Alberta Separatism is starting to go mainstream

[Misterman]

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I was wondering, it seems everyone complains about government funding but we are the only province that doesn't have PST

Would a 5% additional tax not help?

I'm fine paying an extra 5%

Joking? There never even used to be income tax at all. Every time they have increased it, it has never helped. Plain and simple, if you're going to elect a mountain of idiots to manage billions of dollars in country/province finances, the outcome won't be good. And giving them more money to mismanage isn't going to help.

[killramos]

https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/co...ric-rights/amp

Enjoyed this OpEd by Ted Morton on how long running and pervasive this problem has been. And shines some light on how fixing the problem is moot when the feds will find any way to undercut anything that could possibly benefit Alberta.

WEXIT.

[davidI]

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Joking? There never even used to be income tax at all. Every time they have increased it, it has never helped. Plain and simple, if you're going to elect a mountain of idiots to manage billions of dollars in country/province finances, the outcome won't be good. And giving them more money to mismanage isn't going to help.

Exactly this. Even in private industry, once a group has a budget, they're damn well going to do their best to spend it because if they don't, they'll need to fight to get the money again.

The government is so full of waste and inefficiency it's a joke. The knee-jerk reaction to any budget changes seems to be to fire the front-line workers rather than clearing out the useless middle-managers.

[KPHMPH]

I don't even know how many time my husband had to "find ways" to spend money when he worked in the BC government.

It was so wrong, some people would get brand new mahogany desks because there was $500,000 left in the budget at the start of December. He always told me if he didn't spend it they would lower it next year....

[revelations]

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I don't even know how many time my husband had to "find ways" to spend money when he worked in the BC government.

It was so wrong, some people would get brand new mahogany desks because there was $500,000 left in the budget at the start of December. He always told me if he didn't spend it they would lower it next year....

EVERY government/union, and even some large corps, work this way. Its not a Calgary/BC/Canada thing.

[Buster]

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https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/co...ric-rights/amp

Enjoyed this OpEd by Ted Morton on how long running and pervasive this problem has been. And shines some light on how fixing the problem is moot when the feds will find any way to undercut anything that could possibly benefit Alberta.

WEXIT.

That about sums it up.

The only thing holding Alberta back is fear of the unknown.

[Buster]

Garth Turner's column is interesting.

https://www.greaterfool.ca/2019/12/02/wrexit/#comments

People in the east who are starting to sniff actual disruption are starting the fight against Wexit. I wonder why Garth Turner would care what happens in Alberta? You can tell the leverage a wexit movement has by how strongly people who would be hurt end up talking their book.

One interesting anti-Wexit take is the personal attacks that pro-confederation people make on the wexit opinions. They are often still characterizing separatists as niche wingnuts. You can argue the pros and cons of separatism, but one fact seems to be established: the wexit side is gaining bright and serious people not the reverse.

The other fallacy is that wexit is designed as political leverage. That thinking is mistaken. It's my belief that the RoC would be unwilling to make sufficient concessions to create an environment within Canada that makes sense. It would, after all, mean a very different Canada.

I also wonder what the endgame is for the people who suggest that alberta cannot separate because it would not be permitted to do so by Trudeau. If that strategy were actually attempted by the Feds (which I doubt), then you would start to see social disruption as the fringe wexiters react accordingly.

[ZenOps]

If the movies have taught me anything its that those that wish to separate, especially when a small group - sometimes get kicked out with only their shirts in their hands.

Dun dun duhh!

[AndyL]

Pretty much says it all. Didn't learn a thing from the election results.

[killramos]

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Pretty much says it all. Didn't learn a thing from the election results.

Sure he did. He learned that he still gets to be prime minister despite every attempt to grind Alberta into the ground because our votes don’t matter.

What he really learned is he needs to do a better job of being corrupt and supporting Quebec’s interests. Getting caught and called out by your own party is amateur hour.

[speedog]

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EVERY government/union, and even some large corps, work this way. Its not a Calgary/BC/Canada thing.

TELUS certainly worked exactly in this fashion when I was under their employ, spend or lose it in the next cycle.

[killramos]

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TELUS certainly worked exactly in this fashion when I was under their employ, spend or lose it in the next cycle.

Likely a remnant of the being a former government entity

[speedog]

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Likely a remnant of the being a former government entity

Do you honestly believe that as TELUS was privatized in 1991, 28 years ago. If anything, the whole spend it or lose it scenario became more apparent the farther away they moved along in being a private company.

[kertejud2]

[killramos]

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Do you honestly believe that as TELUS was privatized in 1991, 28 years ago. If anything, the whole spend it or lose it scenario became more apparent the farther away they moved along in being a private company.

Old habits die hard.

[Misterman]

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Old habits die hard.

People forget that big business falls into the same trap as government when it comes to budgets. When a business gets to a certain size, the people responsible for budgets A) Have no ownership in ensuring the money is spent wisely, because they get their salary regardless and B) They are so far separated from where the money is spent, they would not be able to gauge whether the money is being spent wisely to begin with. So yes most big business' do in fact follow this philosophy of spend it or lose it.

This is the same as government. Government isn't even a business, it can be as reckless as it wants with money and it will always exist. So there is no positive reward for spending money wisely. And the people choosing how to spend it are not even knowledgeable in the field they apply budgets too. They're politicians that don't know anything about anything.

[ZenOps]

As a precursor to breaking away from North America.

Looks like Guam is talking about breaking away from the USA - again. They have absolutely no say in their future, and receive no benefits (like a $60K Hawaiian welfare recipient) as an official state. Guam is literally a colonial slave state, once owned by the Japanese, now owned by the USA.

It would be near impossible to do by military force, as the US had many nukes and 1,000x as many guns with troops stationed there. But it would equally be difficult to do economically on assumption that the USA would require that each citizen pay approximately $185,000 per non-voting but still legally obligated tax burden per citizen before leaving. Guam - Holy Jeebus I feel sorry for the natives there, none of the benefits of being a "state" and all of the burden of wanting to be nuked of the face of the planet just because of geography.

I'm going to say that "buying" their way to freedom isn't possible, considering that at most - natives of Guam are entry level at the military bases.

Guam is 1,000x more legit than Alberta ever wanting to leave.

Its important to note that the Philippines was at one time a colony of the USA, but declared independence from USA rule in 1946.

[ZenOps]

"Seperatism" as is the reality of the rest of the world.



I don't think Albertans have the strength of conviction to sacrifice anything for "separation". I'd be willing to bet they wouldn't even give up land or money, nevermind putting lives on the line. Guam would undoubtedly have to lose some lives to free itself from the USA.

[davidI]

Michelle is fired up - great speech!

https://youtu.be/Hi7ZE450ST4

[Buster]

Next up on the docket - Teck.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-c...-idUSKBN1ZS2R3

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - The outcome of the Canadian government’s pending decision on whether to approve Teck Resources Ltd’s (TECKb.TO) Frontier oil sands project is “anyone’s guess,” the company’s chief executive, Don Lindsay, said on Wednesday.