The attack on public education at all levels continues. Add Mintz to LaGrange and Nicolaides,, the latter two having failed in previous cabinet positions, as leaders of our 'education for the future' planning, and we are well on the way to having the most uneducated citizenry in the country , perfect for the UCP at election time. We may have lots of folks able only to build bunkers though.
The "attacks" haven't gone far enough. Why doesn't AB Education centralize functions like HR, Legal, Finance, Purchasing and IT to reduce admin costs? Does the province really need so many school boards? The number could easily be cut by 2/3 simply by merging the Public and Separate Boards, consolidating some rural boards and folding the Boards around the cities into the city Boards. Why can't building maintenance be outsourced?
I guess you don't know any serious Catholics, and take no note of how religious the UCP is, starting with Kenney, which is why charter schools are their fave, not the public school system as cornerstone of democracy kind of thing. It's what has taken over the States where a majority of charter schools are religious, and coincidentally has just seen a massive victory for Christian Nationalism finally in "Project 2025" that guts public education in favour of more of the Bible in government. They're even aiming to change their precious constitution....
I went to a Catholic school in Alberta. They are a leftover from the tired Protestant - Catholic battles of the 1800s.
My kids attended non-religous Charter schools in the US. They offered specialized programs like STEM, and reweded exceptional teachers with merit based pay.
They're being forced to have the Ten Commandments on the wall in their classrooms, buying a cheap garbage Bible that's made in China for $60 and forcing each student to have one! Like who wants to have anything to do with that? I sure don't and I grew up Catholic.
There are so many people in this province center from different denominations that don't want their child subjected to religion and public schools are not supposed to do that!
And my daughter has her kids in a public school and they are well adjusted, and learning at a rapid speed, probably better than we did in the Catholic system.
And we don't need a charter school for the kids to do well, just funding would be nice. When they give additional funding to Charter Schools they take it away from the public schools.
So what do they do? They try to discourage people from doing the public school, so they can get them to go to the Charter Schools, where those guys can charge you extra money, for anything outside of the bare minimum, with no consequences! And they're free to say no to anybody, and they don't have to report to the government what they're doing!
It sounds like you are in favour of even more privatization than our Premier has already done. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Centralization of institutions like education doesn't serve communities well. There's loss of the individual needs on a local level that results from blanket policies and funding. School boards ensure policies and funding meet the needs of the schools in that area.
Centralization too often leads to privatization. Outsourcing services to private companies takes away local jobs that bring prosperity to the region. Centralization causes a lack of local involvement in decision-making. Who do parents go to with concerns or suggestions? Healthcare and education used to be centralized. It didn't work. That's why they became decentralized in the first place. Besides that I feel certain Smith and her Education minister would royally screw up the process of centralizing education even more than expected.
For example, one of Smith's first moves was to fire the entire Alberta Health Services board. She said it was because they completely messed up the healthcare system with their inefficiencies that lead to the healthcare crisis we experienced during Covid. She also said getting rid of the board would streamline the extravagant cost of their salaries by hiring one person to deal with all of Alberta’s healthcare. A year and some later how many different healthcare boards do we have? Is it 5 or 6 now, each responsible for a specific area of healthcare like acute care, long term care, etc. etc., and each being paid for their service? See what I mean when I refer to Smith's royal screw-ups? Don't put ideas into Danielle's head, please!
Privatization is but one means to an end. The "what" always matters more than the "how". I suspect your concern is over potential job losses. Efficiency is the objective, so job losses while unfortunate, would be the objective.
I'm only proposing centralization of functions like finance and IT that have little impact local circumstances.
First of all what's works for City Schools may not work for rural areas.
If you centralize the purchasing for that building maintenance as you put it, now you've got one huge company, that is taking care of this service, squeezing out any small companies that may do a good, if not better job, than the big guys do for a little bit more and there goes your small businesses down the toilet.
I thought the idea was to support small businesses here in Alberta?
The red tape that would be involved to deal with one board, to manage all the schools would be so long, that you would never get things done, when you need them.
Priority would always go to the bigger schools. They have the higher headcount.
And likely the rural areas would end up paying higher prices for their janitorial services, because they'd be grouped in with the city ones and their prices would go up.
It would look like we were saving money because the large institutions, probably wouldn't pay quite as much, but they make it back on the guys that were paying less, before they became part of the group, and then some. Extra cost for travel time, accommodations if necessary. I could go on. Not all that would be covered. It would be left up to the town to pay for it.
And even worse, the companies that would be hired, would probably be in the pocket of some MLA, where they get Kickbacks for giving them the work, especially because they no longer have to take cheapest price quotes, and you don't have to have any special qualifications anymore, to become a vendor for the government.
All the corrupt crap did Danielle Smith and her group of Minions have implemented into legislation. And no rules anymore about personal friends, or companies that you have an alignment with, not being allowed to quote.
So public and separate are only two boards. The other guys are on their own because they need to be, or they would never get anything done, or they wouldn't get the extra little touch, that you get from a private company that's small, in comparison to a giant company that does shit work, because they hire cheap labor.
It sounds like you are in favour of even more privatization than our Premier has already done. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Centralization of institutions like education doesn't serve communities well. There's loss of the individual needs on a local level that results from blanket policies and funding. School boards ensure policies and funding meet the needs of the schools in that area.
Centralization too often leads to privatization. Outsourcing services to private companies takes away local jobs that bring prosperity to the region. Centralization causes a lack of local involvement in decision-making. Who do parents go to with concerns or suggestions? Healthcare and education used to be centralized. It didn't work. That's why they became decentralized in the first place. Besides that I feel certain Smith and her Education minister would royally screw up the process of centralizing education even more than expected.
For example, one of Smith's first moves was to fire the entire Alberta Health Services board. She said it was because they completely messed up the healthcare system with their inefficiencies that lead to the healthcare crisis we experienced during Covid. She also said getting rid of the board would streamline the extravagant cost of their salaries by hiring one person to deal with all of Alberta’s healthcare. A year and some later how many different healthcare boards do we have? Is it 5 or 6 now, each responsible for a specific area of healthcare like acute care, long term care, etc. etc., and each being paid for their service? See what I mean when I refer to Smith's royal screw-ups? Don't put ideas into Danielle's head, please!
It sounds like you are in favour of even more privatization than our Premier has already done. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Centralization of institutions like education doesn't serve communities well. There's loss of the individual needs on a local level that results from blanket policies and funding. School boards ensure policies and funding meet the needs of the schools in that area.
Centralization too often leads to privatization. Outsourcing services to private companies takes away local jobs that bring prosperity to the region. Centralization causes a lack of local involvement in decision-making. Who do parents go to with concerns or suggestions? Healthcare and education used to be centralized. It didn't work. That's why they became decentralized in the first place. Besides that I feel certain Smith and her Education minister would royally screw up the process of centralizing education even more than expected.
