Alberta's NDP government appoints out of province staff

[kimmy]

Deputy Ministers-civil servants-are not appointed from political parties. Even in Alberta. Until now.

The normal career progression is serving as an Assistant Deputy Minister, often in several Ministries, then getting a crack at a DM position. Not this time.

Why do you support corruption?

Why do you hate freedom?

If you don't think the Tories' high-level staffers were trusty party men, you're a sucker.

-k

[Black Dog]

If you don't think the Tories' high-level staffers were trusty party men, you're a sucker.

-k

I had a lengthy reply to that fella all done, then my computer crashed and ate it. But this post pretty much says it all. In a one party state, no one is getting plum gigs at the top without the right connections and party affiliations.

[cybercoma]

And the oil companies are making as much as they can before the shit hits the fan in alberta and it is going to hit it hard.

Newflash. The shit already hit the fan and the PCs were in charge at the time. Since they did practically nothing to ensure that the province could withstand a collapse in an industry that's notoriously volatile, the NDP are left cleaning up their mess. And guess what, the rest of the country is in the same boat.

[ironstone]

Despite the rampant paranoia and hysteria amongst the fear-mongering right, the NDP are the best fiscal managers this country has. They're the party with the best chance of steering Alberta through a declining oil market and it's great news that they're bringing in experienced people who've made it happen before.

I'm worried that Mulcair is more like Bob Rae than Roy Romanow.

[waldo]

I'm worried that Mulcair is more like Bob Rae than Roy Romanow.

worries based on what?

[ironstone]

worries based on what?

15$ per day daycare,we all know it will have to be heavily subsidized somehow(tax increase).Another concern I have about the NDP is their cap and trade plan for carbon emissions.Emitters will simply pass on the cost to Canadians all across the country.We already pay enough taxes in this country as it is.

I can see the NDP giving the keys to the vault to Canada's numerous government unions,meaning a rather hefty increase in taxes.

Add all of these things up and I see it getting very expensive for taxpayers.

I also have more reservations about a man that in all probability was offered a bribe many years ago(he refused it)but chose to keep quiet about it.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/thomas-mulcair-was-offered-and-refused-envelope-full-of-cash-ndp-leader-told-police

[waldo]

I also have more reservations about a man that in all probability was offered a bribe many years ago(he refused it)but chose to keep quiet about it.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/thomas-mulcair-was-offered-and-refused-envelope-full-of-cash-ndp-leader-told-police

your attempt to dredge up 'old news' of a 20+ year old event is noted... there's no there there. An envelope was refused... it's contents were never viewed, were never known... and are only speculated upon by anyone, including Mulcair. The envelope is said to have been offered by the Laval mayor to 'aid the campaign'. What would the actual evidence have been?

[socialist]

15$ per day daycare,we all know it will have to be heavily subsidized somehow(tax increase).Another concern I have about the NDP is their cap and trade plan for carbon emissions.Emitters will simply pass on the cost to Canadians all across the country.We already pay enough taxes in this country as it is.

I can see the NDP giving the keys to the vault to Canada's numerous government unions,meaning a rather hefty increase in taxes.

Add all of these things up and I see it getting very expensive for taxpayers.

I also have more reservations about a man that in all probability was offered a bribe many years ago(he refused it)but chose to keep quiet about it.

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/thomas-mulcair-was-offered-and-refused-envelope-full-of-cash-ndp-leader-told-police

No one is asking the NDP questions that need to be asked. $15/day daycare will quickly increase costs because you can guarantee the unions are looking to unionize all the daycare workers.

[waldo]

15$ per day daycare,we all know it will have to be heavily subsidized somehow(tax increase).Another concern I have about the NDP is their cap and trade plan for carbon emissions.Emitters will simply pass on the cost to Canadians all across the country.We already pay enough taxes in this country as it is.

I can see the NDP giving the keys to the vault to Canada's numerous government unions,meaning a rather hefty increase in taxes.

always in the details; what I understand of the NDP daycare plan is that it will be deployed in incremental phases... funding a greater number of spaces as years go on. If still accurate, I read that first year funding will only be large enough to cover up to 10% (60,000 spaces), moving up each year to 2018/370,000 spaces @ $1.8 billion funding. Again, there are many flavours of cap-and-trade; your summation is not founded in anything other than worst-case imagined speculative scenarios. "Giving keys to the unions", is just rhetoric.

