The National Post editorial board has just published a stunning indictment of the Alberta “Conservatives”.
Since 2001, Alberta has seen a remarkable expansion of provincial revenues, due mostly to rising oil and natural gas prices. Even excluding health, education and welfare transfers from Ottawa, Alberta’s provincial revenues have risen 56% in the past decade, despite the worldwide economic downturn.
So where has all this additional money gone? According to the U of C study, public sector wages have “consumed 95% of the increase in provincial revenues over the past decade.” For every new dollar Alberta has brought in — nearly $11-billion extra a year — 95¢ has gone into the pockets of civil servants and other public-sector workers.
Hopefully enough voters in the province are fed up and have seen the light.
P.S. Within a few years could there possibly be true conservative governments across the 3 Western provinces?
Witness, Taft the Daft. Stumping on Royalties. An op-ed piece on inews880.com He is questioning the profit margins of Alberta corps again. They make way to much money, we should take it away and give to government programs. Well we saw how that turned out when Steady Eddie tried it.
WRA’s Smith has the right idea. Brother of mine lives it everyday. 1 manager for every frontline worker. What a collosal waste.
Sorry, should read 1 manager for every 4 frontliners.
What does CINO mean?
Conservative In Name Only…CINO
Thanks, William in Ajax. I suppose I could have guessed that 🙂
“Well we saw how that turned out when Steady Eddie tried it.”
No kidding. The best friend Saskatchewan ever had.
It seems that Alberta is about due for its generational change in ruling parties. Just as the Socreds finally outlived their usefulness four decades ago, so too are the so-called Conservatives as a ruling provincial party. But elections matter, and it’s going to depend greatly on how good an organizing machine the WR has.
It was obvious when Redford became leader that she was in the pocket of the teachers union. This is just more evidence that while most of us thought the Liberals had taken over the government of Alberta, in actual fact it is the NDP that have.
All the best Danielle for a smashing victory against the socialists.
I have supported the Wild Rose Party financially from BC for the past 5 years. Cannot say enough about the integrity of Link Byfield. IMO the reality of politics are that a significant number of people will access power, irrespective of their convictions, by joining the party of power. The PC’s of Alberta have been a prime target simply because of the oil wealth there.
Most parties do not have a clear method of defending themselves against opportunists. If fact many parties go out of their way to ‘open’ their party to new members. It has always smacked of lack of philosophical reasoning to me.
Being in BC I can say that the provincial conservatives are a non-entity in the Nelson-Creston riding. At least in the old days the Social Credit had viable constituency orgs which leadership felt obligated to listen too. That changed with the Campbell Liberals gaining power. Not at first but gradually.
I have zero confidence in the current Liberal leadership and would support a more conservative leadership. The current Liberal party’s philosohy is ‘whatever it takes to win’. I have a residual confidence in John Cummings from his Reform days. But I don’t know whether he is being played by operatives who’s real ambition is a NDP government. Splitting the vote would ensure an NDP government. I can tell you that the NDP are very active at the grassroots level spinning their usual BS combined with serious untruths. I would be more confident if Cummings would identify a dozen seats he would contest and tell the voters that he was doing that to prevent splitting the vote. He could be part of a minority government which would lead to a revived conservative government in two elections.
Yes get rid of the CINOs but make sure the benefactors of these populist prairie fires that sweep out directionless governmentments are not PINOs (Populists In Name Only)
I don;t know if Albertans have noticed or remember but you’ve had the “Alberta advantage” sold out righ from under you. When I moved to Albrta during the first boom, the Alberta advantage was:
A)Reasonable housing costs and cost of living was stable
B)Small unintrusive responsive government which respected the individual, his property rights, small business and ranchers/farmers
C) Two great metropolitan cities with frugal councils and growth in control
D) Lowest taxes in Canada, no retail tax
E) A heritage trust fund worh billions to get us through a rainy day when oil was being short sold by the Arabs
After 41 years in power the Alberta PCs have obliterated the Alberta advantage as they grew governmet,taxes and became urban-centric leftists. Frankly, this is the way all PC parties went and we should have realized during the Getty administration (where the government bailed out its corporate pals with public money) that the PCs were neither the traditional populists Alberta loves nor were they particularly ethical (which Albertans demand)
Klein made temporary corrections in PC direction balancing the budget, down sizing and running populist agendas but he soon succumbed to the increasing red faction in the party. the PCs last 2 leaders are as red a Chretiens sphincter and act like Ontario kleptocrats.