For example, one of Smith's first moves was to fire the entire Alberta Health Services board. She said it was because they completely messed up the healthcare system with their inefficiencies that lead to the healthcare crisis we experienced during Covid. She also said getting rid of the board would streamline the extravagant cost of their salaries by hiring one person to deal with all of Alberta’s healthcare. A year and some later how many different healthcare boards do we have? Is it 5 or 6 now, each responsible for a specific area of healthcare like acute care, long term care, etc. etc., and each being paid for their service? See what I mean when I refer to Smith's royal screw-ups? Don't put ideas into Danielle's head, please!
Scary stuff but I'm somewhat cheered to realize we're halfway through this horror now at least, with some possibility of respite.
That and what's happened in the States, not to mention what is GOING to happen as a result (talk about horror, seriously) is that conservative's cover has been officially blown once and for all along with any semblance of credibility in governance of ANY modern democracy ANYTIME, but particularly in the context of climate change.
Their open denial of science should have disqualified them long ago when Harper announced the muzzling of scientists, an example of the Reform conservatives' rogue and surprisingly effective strategy of doing shockingly unprecedented things one after another, even pre-Trump, and in "Proud Boy" fashion with elbows out and NO consultation or collaboration, leaving everyone gaping in a sort of awe at the nerve. Strongman style in other words, like Putin.
Turns out this is how you fundamentally alter a liberal democratic society (we never say "conservative democracy" for a reason it turns out)-- by hiding in plain sight, weakening and/or capturing institutions and conventions one by one, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, starting with school boards and municipalities, because after all, you WON, (so in that case always fair and square of course) and the all-important economy was the perfect Trojan horse. That fiscal superiority that was touted at first has now been stripped away too, leaving just the avidity of ideology on a par with any serious cult.
As Timothy Snyder wrote in "On Tyranny," "Post-truth is pre-fascism."
We're now there with the help of the internet, and which side will be using "deep-fakes" and algorithms to the max I wonder?
So it's binary now, and simple as ABC, ANYTHING BUT CONSERVATIVES, or "cons" as many of the more astute among us have been calling them for a while now....
Absolutely agree, but would add that the UCP (not just Smith) do all this because they can. Our colonial system of government is designed to allow such concentration of power. We need to send and the rest of them from government where can no longer do any harm, of course, but we also need to take a hard look at how to reform the system so that no one, not just Conservatives, can give themselves such power.
For example it should go without saying that pension funds should be independent from government, and this should be by law. And the same goes for the Heritage Trust Fund, which belongs to all Albertans. Why should the government of the day how to invest it, or withdraw funds at will.
Pension funds should be run by the unions, which would mean an end to taxpayer guaranteed pension benefits. DB pensions are an anachronism from the early 20th Century. An individual's working life is much more variable as their health and value in the job market are difficult to predict. ETF's and other financial innovations provide almost as many investment options to individuals as available to pension managers. Finally, the assumptions of DB pensions are insulting to modern family arrangements. Multi-income households do not need to inherit their spouse's pension. Inviduals should be able to access their pension savings for other life events like illness. Individuals who do not live into retirement or only for a short period time unfairly subsidize those who retire early and live long.
Defined benefit means that the pension you get does not depend on the vagaries of the markets or on the investment decisions by someone who does not have the fiduciary duty to protect my interests, and that is as it should be IMO. If I want to take my chances with the markets for my retirement fund I'll manage it myself.
A pension is similar to an insurance scheme. It's not a savings account for you to dip into. There are other mechanisms for that. Your contributions today pay for pensions today. It's not a subsidy. Similarly you can pay for car insurance all your life and never have an accident. That doesn't mean you're subsidizing others.
Alfredo Louro: There is so much problems with a provincial pension plan for Alberta, but Danielle Smith is still forging ahead with it. She even got Stephen Harper to chair AIMCo, despite his faulty track record in the UCP. The income trust affair, set people back a whopping $35 billion.
Love the Thatcher quote, I hadn't heard that one before. I had assumed that the governing choices were being made based on conversations the Premier overheard at the grocery store or coffee shop. Glad to know they have a system!
Yes, ideological right wing types are always very good at getting into power, but very bad at governing. They end up trying to control everything and falling apart. What is sad about it is that more "progressive" opposition usually have no clue about how to respond. When power finally drops in their lap after the screw head's failure they are slow and tenuous about repairing the damage.
I would actually dispute that. In just four years and after an unexpected victory, Rachel Notley and the NDP worked wonders. And would have continued to do so had we re-elected them. They had to contend with 44 years of uninterrupted damage by the Conservatives.
The Notley govt is the perfect example of what I was talking about. If they worked wonders, why didn't they get reelected? Always get this from die hard NDP loyalists. So incompetent they do not know what competence looks like.
Gosh. The Notley government was arguably the most competent government this province has ever had. Competence has little to do with gaining a majority government, in Alberta and elsewhere. And as I'm sure you're aware, the NDP has the largest opposition caucus ever, and the most diverse caucus and most representative of Alberta. Don't tell me none of that counts. Thanks to the four years of NDP government, Alberta is now irreversibly a two-party system, and we have a serious alternative to the conservative clown show. You can grumble on the sidelines if you want, I'm going to give them my active support and work to defeat the conservatives.
Observe. Like a typical true believer, guy is incapable of mentally processing any contradiction. Really a waste of time replying to him. So, no further response from me. Anything from him will go unopened to junk.
Tim Rourke: You can't explain what the NDP did wrong. However, what the Alberta PCs did wrong, is easily explained.
- the drastic reduction of Peter Lougheed's oil royalty rates, to peanuts, which resulted in a loss of nearly $600 billion.
- an improperly funded Heritage Savings Trust Fund, which was never built up, as Peter Lougheed intended it to be.
- a quarter of a trillion cost to handle the orphan well mess in Alberta.
An abysmal tax rate structure, both with corporate taxes, and the flat tax, which set us back even $200 billion.
- a whole mess of very costly scandals.
- the $67 million Gainer's scandal.
- the $600 million NovaTel scandal.
- the $240 million MagCan scandal.
- the $180 million Millar West Pulp Mill scandal.
- the Swan Hills waste treatment plant scandal, that now is exceeding $5 billion, because of constant annual bailouts.
- the $480 million West Edmonton Mall scandal.
- the $400 million BSE bailout scandal.
- the $125 million ambulance amalgamation scandal.
- the $100 million AISH scandal.
- the electricity deregulation scandal, which drove up power costs immensely, and is $34.5 billion.
