments because the government needs to feel like they are accountable to the people. Right now the Tories in Alberta believe they are "above the law" and need to lose badly if only to prove to them it can happen and that winning is not a given in a democracy, at least it shouldn't be. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Danny Williams and what he is doing in Newfoundland even though he is a Conservative (who by the way even refers to himself as a "RED TORY") It doesn't matter what political stripe you are all governments need to realize that there isn't just a financial deficit in Alberta, there is a social deficit that needs to be paid. When I hear people talk about "lazy overpaid unionized teachers" it makes me want to vomit because I have witnessed first hand how hard the vast majority of our teachers work. During the school year the classroom isn't the only place they work, they work on lesson plans at home for hours, they coach our children's sports, teach them music and earn every sent they get. I am not a teacher myself but know several educators who are wonderful hardworking people. In the end you can sit back and say I am impossible but in the end you are no different, the difference is you say that "you can be reasoned with" well so can I but we think differently and always will about a governments role in society. That doesn't make you or me wrong, just different.
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Are you referring to the multi-billion dollar pension liability that Pierre Elliot Stelmach is paying to part-time teachers? Yes, beautiful move. People who work 180.5 FDE are about to get money to cover the pension dues they never paid, based on time they never worked. The overpaid ATA members get another bonus. Yep, great move.
With any luck, the PC's will get a majority. Preferably about one seat shy of a majority. Ideal. PES would get his ass booted out of caucus, and a true conservative could take over.
Dreams, dreams.
God I would love to see the Liberals in a minority government with the NDP as the swing vote LOL then your red neck ass would be searching the shelves for a noose to hang yourself.
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When the Easterns get off there lazy welfare asses and come fill our jobs, then you can bitch about where the bitumen goes.
We can't find anyone else to work. They are all busy fishing 2 months of the year for EI. You want us to send you money to fix your manufacturing... how about you send some of those mindless overpaid autoworkers out here to work on our oil projects.
If there isn't any labour, we have to send it south.
Do you even know whats going on in Canada? Or for that matter Fort McMurray? Newfounflanders are in large part not allowed to fish anymore and the population of Fort Mac is about 40-60% Newfoundlanders. We did get off our asses and go to work jackass!!!! As a CANADIAN I have a right to bitch about anything I damn well please, the rate of development is what is creating a shortage here, even a consortium of big oil is asking the Alberta government to slow down and they won't listen. Instead of having ten projects going at once how about finishing one at a time like your St.Lougheed suggested a short while ago. Then we might not be faced with this labour crunch.
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Having plenty of money does not oblige the AB government to follow these socilist tenets so fiercely and loyally. In fact, the opposite is true. Money always means more options are available. So why would this far right wing' govt do that?
Unless of course the 'far right 'label is a big pile of steaming turds invented by those a lot further left?
The odd thing is that the Alberta government is spending all this money and where is it going? You are saying it is going to "socialist tenets" yet I don't see the cost of education going down, don't see infrastructure improving, don't see childcare improving, don't see healthcare improving? Where the hell am I getting my bang for my socialist buck?
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Love how the "Alberta Clipper" pipeline issue almost snuck under the radar in this election and then ended up on the front pages this past weekend. More raw bitumen headed to the American midwest for refining, amazing. So instead of creating hundreds of jobs and making the profits here in Alberta we ship it in its rawest form down to the states s they can make the money and jobs off our oil!!!!! Amazing that people here are letting this happen and that the Tories are rubber stamping this!!!!
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Is it really that far right?
Our government spends more per capita on such socialist mainstays as universal healthcare than any other province. Alberta has far less privatization of health care than BC, Quebec or Ontario.
Similar situation for education , where the public system is strong, very strong.
The two together account for 80% of the total budget. How right wing is that?
Probably because those provinces don't have all those ancient dead critters under the ground that we do. Since it sits at $100.00 a barrel roughly it would be tough not to be spending more. I believe that all three provinces you mentioned are being ran by the Liberal party right now and low and behold that political windsock is showing to be bought off by private initiatives even more then the tories. Hard to believe a Liberal can talk out of both sides of their mouthes but it does happen. This is exactly why I like to deal with Tories, I know where they are coming from and although reaching common ground is more difficult I know the person sitting across from me. The Liberals are politically spineless and waiver on everything .
