Reader Tips

Reader Tips 85 Comments

I’m halfway through a Harley repaint/flame job, plus there’s a goal mask sitting in prep stage that’s promised for Friday – so it’s a reader tips morning. Thanks to everyone who has sent news items in. Time doesn’t allow me to follow them all up, but they’re appreciated.
The Democratic Party has finally settled on a national security message – Invade Pakistan!
Jonathan Strong has a proposal for a post-NATO alliance.
Link Byfield – “Conservative leadership candidate Mark Norris has let the Alberta separatism genie out of its bottle.”
Brussels Journal;

Father Samuel has been prosecuted for �incitement to racist hatred� by the Belgian government�s inquisition agency, the so-called Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CEOOR), because of a remark he made in a 2002 television interview.

A letter to the editor that leaves painful tread marks;

“I am, by the way, an American jurist.”

Bush Was Set on Path to War, British Memo Says. Revealed: plans to paint U2 spy planes in United Nations colours!
Add your own in the comments.

85 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  1. Posted by wlyonmackenzie at March 30, 2006 09:23 AM: “to suppliment fiscally promiscuous socialist
    regimes in the eastern provinces.”
    Given that there are no NDP/socialist govt’s/regimes, nor have there
    ever been, in the Western provinces, including
    B.C., one wonders what WLYM is saying here.
    Please elucidate.

  2. AlbertaGirl:
    So, basically put, what you’re saying is that the reason why Lucien Bouchard was considered a traitor is because the province of quebec are fat lazy slobs who have no natural resources to sustain themselves? (I urge you to re-asses this and think it through REAL hard).
    Most people who speak of seperating do not take into consideration the astronomical costs of doing so. You do not even take into consideration that even though the natural resource of Oil is very lucrative, it does not guarantee you a future. What happens in 20 years when the earth dries up of oil???

  3. Thanks to those who corrected my perception of Ontario – unfortunately, we all have “perceptions” of other parts of Canada – mostly due to the media’s portrayal of that region – with the internet and now blogs we really can “learn” the truth about each others areas.
    KevinB – You raise some interesting points regarding the correlation between the price of oil and Alberta’s prosperity and in a sense you are correct, however the point I guess I am trying to make is that because Alberta has consistently elected a Conservative government which by definition believes that responsibility falls to the individual unless that individual is in need of help.
    I take some issue with your assertion that the price drop in the early 80’s was the cause of Alberta’s bust. Earlier – in the 70’s Trudeau instituted wage and price controls which caused a tremendous downturn in Alberta’s oil and gas industry, then came the dreaded NEP which was like a nail in the coffin of the oil industry. This was quickly followed by a general recession in the whole of North America. So I question that the drop in oil prices was solely to blame for the loss of thousands of jobs – it was more a result of liberal federal government interference over which Alberta had no control. This coupled with the recession which hit North America certainly did put Alberta in the red. Once the recession abated, the NEP and wage and price controls were removed and, yes, the price of oil started to rise; and Ralph Klien ran on a platform of cutting the fat which he did when he got elected.
    We will probably agree to disagree on the whole Alberta oil prosperity debate. I still believe that it is the responsibility of the citizens of a country to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and look after themselves – they should not rely on governments to create “programs” to serve a small niche of people.
    Now this is not to say that those that truly need help should not be helped. But, take daycare for example, a single mother should definitely receive subsidized or free daycare, a professional couple making $200,000 a year should not!. This is one example, there are many that the socialists in this country seem to feel that it is their right to expect the government to fill every need they have.
    Thanks for the debate though – its been fun

  5. Scarface – you said
    “So, basically put, what you’re saying is that the reason why Lucien Bouchard was considered a traitor is because the province of quebec are fat lazy slobs who have no natural resources to sustain themselves?
    Boy you are really reading something into my posts – I have said several times that I do not in any way think that only Alberta has the ethic of hard work. I have tried to communicate that the governments we elect support and encourage hard work and the province has been successful because of it. I also said that had other provinces elected governments that supported and encouraged the use of their natural resources that perhaps they could have the same level of success. By success I mean wealth.
    Quebec certainly has natural resources – hydro electricity, mining, forestry to name a few.
    Here is the rub though, scarface – Alberta pays and pays dearly to the rest of Canada (and I am not saying that we shouldn’t pay) but when billions of dollars of royalties are paid to Ottawa in equalization payments it is a little hard to take to hear others provinces say we should “share”. Quebec is considered a have not province – why do they not have to “share” revenue from their resources?