- the luxury penthouse at the government building.
- expensive plane junkets.
- the $26 billion Northwest upgrader scandal, with $9 billion in added costs.
- $2 billion wasted on carbon capture and storage.
- a $20,000 cellphone bill.
- a $10 billion lawsuit scandal, against the tobacco companies.
There is also a very massive infrastructure debt, a lingering healthcare and education deficit, all lingering from Ralph Klein, which has a price tag of $40 billion, or even greater. Somehow, this is Rachel Notley's fault. Give me a break!
Alright! I have tried to avoid this because I know Lisa does not like it, but I must unleash my mighty blog post upon the forces of ignorance on this comment space. In it I explain in great detail exactly why the so called progressive forces keep losing to the IDU types.
By the way, I do not live in Alberta. I left thirty years ago. Once upon a time I was a member of a federal NDP riding association in Toronto. I have become totally sick of the NDP everywhere and of having nothing at all to vote for. Pardon me, Lisa. https://www.competentsincharge.ca/trumped-up/
As if "working wonders" even remotely comes into it anymore.
Why on earth did Trump get elected again? And you can't ignore a right wing that has lost its mind and morphed into the Joe Rogan, bad boy, bros versus hos reality where the likes of Elon Musk, Matt Gaetz, and other crazy, entitled guys are currently cavorting to celebrate their new, real power.
Tim Rourke: Rachel Notley and the NDP didn't get re-elected, and for different reasons. It's because the UCP cheated and lied to get into power. The Kamikaze Campaign happened. In 2023, Danielle Smith lied to get the UCP re-elected.
It is impossible to blame a government that was in power for only a single four year term for what the Alberta PCs did wrong for most of their nearly 44 year term. Scandal after scandal, that wasted billions upon billions of dollars, abysmal oil and corporate tax rates, letting infrastructure deteriorate, while leaving core services harmed by intense, and unnecessary cutbacks. Oil prices then took another severe tumble, when Jim Prentice was premier. There is no rainy day fund from Peter Lougheed either. It is absolutely foolish to blame Rachel Notley and the NDP for this.
Under the UCP, we are seeing a similar style of governance. This isn't any good whatsoever.
Because the Notley government made AB's economy less competitive through increased regulatory burden, increased taxes, did nothing to reduce the deficit and oversaw a significant increase in provincially funded headcount.
A synopsis of the work of the Notley government. Facts are the best defense against the kind of uninformed comments we see here.
Alberta NDP highlights and accomplishments:
- inherited $5 BILLION in debt from Prentice government.
- banned corporate and union donations.
- brought farm safety up to code long overdue and in line with every other employer in Alberta by passing Bill 6.
- increased corporate tax from 10% to 12%. Less corporate welfare and only applies to profits. Then lowered small business tax by 1% in 2017 so 10% LESS.
- reviewed royalties like everyone asked and basically left them alone.
- $6.2 billion for energy jobs through the carbon tax program. Another $3.4 billion for rebates. Farms are exempt and large emitters like oil sands are exempt and flight out of Alberta are exempt.
- progressive tax system vs flat tax. Still lowest taxes in Canada and lower than Klein era.
- $35 billion in infrastructure jobs over next 5 years underway. Creating jobs we asked for and need.
- left our healthcare intact and no $1000 yearly fees like the PCs wanted.
- reversed planned PC govt. funding cuts to education, healthcare and public services.
- fighting for pipelines to both coasts
- AND got two major pipeline approvals and counting.
- added 2 big royalty incentives for drillers that take effect immediately.
- added beer tax and grant to protect Alberta small brewers. Later added local distilleries and wineries to the deal.
- progressively raising minimum wage to $15/hr lifting people out of poverty.
- tore up the federal leap manifesto.
- added Alberta jobs grant. Alberta pays 2/3rds of any employees training up to $10,000 per individual.
- suing private power companies who colluded and made a secret deal.
- fired the entire board of agriculture financial services after ridiculous spending was discovered.
- passed transgender rights bill.
- passed essential services legislation. Allows strikes and lockouts by public sector workers, while still requiring ‘essential’ public services to be available to the general public during such labour disruptions.
- passed the SHARP program to provide home equity loans to seniors to help repair and stay in their homes.
- added public servants to the sunshine list for earners over $125,000.
- amended school bargaining by adding an employer bargaining association.
- added new rule that allows victims of violence to end their leases early without penalty to leave an unsafe home.
- froze post secondary tuition and fees for two years.
- passed the predatory lending act.
- Payday lending: Stopped 600 percent predatory interest rates on payday loans to prevent Albertans from spiraling into poverty. Alberta now has the country’s strongest protections and lowest interest rates for borrowers.
- Door-to-door sales: Prohibited misleading, aggressive sales tactics by banning door-to-door sales of energy products and services, including furnaces, hot water tanks, air conditioners, windows, energy audits and electricity and natural gas contracts.
- Electricity price cap: Introduced a price cap to make life more affordable and ensure electricity bills are fair.
- New home buyer protection: Introduced a builder licensing framework to protect consumers as well as the reputation of good builders.
- extended bars patio hours.
- $239 million for provincial park upgrades.
- spent $647 million fighting Ft Mac fire and getting residence extended EI.
- said no support to Trudeau carbon tax without coastal pipeline concessions.
- fixed the Klein power contracts and worked out a very good deal to phase out coal plants and convert them to ng. Costing us nothing. They get paid through a pay structure that uses the money they pay as emissions to buy them out.
- added grant program for non profits so they don't pay carbon tax.
- protected the castle wilderness area by creating a provincial park and limiting off-highway vehicles (ohv) use.
- cut CEO pay, bonuses and perks at 23 Alberta corps, agencies and commission
Denise L'Heureux: There was no $5 billion debt inherited from the Alberta PCs. It's far more than that. No point in me reposting my comment, but you can see for yourself what has happened. We have no rainy day fund, which Peter Lougheed created. It's gone.
This is a story UCP supporters like to believe - that Notley added "86,000" public employees to the provincial payroll. I've never seen anyone provide a source for this number.
Conservative narratives are inferior because of their rigidity and how desperately (and avidly) they cling to them, no matter WHAT, because theirs are the most closed minds, while liberals' minds are, as the word says, more OPEN. More free thinking, hence more critical thinking.
And tell me, WHICH approach is more suited to change, i.e. the constant in life? And therefore to governance of ANY democracy in 2024?
And btw, in that vein, what IS the Liberal "narrative" then?
Greg Hooper: They can't. However, look at the astronomical size of the UCP's government, and their staff count for all their MLAs, and the premier. Dave Couryner (the name is close enough), mentioned the numerous hires the UCP had, which is massive, the staff count for the UCP MLAs, is massive, as it is for the premier, which is nearly 35, and the cabin umber for the UCP is also gargantuan,at nearly 35.