Today Alberta has debt again, the highest tax rate in Canada, unbalanced budgets, A trust fund that evaporated, crippling inflation, big brother intervention in personalives/affairs, arrogant top down governing and two major cities run by spend thrift leftists.
It’s not a wonder Sask and BC interrior are the prime destinations for retiring Albertans living on fixed incomes. The Alberta advantic is history, and the reason is the PC government. I hope Danielle Smith remembers the Alberta advantage and can return us to that sweet spot in time – but I’m not optomistic.
It was time to get rid of them back when Fast Eddie was stinking up the office.
I am worried, anyone who pays any attention to politics will of course vote against the rat faced incumbent…but there are alot of old world conservative drones out there. My elderly in laws are a case in point. Mind you they are CINO’s too, I suppose. They sure as hell ain’t that bright and they support Allison so maybe that explains something…
I LOVE Danielle Smith! I would urge anyone in Alberta who likes their current MLA to write them and tell them that they can jump ship and swim to Wild Rose or they can forget about votes or monetary contributions in the next provincial election. Occam, while you have some points there, I refute your statement that Alberta has the highest tax rate in Canada.
No, CINOs the creeping edge of homosexual communism are everywhere, after the country is bankrupt it will be too late.
Thomas Jefferson said “The policy of American government is to leave its citizens free, neither restraining them nor aiding them in their pursuits.” The CINO PC party in Alberta has gotten almost as far from that as is possible. Most of the additional spending on the Alberta public sector has gone to managers and regulators. When there are too many managers, the emp,loyees are distracted from serving the public to serving the managers. When there are too many regulators they spend their time solving non-problems. Alberta was a center for individual opportunity. Now, Over the past ten years we have become a center of government stupidity. If not for our god given natural resources, we would now be the poorest province in Canada. Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently and all for the same reason. ~José Maria de Eça de Queiroz
Between 1978 and 1992 I was involved with three universities, with episodes of real-life employment in between. One university was in eastern Canada, another in western Canada, and the third was the University of Alberta. In each of the two un-named universities I experienced a faculty that was run on a shoe-string budget – one had one dean with a part-time secretary, the other a full time secretary.
However, the faculty at the U of A (which was a rather small school with roughly a dozen profs.) had an enormous set of deans, assistant deans and chairs, each with his own office and secretary. I could never figure out how many managers the faculty actually employed because they seemed to have offices all over the campus and there was no reason for the students to interact with these guys. And this was during the late 1980s.
The MSM always paints Alberta as some sort of stingy, red-neck, right wing province. It isn’t, particularly at the municipal level. The Alberta provincial civil service is by far more bloated, disconnected and inefficient than any other I have seen elsewhere in Canada, although that isn’t saying much.
I do have to agree with one comment made in defence of higher wages in Alberta. It is the only reason I would consider a move to that province.
“…the other a dean with a full time secretary.”
Now why don’t you Newfbertains beak off a little about ontario’s commies:-)))
It seems everybody I talk with agrees Redford is a sanctimonious control freak.
Bring on the election!
I have been championing the wild rose party for over a year now and Redford has pushed many to the wild rose simply because she is a radical man hating feminist who was on the u.n. human rights commission. She is a flat out embarrassment and contradiction to conservatives and there values a beliefs.
The only trouble I have with wild rose is that they will not eliminate the Alberta human rights commission ,and or they refuse to repeal section 13 that deals with hate speech.
That will be a black. Eye for the wild rose in my opinion but I will still. Vote and try to push the leader to look at repealing this stupid silly kangaroo court tax payer sucking entity.
Leftists are skilled at infiltration. Alas, one can never relax one’s vigilance.
It does seem that in political matters one must be like a samurai,
always fully alert for attacks from any quarter, always with two swords ready.