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That's right! Because I should be paying for everyone else's kids for as long as I live. Socialist crap like that used to get left at the border, but it seems to be getting harder to plug the leaks.
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Thats right Hydrant Boss there is more and more of us coming in and there is to pee on your parade and there is NOTHING you and your fascist capitalist buddies can do about it, as more easterners come in the more we will reach into your pockets. (Isn't that the stereotype?) Ralph said those eastern bums didn't he) Such a wonderful statement most people like yourself make, "what about me, I am the most important thing on earth" My god I had $32,000 in taxes taken from me last year and I couldn't care less and would gladly pay more if it meant funding a program where god forbid would allow both parents the opportunity to have a career. Oh and hydro those ideas are no longer at the border they are right at your front door and here we come a pounding!!!
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Apparently you didn't understand the context in which this was said. I was referring to the debate in a seminar class we had about the founding fathers of this country and if they had meant Canada to be a country that was more federal in nature or more provincial in nature. I myself believe we were "meant" to be a more federal nation. A couple of hundred years ago Alberta was fur-trading Hudson's Bay Company land and nothing more. really became a nation in what 1776, do you think it will be a nation in 100 years? That debate the other night suggested nothing "although I do like how our esteemed Wildrose leader made it seem like the other parties were out to round up your seniors and children and ship them off somewhere. I found all of them about as inspiring as a head injury. The way that is structured it is almost pre-ordained that nobody will come out a winner. I can't stand the way Graham T. from the journal just sucks right up to the Liberals like a fiend, one pillowy soft question after the next. To say that Alberta politics is bereft of inspiring leadership would be an understatement for ALL parties. For someone recently moved here, watching that debate might have made you want you stay at home election day. Although I will say I like the idea of childcare being put forward by both the Liberals and ND's. Capping the cost of childcare is one idea that came out of Quebec that I like.
Meant to say "America really became a nation in what 1776..."
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Meant?
By what? A god, aliens,some great spirit? Canada disn't exist as a nation a couple hundred years ago and won't resemble one a hunded years from now. There is no pre-ordained 'meant'.
Apparently you didn't understand the context in which this was said. I was referring to the debate in a seminar class we had about the founding fathers of this country and if they had meant Canada to be a country that was more federal in nature or more provincial in nature. I myself believe we were "meant" to be a more federal nation. A couple of hundred years ago Alberta was fur-trading Hudson's Bay Company land and nothing more. really became a nation in what 1776, do you think it will be a nation in 100 years? That debate the other night suggested nothing "although I do like how our esteemed Wildrose leader made it seem like the other parties were out to round up your seniors and children and ship them off somewhere. I found all of them about as inspiring as a head injury. The way that is structured it is almost pre-ordained that nobody will come out a winner. I can't stand the way Graham T. from the journal just sucks right up to the Liberals like a fiend, one pillowy soft question after the next. To say that Alberta politics is bereft of inspiring leadership would be an understatement for ALL parties. For someone recently moved here, watching that debate might have made you want you stay at home election day. Although I will say I like the idea of childcare being put forward by both the Liberals and ND's. Capping the cost of childcare is one idea that came out of Quebec that I like.
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As for being derided I don't think you will ever see a group within Canada made more fun of then Newfoundlanders LOL
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I was born into this nation the year the government killed the Avro Arrow. That was the beginning of the problems had with facing modern society. Canada has since become little more than a vassal state of America. Yet we see none of the benefits of America. Where is our free speech, where are our property rights? Canada has abandoned its citizens to corporate governance.
I am a proud Albertan, and for that I am derided by many Canadians. This provinces pays more into confederation every year than most of the rest of the nation combined. Canada is our welfare project paid for by the tax load of Alberta citizens and this is a condition of confederation as outlined in the constitution. It is not just transfer payments and equalization that Canada discriminates against Alberta citizens with, but it does have a huge economic impact to the citizens and families here. For those reasons alone, I desire to have my province become independent.