I don't think they're slow and tenuous I think they're being careful, and when you have such a garbage heap to clean up, you have so much to do, that it takes time to decide what should you do first!
What I see is 40 Years of decimation of our health care since Ralph Klein years. The first attempt at trying to repair and get the system running adequately was squashed because she made some not so great choices, that affected the rural areas and they squeezed her out in the next election.
Slow and steady wins the race. But you need to give the new gov't, who has never governed before a chance to figure out how to make things better, while maintaining everything else, that has to be looked after.
They'd just got their feet wet. Rachel actually bought land and was going to break ground to build a new hospital in the southwest of Edmonton, which would have been an enormous help with the bed shortage problems, that could have alleviated all these waylaid surgeries and everything. But Kenny shut it all down. Why because he needs people to feel like there's no hope, so he can change over to a private system.
Then Danielle stepped up told everybody she was going to fix everything. Then she took off like a wild wolf running amok, attacking everything, trying to take it down, crippling everything. It's like a wolf pretending to be a sheep.
Now the wolf has taken off it's cover, showing it's true colors, and we're at the mercy of her and her cabinet until the next election. And she's going to try with all her might, to make people believe, that she is going to help them in these rural areas, to get them to trust her again. So when the next election comes they won't vote for NDP or anybody else!
Denise L'Heureux: What do we see under the UCP: Scandals galore, that often cost us billions of dollars. Pipelines to nowhere, giving billions of dollars to oil companies to cleanup what they are obligated to do to begin with, economic witholding, which drove up power prices to record highs in Canada, accounting mistake losses, misappropriation of money, expensive plane junkets, so much corporate welfare, and the list goes on.
Conflicts of interest occur under the UCP, along with a blatant disregard for a healthy democracy, core services are being attacked, and torn apart, the environment is being harmed, poverty rates are climbing, costs of utilities are not decreasing, jobs are lost, and inflation is leading the nation. Some government the UCP are.
All of which merely supports my original thesis. We get these lunatic right wing governments when the progressive side of the equation is a dead loss. At least in Alberta there is hope. Naheed Nenshi at least knows how things get done. He will not need for years to learn to find his ass with both hands.
I don't understand why the citizens of this province can't stand up and take our government to court for their corrupt actions? Are they not supposed to stay in their own lane! Governing doesn't mean taking over everything. And why do we sit back and just let them do this without challenging it? Do we not have any legal people in this province that are against this corruption and manipulation of our laws and interfering in businesses that are supposed to be self-governed, because they're a private entity?
I mean when you hire a brokerage firm to invest your money and a bunch of different stuff, can you just willy-nilly fire the board of that company because you're not happy with the way they've been managing your funds? I think not. Your choice is to find another brokerage firm and transfer your money.
How on God's green earth can a government, intervene and do what she did without repercussions or Consequences? I don't understand is she God, or the emperor? Like why do we not have the rights to stop her from making these corrupt choices? Like do we have no recourse, on doing things to stop her or are we just stuck waving our hands and saying no no no that's not acceptable don't do that, slap her on the wrist and then let her keep going?
It's like teaching a toddler what she can and can't do, the difference between right and wrong, so she has good morals when she grows up!
Why are we at the mercy of her with no option to do anything other than protest! I mean a lot of people in this province aren't healthy anymore and protesting is something that is not easily done, if at all for them.
Again, a pension fund is not an investment fund. It's an insurance scheme. The "payout", as you call it, has nothing to do with financial risk, and everything to do with what the pensioner needs to live. Think car insurance. When you have an accident the payout is simply the cost of repairing or replacing your car.
Of course pension funds, just like insurance companies, don't just sit on the money. They invest it so it will generate revenue, to serve as a buffer and to reduce contributions. But the essential mechanism is that workers today pay pensions today.
Remembering my father once talking about the symbolism of the parliamentary dining areas in Ottawa. They all eat together and are members of the same club. Provincial setting are no different except the UCP offer a limited menu and while members of the same club there is a tier system with no options if you’re not a carnivore.
Glad the bunker is productive. Lots to unpack. Can Smith live up to reducing the size of govt at this time when all levels of government are spending massive amounts of money & growing public involvement in so many things? We shall see.
I still view Thatcher as the greatest politician of my life time. Not only was she a viscous debater who could spar with many opponents at the same time leaving them cowering in the corner, she was an iconclast despised by both the working and elite classes. She turned around a mess and worked to bring communism to its knees. The social media age likley prevents such leaders from ascending to power again.
"Communism?" Wrong country. Unions aren't that; they're an antidote to corporate hegemony and unbridled greed, also the reason for the "affordability crisis," not governments. We've got "end-stage capitalism" is the thing, and it's destroying society. Big tech is very much at the top of the list on that front...
Western society already has multiple layers of worker protection:
-open and competitive labor markets
-labor legislation
-tort law
Given the above, unions are redundant. Public sector unions are especially redundant as their employers are monopolies with near infinite ability to raise revenue.
So what? The nature of work has changed. Jobs rely more on individual experience and motivation and less on commoditized, low skill work. A system that treats employees as equal members of a group is both insulting and inefficient. This is especially true in the public sector. Unions may have had a role decades ago, but they are now a huge barrier to innovation and thus livi standards.
As the Federal Liberals and previous AB governments have demonstrated, the models for public service delivery no longer work regardless of funding. Delivery is too inflexible (ex. monopolized service providers beholden to unions) and accountability too nebulous (ex. Federal participation in Provincial service delivery like health, K-12 education, post-secondary, infrastructure and housing). The Feds need to largely vacate these areas, dramatically reduce taxes and allow the Provinces to raise revenue directly.
There is a useful question to ask when in a position of power/authority:
What would our political opponents do with the power we could grant ourselves, or the precedent we could set for ourselves?
The attack on public education at all levels continues. Add Mintz to LaGrange and Nicolaides,, the latter two having failed in previous cabinet positions, as leaders of our 'education for the future' planning, and we are well on the way to having the most uneducated citizenry in the country , perfect for the UCP at election time. We may have lots of folks able only to build bunkers though.
The "attacks" haven't gone far enough. Why doesn't AB Education centralize functions like HR, Legal, Finance, Purchasing and IT to reduce admin costs? Does the province really need so many school boards? The number could easily be cut by 2/3 simply by merging the Public and Separate Boards, consolidating some rural boards and folding the Boards around the cities into the city Boards. Why can't building maintenance be outsourced?