[ironstone]

your attempt to dredge up 'old news' of a 20+ year old event is noted... there's no there there. An envelope was refused... it's contents were never viewed, were never known... and are only speculated upon by anyone, including Mulcair. The envelope is said to have been offered by the Laval mayor to 'aid the campaign'. What would the actual evidence have been?

Any thoughts as to why he chose to keep his mouth shut all this time?

[ironstone]

always in the details; what I understand of the NDP daycare plan is that it will be deployed in incremental phases... funding a greater number of spaces as years go on. If still accurate, I read that first year funding will only be large enough to cover up to 10% (60,000 spaces), moving up each year to 2018/370,000 spaces @ $1.8 billion funding. Again, there are many flavours of cap-and-trade; your summation is not founded in anything other than worst-case imagined speculative scenarios. "Giving keys to the unions", is just rhetoric.

Concerning the NDP,are they or are they not extremely close to the Public Service unions?

[waldo]

Any thoughts as to why he chose to keep his mouth shut all this time?

as I asked you, what would the actual evidence have been? A junior legislator's word versus the Mayor of Laval... and speculation all around?

[waldo]

Concerning the NDP,are they or are they not extremely close to the Public Service unions?

if so... translate your wording; "giving keys to the Public Service unions" would mean what, to you?

[WIP]

I haven't looked in on Alberta politics since Rachel Notley won the Election, but off hand, I would avoid hiring anyone inside Alberta and favour outside candidates, because after half a century of PC rule, anyone in any position of importance in Alberta is a Tory hack....and an idiot who has played a role in getting Alberta into the mess they are in today! The last thing Alberta needs today is more of the same....so they need new blood and new thinking!

[cybercoma]

I'm worried that Mulcair is more like Bob Rae than Roy Romanow.

If Mulcair wins, he'll inherit an appalling Conservative record, just like Bob Rae. So the potential is there. Rae had to make difficult decisions as a result of Conservative mismanagement in Ontario.

[WIP]

If Mulcair wins, he'll inherit an appalling Conservative record, just like Bob Rae. So the potential is there. Rae had to make difficult decisions as a result of Conservative mismanagement in Ontario.

Rae showed himself as having no real political convictions....which may explain most of how he ended up as a Liberal! He sold out his supporters in the public service unions by rewriting their contracts...something that was of dubious legality and was never attempted by either Liberal or PC governments. Sometimes your worse enemies can turn out to be the ones who claim to be representing you. I hope Rachel Notley is cut from different cloth than Bob Rae!

[socialist]

Forty thousand Albertans have been laid off so far this year. The unemployment rate in Fort McMurray is 8%. Youth unemployment province-wide is 11.2%. And it’s only going to get worse.

So what is Lori Sigurdson, Alberta’s NDP Minister of Jobs doing? Is she holding emergency meetings with employers? Coming up with an emergency plan to rescue the oilpatch?

No. She’s out in British Columbia, campaigning for Thomas Mulcair.

Alberta is back in a recession but the NDP Jobs Minister is out yukking it up with her federal NDP friends, the party that has publicly called for an oilsands moratorium.

[Black Dog]

Forty thousand Albertans have been laid off so far this year. The unemployment rate in Fort McMurray is 8%. Youth unemployment province-wide is 11.2%. And it’s only going to get worse.

So what is Lori Sigurdson, Alberta’s NDP Minister of Jobs doing? Is she holding emergency meetings with employers? Coming up with an emergency plan to rescue the oilpatch?

No. She’s out in British Columbia, campaigning for Thomas Mulcair.

Alberta is back in a recession but the NDP Jobs Minister is out yukking it up with her federal NDP friends, the party that has publicly called for an oilsands moratorium.

So you're upset that the NDP in Alberta in insufficiently interventionist in the economy? Libertarianism: you're doing it wrong.

[alexei_kz]

The question is what happens when the main industry of the province no longer seems able to bring in cash, and long-term (or even short term) is not very viable as "main industry".

With oil prices like they are, isn't it the perfect moment to invest in green technologies?

[socialist]

So you're upset that the NDP in Alberta in insufficiently interventionist in the economy? Libertarianism: you're doing it wrong.

We are talking about the NDP here, as long as government workers have their job's who really cares about the rest of the province, after all, those people in the privet sector for the most part are mindless peons that need to be made to pay more, forced to get rid of their gas guzzling trucks even if they need them for work or farming.