Canada moved from being dominated by Britian to the United States after the Suez crises. I would argue with you though that Alberta has really become Canada's most American province. This provinces agenda is dominated by corporations also, and the PC party. Take a look at the Edmonton Journal Article February 16th, 2008. The party appoints all returning officers from its own ranks, abhorrently undemocratic. It is not wrong to be a Tory and returning officer but to be picked solely on the basis you are a member of the Tory party is outrageous! This is a person who in the unlikely event there is a tie has the tie-braking vote. I look at the fact that in the beginning Alberta was Hudson's Bay Company land, what would Alberta be today if not purchased and drawn out by the Canadian government. It really depends on how you observe the arguments of our founding fathers and whether you believe their intentions were more provincial or federal? I took an entire semester seminar course on that argument at UofA in my fourth year to little avail. LOL
In essence being a Newfoundlander originally I see directly the benefits of transfer payments. Until Hibernia Newfoundland depended on that money to maintain their medical infrastructure and we were thankful for it. It maintained a medical infrastructure that haas saved many lives back home and a lot of us recognize that. But this is at what the essence of what I believe confederation and life is, helping each other. I am really a first generation Canadian since my parents were born in Newfoundland before confederation and I have heard this argument from several people back home about independence. Newfoundland has become one of the largest contributers of personal to the Canadian military in the last 30 years, one only has to look at Mr. Hillier to see that. We are a patriotic bunch but I think for the most part we have believed in contributing back to Canada buy sending our people out west and to Ontario to work. That and filling the ranks of the military for several years. I just think we were meant to be one nation. As for rights in America well I think the US patriot act puts all those rights into question.
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I am actually an Alberta separatist. I advocate direct democracy. I advocate a consumption tax instead of an income tax. I advocate free trade, but not the pretend free trade of NAFTA. I advocate getting out of NATA and the UN. I advocate a neutral international position. I advocate peacefully co-existence and sustainable development. I advocate environmental protection as well as economic diversification.
I am not your typical Albertan. I do not support either the mainstream or even the fringe partisan factions, I do support the free will of citizens and the independent candidates for public office. I seek a republic where ALL citizens have a say in the political leadership of the land. I seek a direct democracy where the citizens are able to create a public agenda and have the government truly act as the public servants that they are and implement the policies the citizens in their majority have determined to be in their own best interests.
To be honest I do agree with some of your ideas, firstly though I am Canadian and a federalist. Mike Huckabee in the states is a candidate who puts forward a taxation system that you are talking about. The problem I have with taxes is not the fact that I paid $32000 last year its the fact that my level of service dropped off while I was doing it. If we maintained or improved our public services with those levels of taxation I would be happy to pay that or even a little more just give me the value I put into it. Both the feds and the province have the money it is just being poorly allocated right now. I advocate pulling out of NAFTA and other trade liberalization agreements because I think they have hurt our economy and given away control over our own resources. Right now for example we give away far too much raw bitumen south of the border for refining as opposed to doing it here. We really should be acting like owners of this resource either from the feds or the province but better direction is needed. Your form of government was practiced in ancient Athens and was referred to as "the polis" it is an interesting concept though. We would have to set aside money for referendums but I would agree with that. More direct democracy is needed to keep the government in check and I would advocate for a system of recall of some variety if a government is failing us. However as you can see I am not adverse to new ideas but would not want to do it outside the framework of the nation.
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On the Project Alberta forum (http://www.projectalberta.com/) I myself am labeled a socialist. I am nowhere near that little corner but those folks have painted me in there. I changed my name to Commonwealth over there and received daily beatings from the right wing nuts that reside there. I stay there, and here in Alberta because I really think that the left has some valid points, they care about people not things. In Alberta after four decades of Tory rule we are finally about to turn a corner. It won't happen this election but it will happen the next one, then the Tories will have the same status as Social Credit.
In the richest province of the nation we have, to borrow a social credit phrase, "poverty in the midst of plenty". There is just no other way to describe the situation. Folks have made a lot of money with their small businesses catering to oil company's and they want to make even more. They are the vocal ones in Alberta. The real majority here is totally apathetic to politics, and their numbers are greater than all the others put together, well almost anyway. That single demographic is the one that will rise and bite them in the ass, and they won't see it coming.