  6. Dear Kevin B,
    Your history of Ontario under Mike Harris is alternative in the extreme. What happened was, confronted with a $10,000,000 per year deficit, Harris cut spending and taxes in a madcap fashion largely designed to cover up the fact that he was redistributing money from municipalities like Toronto and Ottawa and redistributing it to the Tory voting areas in the suburban rings around these municipalities. This strategy came to be known as “Cornpone Communism”, where city money is taken and redistributed to the Conservative countryside. There were rumours at the time of government workers driving around to the farms up in New Market in pick-up trucks, shovelling city money onto the driveways of rural Tory voters.
    And because the spending cuts were done so carelessly, they never saved any actual money, so the deficit reduction that occured in the middle of Harris’ first term was entirely the result of the broader economic upturn.
    The folly of the Tory’s fiscal policies became clear in their second term, when the government slipped back into the red and the bad consequences of Tory cutbacks in, for example, the environmental arena (like Walkerton) came home to roost.
    When Mike Harris saw it all going South he jumped ship back into the private sector, taking shelter in the arms of the very people he had sold off pieces of the province too.
    I write of some of this at greater length on my blog.

  8. Alberta Girl –
    Great posts. Not only was the NEP “like a nail in the coffin of the oil industry” but it took a great toll on Albertans in general, take a look at suicide, divorce & spousal abuse rates following the implementation of the NEP. The Leftists love “root causes”, might as well throw one back at them.
    If Norris is treasonous to Canada for suggesting Alberta separate if another NEP is forced upon it, then he should be considered treasonous to Albertans if he stood by & accepted another NEP.

  9. Mr. Lahey said:
    “Without the oil Alberta would be a nothing more than a redneck backwater, and its citizens “the Newfies of the Prairie” as and earlier poster stated, and that’s a fact.”
    Making friends with fellow Canadians then, are ya?
    ~~~
    Kevin B…Alberta 70 years ago, had been a province for a mere 30 years at the time of the Great Depression.
    Oil had not yet been found; it was just getting on its feet.
    Agriculture was the main income source and the severe drought of the times killed that income base.
    Albertans would have paid, had they been able.
    Not one o us will forget the NEP; it took many years to come back from that hit.
    ~~~
    Alberta Girl, thumbs up!
    Love those Albertans:)
    Was one…kind of always makes me one;)
    And that does not mean that we hold to a negative regard for folks from other provinces; that is just silly, isn’t it.
    I found through the last election campaign, a very nice coming out of similar attitudes across the country. People were beginning to get a grasp on what makes different regions tick.
    The tempo may be different, but that doesn’t equate to animosity.
    And the tempo in Alberta can only be described as over the top busy…but get one on one and the conversation will be informative, lively, and straight from the heart.
    Someone, Scarface I think, commented on what happens when the oil/gas is gone….Alberta is planning for that.
    Coal is stepping back up to the plate….cleaner burning than in the past and in high demand globally as well.
    Ethanol is being talked about but it takes so much energy to produce it, that it may have drawbacks in the long run…also uses prime agricultural land for fuel production, not food.
    And then we have the gas/oil reserves off the coast of B.C…..waiting, waiting, waiting

  11. Hey… bigcitylib has a blog. Go figure.
    Anyways… I totally agree with Alberta Girl and others but I will go even further in this argument. The reason we are prosperous is because we haven’t voted in an NDP or liberal government. A majority of Albertans are conservative. That means, in general, we are not looking to the government to take care of ourselves. Other provinces mentioned have voted these socialists in and have bankrupted their provinces. So, those people in other provinces that had some accountability, responsibility, and a hard working attitude would move to Calgary. The rest of Canada is slowly losing their entrepreneurs and hard workers to Alberta and the people with socialist attitudes are staying put where they are.
    As far as separatism goes, Quebec is different because their votes could make a difference in the federal government. Alberta, on the other hand, has far less seats than we should have and still not enough seats to make a difference. Canadians, other than the western provinces, kept voting in socialist corrupt governments. Frustration was extremely high and separation started being considered. Now, however, the government voted in by the rest of Canada was the same government Alberta wanted. Separatism has deflated as, although we didn’t make a difference, the type of government we feel is right for Canada is in power.
    However, we still fear the prevailing socialist attitude of many Canadians and another NEP grab. There are two large socialistic parties out there who are hungry for power and will do whatever they can to get it back. Alberta is still thinking that we better set ourselves up (the oft mentioned firewall) so that if need be, we can separate if socialism prevails. It is good sense considering the past.