“Even excluding health, education and welfare transfers from Ottawa”
Well,as usual,the fu@@wad easterners get it wrong,again. That is only money that is being returned to its rightful owners,i.e. the Albertan taxpayer.
And yes,Danielle and the WRP will be kicking some butt. The old guard CINOs are all ready bailing faster than rats off the Titanic.
In BC, I’m afraid the only way the Conservatives become government, is for the NDP to be elected next time in 2013. (ACK!) Two reasons for this:
1–Christy! and her Fiberals are dead in the water, and cannot be re-elected. She has no policies, other than her perpetual campaigning, photo-op mode, to retain the HST as long as possible, and social engineering through more policing, acting as tax collectors. Criminalizing ordinary law-abiding citizens for having a beer or glass of wine, then driving. Despicable. She is nothing more than a tight-sweater wearing, loudmouth, knee-jerk reactionary. Anybody who was paying attention fully realized the tart she is, when she was bloviating on CKNW.
2–The NDP, unfortunately for BC, must be elected, to remind BC residents, as stupid as many of them are, that the NDP has no idea how to run a business, let alone a province. Counting up bingo winnings, or tallying union dues is a far cry from running billion dollar plus budgets. Unfortunately, too many people in BC are either financially illiterate, or dogmatic socialists that swallow and regurgitate anything Dear Union Leader says and does. No critical thinking allowed in unions.
This will leave the Cons the alternative in 2017, as the Lib brand will be poison, and the NDP will be hated by their economic failures. The Cons won’t be elected government in 2013 because the Libs will retain enough of a following to split the vote (we’re not the NDP!) and let the Horde run up the middle. Despite all the screwups by the Libs, the NDP still only has a 34% approval. Not exactly a slam dunk for Tricky Dix and his communists.
Oh come on folks every one knows that Alberta hasn’t had a Conservative government since we kicked Harry Strom to the sidelines. Lougheed, Getty, Klein, Stelmach, Redford have all represented the Progressive party. Klein flirted ever so slightly with populist conservatism when he cut the deficit much like Chretien did a few years later but that doesn’t make him a conservative.
While I will be voting for the WRA next election I’m not doing so because the WRA is conservative. I’ll be doing so because it is slightly less ‘progressive’ than the ultra corrupt in the unions pocket PC party.
“The NDP, unfortunately for BC, must be elected,”
Sorry,Dan, but NO! And AGAIN,NO!
If we elect an NDP government, you can say “goodbye” to all the oil and natural gas exploration in the North,and watch the pipelines stop dead. Same with mining and forestry. Free trade? The NDP are against free trade with anybody.
Think windmills and solar panel projects,tourism,not resource sector jobs,think minimum wages not good tradesman’s wages.
Think big fat contracts for the BCGEU,BCNU,BCTF,and all the other public sector Unions,with NO tax money coming in to pay for them.
WE don’t like the Liberals,so let’s vote Conservative,but don’t EVER for a moment concede the election to the NDP. Last time they wrecked the economy,and those guys were moderate socialists,this bunch is not moderate.
Adrian Dix will do his best to turn B.C. into the pristine wilderness Park his fellow travellers in Earth First,Greenpeace,and the Tides Foundation want it to be in their little anti-human fantasies.
Hate Christy and the Liberals all you want,shout your vitriol from the rooftops if it makes you feel good, but for the sake of this Province,don’t vote those enviro-communist bastards back in.
We’d be better off with CC and her band of thieves than Dix and his communist friends.
To repeat the old saying.”Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face”.
Once you accept that the legitimate role of government includes:
Public education;
Public health care;
Public transportation infrastructure;
Public ownership of virtually all rural non-agricultural land and resources;
you are left with a regulatory, administrative, and political leviathan that given the best intentions will bog down anyone attempting reform. At best, you could aspire to the role of temporary competence at leviathan management.
The above roles are unquestionable platforms of these “conservative” upstarts.
Harry Strom was the last conservative premier of Alberta as was Bill Bennett in BC. The Socreds suffered from social conservative whacko-fear, which was realized in individuals like Vanderzalm.