I agree with you about demographics, what percentage of Albertans actually vote? I know in the last civic election in Edmonton is was under 40% which is ridiculous. When those who don't vote finally realize they are the ones that will change the face of Alberta I think everybody here including myself will be surprised at the results. Recent polling suggests that 52% of voting Albertans will vote Conservative, that means that with very little over half the vote in Alberta they will have a majority. I think it is time to talk about proportional representation, it is the only system we have that is truly reflective of society. Then you really would see the green party with seats federally and provincially which I think is only fair. That won't happen for a long time though because Tories recognize the fact they would get ousted far more easily in a more democratic system then this "first past the post" garbage we have now. Minority governments work as far as I'm concerned nobody has a dominating agenda and they are forced to actually work to put legislation through. The problem is the same with the federal senate, instead of it having to be a patronage appointment by the government of the day, why not make it a triple E senate? That was one reform idea I actually thought was good. But just like Ontario and Quebec being unwilling to give up power in the senate, Tories here are unwilling to look at proportional representation because they realize it spells certain doom for them. I stay in Alberta because someone once asked me "why do you stay here feeling the way you do?" I simply replied that as a lefty in Canada this is where the fight is. This is ground zero and that's just where I like it, why run from a fight when you can continue to have one daily.
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Sorry for all the typing errors LOL just I a have been working on two things at once here all day. Writing an academic paper on the challenges faced by unions when confronted with multi-national corporations. However I will endeavor to argue with a less personal approach and make things a little more academic, unless of course I get that "axe" swung at me, then I'm swinging back LOL
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It makes me laugh to see Alberta citizens chomp at the bit to swing the ideology axe around. What an utter waste of time, this is just what both the right and left wingnuts want folks to do. They lay claim to the truth, but the truth doesn't recognize this political partisan clap trap.
Albertans need to grow up and grow a pair along with the spine to carry them around. Maybe at some point we can grow a freaking brain while we are at it and realize that what we really need cannot be found within the current system of things. Those resources are owned by the citizens of Alberta, not the government of Alberta and certainly not the government of Canada. The huge budget created at the Provincial Legislature is spending Alberta citizens tax dollars, not Canadian tax dollars. Canada grafts another billion dollars a month from Alberta citizens in federal taxes more than what they return to us in programs and services.
Most of the vocal citizens in this province are very partisan and very right wing. That is unfortunate, yet this forum and perhaps others invite all citizens to participate in discussion. Much of the media is split up with some swinging left and some swinging right, that is not helpful either when there is no middle ground. The middle is where most folks want to be, but many people don't like that. Many folks think you need to be on one side or the other and claim that folks that do not are fence sitting as if it were some kind of disease. These are the same folks that cannot understand the apathy that exists within our system.
It is my hope that after this election is over that folks will see that nothing much will have changed and their hopes and dreams of improvements will be dashed against the rocks of ideological elitism. I actually want those hopes crushed to make those folks see the reality of the political situation in our province. Our problems are not simply left and right differences, they are far more complex and far more difficult to overcome than most people think. The only way to solve the problems can be found by citizens as long as we put partisan politics aside. Until we put them aside we will be mired ideological differences instead of addressing the issues.
I am not going to disagree with you, obviously if I had to define myself I would be considered leftist to that there is no doubt. However I will say that there are several aspects of conservatism I agree with. I am not for a state ran economy, I do believe in a free enterprise and capitalism, but not running unchecked, and not having all the influence in the political tent. To be non-partisan such as yourself is a healthy thing. Barack Obama is fairing well in the Democratic primaries in the US based on exactly what you are talking about. He has and is reaching out to the Republicans to find a middle ground. Again this is a good thing, as he puts it "these are not a series of Red States and Blue States, these are the United States of America". He is bang on when he says that and in too many circumstances the Liberals have won elections running up the middle between right and left. Lester Pearson made fantastic strides in a minority government with that kind of non-partisan approach. He negotiated the Canada Pension Plan, and laid the foundations of universal health care in this country. I will admit it is a fault of mine to fall into that ideological trap when faced with it. What you speak of resonates with the green party who run a platform based on the notion that right and left politics get nothing done anymore and they are wrong the problem is that as the system stands right and left is what we are confronted with. I am not saying I would not be willing to work with a Conservative I would actually rather work with them then to work with the modern day political windsock known as the Liberal party. They stand fr nothing, if the winds blow in one direction of the other you'll find a Liberal with his finger in the air running with the wind. I also like many on this site make a good living and my family is well taken care of, the difference is I think there is a social responsibility we have as citizens that we are miserably failing at. Reagonomics and the "trickle-down" theory failed miserably, now America is paying the price. We need a better system and when the Alberta government formed "all parties" task forces on housing, seniors, and royalties I thought we were moving in the right direction. When they ignored the results of those task forces because they didn't like the answers then it lead me to believe it was back to politics as usual in Alberta and became very frustrated. I actually do tend to be more moderate then I am expressing in here just enjoy the "devils advocate" and "sucking them in" approach for my own good sometimes. LOL
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I suppose Bayman, you also subscribe to the idea that Alberta's resources belong to Canada as well. You really shouldn't be too darn proud to crow about an illegitimate document like Trudeau and Chretien's Charter and Canada Act. A document that was never ratified by Canadian Voter's. It really does show how ignorant you are of History and the facts. The sooner Alberta quits supporting the failed Sociliast Dreams of Trudeau the Commie Ass Kisser the better.