  12. Funny how you Albertans are considered so biogoted, yet Calgary & Edmonton, along with Vancouver, polled ahead of Toronto & Montreal in accepting others of a different culture as neigbours.

  13. Denis – I went to your link and looked at the map – is your point that the oil and gas does stop at the Sask border? – I believe this is a map of the “developed” oil and gas fields?. Not sure what point you are trying to make?

  14. Lanny,
    Doesn’t Sask. vote in NDP governments on a regular basis? Doesn’t Manitoba occasionally? Even B.C.? Aren’t those Western Provinces?

  15. BCL – you replied to Lanny – “Doesn’t Sask. vote in NDP governments on a regular basis? Doesn’t Manitoba occasionally? Even B.C.? Aren’t those Western Provinces?”
    I read and reread Lanny’s post and for the life of me I can’t figure out what the hell you are talking about. I think you just proved Lanny’s point.

  16. Thanks Alberta Girl. Yes, bigcitylib, they do. Other provinces aside from Alberta vote in provincial NDP and liberal governments. Federally, western provinces have voted conservative in general. The reason Alberta is doing so much better than BC, Sask, Manitoba, etc etc is because they have had a Conservative provincial government for decades.

  17. Alberta Girl, you’re the best.
    I appreciate every post you write. That’s for the education on western Canada.

  18. Alberta Girl,
    You are correct the map shows oil & gas development, not what’s under the ground. It supports the argument you’ve been making that the business climate the Alberta government has created has allowed our resources to be developed into the industry it is today. Its not just that we have oil, we have an environment that makes development worthwhile. The oil & gas definitely does not end at the border :).
    I simply provided the link because Enough mentioned it, but I’m sure not everyone has seen it.
    Take care & good job.

  19. For a general idea of what’s in the ground in Western Canada check out this site which has a map of the “Western Sedimentary Basin” which holds the oil, gas and coal. Note how much is in southern Saskatchewan. Also a nice chunk of oil sands extends east out of Alberta into north west Sask. Will it ever be developed? Time will tell.
    http://www.terraengine.com/WCSB/index.cfm
    Bill D

  20. Please, Alberta is sitting on an ocean of sweet light crude whereas Sask. reserves are heavy oil that requires upgrading and is simply not nearly as profitable but given that the industry is balls to the walls and is booming.
    Alberta gal’s contention that Alberta’s wealth is due to good gov’t. stewardship is kneeslappingly laughable. Alberta is rich in spite of clowns like Ralph Klein,not because of them. Post hoc ergo propter hoc. (Provincial treasurer Stockwell Day, need I say more)…
    In Sask. we are saddled yet with the Conservative debt of Grant Devine and forever tethered to the corpse of infinitely needy agriculture.
    Big city, I agree. Alberta separatism is TREASON.