I guess you don't know any serious Catholics, and take no note of how religious the UCP is, starting with Kenney, which is why charter schools are their fave, not the public school system as cornerstone of democracy kind of thing. It's what has taken over the States where a majority of charter schools are religious, and coincidentally has just seen a massive victory for Christian Nationalism finally in "Project 2025" that guts public education in favour of more of the Bible in government. They're even aiming to change their precious constitution....
https://www.desmog.com/2024/10/23/trump-project-2025-tim-dunn-crownquest-convention-states/
Also not coincidentally, America's exemplary democracy is also on the rope; theocracies just aren't compatible.
I went to a Catholic school in Alberta. They are a leftover from the tired Protestant - Catholic battles of the 1800s.
My kids attended non-religous Charter schools in the US. They offered specialized programs like STEM, and reweded exceptional teachers with merit based pay.
And how is that going for them now?
They're being forced to have the Ten Commandments on the wall in their classrooms, buying a cheap garbage Bible that's made in China for $60 and forcing each student to have one! Like who wants to have anything to do with that? I sure don't and I grew up Catholic.
There are so many people in this province center from different denominations that don't want their child subjected to religion and public schools are not supposed to do that!
And my daughter has her kids in a public school and they are well adjusted, and learning at a rapid speed, probably better than we did in the Catholic system.
And we don't need a charter school for the kids to do well, just funding would be nice. When they give additional funding to Charter Schools they take it away from the public schools.
So what do they do? They try to discourage people from doing the public school, so they can get them to go to the Charter Schools, where those guys can charge you extra money, for anything outside of the bare minimum, with no consequences! And they're free to say no to anybody, and they don't have to report to the government what they're doing!
It's a farce!
It sounds like you are in favour of even more privatization than our Premier has already done. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Centralization of institutions like education doesn't serve communities well. There's loss of the individual needs on a local level that results from blanket policies and funding. School boards ensure policies and funding meet the needs of the schools in that area.
Centralization too often leads to privatization. Outsourcing services to private companies takes away local jobs that bring prosperity to the region. Centralization causes a lack of local involvement in decision-making. Who do parents go to with concerns or suggestions? Healthcare and education used to be centralized. It didn't work. That's why they became decentralized in the first place. Besides that I feel certain Smith and her Education minister would royally screw up the process of centralizing education even more than expected.
For example, one of Smith's first moves was to fire the entire Alberta Health Services board. She said it was because they completely messed up the healthcare system with their inefficiencies that lead to the healthcare crisis we experienced during Covid. She also said getting rid of the board would streamline the extravagant cost of their salaries by hiring one person to deal with all of Alberta’s healthcare. A year and some later how many different healthcare boards do we have? Is it 5 or 6 now, each responsible for a specific area of healthcare like acute care, long term care, etc. etc., and each being paid for their service? See what I mean when I refer to Smith's royal screw-ups? Don't put ideas into Danielle's head, please!
Privatization is but one means to an end. The "what" always matters more than the "how". I suspect your concern is over potential job losses. Efficiency is the objective, so job losses while unfortunate, would be the objective.
I'm only proposing centralization of functions like finance and IT that have little impact local circumstances.
First of all what's works for City Schools may not work for rural areas.
If you centralize the purchasing for that building maintenance as you put it, now you've got one huge company, that is taking care of this service, squeezing out any small companies that may do a good, if not better job, than the big guys do for a little bit more and there goes your small businesses down the toilet.
I thought the idea was to support small businesses here in Alberta?
The red tape that would be involved to deal with one board, to manage all the schools would be so long, that you would never get things done, when you need them.
Priority would always go to the bigger schools. They have the higher headcount.
And likely the rural areas would end up paying higher prices for their janitorial services, because they'd be grouped in with the city ones and their prices would go up.
It would look like we were saving money because the large institutions, probably wouldn't pay quite as much, but they make it back on the guys that were paying less, before they became part of the group, and then some. Extra cost for travel time, accommodations if necessary. I could go on. Not all that would be covered. It would be left up to the town to pay for it.
And even worse, the companies that would be hired, would probably be in the pocket of some MLA, where they get Kickbacks for giving them the work, especially because they no longer have to take cheapest price quotes, and you don't have to have any special qualifications anymore, to become a vendor for the government.
All the corrupt crap did Danielle Smith and her group of Minions have implemented into legislation. And no rules anymore about personal friends, or companies that you have an alignment with, not being allowed to quote.
So public and separate are only two boards. The other guys are on their own because they need to be, or they would never get anything done, or they wouldn't get the extra little touch, that you get from a private company that's small, in comparison to a giant company that does shit work, because they hire cheap labor.
It sounds like you are in favour of even more privatization than our Premier has already done. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Centralization of institutions like education doesn't serve communities well. There's loss of the individual needs on a local level that results from blanket policies and funding. School boards ensure policies and funding meet the needs of the schools in that area.
Centralization too often leads to privatization. Outsourcing services to private companies takes away local jobs that bring prosperity to the region. Centralization causes a lack of local involvement in decision-making. Who do parents go to with concerns or suggestions? Healthcare and education used to be centralized. It didn't work. That's why they became decentralized in the first place. Besides that I feel certain Smith and her Education minister would royally screw up the process of centralizing education even more than expected.
For example, one of Smith's first moves was to fire the entire Alberta Health Services board. She said it was because they completely messed up the healthcare system with their inefficiencies that lead to the healthcare crisis we experienced during Covid. She also said getting rid of the board would streamline the extravagant cost of their salaries by hiring one person to deal with all of Alberta’s healthcare. A year and some later how many different healthcare boards do we have? Is it 5 or 6 now, each responsible for a specific area of healthcare like acute care, long term care, etc. etc., and each being paid for their service? See what I mean when I refer to Smith's royal screw-ups? Don't put ideas into Danielle's head, please!
It sounds like you are in favour of even more privatization than our Premier has already done. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Centralization of institutions like education doesn't serve communities well. There's loss of the individual needs on a local level that results from blanket policies and funding. School boards ensure policies and funding meet the needs of the schools in that area.
Centralization too often leads to privatization. Outsourcing services to private companies takes away local jobs that bring prosperity to the region. Centralization causes a lack of local involvement in decision-making. Who do parents go to with concerns or suggestions? Healthcare and education used to be centralized. It didn't work. That's why they became decentralized in the first place. Besides that I feel certain Smith and her Education minister would royally screw up the process of centralizing education even more than expected.
For example, one of Smith's first moves was to fire the entire Alberta Health Services board. She said it was because they completely messed up the healthcare system with their inefficiencies that lead to the healthcare crisis we experienced during Covid. She also said getting rid of the board would streamline the extravagant cost of their salaries by hiring one person to deal with all of Alberta’s healthcare. A year and some later how many different healthcare boards do we have? Is it 5 or 6 now, each responsible for a specific area of healthcare like acute care, long term care, etc. etc., and each being paid for their service? See what I mean when I refer to Smith's royal screw-ups? Don't put ideas into Danielle's head, please!