Actually if you read the original BNA it does give the power over "trade and commerce" to the federal government, the only resources the provinces had power over and I quote were "The Management and Sale of the Public Lands belonging to the Province and of the Timber and Wood thereon". The BNA act says nothing about Alberta or any province having control over any of their other resources. Seems as though when the Canadian government purchased Alberta from the Hudson's Bay Company that it fell under the section of the BNA that stated "The Public Debt and Property" meaning that that land was Canada's and Alberta did not exist at that time. After the province was formed the federal government handed over what was to become Alberta and the modern day tarsands were in the NWT, it is only after the boundaries were drawn out again that Alberta finally was given by the feds the land the current tarsands resides on. So upon Canada's birth as a nation that land was CROWN land belonging to the country. It is through the the 82' constitution that official recognition of the provinces controlling their own resources was acknowledged by the feds.
The 1982 act "- The fourth big change made by the Constitution Act, 1982, gives the provinces wide powers over their natural resources. Each province will now be able to control the export, to any other part of Canada, of the primary production from its mines, oil wells, gas wells, forests and electric power plants, provided it does not discriminate against other parts of Canada in prices or supplies. But the national Parliament will still be able to legislate on these matters, and if provincial and federal laws conflict, the federal will prevail. The provinces will also be able to levy indirect taxes on their mines, oil wells, gas wells, forests and electric power plants and primary production from these sources. But such taxes must be the same for products exported to other parts of Canada and products not so exported"
I think if anyone is ignorant of the history of this country or the facts about natural resources it's YOU! Read before you speak and compare and contrast the Constitution and the BNA act before you speak to others about what they do or do not know. Seems to me you need some better research skills and on top of that the very document you hate is the one that granted the provinces the right to control their own oil. Oh and how I love the fact that all socialists are commies, does that mean I get to call you a fascist now. Drop the name calling and get educated!
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Cripes, are you a negative nabob. Forget the Prozac today?
Why not just shoot yourself? Then again, you'd start bitchin about the government not handing out free guns and having to pay for the bullet yourself.I apologize for my family and friends having a good life and not joining you in the crybaby game.
Crybaby game what? The government has handed me NOTHING nor do I want it to, you are missing the point, neither your family or yourself should say sorry for anything. I have also worked for everything I have and haven't had the government hand me anything. The point I am trying to make here is not hand out higher payments for people on social assistance, not increase unemployment insurance rates, not giving away anything, the point I am trying to make is that while we are successful there are a large minority of people who are not, and that this success comes with costs. Now that our books are balanced and we are moving into an era of savings and restructuring why would we not start investing our money in a constructive way towards the two facets of society that are the benchmarks of any democracy, healthcare and education. I have never thought of myself a Newfoundlander or an Albertan first, I have always thought of myself first and foremost as a Canadian. I am not saying that Alberta is a terrible place, that is another widely held misconception of those sitting on the right. I enjoy my weekends in Jasper, Banff and other places in the province, as a person who's job has lead me to live in Fort McMurray, Edmonton, Red Deer, Calgary, and Grand Prairie I can honestly say that I admire the optimism in Alberta. I admire the opportunities in Alberta, the point I am trying to make is that there is a social deficit here that just like our financial debt also needs to be balanced. I apologize for coming off so acidic, I am sure you along with your family are good people with great intentions, it just becomes a knee-jerk reaction when you sit on the left end of the spectrum to come out swinging because you have to have a pretty thick skin to be on the left in Alberta. I would say good luck to you and your family and again will try and structure the debate in a more constructive fashion.