  21. First, a general comment: I hope everyone (bcl) noticed that Alberta Girl and I were able to exchange views without descending into name calling, profanity, and the like.
    Now to some quick points: I know all about the NEP and its impact on Alberta; my best friend worked for Schlumberger in Lloydminster and the Hat, testing oil wells. After the NEP, he (and his engineering degree) were moved to the US of A, where he married a nice girl, and is now the father of two US citizens. He’s happy, but I can’t help but think Canada lost a lot of productive people like Ken because of the NEP. (And yes, I know that PetroCan stands for PE Trudeau rips off Canadians..)
    But, by 1985, when Getty got in, the NEP was gone and Alberta was getting world prices for its oil. There had been a vicious recession in 1980 when Paul Volcker raised short term rates to nearly 20%, but that was long over by 1985 as well. Alberta had recovered too, but when oil prices sank again in the mid-80’s, Alberta’s finances sank with it. And, as I noted, it’s not my assertion; it’s the considered opinion of an Alberta-based university professor. I will make this point one last, gentle time: for the last 35 years, Alberta’s prosperity has been tied to the price of oil (except, as you note, when the Liberals screw with them). Whether you vote in Conservative governments or not is irrelevant; oil dollars don’t care who occupies the Legislature.
    Buffalo Bean: As I noted in my post, the greater circumstance – in this case, the Depression – was the determining factor in Alberta’s default. I wasn’t around at the time, and I haven’t studied it enough to say whether or not it was justified; I used it to refute the notion that Albertans as a people are more hardworking, entrepeneurial, etc., than the rest of Canada. They are people just like the rest of us, and when Mother Nature pushed them to the wall, they wanted relief too. I’m not casting judgement but I’m tired of hearing that Albertans are “special”; they’re not.
    BCL: Mike Harris’s policies came to be known as “Cornpone Communism”? Funny, a search through four different engines didn’t find a single citation of this term. I live in Toronto, and have never heard it. I suspect you made it up. I know the Tory strategy was centred around “905” vs “416” (for those who don’t know, the telephone area codes of the area surrounding Toronto vs the city proper), but as someone who lives in 905, I can tell you it’s mostly suburbs, not farmers, and my riding happens to be one of the most populous both provincially and federally.
    And really, Walkerton? The water system was run by two alcoholics (they kept beer in the office refrigerator) who kept their jobs through the Liberal government of David Peterson and the NDP government of Bob Rae. Walkerton’s water system was eventually overwhelmed by massive e-coli runoff after 1) a huge buildup in the pork industry, supported by all three major parties, which resulted in thousands of tons of pig manure that needed disposal, and 2) massive rains in the spring, which BCL will doubtless attribute to some Tory conspiracy. It was Harris’s bad luck it happened on his watch, but anyone without an axe to grind would realize that it didn’t matter who was in charge, or what changes had been made to the Ministry of Health *WHEN THE TWO DRUNKS RUNNING THE SYSTEM HIDE THE FAILED WATER TEST RESULTS*. The system depends on the people in the front lines being honest; two sotted buffoons who cared more about their jobs than their neighbours’ lives were the only cause of this tragedy.
    And Mike Harris got more than half a million people off the welfare rolls. At $20k per pop, that’s $10 billion a year right there, and he did it when everyone’s pal, Paul Martin, was slashing transfer payments to the provinces to put the federal fiscal house in order. Sure, a resurgent economy helped him (and to be fair, the 1990 recession didn’t help Bob Rae one bit), just like rising oil prices helped Alberta, but a booming economy in the 1980’s didn’t help David Peterson balance his budgets, a fact you clearly forget.

  22. Re: “Alberta separatism is TREASON”
    It may be, at least to the ROC, but it is none the less a growing sentiment here. Trust me, as a Lower Mainland BC transplant to Calgary I am as surprised to find myself sharing this sentiment as those outside Alberta are surprised we hold it :). While not perhaps a hard-core separatist, I do believe that confederation as it is does not work and the most likely outcome is a separate Alberta. Ideally, I would prefer for confederation to be reworked to address the shortfalls in our current system however, as a realist, I doubt very much central Canada has the will to change the system.
    That said, Alberta has a ways to go before separatism becomes a real option – not only from an emotional perspective, but from an infrastructure perspective as well. What I do believe, is that very few are interested in using separatism as some sort of perpetual bargaining chip to gain incremental concessions. We either want the system fixed or to leave the system.

  23. KevinB said: “I will make this point one last, gentle time: for the last 35 years, Alberta’s prosperity has been tied to the price of oil (except, as you note, when the Liberals screw with them).”
    I guess there are 2 sides to this issue. The one side that you’ve pointed out is that our windfalls are tied to oil revenues. The other side is that there would be no (or reduced) windfalls if much of the oil was still in the ground. This is where the Saskatchewan/Alberta comparison comes in. The question, as alluded to earlier, is why does exploration and development of gas and oil effectively stop at the Saskatchewan border? The suggestion made by Alberta Girl and others is that Alberta’s government has created a climate that encourages exploration and development. If such a business climate did not exist would it be too big of a stretch to suggest we would be in no position (or at least be in a reduced position) to benefit from rising energy prices?

  25. denis…..Exploration and development of oil and gas does not stop at the Sask./Alberta border. The oil and gas sector in Sask. is going full tilt. Alberta happens to be blessed with an abundance of light, sweet crude. This is geology, not ideology. You won the lottery. Larry, Moe and Curly Joe could be running the place with the same result.