Doug: What you are proposing will make things worse.
Whenever a government use ideology as a response to an issue, whenever, I am reminded that the root of ideology and
Idiotic is the same: idiot.
Scary stuff but I'm somewhat cheered to realize we're halfway through this horror now at least, with some possibility of respite.
That and what's happened in the States, not to mention what is GOING to happen as a result (talk about horror, seriously) is that conservative's cover has been officially blown once and for all along with any semblance of credibility in governance of ANY modern democracy ANYTIME, but particularly in the context of climate change.
Their open denial of science should have disqualified them long ago when Harper announced the muzzling of scientists, an example of the Reform conservatives' rogue and surprisingly effective strategy of doing shockingly unprecedented things one after another, even pre-Trump, and in "Proud Boy" fashion with elbows out and NO consultation or collaboration, leaving everyone gaping in a sort of awe at the nerve. Strongman style in other words, like Putin.
Turns out this is how you fundamentally alter a liberal democratic society (we never say "conservative democracy" for a reason it turns out)-- by hiding in plain sight, weakening and/or capturing institutions and conventions one by one, jurisdiction by jurisdiction, starting with school boards and municipalities, because after all, you WON, (so in that case always fair and square of course) and the all-important economy was the perfect Trojan horse. That fiscal superiority that was touted at first has now been stripped away too, leaving just the avidity of ideology on a par with any serious cult.
As Timothy Snyder wrote in "On Tyranny," "Post-truth is pre-fascism."
We're now there with the help of the internet, and which side will be using "deep-fakes" and algorithms to the max I wonder?
So it's binary now, and simple as ABC, ANYTHING BUT CONSERVATIVES, or "cons" as many of the more astute among us have been calling them for a while now....
Absolutely agree, but would add that the UCP (not just Smith) do all this because they can. Our colonial system of government is designed to allow such concentration of power. We need to send and the rest of them from government where can no longer do any harm, of course, but we also need to take a hard look at how to reform the system so that no one, not just Conservatives, can give themselves such power.
For example it should go without saying that pension funds should be independent from government, and this should be by law. And the same goes for the Heritage Trust Fund, which belongs to all Albertans. Why should the government of the day how to invest it, or withdraw funds at will.
Pension funds should be run by the unions, which would mean an end to taxpayer guaranteed pension benefits. DB pensions are an anachronism from the early 20th Century. An individual's working life is much more variable as their health and value in the job market are difficult to predict. ETF's and other financial innovations provide almost as many investment options to individuals as available to pension managers. Finally, the assumptions of DB pensions are insulting to modern family arrangements. Multi-income households do not need to inherit their spouse's pension. Inviduals should be able to access their pension savings for other life events like illness. Individuals who do not live into retirement or only for a short period time unfairly subsidize those who retire early and live long.
Defined benefit means that the pension you get does not depend on the vagaries of the markets or on the investment decisions by someone who does not have the fiduciary duty to protect my interests, and that is as it should be IMO. If I want to take my chances with the markets for my retirement fund I'll manage it myself.
A pension is similar to an insurance scheme. It's not a savings account for you to dip into. There are other mechanisms for that. Your contributions today pay for pensions today. It's not a subsidy. Similarly you can pay for car insurance all your life and never have an accident. That doesn't mean you're subsidizing others.
Alfredo Louro: There is so much problems with a provincial pension plan for Alberta, but Danielle Smith is still forging ahead with it. She even got Stephen Harper to chair AIMCo, despite his faulty track record in the UCP. The income trust affair, set people back a whopping $35 billion.
Sure. Accepting less risk also mean less reward. DB pensions should pay out far less as they are certain.
Love the Thatcher quote, I hadn't heard that one before. I had assumed that the governing choices were being made based on conversations the Premier overheard at the grocery store or coffee shop. Glad to know they have a system!
Yes, ideological right wing types are always very good at getting into power, but very bad at governing. They end up trying to control everything and falling apart. What is sad about it is that more "progressive" opposition usually have no clue about how to respond. When power finally drops in their lap after the screw head's failure they are slow and tenuous about repairing the damage.
I would actually dispute that. In just four years and after an unexpected victory, Rachel Notley and the NDP worked wonders. And would have continued to do so had we re-elected them. They had to contend with 44 years of uninterrupted damage by the Conservatives.
The Notley govt is the perfect example of what I was talking about. If they worked wonders, why didn't they get reelected? Always get this from die hard NDP loyalists. So incompetent they do not know what competence looks like.
Gosh. The Notley government was arguably the most competent government this province has ever had. Competence has little to do with gaining a majority government, in Alberta and elsewhere. And as I'm sure you're aware, the NDP has the largest opposition caucus ever, and the most diverse caucus and most representative of Alberta. Don't tell me none of that counts. Thanks to the four years of NDP government, Alberta is now irreversibly a two-party system, and we have a serious alternative to the conservative clown show. You can grumble on the sidelines if you want, I'm going to give them my active support and work to defeat the conservatives.
Observe. Like a typical true believer, guy is incapable of mentally processing any contradiction. Really a waste of time replying to him. So, no further response from me. Anything from him will go unopened to junk.
Tim Rourke: You can't explain what the NDP did wrong. However, what the Alberta PCs did wrong, is easily explained.
- the drastic reduction of Peter Lougheed's oil royalty rates, to peanuts, which resulted in a loss of nearly $600 billion.
- an improperly funded Heritage Savings Trust Fund, which was never built up, as Peter Lougheed intended it to be.
- a quarter of a trillion cost to handle the orphan well mess in Alberta.
An abysmal tax rate structure, both with corporate taxes, and the flat tax, which set us back even $200 billion.
- a whole mess of very costly scandals.
- the $67 million Gainer's scandal.
- the $600 million NovaTel scandal.
- the $240 million MagCan scandal.
- the $180 million Millar West Pulp Mill scandal.
- the Swan Hills waste treatment plant scandal, that now is exceeding $5 billion, because of constant annual bailouts.
- the $480 million West Edmonton Mall scandal.
- the $400 million BSE bailout scandal.
- the $125 million ambulance amalgamation scandal.
- the $100 million AISH scandal.
- the electricity deregulation scandal, which drove up power costs immensely, and is $34.5 billion.
- the luxury penthouse at the government building.
- expensive plane junkets.
- the $26 billion Northwest upgrader scandal, with $9 billion in added costs.
- $2 billion wasted on carbon capture and storage.
- a $20,000 cellphone bill.