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Bayman, since you are so down on Alberta even though you didn't move here until 1986, why don't you move the hell back home? This is not the east coast and Albertans don't want the government to hand out everything they need on a silver spoon. YOU are the reason this province has become so damn liberal. Before you NDP people started moving here we had a nice thing going. Do you remember WHY you moved to Alberta? Why don't you tell us? Did you get the nomination to run for the NDP or did you get the cushy non-working union boss job in Ft. Mac? Or both?
Albertans pay far too much in tax to support the rest of Canada (as always, Ontario excepted) and what we should be doing is adopting a Kwebek-like immigration policy. If we don't like you, you don't get in. If we only MOSTLY don't like you but we have a job for you, you get a temporary work visa. If you're our kind of person and you're a good fit in the province, you can stay. You said it yourself: How many of these Canadian immigrants are going to stay once retired? Then again, who cares? Work and then get out.
Pierre Elliot Stelmach and his band of cronies need to get their asses handed to them on election day. We all know they will still be the government, I (and others) just wish it were a one or two seat majority that would allow the party to kick Eddie' ass out of the chair.
Actually moved here in 1980 so I was a little off in my calculations. I am home its called CANADA jackass. I have never had anything handed to me on a silver platter and my day job is working in the heavy equipment industry NOT a cushy union official job. Alberta can't adopt a Quebec style immigration policy because they signed the constitution in 1982, which begs the question do you even understand the constitution of the COUNTRY you live in, not the province. I am thanking god there are more easterners here and that this place is changing, it desperately needed to. Oh and to use your own words, you don't like the atmosphere here then you can also move to a COUNTRY down south called the United States where it seems you would fit in much better. Albertans paying taxes to support the rest of Canada hmmm Alberta is in Canada, we are Canadians NOT Albertans and thank god for that. Easterners came out here in large part to WORK not get everything handed to them on a silver spoon, that's why we are here, if we wanted government hand outs we would still be back home. Which is where most of us are going when our working years are done anyways it is people such as yourself that confirms the need for more change in here in the first place. Oh and Alberta doesn't need an immigration policy they just ship in 60,000 disposable workers from asia and then our bitumen south of the border to get refined. So lets see you are right you had a good thing going here, lets harken back to those good old days of Earnest Manning and the boys sterilizing the mentally challenged so they couldn't reproduce!!!! Good old Earnest now there was a progressive. Why don't you go grab a wad of cha, sit down with your bucket, sit down with some tobacco chewing red neck buddies and have a cool one served to you by a temporary foreign worker. You know what should make you happy while you do that is the prospect that more and more of us are coming, Alberta will change whether it likes it or not, and your ways will be DONE!!! and there is NOTHING you can do about it, so put that in your pipe and smoke it!
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An 18year old doesn't need the presuure of buying a house. We didn't buy our first modest home until we were in our mid 20's.
Our son and daughter in law saved $170,000 working 18 months in the oilpatch at Rainbow Lake. It's called makng the efort and setting a goal. Houses are built in record numbers. Who do you think are buying them? Alberta has the lowest average age of homeownership in the 10 provinces. Hint: the highest average age is where there is the least opportunity.
The answer to being a loser is not starting to save the 50,000 and giving up. How did thousands of Albertans in their 20's buy a house last year? It seems every week in our company someone is announcing buying their home.