  26. Denis – you bring up a very good point that once people move to Alberta their whole view of this province changes – they begin to understand what makes us”tick” so to speak and why separatism still simmers just below the surface. Without a doubt – if the Liberals had been re-elected – separatism would have become a fact. For now – it is off the radar, but any hint that another NEP or any other ideas to take over Alberta’s resource revenue will be the deciding factor.
    BCL, Zuma and several of the other posters here do not get it – they do not realize that Alberta already “shares” their oil revenue with the rest of the country. They still like to believe that Alberta is the only province in Canada sitting on pools of oil and this is the reason for the wealth of Alberta. They for some reason, fail to grasp the connection that how Alberta has been governed for the past 30 years and especially in the last 13, has a correlation to the success of the province. They fail to grasp that by voting Liberal or NDP governments who believe that governments should be in charge of everything and to allow the citizens to have any responsibility is somehow a bad thing.
    So the left consistently looks down their noses at Alberta as some kind of “country cousin” – a cousin who really has no idea about the “real world”. But the laugh is on them because the “real world” is happening in Alberta.
    Now I don’t expect that people like BCL or Zuma or any of the other lefties who like to play with our minds will change because of Kate’s site, but it sure is fun to give them the other side of the story.
    Thanks to Denis for adding the fact that if Alberta didn’t support taking the oil out of the ground we wouldn’t be where we are. Hopefully other provinces, under the Conservative government’s support for provincial autonomy, will grasp the concept, start supporting enteprenurial endeavours in their own provinces and encouraging developement of their own resources. I won’t hold my breath on that though because voters like BCL and Zuma will most likely not see what their provinces could be and will continue to vote in governments that see abdicating responsibilities as reducing their power.
    If you continually decade after decade vote in socialist governments, soon the voters in that province do not know any other way and the expectation is that the government will take care of you. The socialist agenda becomes a culture of entitlement that permeates our universities and because our universities turn our our teachers, has begun to permeate our schools and each generation is “taught” that premise.
    That is why people who move to Alberta from other parts of the country are surprised to find themselves with a whole new belief pattern after living here. They truly do see things in a new light and begin to realize that what they believed, heard and have been taught about Alberta and Conservatism was not totally the truth.

  28. Garry P: I took your advice and googled “pone/defintion”.
    I already knew what cornpone was (I’ve eaten it – very nice); it was BCL’s “Cornpone Communism” as a term used to describe the Mike Harris government that I found suspect, and I didn’t find any reference to that term at all. If you can enlighten me with a specific link, I’d be grateful.

  29. KevinB:…no links have I…I think the attempted symbolism is evident (and a ‘one-off’ as they say).

  31. It is hard not to feed the trolls like BCL. At least we are able to respond finally. For much too long the blatant rewriting of history, the outright fictional creations of lefties like BCL have been left unanswered. This is their modus operandi. Never mind the truth, lie and move on to another story.
    Keep it up Alberta Girl. Here in BC the NDP had a go at destroying the economy for 10 years. Nearly succeeded. It was only when we finally had enough that change happened.

  32. Lanny – you certainly can quote me – as long as it is a good thing!! haha – let me know the blog so I can come check it out.

  34. Zuma said:
    “Please, Alberta is sitting on an ocean of sweet light crude whereas Sask. reserves are heavy oil that requires upgrading and is simply not nearly as profitable but given that the industry is balls to the walls and is booming.”
    That’s BS. Most of Alberta’s easily accessed light crude is long gone. We get more revenue from gas and we don’t whine about trying to get decent oil from tar laden dirt. We just DO IT! Alberta produces about 1 million barrels a day from the tar sands. By 2015 that should be 2.5 million per day.
    Bill in Calgary

  35. Figures BigCityLib has moved to Toronto. How is it that we get all the losers? And of course his ‘facts’ don’t check out. He’s a Liberal.
    In Ontario as I recall, the Peterson Liberals created a $45 billion dollar debt. Not to be outdone, the Rae Socialists doubled it. Of course even that wasn’t enough damage – Standard and Poors dropped our credit rating from AAA to B.
    The Harris’ Conservatives paid down the debt. And Ontario became prosperous again. But only for his two terms.
    Now that we have the McGimpy Liberals, we’re back to increasing the debt by leaps and bounds again. His plans for natural gas plant construction projects rather than retrofitting our coal plants for example. There goes $30 billion or so.
    Alberta is proving to be a big club in dealing with federal socialists/liberals. To that end I don’t think it’ll need to separate. Wave the club around every once in a while and hit some lefty on the head, and that ought to be enough. I’m just glad that club is in the Conservative corner.

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