- a $10 billion lawsuit scandal, against the tobacco companies.
There is also a very massive infrastructure debt, a lingering healthcare and education deficit, all lingering from Ralph Klein, which has a price tag of $40 billion, or even greater. Somehow, this is Rachel Notley's fault. Give me a break!
So you'd vote UCP then?! He's not wrong.
Tris Pargeter: I settled things, and explained exactly what happened.
Alright! I have tried to avoid this because I know Lisa does not like it, but I must unleash my mighty blog post upon the forces of ignorance on this comment space. In it I explain in great detail exactly why the so called progressive forces keep losing to the IDU types.
By the way, I do not live in Alberta. I left thirty years ago. Once upon a time I was a member of a federal NDP riding association in Toronto. I have become totally sick of the NDP everywhere and of having nothing at all to vote for. Pardon me, Lisa. https://www.competentsincharge.ca/trumped-up/
Now, goodnight, all.
As if "working wonders" even remotely comes into it anymore.
Why on earth did Trump get elected again? And you can't ignore a right wing that has lost its mind and morphed into the Joe Rogan, bad boy, bros versus hos reality where the likes of Elon Musk, Matt Gaetz, and other crazy, entitled guys are currently cavorting to celebrate their new, real power.
Tim Rourke: Rachel Notley and the NDP didn't get re-elected, and for different reasons. It's because the UCP cheated and lied to get into power. The Kamikaze Campaign happened. In 2023, Danielle Smith lied to get the UCP re-elected.
It is impossible to blame a government that was in power for only a single four year term for what the Alberta PCs did wrong for most of their nearly 44 year term. Scandal after scandal, that wasted billions upon billions of dollars, abysmal oil and corporate tax rates, letting infrastructure deteriorate, while leaving core services harmed by intense, and unnecessary cutbacks. Oil prices then took another severe tumble, when Jim Prentice was premier. There is no rainy day fund from Peter Lougheed either. It is absolutely foolish to blame Rachel Notley and the NDP for this.
Under the UCP, we are seeing a similar style of governance. This isn't any good whatsoever.
Even if not perfect , At least the NDP got to the end of their term
Because the Notley government made AB's economy less competitive through increased regulatory burden, increased taxes, did nothing to reduce the deficit and oversaw a significant increase in provincially funded headcount.
That's not true. She did alot for us.
What Rachel notley has done for us
A synopsis of the work of the Notley government. Facts are the best defense against the kind of uninformed comments we see here.
Alberta NDP highlights and accomplishments:
- inherited $5 BILLION in debt from Prentice government.
- banned corporate and union donations.
- brought farm safety up to code long overdue and in line with every other employer in Alberta by passing Bill 6.
- increased corporate tax from 10% to 12%. Less corporate welfare and only applies to profits. Then lowered small business tax by 1% in 2017 so 10% LESS.
- reviewed royalties like everyone asked and basically left them alone.
- $6.2 billion for energy jobs through the carbon tax program. Another $3.4 billion for rebates. Farms are exempt and large emitters like oil sands are exempt and flight out of Alberta are exempt.
- progressive tax system vs flat tax. Still lowest taxes in Canada and lower than Klein era.
- $35 billion in infrastructure jobs over next 5 years underway. Creating jobs we asked for and need.
- left our healthcare intact and no $1000 yearly fees like the PCs wanted.
- reversed planned PC govt. funding cuts to education, healthcare and public services.
- fighting for pipelines to both coasts
- AND got two major pipeline approvals and counting.
- added 2 big royalty incentives for drillers that take effect immediately.
- added beer tax and grant to protect Alberta small brewers. Later added local distilleries and wineries to the deal.
- progressively raising minimum wage to $15/hr lifting people out of poverty.
- tore up the federal leap manifesto.
- added Alberta jobs grant. Alberta pays 2/3rds of any employees training up to $10,000 per individual.
- suing private power companies who colluded and made a secret deal.
- fired the entire board of agriculture financial services after ridiculous spending was discovered.
- passed transgender rights bill.
- passed essential services legislation. Allows strikes and lockouts by public sector workers, while still requiring ‘essential’ public services to be available to the general public during such labour disruptions.
- passed the SHARP program to provide home equity loans to seniors to help repair and stay in their homes.
- added public servants to the sunshine list for earners over $125,000.
- amended school bargaining by adding an employer bargaining association.
- added new rule that allows victims of violence to end their leases early without penalty to leave an unsafe home.
- froze post secondary tuition and fees for two years.
- passed the predatory lending act.
- Payday lending: Stopped 600 percent predatory interest rates on payday loans to prevent Albertans from spiraling into poverty. Alberta now has the country’s strongest protections and lowest interest rates for borrowers.
- Door-to-door sales: Prohibited misleading, aggressive sales tactics by banning door-to-door sales of energy products and services, including furnaces, hot water tanks, air conditioners, windows, energy audits and electricity and natural gas contracts.
- Electricity price cap: Introduced a price cap to make life more affordable and ensure electricity bills are fair.
- New home buyer protection: Introduced a builder licensing framework to protect consumers as well as the reputation of good builders.
- extended bars patio hours.
- $239 million for provincial park upgrades.
- spent $647 million fighting Ft Mac fire and getting residence extended EI.
- said no support to Trudeau carbon tax without coastal pipeline concessions.
- fixed the Klein power contracts and worked out a very good deal to phase out coal plants and convert them to ng. Costing us nothing. They get paid through a pay structure that uses the money they pay as emissions to buy them out.
- added grant program for non profits so they don't pay carbon tax.
- protected the castle wilderness area by creating a provincial park and limiting off-highway vehicles (ohv) use.
- cut CEO pay, bonuses and perks at 23 Alberta corps, agencies and commission
Denise L'Heureux: There was no $5 billion debt inherited from the Alberta PCs. It's far more than that. No point in me reposting my comment, but you can see for yourself what has happened. We have no rainy day fund, which Peter Lougheed created. It's gone.
"Provincially funded HEADCOUNT?"
This is a story UCP supporters like to believe - that Notley added "86,000" public employees to the provincial payroll. I've never seen anyone provide a source for this number.
Conservative narratives are inferior because of their rigidity and how desperately (and avidly) they cling to them, no matter WHAT, because theirs are the most closed minds, while liberals' minds are, as the word says, more OPEN. More free thinking, hence more critical thinking.
And tell me, WHICH approach is more suited to change, i.e. the constant in life? And therefore to governance of ANY democracy in 2024?
And btw, in that vein, what IS the Liberal "narrative" then?
