Joe Oliver on equalization.
An excellent article detailing the problems with equalization and asking important questions about the viability of the program or whether it’s even worth keeping.
However I’m not sure I fully appreciate the veracity of the former Canadian Minister of Finance making arguments meant to shore up Western Canadian conservatism. The same guy who had the power to change the system not 10 months ago.
Between this and Tony Clement calling for the end of the CBC, I get the feeling the Ontario Conservatives are feeling a little heat in the leadership race.
Lance:
Oliver didn’t have the power to change the system – then or now.
As an mp now he has more liberty to talk publically about the issue as he is outside the cabinet.
His critique is good and worthy of respect. Yours isn’t.
Equalization is the price we pay for treating 25% of our population as an equal partner.
I think equalization encourages provinces to race to the bottom instead of racing to the top.
I say – NO equalization benefactors or beneficiaries. Live or die by your own policies in each province. Open all the borders – trade wise – between provinces and let the chips fall.
So let me get this straight Gord. Muzzled and intimidated when you can do some good…is just fine.
Speaking out now is bad. Seems to me your perspective is perverted. But your not alone….and western Canada continues to suffer the consequences in this CON-federation.
The Conservatives are suddenly FULL of brash ideas, none of which they thought to implement in the 4 years of majority rule they had. Me, I really like Maxime Bernier’s ideas but I certainly have my doubts that any of these guys will be able to follow through on them. The Liberals are proof that promising the sky wins elections but being government means leaving the ideals behind.
“The same guy who had the power to change the system not 10 months ago.”
Yup. And for years before that. But he sat there and took the carful route with the rest of them. Worked out well, didn’t it? Worse for us, than them.
Funny how they find their conservatism now, eh?
OT, but a related political comment:
http://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2016/08/29/patrick-brown-says-it-was-a-mistake-to-pledge-to-scrap-liberal-sex-ed-changes/#.V8Sw-vnyuUk
Another Conservative shoves his foot in his big mouth and has to back down, just before an important byelection in Ontario.
We shall see how po’d the voters actually are at Wynne.
I’ve been getting updates/solicitations from Maxime Bernier, and while I like him, every time I get one of his emails requesting funding, I respond that I will be happy to donate to his campaign if/when he commits to defunding the CBC. It doesn’t have to be everything, just the TV portion would do.
I’d like to know were these bludy conservatives are that you people keep referring to. My progressive provincial rep is a as bloody liberal as a lieberal.
Gord, Rance ain’t to sharp, give him a break wood ja???
This is a key statement in Oliver’s article.
“This brings us to the highly contentiousness issue of whether a province that could generate resource revenue, but decides not to…”
More than just the oil and gas to which he refers, about half the provinces have a moratorium on uranium mining, including the biggest give-me province of them all, Quebec. So yes, there is indeed merit in discounting provinces for equalization if they handicap their resource economies. There should indeed be some economic consequence to arbitrary ‘feel good’ moratoria imposed to appease the Green Slime.
That was the most only reason I was half considering voting for him. Now I have no reason to vote for him. What a jerk.
Pat Brown might be the sister of the Ontario Premier.
The Ontario PC’s are PC.
Unfortunately, I think vowing to defund the CBC would screw him in an election. Canadians are nuts that way, but that is a political reality.
I didn’t say speaking out is now bad.
And I think cabinet solidarity is a very essential thing.
I think I am correct in saying that it has long been cp policy to reform equalization. The formula is up for renewal in 2017. The CP is not in power.
Speaking of “Funny how they find their conservatism now, eh?”.
I got an email survey from Kellie Leitch and it asked all the right questions.
So for me the worst part of all of this is these assholes knew this , they had these ideas in their heads they were either thinking them themselves or were told by voters …they had a majority government and they did nothing about either one!! Nothing not even talk about it the best we got was the lazy fat ass James Moore who cut the CBC funding by a small 10% what a joke these supposed conservatives are . All of them are fat , and lazy I would love to see these guys breaking up concrete or shovelling gravel or building fences n decks or installing shingles or some kinda phyisical work so they can see how hard it is for the men they despise to earn their pay checks for them .
Brian m I agree totally
Equalization is ultimately doomed. Peter and Mary voting to kill Paul and take his stuff is not democratic, not sustainable. You’ll run out of Pauls, or Paul will arm himself to keep what he earned.
Your comment made me smile as I tried to imagine the corpulent Jason Kenny doing an honest day’s work. Fat and politics seem to go hand in hand.
“I got an email survey from Kellie Leitch and it asked all the right questions.”
Yup, about a month ago the federal Conservatives called with a fake little survey – just a prelude to a hit for my donation. I let him ramble on till he referred to “Conservative principles”…and with that opener, it was my turn.
“…so they can see how hard it is for the men they despise to earn their pay checks for them .”
I think “despise” is the word, alright. It’s beyond mere indifference.
Psychopaths have no empathy – none, not one iota! That’s why it is so easy for them to steal from people.
I get email from Monte McNaughton. Seems like a nice guy but it comes down to send me money to fight the Libtards. I send back notes telling him to lose the loser Brown and his dumb ass “me-too” platform. Never get a response just another announcement about a fund raiser. Why can’t he steal it like all the other politicians? Is it because the money they steal belongs to them and cannot be used to fund a campaign?
The by-election is in Toronto so no change. The same voters who voted for “change” last fall because of perceived ethical challenges of the feds and the fact that 10 years in power is too long — as well as some strange contempt for a balanced budget and surplus — will be the same voters who will vote for more scandal, waste and corruption, as well as a twisted view that deficits are good, and all because 13 years in power is not enough apparently.
And an advisory for those motorists in the riding: take caution and be on the lookout for Liberal voters heading off to the polls, as you would on Halloween night with kids criss-crossing the streets. Liberal voters are like mindless zombies and will walk right out into traffic, flying over your vehicle and landing on the road. If this occurs, DO NOT panic. They will simply get up and continue on their way to vote, dragging their dead leg behind and chanting, “must vote Liberal, must vote Liberal!”
I recall reading several research studies into equalization that concluded that the bulk of the monies transferred to “have-not” provinces to level the playing field with respect to citizens being able to receive the same level of services regardless of where in Canada they lived (the ostensible purpose of equalization in the first place), was actually captured by the “public service” unions. So basically, equalization makes government employees in PEI and Nova Scotia, for instance, better off than their unionized bureaucratic cohorts in Ontario or Alberta. Of course, those are also now “have-not” jurisdictions, but even when they were net contributors to equalization, the program still gave their civil service unions a handy lever to extort higher wage settlements, so as to “match” their counterparts in less wealthy areas. A great system, where everybody wins, except the taxpayer.
The transfer of wealth back east is well established and not limited to ‘Equalization’. I supported Mulroney on the NAFTA treaty simply because it meant that USA goods could be brought into Canada cheaper. I am sure his thought process was about access of Canadian produced industrial goods into the USA market.
It was not long after that it became so clear that most economic benefits from federal government procurement were going to eastern Canada. The aircraft maintenance contract robbed form Winnipeg was simply the trigger.
My standard example of eastern slight of hand is the Quebec Hydro export of billions $ of electricity into the eastern USA. Those billions are not factored into the equalization equation. Surprise!