On a shallower level, Clark is hotter than Cummings and Dix, and Smith, much hotter than that hot tempered redhead, Redford.
dmorris
I completely agree with you, and fully understand the damage that the Dippers do. And those are undeniable points.
And, to your point, CC and the Libs ARE the “enviro-communist bastards”, their shade is pink, where the NDP is red, but they are cut from the same cloth, Federal Liberals, for all intents, are every bit the envir-fascists that the Dippers are, except it’s a soft-sell, velvet glove approach. CC is PROUD of the carbon tax, and the regressive policies behind it.
And then there is her complete involvement in the BC Rail fiasco, which she has bought off and tried the best to bury. For that alone, she should be defeated.
But as I stated, the BC electorate is stupid, on the whole, and it will likely mean a Commie government in 2013. The Fibs cannot be returned, and the 23% Conservative following is testament to that. That is the block of voters that does not approve of the sharp left turn the wing nuts in Victoria have made choosing Christy! as leader. Instead of demonizing Cummins, they should realize it is a sharp rebuke of the ditz called Christy!
The only chance of avoiding an NDP government, is for Christy! to be forced out and a real leader to take charge, and turn back to the right, but who could it be? (not DeJong, Falcon, Coleman, Bond, Abbott), that list is all Liberal, all the time. It’s a travesty.
The HST and the carbon tax have sealed their fate, and deservedly so.
I will never vote for a federal Liberal, especially CC. She is a repugnant liar. Its time for the party to listen to the electorate, rather than expect the other way round. We’ve tuned out the Liberals and CC, for obvious reasons.
It will be interesting to see what happens from here. If her popularity keeps falling like a rock, some resignations, and crossing to the Conservatives could happen, then we will see the fireworks.
I don’t see them pulling an Ujjal, and clinging to the bitter end to be devastated at an election. That would be sheer stupidity (uh-oh, Christy IS capable of that!). Common sense says there will be a changing of the guard. Christy’s hopelessness almost guarantees that. She’s lost 50% of her supposed popularity in less than a year. That is a colossal fail
In the past I’ve said Albertans in every region weren’t collectively angry enough to uproot the government. I don’t think that is the case anymore. Any concern rural voters may have had because of Danielle Smith’s lack of awareness of rural Alberta beautifully evaporates because Redford’s obliviousness is far greater. Have you seen the new Minister of Education’s answer to long bus rides? So in that sense, Allison Redford has done a champion’s job of clearing up any voter indecision.
My thanks to Premier Redford and the ATA for making the next election ballot an easy choice.
WILD ROSE !!!!!!
================
Are the WRAP’s poll numbers getting any better?
This is the best evidence to refute the claim that to balance the budget all the US Federal government needs is more revenue. Regardless of how much revenue governments receive they will always spend more than the receive.
Know a guy who ran for the Alberta Alliance a few elections back and he will not back the WP Candidate. The Alberta Alliance ran on provincial level Reform Party policies. He says the WP Candidate is a Mulroney loving Progressive Conservative and the WP has gutted the reform-minded policies from its platform. They have hired left wing conservative hacks to advise the leader and the leader is too left wing. Even old time reform-types have given up the fight against the HR Tribunals, SSM etc. He thinks it may be time for Independent Conservatives to run and try to take a few seats to be used as leverage in what may well be a minority government situation where the WP takes a lot of rural seats and the PCs push the Liberals out of the cities.
Alberta needs reform from top to bottom. To get rid of all the Eastern carpet baggers that have taken over. This used to be a free place to live in. Now its becoming a Concentration camp full of control freaks. Its become a Human resources nightmare. Hr people are worse than Nazis. Since when did we need these types to run our businesses , our employee’s? Even our Bureaucracy. The Premiere is one herself. Dealing with these progressives is like a Jew complaining to the gestapo about Hitler.
These folks do not represent us, they are in it for them selves with a mindless control freak mentality.
The regulations, laws with the ever increasing Government parasites has stymied this Province. Killed our Liberty, Taken the dream of a home from most people, than diced our wages for even more of the parasites to breed themselves. To increase their kind. All to peoples determent as red tape increases, bushiness harassment plus legal stupidities grow with them.