Congrats you picked one aspect out of that letter how about seniors? how about refining oil in Alberta as opposed to the American midwest so we can keep Canadians in jobs, not Americans! Thats great that your son and daughter went through law and saved money at Rainbow Lake how about if university was free, or better yet huge scholarships were awarded based on academic standing instead of having to waist 18 months in snap lake in the first place? That way they would graduate 18 months earlier and already be practicing law. Its called a long term strategy to invest in your future and diversify you economy. This provinces economy is tied to one resource ask yourself how easy would it have been for them to save $180,000 dollars if the OPEC flooded the market and oil was $21.00 a barrel. The answer to that question is a no-brainer. The problem is there are NO plans in this province for the day this happens. Those who lived through the early 80's in Alberta know that besides NEP world oil prices dropped through the floor and left this province at a standstill. Would love to have seen them at that time save up enough for law school. Saying that if you are a loser because you haven't tried to save money to buy a home is a LOSER statement. Not EVERYONE in Alberta is working in the oil patch, not everyone can and saying "seems like there is someone buying a house in our company every week" is just plain ignorant. How about making life easier for people not harder, there are quality of life issues. A human being has only so many years in their lives should all of it be based on working 10, 12, 14 hour workdays. Albertans put more working hours in then any other countries in the G-8 and low and behold they have the highest rate of divorce out of all G-8 nations. I remember sitting around the table at the start of my career in Fort McMurray listening to the # one conversation at the lunch table I can hear it now " Man I gotta pay her $1000.00 a month in childcare" well maybe that's because you work a hundred hours a week fool! She left you because the only time you see her is when you are in bed and you are useless to her. The oil fields themselves have created huge issues for families, astronomical rates of booze and drug addiction, fathers who don't see their families 6 months of the year. This is the story for thousands of workers in the tarsands, look at studies being done by both the Fraser Institute and Parkland Institute, they don't paint as rosy a picture as you think. A very good friend of mine just finished doing a study commissioned by the Alberta government on addiction rates in the oil patch and the results were HORRIFIC! The social ramifications of an economy on steroids are astronomical! Again how do we deal with this problems? There is NO plan for this under the current regime of Tories
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Not us. We're doing great. Never been better. My 18 year old nephew just arrived in alberta. no skills. He worked a 10 shift today at time and a half and earned just under $300. He pays the lowest provincial taxes in Canada and used today's gravy cheque to buy an electric guitar with no provincial sales tax. He's happy as a pig in mud compared to his prospects in the Maritimes.
You need to get out of Alberta more and see the real world. hint: people are flocking to Alberta nad not the other way around. And yes, all those thousands of houses & condos being built are being bought by resourceful and hard working young couples. Do those folks have magical properties...nope, they aen't negative no-can-doers.
So ask your nephew how he feels when he thinks about buying a house, well young man here's a $500,000 house that you need to save up $50,000 to make a down payment on just to have a mortgage under $2000 a month. I work as hard as anybody and made $106,000 last year it's just that I would like to see my levels of public services stay the same or improve after paying $32,000 in taxes. Would like to see university students paying less for tuition then the rest of the country because we are the richest province in Canada. Would like to see our most vulnerable residents in seniors and the disabled have their rents frozen or their AISH levels tied to the levels of inflation. Our retirees deserve respect for building this province not to be kicked aside because they never envisioned a runaway economy rendering them incapable of keeping up. Ireland decided that university would be free and for years now have been called the Celtic Tiger of european economies. I am glad your nephew came out here from the maritimes, so did I 22 years ago from Newfoundland. I have seen the rest of Canada and I have travelled to many places in the world and that is the reason I am applying for a visa to work in Europe. Europeans work to live not live to work like the vast majority of people in Alberta. Keep in mind that the rise of the Canadian dollar is what is killing the manufacturing basin in southern Ontario and that is why they are "flocking to Alberta". Ask how many are planning to retire here and that would be a better question. 60,000 temporary foreign workers who are being abused and lied to by employers and brokerage firms, seniors and students unable to make ends meet, our young people having to live at home until they are thirty because they can't afford to move out. Not to mention Fort McMurray being an environmental catastrophe with more and more rubber stamps being issued to oil projects. Not to mention the fact that instead of refining raw bitumen here in Alberta and keeping Canadians in jobs we are shipping it via the "Alberta clipper" and "gateway" pipelines to the American midwest so they can make more money off our own resource from the finished product then we do. Alberta does have its advantages we desperately need to take stewardship of our own resources and get a social conscience for gods sake.