We are also talking about the NDP's desire to implement it own agenda, wind mills instead of oil wells, solar panels instead of electrical generation from gas or coal, information based jobs instead of jobs for welders, electricians, carpenters and heavy duty mechanics.

Just remember the NDP saying in the last election that the 5,000 civil servant jobs were important, and would not be cut, while the conservatives asked about the privet sector jobs that would be shed to protect those job's she had no answer as the NDP are clueless on how the tax system works.

[socialist]

The question is what happens when the main industry of the province no longer seems able to bring in cash, and long-term (or even short term) is not very viable as "main industry".

With oil prices like they are, isn't it the perfect moment to invest in green technologies?

Why should anybody feel sorry for Notley?

She ran to govern. She should be prepared to govern given the economic circumstances.

Instead of governing, they are busy campaigning for federal NDP candidates in another province and trying to come up with more ways to slay the oil industry once and for all.

Albertans are in for 4 years of serious pain and, hopefully, this will lay bare for all time the harm that an NDP government can do to a province and to this nation.

Ontario, B.C. Saskatchewan, Manitoba, now Alberta all got pounded under the NDP. Why do Canadians, as a nation, want to self-flagellate by putting the NDP in power federally?

Let's hope that question remains unanswered. Vote anybody but Mulcair.

[socialist]

Rae showed himself as having no real political convictions....which may explain most of how he ended up as a Liberal! He sold out his supporters in the public service unions by rewriting their contracts...something that was of dubious legality and was never attempted by either Liberal or PC governments. Sometimes your worse enemies can turn out to be the ones who claim to be representing you. I hope Rachel Notley is cut from different cloth than Bob Rae!

Yesterday Albertans were treated to the spectacle of Minister of Jobs, Skills, Training and Labor Lori Sigurdson campaigning in BC for fringe federal NDP candidate Jacqui Gingras.

It's not bad enough that the Alberta NDP postponed a budget until after the federal election, worse yet Minister Sigurdson is backing candidate Gingras who openly advocates for an embargo on Alberta energy resources.

With Alberta shedding 40,000 jobs in the last three months one would think that the Jobs Minister was busy developing strategies to address this collapse...you of course would be dead wrong.

Some describe pronouncements coming from the Notley government as platitudes, I would suggest they are much closer to bald faced lies.

[Black Dog]

We are talking about the NDP here, as long as government workers have their job's who really cares about the rest of the province, after all, those people in the privet sector for the most part are mindless peons that need to be made to pay more, forced to get rid of their gas guzzling trucks even if they need them for work or farming.

We are also talking about the NDP's desire to implement it own agenda, wind mills instead of oil wells, solar panels instead of electrical generation from gas or coal, information based jobs instead of jobs for welders, electricians, carpenters and heavy duty mechanics.

Just remember the NDP saying in the last election that the 5,000 civil servant jobs were important, and would not be cut, while the conservatives asked about the privet sector jobs that would be shed to protect those job's she had no answer as the NDP are clueless on how the tax system works.

But again, so we're clear: you, a newly converted libertarian, are demanding the government intervene directly to support private industry in its time of need. If there's any doubt about that, you've doubled down here:

With Alberta shedding 40,000 jobs in the last three months one would think that the Jobs Minister was busy developing strategies to address this collapse...you of course would be dead wrong.

So I'm just curious: how do you square these beliefs with your alleged libertarianism? Is there still a lot of socialist left in socialist or what?

[socialist]

But again, so we're clear: you, a newly converted libertarian, are demanding the government intervene directly to support private industry in its time of need. If there's any doubt about that, you've doubled down here:

So I'm just curious: how do you square these beliefs with your alleged libertarianism? Is there still a lot of socialist left in socialist or what?

Not at all. Some Libertarian principals appeal to me; but not all. I am a non-partisan independent.

[overthere]

The question is what happens when the main industry of the province no longer seems able to bring in cash, and long-term (or even short term) is not very viable as "main industry".

With oil prices like they are, isn't it the perfect moment to invest in green technologies?

Show me the money. No, not my money- show me the private sector source of billions and billions of dollars who would have any interest in investing in green energy in Canada. And please don't say government money.

Who is buying your green technology? Unemployed workers? Closed factories? Industries that have departed? I guess welfare offices need electric lights too.