Greg Hooper: They can't. However, look at the astronomical size of the UCP's government, and their staff count for all their MLAs, and the premier. Dave Couryner (the name is close enough), mentioned the numerous hires the UCP had, which is massive, the staff count for the UCP MLAs, is massive, as it is for the premier, which is nearly 35, and the cabin umber for the UCP is also gargantuan,at nearly 35.
I don't think they're slow and tenuous I think they're being careful, and when you have such a garbage heap to clean up, you have so much to do, that it takes time to decide what should you do first!
What I see is 40 Years of decimation of our health care since Ralph Klein years. The first attempt at trying to repair and get the system running adequately was squashed because she made some not so great choices, that affected the rural areas and they squeezed her out in the next election.
Slow and steady wins the race. But you need to give the new gov't, who has never governed before a chance to figure out how to make things better, while maintaining everything else, that has to be looked after.
They'd just got their feet wet. Rachel actually bought land and was going to break ground to build a new hospital in the southwest of Edmonton, which would have been an enormous help with the bed shortage problems, that could have alleviated all these waylaid surgeries and everything. But Kenny shut it all down. Why because he needs people to feel like there's no hope, so he can change over to a private system.
Then Danielle stepped up told everybody she was going to fix everything. Then she took off like a wild wolf running amok, attacking everything, trying to take it down, crippling everything. It's like a wolf pretending to be a sheep.
Now the wolf has taken off it's cover, showing it's true colors, and we're at the mercy of her and her cabinet until the next election. And she's going to try with all her might, to make people believe, that she is going to help them in these rural areas, to get them to trust her again. So when the next election comes they won't vote for NDP or anybody else!
Denise L'Heureux: What do we see under the UCP: Scandals galore, that often cost us billions of dollars. Pipelines to nowhere, giving billions of dollars to oil companies to cleanup what they are obligated to do to begin with, economic witholding, which drove up power prices to record highs in Canada, accounting mistake losses, misappropriation of money, expensive plane junkets, so much corporate welfare, and the list goes on.
Conflicts of interest occur under the UCP, along with a blatant disregard for a healthy democracy, core services are being attacked, and torn apart, the environment is being harmed, poverty rates are climbing, costs of utilities are not decreasing, jobs are lost, and inflation is leading the nation. Some government the UCP are.
All of which merely supports my original thesis. We get these lunatic right wing governments when the progressive side of the equation is a dead loss. At least in Alberta there is hope. Naheed Nenshi at least knows how things get done. He will not need for years to learn to find his ass with both hands.
Make sure that you've got all the reading/handwork/hobby stuff you need for the bunker.
There are many, many books on bunker design and the stocking of provisions etc. Just replace the heading “prepper and there you are.
I don't understand why the citizens of this province can't stand up and take our government to court for their corrupt actions? Are they not supposed to stay in their own lane! Governing doesn't mean taking over everything. And why do we sit back and just let them do this without challenging it? Do we not have any legal people in this province that are against this corruption and manipulation of our laws and interfering in businesses that are supposed to be self-governed, because they're a private entity?
I mean when you hire a brokerage firm to invest your money and a bunch of different stuff, can you just willy-nilly fire the board of that company because you're not happy with the way they've been managing your funds? I think not. Your choice is to find another brokerage firm and transfer your money.
How on God's green earth can a government, intervene and do what she did without repercussions or Consequences? I don't understand is she God, or the emperor? Like why do we not have the rights to stop her from making these corrupt choices? Like do we have no recourse, on doing things to stop her or are we just stuck waving our hands and saying no no no that's not acceptable don't do that, slap her on the wrist and then let her keep going?
It's like teaching a toddler what she can and can't do, the difference between right and wrong, so she has good morals when she grows up!
Why are we at the mercy of her with no option to do anything other than protest! I mean a lot of people in this province aren't healthy anymore and protesting is something that is not easily done, if at all for them.
Again, a pension fund is not an investment fund. It's an insurance scheme. The "payout", as you call it, has nothing to do with financial risk, and everything to do with what the pensioner needs to live. Think car insurance. When you have an accident the payout is simply the cost of repairing or replacing your car.
Of course pension funds, just like insurance companies, don't just sit on the money. They invest it so it will generate revenue, to serve as a buffer and to reduce contributions. But the essential mechanism is that workers today pay pensions today.
Remembering my father once talking about the symbolism of the parliamentary dining areas in Ottawa. They all eat together and are members of the same club. Provincial setting are no different except the UCP offer a limited menu and while members of the same club there is a tier system with no options if you’re not a carnivore.
Glad the bunker is productive. Lots to unpack. Can Smith live up to reducing the size of govt at this time when all levels of government are spending massive amounts of money & growing public involvement in so many things? We shall see.
Margaret Thatcher wasn’t right about much but she was right about that
There was nothing progressive about Brian Mulroney.
Free trade
That is classic liberalism.
I remember Mulroney mostly as the Prime Minister who received money in brown Manila envelopes from a German arms dealer.
I still view Thatcher as the greatest politician of my life time. Not only was she a viscous debater who could spar with many opponents at the same time leaving them cowering in the corner, she was an iconclast despised by both the working and elite classes. She turned around a mess and worked to bring communism to its knees. The social media age likley prevents such leaders from ascending to power again.
"Communism?" Wrong country. Unions aren't that; they're an antidote to corporate hegemony and unbridled greed, also the reason for the "affordability crisis," not governments. We've got "end-stage capitalism" is the thing, and it's destroying society. Big tech is very much at the top of the list on that front...
I meant the end of the Soviet Block.
Western society already has multiple layers of worker protection:
-open and competitive labor markets
-labor legislation
-tort law
Given the above, unions are redundant. Public sector unions are especially redundant as their employers are monopolies with near infinite ability to raise revenue.
Doug: Without unions, we wouldn't have the benefits we have today.
So what? The nature of work has changed. Jobs rely more on individual experience and motivation and less on commoditized, low skill work. A system that treats employees as equal members of a group is both insulting and inefficient. This is especially true in the public sector. Unions may have had a role decades ago, but they are now a huge barrier to innovation and thus livi standards.
Doug: Margaret Thatcher was a disaster. Many people were harmed immensely from her destructive neoliberal policies.
The preceding 10 years of endless strikes and economic stagnation also immensely harmed people in the UK.
The UCP plans leave us nothing by 2027 that supports public services. Frighteningly Danielle seems to be following Harpers play book to the letter.
As the Federal Liberals and previous AB governments have demonstrated, the models for public service delivery no longer work regardless of funding. Delivery is too inflexible (ex. monopolized service providers beholden to unions) and accountability too nebulous (ex. Federal participation in Provincial service delivery like health, K-12 education, post-secondary, infrastructure and housing). The Feds need to largely vacate these areas, dramatically reduce taxes and allow the Provinces to raise revenue directly.