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Well I am a Canadian first and foremost and a 22 year Alberta resident second. Do the crackpot right-wingers in here remember that all this land used to be owned by the Hudson's Bay Company and was purchased by the CANADIAN government? So Alberta got lucky enough to have geographical boundaries drawn up that contained a bunch of dead dinosaurs, big deal. To credit the Conservative government with the economic success of Alberta is a little like saying the Oilers of the eighties were successful because of Glen Sather. Quebec had Maurice D. Newfoundland had Joey Smallwood , Alberta has the Conservative party, all things come to an end, and thank god for that. The boom in this province and the mentality of several expressed in here is ludicrous! Ask those who grew up in Fort McMurray and can't afford to live in the city they grew up in because a twenty year old house is worth $600,000, ask seniors how they feel about sky-rocketing rents on a fixed income, ask students how they feel when they have to visit the ever expanding food bank on UofA campus just to eat because tuition fees in Alberta have went up over 400% since 1991. Conservative budgeting is like a person who makes sure their utilities bill gets paid every month while their roof caves in because the shingles haven't been changed in twenty years. Even Peter Lougheed suggests that the current Tory plan of rubber stamping every oil project coming down the line is ridiculous. Driving 45 minutes north of Fort McMurray can make us all feel a little like Neil Armstrong when he landed on the moon. This province is the modern day panhandle and everyone is here panning for their gold and just like the Gold Rush when oil prices drop through the floor or we just plane run out Albertans will be left holding the bag for an environmental disaster and no money to pay for it. The government has ignored the task forces on housing and seniors, and skewed the results of the task force on royalties by not providing all the information they had, all I can say is thank god for Edmonton and the fact that we vote for the opposition parties, my hope is that we can at least rid this city of Conservatives in this election, and when are urban Albertans going to wake up and realize that 60% of the provinces population lives in the two major cities and yet we let hinterland rural Alberta swing more power and seats then the cities? Enough is enough for gods sake provincial electoral boundaries should reflect where the people are not the Conservatives! Federally speaking all I can say is thank god for Ontario and Quebec who have not bought in to this Conservative propaganda. To me the only difference between a Liberal and a Conservative is the Conservatives will openly fornicate corporate Alberta in the middle of the street while a Liberal will do it in the privacy of their own home so nobody can see them do it
Alberta Election
in Provincial Politics in Canada
Posted
Insults are the last vestige of the truly stupid? Your are the one that called teachers lazy twits not me you threw the first stone so I hurled back and you call me stupid? Wow take look at yourself because you seem to be a walking contradiction. To sit here and say you are only an "Albertan" is just as week minded fool. Your facts are indisputable? I would say there are many a teacher who would dispute your facts all day.Quebecs policy of immigration exists because they didn't sign the constitution in 82, your separatist buddy Renee Levesque didn't sign it so they don't have to abide by it oh smart one, or are you capable of reading and analyzing such as hard read as the constitution of Canada? You might not make it through some of the big words and clauses. Alberta signed that constitution knowing full well that there were equalization payments right in the document and you still signed on the dotted line so Newfoundlands apparent balancing of the boks off your back was something Alberta signed up for because they realize they are CANADIANS. It is weak minded simply provincial thinkers like yourself that are like dinosaurs finding a nice pasture to die in. Can I prove that a teacher does more in a day then inclass work? That is just as stupid a question. Oh and sorry about using the word immigration I'll stay clear away from pontificated it they might be difficult to comprehend. Whoops there I go again. Oh and I am out here and I care about the southern manufacturing basin in southern Ontario because I am a Canadian not a Newfoundlander or an Albertan. Oh and you are right about the good old days, back in the earnest manning era someone like yourself would have been a great candidate for sterilization! Oh and your parties agenda is already being hijacked by us socialists and we won't stop there, do to immigration eventually we will outnumber native Albertans and gone by the wayside will your Conservative ideology be along with your current way of life. It's too late for the truly conservative out here your ways will be gone like I said through attrition oh you understand that right? Then we socialists will have our way and life will be just like that pinko CBC network like it always should have been LOL Oh and thanks for the transfer payments, get ready to shell out more and pay for my cousins healthcare, already feel like the power in your group is slipping through your finger, thats because it is and I love being a part of it, every socialist ounce of me. How does that make you feel?