dougn wrote:
When I clicked on this I thought it meant Airdrie, Scotland, the existence of which I know about because I know someone who lives there. I didn't know there was one in Alberta.
I suppose this could also be construed as an anti-Christian hate crime since the object destroyed was a cross.
On another note, what exactly is your avatar? It's obviously a flag with the shield from the Alberta coat of arms, and the Big Dipper and North Star (as on the flag of Alaska), but aside from that, what is it? I like flags.
It is an Alberta Independance flag.It is flown by those in Alberta who wish for more provincial autonomy and to have a firewall to protect Alberta's finances from being taken by the Federal government and given to other provinces such as Quebec.
http://www.westernstandard.ca/website/a ... 39&start=1Quote:
Luring people and investment should be Alberta's agendaIdeas born out of irritation--like the firewall proposals--are not necessarily the same as a proper game plan to reach desirable ends
Mark Milke - September 13, 2004
In 2001, six prominent Albertans, frustrated with the 2000 election--in which Jean Chretien's Liberals returned to power despite 18 ongoing criminal investigations--penned the famous "firewall" letter to Premier Ralph Klein. The group argued that Alberta should become more independent from Ottawa and offered multiple proposals to that end.
But ideas born out of irritation are not necessarily the same as a proper game plan to reach desirable ends. The Alberta government's recent response to the Alberta Agenda (as the firewall proposals became known), in the form of a province-wide consultation, and the early-August report on the same, rejected many of the original 2001 ideas, and in some cases with good reason.
The fact is, many firewall demands were mere posturing; others would have only added to Alberta's costs, and only one would actually meaningfully challenge Ottawa. None of the others would give Alberta (or the West) an increase in actual power relative to central and eastern Canada--power that would allow for sensible fiscal, foreign and social policy that respects and protects the region's historic, hard-won freedoms and traditions.
The blunt truth is that if westerners want a "power punch," we must obtain it the old-fashioned way: with more people, which translates into more federal seats. The West must become so compelling to new business and so desirable that the rest of the country must either imitate us or risk losing many of their brightest people, their most entrepreneurial businesses, their best jobs, and much of their potential new wealth to us.
This is why, for example, the firewall suggestion that Alberta should collect its own provincial personal income tax was and is a potentially expensive distraction. Alberta could never, as some erroneously believe, also collect federal tax in addition to its own provincial levies and send back to Ottawa what it chose. Given that Alberta claims it pays just $5 million annually to Ottawa to process millions of Alberta's provincial tax forms, and as the provincial committee pointed out, our own administrative costs for the collection of provincial income tax could reach as high as $160 million annually, it makes no sense for us to begin collecting our own taxes. All that would accomplish would be to let Ottawa off the hook for the few bills it does pay.
There are other agenda proposals that should be put aside, at least for now. While a Triple-E Senate is desirable, the West will not now get an equal, elected and effective Senate. And without equality, an elected Senate would be effective all right--for the regions that hold the majority of Senate seats, and that doesn't include the West. On the idea of dumping the RCMP in favour of a provincial police force, aren't conservatives supposed to respect tradition? Replacing a force that dates back to 1874 and is part of our western heritage is not conservative; it's more like vandalism to our traditions and to our history.
And as for an Alberta pension plan, it's true that the current Canada Pension Plan is unfair to younger workers (of which Alberta has plenty). Arguably, that should be changed, as should the governmental nature of the program. But unless Alberta is prepared to replace the CPP with a plan that actually addresses the intergenerational imbalance and that sets up individual accounts (a la private sector plans in Chile), there is little point in switching from one government plan to another.
Let's imagine Alberta did enact many firewall proposals. Suppose Alberta did have its own pension plan, its own cops, and that it collected its own income tax. Would this really make Ottawa quake in her nanny-state boots? Frankly, it is doubtful that the ministers and mandarins in our distant colonial capital would even notice or care.
That said, MLAs should press ahead on one original firewall proposal: that Alberta resume full responsibility for health care. Resuming full responsibility implies giving up federal cash transfers for health. But even if provincial Conservatives don't go that far, they should remember that the current Canada Health Act, which is about insurance and not delivery, cannot prevent Alberta from becoming the centre of private health care in this country. Every single health service could be performed in a private or nonprofit facility more effectively, efficiently, and with more flexibility for patients and staff.
Alberta could become a destination point for people around the world looking for excellent private health care. It might well attract international patients and private investment, research, world-class facilities and multiple new jobs. And the spillover effect would benefit Albertans because of increased choice, more medical professionals, and better facilities and equipment. A side benefit is that health care reform in Canada would happen as Alberta shows that private delivery is not harmful, but is, in fact, helpful to auniversal health care system.
In fact, in all areas, Alberta already has the means to use market-based policy innovations to increase its power. One new idea that firewall proponents should push and the provincial government should adopt, is a dramatic cut in business taxes. This year, business tax revenues in Alberta will total $2 billion, while the surplus might hit $4 billion. For starters, why not slash such taxes in half? Canada's businesses would beat a path to the province's door, more than they already do, including head office relocations.
And the political ramifications of that would be substantially more voters and ridings over time--voters who would likely be more entrepreneurial, and thus likely to favour conservative policies. People, after all, tend to vote for what works--and Alberta does. In the shorter term, however, Alberta's private sector success (including on health care) will become impossible for the rest of the country to ignore. Other provinces will be forced to imitate such policies or risk their own decline in relative terms. Either way, Alberta's agenda wins.
It's worth noting that former U.S. president Ronald Reagan didn't end the reign of lazy liberalism (at least in foreign and economic policy) because he had to cater to the northeastern states. He won some of those states in both 1980 and 1984 precisely because the West and South, where he garnered the most support, were growing in population. George W. Bush's win in 2000 came largely from support in those same two regions. And the American South and West counted because of their population and wealth, not because Texas or Florida possessed their own pension plans or flirted with symbols of imagined but not real power.
Bold health care reforms and slashed business taxes are not the only policies necessary for Alberta and the West to succeed politically. And firewall proponents and the government are right to challenge Ottawa on the gun registry, the Canadian Wheat Board, and the absurd transfers from "have" provinces to "have-not" provinces through equalization and employment insurance. But ultimately, increased Alberta influence and western power will only happen when more money, people and seats are centered right here in the West.
_________________
Honour over deciet, merit over luck, courage over popularity, duty over entitlement...dont let the cliques fool you for they have no honour...only superficial deceit.
ALBERTAN...and DAMN PROUD OF IT!!
17 Jun 2009, 1:11 am
