As the folk wisdom goes, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. Jason Kenney got his wish yesterday when Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet told him, in effect, to bring it on. “Let’s open the constitution,” Mr. Blanchet said with a gallic shrug and a sly
Continue readingTag: equalization
The Daveberta Podcast: Episode 79: Everything you wanted to know about Equalization * But were afraid to ask
University of Alberta political scientist Dr. Jared Wesley joins Dave Cournoyer on the Daveberta Podcast for a deep dive into Alberta’s October 18 Equalization Referendum, why it is being held, what Premier Jason Kenney hopes to accomplish (and why he’s been absent on the campaign trail), and what the ramifications
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Confronting reality, Kenney Government puts off plans for referendums on grabbing CPP, creating provincial police force
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has dropped his plans for referendums on taking over the Canada Pension Plan and replacing the RCMP with an easier-to-control provincial police force. For now. Finance Minister Travis Toews at yesterday’s news conference (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr). But these two unpopular remnants of Stephen Harper’s notorious sovereignist
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Referendumbs and Equalization
So, the Kenney-led UCP government in Alberta wants to hold a referendum on equalization. Here’s the proposed question: I want to bring two points to your attention here. First, is the fact that this is about removing Section 36(2) from the constitution. To put it bluntly, this is a non-trivial
Continue readingAlberta Politics: As predicted, ‘Fair Deal’ Panel reheats the Firewall Manifesto to manufacture consent for policies Albertans don’t want
Consider the report of Alberta’s “Fair Deal” Panel, released yesterday by Premier Jason Kenney with considerable fanfare. It strongly suggests the Harper-Kenney wing of the Canadian Conservative movement is made up of people who purport to be Canadian patriots when they’re in power in Ottawa but are Prairie separatists when
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Jason Kenney offers medical equipment to Ontario, Quebec and B.C.; pitches national solidarity on resource development
One hates to play the skunk at a tea party, but somebody needs to ask the question a lot of Albertans must be thinking. To wit, if less than a week ago we barely had enough N95 medical masks for Alberta’s hard-pressed nurses, doctors and other front-line health care workers
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Financial Fustications #nlpoli
If we had Equalization, we’d have a budget surplus. On Friday, 20 Mar 20, Premier Dwight Ball wrote to the Prime minister to say that the financial arse was out of Newfoundland and Labrador. Ball included in the letter not a shred of financial evidence nor did he include any
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: John Crosbie #nlpoli #cdnpoli
Left to Right: Bill Doody, Brian Peckford, John Crosbie, Jane Crosbie,and Beth Crosbie at the 1983 federal PC leadership convention The outpouring of praise in memory of John Crosbie, who died on Thursday, has been such a flood of cliché and, in some cases, fiction that it does a disservice
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The New Welfare Bums #nlpoli #cdnpoli #ableg
Lunacy is always easier to spot in other people. There is a Liberal conspiracy to rob Alberta of its precious fluids. People in Newfoundland and Labrador got a taste of lunacy a few weeks ago when Albertans – including people originally from Newfoundland and Labrador – blasted them for returning
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Kenney to Trudeau: Adopt Andrew Scheer’s energy platform or Alberta will hold a meaningless equalization referendum!
If you concluded as New Brunswick’s Conservative premier just did that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s somewhat reduced victory in Monday’s federal election indicates a certain level of support for carbon taxes and like policies in Canada, the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan beg to differ. Blaine Higgs told reporters in
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: A Guide to UCP “Conservatives”
The Peter Lougheed Progressive Conservatives parted company with the Kenney “conservatives” when Kenney created the free enterprise unity party. Those three little words signaled the transformation of the conservative party into one that cares only about money. With the Lougheed PCs gone the UCP turned elsewhere to fill out their
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Low taxes are nothing to brag about
I’ve written an opinion piece that appears in today’s Regina Leader-Post. The piece argues that the Saskatchewan government shouldn’t brag about the province’s low-tax climate (which it recently did). Rather, I argue that taxes serve important functions. The link to the opinion piece is here.
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The ins and outs of Equalization #nlpoli #cdnpoli
Each year, Canadian media conduct year-end interviews with politicians and every year the interviews are nothing but space fillers. This year’s version with Premier Dwight Ball – for NTV (broadcast but not posted yet) and the Telegram, thus far – are no exception. They asked the same questions, got the same
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Trevor Tombe highlights how equalization actually works – and how the bleatings of Jason Kenney, Scott Moe and other demagogues would serve only to eliminate anything worthy of the name. – Mary O’Hara rightly argues that child poverty in the UK and U.S.
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Razzle Dazzle ‘Em: Part Two
Last week Jason Kenney unveiled his Fight Back Strategy. No longer would Alberta be apologetic about the energy industry. From now on Alberta, the federal government and the industry were going to fight back. Prepare to be razzle dazzled! War Room Kenney will set up a war room in the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how Scott Moe’s equalization bluster ultimately shows only that he’s more interested in political posturing than responsible governance. For further reading…– Gregory Beatty reviews how Saskatchewan’s effort to remove renewable resource revenue from the equalization formula was abandoned when Brad Wall decided it was inconvenient to remind the
Continue readingAlberta Politics: It’s not equalization! It’s the taxes, stupid! They’re almost too low to keep the lights on and something’s gotta give
It’s not equalization. It’s the taxes, stupid! That is to say, Alberta’s taxes are too low to run the place over the long term and something’s gotta give. The great thing about Alberta’s never-ending tantrum about equalization and how the province of Quebec taxes and spends, at least from the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Simon Enoch challenges Scott Moe’s misleading rhetoric on equalization by pointing out that Saskatchewan could easily afford child care and other programs which Moe criticizes other provinces for funding – if only the Saskatchewan Party hadn’t blown the proceeds of a boom
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Bridging to Nowhere… or not #nlpoli
Since December 2015, Dwight Ball has been talking about the federal government as the source of cash he wants to tap into. Specifically he has been talking a lot about how Newfoundland and Labrador is being screwed because it cannot collect Equalization. Ball’s whining about Equalization is part of his
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Western Canada’s artificial alienation: Catalonia here we come! Then again, maybe not …
Right on schedule, us Western Canadians are feeling alienated. Really! Don’t just take my word for it! The digital editions of the gutter press are full of the complaints nowadays of such alienated Albertans as United Conservative Party leadership contenders Brian Jean and Jason Kenney. Likewise, we’re hearing lots of
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