They add nothing but take all.
“No, CINOs the creeping edge of homosexual communism are everywhere,”
“To get rid of all the Eastern carpet baggers that have taken over.”
Anyone else you want to round up and liquidate?
“I will never vote for a federal Liberal, especially CC. She is a repugnant liar.”
You seem confused. She’s a provincial politician, not federal.
“The HST and the carbon tax have sealed their fate, and deservedly so.”
The latter may be idiocy, but the former is not. Or do you like the current system where much of the population pays no significant tax whatsoever, leading to a perpetually shrinking tax base?
dmorris at 2:20 nails it, and most of the rest of this thread is self-destructive drivel rooted in fear, ignorance and paranoia. It also shows a basic lack of understanding of practical politics. The only method of political success in Canada or any other democracy is to have a BIG tent as a political party. The more you exclude, the more marginalized you are. And like every radical movement in history, such as the Jacobins or the Bolsheviks, your only alternative becomes the violent overthrow of the state and imposition of a dictatorship.
“The NDP, unfortunately for BC, must be elected”
Even a short time in office is sufficient to do enough harm for a generation.
I tend to agree with DMorris and CGH…
Except I don’t want the NDP to ever regain power anywhere.
IMO
Leftists have infiltrated ALL party’s, and have an ALL encompassing strategy.
They are active in all social constructs and the goal is (bankruptcy) through perpetually shrinking the tax base.
It’s Reagan’s (bankrupt the Soviets through massive military growth), turned upside down.
They’re doing it to us through unaffordable growth in Social policy, and it’s all deliberate.
Moe Strongs doctrine of destroying the west, will be accomplished through bankruptcy, me thinks one last kick at the can by the NDP in BC will be all it will take, The NDP will shut off BC trade routes needed by Alberta, just as the Marxist south of the border is closing the U.S. border to our oil.
Kill Albertan oil and you kill Canada.
Also…
Conservatives everywhere are scratching their heads asking dumb questions of the Socialists like, (where do the lefty’s think the money comes from).
The problem is the Left couldn’t care less where it comes from, the goal is to NOT EVER have enough.
Europe is almost there, the U.S. isn’t far behind.
Canada and it’s oil and resources, is the last best hope for freedom and liberty on this planet.
Hence all the attention of the worlds Socialists.
Occam’s points are very well taken. Leftists love power and are unscrupulous about getting it. They will call themselves Nazis if it will help them (actually not such a stretch). However, “if you fool me once, shame on you, if you fool me twice, shame on me” and long before the obscene Alison Redford was proposing common Canadian policy with the even more disgusting Dalton McGuinty it was time for Albertans to bail.
Many Americans thought when they elected Bambi that they were rich enough to be stupid. Well, they were monumentally stupid and now they are poor. The same will happen if Albertans think they are rich enough to reelect the PCs.
Albertans once knew how to do it. I lived in Calgary and Edmonton as a kid, when Ernest Manning was in power. Now there was a man who knew how to run a province! Straight as an arrow, not a fun person, almost the perfect public servant. He even returned some of the provincial gov’t oil revenues to the citizens.
To get rid of all the Eastern carpet baggers that have taken over.
cgh
Anyone else you want to round up and liquidate?
Please do not take my saying out of context. By getting rid of them I mean fire , NOT , Mutilate, or put in concentration camps. kill. Why the eruption. You know as well as I do that Public service personnel have become a drag on production. Particularly people who come here from Ontario trying to make us in their image. In other words, an over regulated have not province while they glut themselves on peoples wages who really do a job. Not stopping others in the name of red tape to justify paper pushing over paid enforcers.
Holy cow. Lotsa whackadoodles on here today. What fantasyland do some of you SDA readers live on?
It is really remarkable the differences in people in the world. Truly remarkable.
I bet people high on LSD don’t have such a warped perception of reality.
Scary stuff.
Remember, they’re coming for your vital fluids!!!!
Peace.
The Wet One
The Wet One
Never did learn bladder control eh
Where are these large C whifflesniffers getting their script from? Trudeau and Rae?