CanPol: May(?) 2011 Election. Vote today!

[Fake Boris]

You are confusing equalization with transfer payments.

Please cite that the $8B does not include the money Quebec does contribute. In all of the places I've seen it, only the "have not" provinces had > $0 in that category and Quebec had $8B. So what your claiming doesn't pass the sniff test.

Equalization is drawn from the federal budget; it's not a separate fund.
Whatever we receive is compensated by federal taxes paid in Quebec.

I understand what it's based on. What I'm talking about is what it's used for. You don't seem to understand that it doesn't matter what it's based on, the fact is Quebec is DEPENDING on billions of dollars from the rest of Canada fund their basic budget.

But why does ROC make it such an issue when per capita it is shown to be insignificant?

It was made to benefit Newfoundland, not Alberta. Look into the specifics. Alberta has very little in the way of off-shore oil, last I checked, and that was the change.

It does benefit Alberta too, but not as much.

You're missing the point. It's not meant to compensate for a failing industry. If the industry fails, you need to move on and create new ones and not expect charity. Man up.

Canada is a federation, and a federation should behave as a team.

1) If the truckload of cash you get from oil literally destroys industries elsewhere, it is fair that there be some sort of compensation.
2) Notwithstanding what you think of transfers in general, my point at least shows, contrary to common belief, that Quebec doesn't get any significant or undue benefit from being a Canadian province, and that we could be doing better in several aspects if we were independent and had our own currency.

If you don't want Canada to work like a team, let it be; I don't need any more proof of this.

[Asher]

Equalization is drawn from the federal budget; it's not a separate fund.
Whatever we receive is compensated by federal taxes paid in Quebec.

This is not at all true. You receive much more than you pay. Much more.

Alberta pays something like $5000 more per capita than we receive from the federal government.

But why does ROC make it such an issue when per capita it is shown to be insignificant?

I don't care about Quebec's per capita cost. I care that $5000 per person is leaving Alberta and never returning to fund lazy ****s in Quebec.

It does benefit Alberta too, but not as much.

Do explain.

Canada is a federation, and a federation should behave as a team.

Agreed. Therefore, Quebec's Pension Plan should be folded and merged into the CPP. Quebec should not be recognized as a separate nation. Quebec should not have Quebec-specific political parties. Quebec should not have any unique demands.

[Asher]

http://www.fin.gc.ca/fedprov/eqp-eng.asp

This seems to show Quebec receiving ~8B net in equalization payments, not $4-5B.

[Asher]

I also think it's hilarious you think $8B a year doesn't constitute a benefit of being a Canadian province.

If Quebec separated (please do), you would have far less money to play with.

[Wezil]

If you don't want Canada to work like a team, let it be; I don't need any more proof of this.

Aren't you the guy that said he would be voting BQ? How is that working as a team?

[Asher]

What he means by "team" is the good players get to help out the bad players. He wants the benefits of being in Canada ($$$$) while still being able to think they're autonomous. It's kind of cute.

[Wezil]

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has ordered an immediate investigation into one of his Quebec candidates, the founder of a white-rights group.

André Forbes, the Liberal candidate in Manicouagan, is reported in various newspaper and magazine articles calling aboriginal Canadians “featherheads” and has suggested that governments recognized the rights of natives over white people.

His organization is called l’Association des droits des blancs, or the Association for the Rights of Whites.

Very nice.

Lucky for the Conservatives he isn't one of theirs. The media would be in a full fledged feeding frenzy already.

[Asher]

Quebec seems to be one of the most bigoted regions of the country. Their treatment of immigrants is legendary.

[Wezil]

That doesn't fit the narrative of Quebec as an oppressed people.

[Asher]

Today's poll:

[Wezil]

Pretty steady nationally but a big C- drop in BC apparently. Neck and neck in ON.

[Asher]

http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Braid+Alberta+political+ghost+province/4566321/story.html

Braid: Alberta a political ghost province

Here in Alberta, this campaign is already a strange out-of-Canada experience. Would federal politicians even notice if the whole province simply slid down to Mexico for spring break?

There's always the feeling that anything said about Alberta is meant to impress others, never us. Albertans are functionally invisible, like kids expected to sit mutely by while the adults weigh up our many shortcomings.

For example, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff "defended" the oilsands Tuesday from some guy in Newfoundland who said they should be shut down.

"Whether we need them or not, we got them and they employ Canadians," he said, adding that cars have to run on fossil fuels, at least for a while.

Once again, Canada's most valuable resource and prime job-creator sounds like a temporary case of gas. Two days before, Ignatieff made Alberta's political irrelevance even more obvious when he released his energy policy.

There would be a tanker ban on the West Coast, so forget pipelines and oilsands exports to China -forget, in fact, the province's entire strategy for the future of the oilsands.

The Liberals also plan to institute a national cap-andtrade strategy that would surely suck billions out of Alberta.

To ensure that no coin is overlooked, they would immediately halt an investment-friendly tax break the Conservatives will allow to linger until 2015.

How all this would allow the oilsands to continue with job creation, Iggy doesn't say. But he doesn't have to. He's not talking to Alberta; his gums are flapping at B.C. and points east.

You might expect that our powerful local political cadre -26 Alberta Conservative MPs -would spring to the province's defence.

They do not. In many cases, they barely even campaign.

As the Herald's Jason Fekete explains today, Conservative candidates are often no-shows at allcandidates debates.

Deepak Obhrai figures he'll miss his. Diane Ablonczy hasn't decided. Jason Kenney is off campaigning in other provinces, just as he did in 2008.

On the policy front, local MPs flatly refuse to consider funding for the airport tunnel made essential by construction of a new runway.

As we've pointed out here before, Ottawa isn't funding the runway either, even though Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently announced $26.1 million for exactly that purpose in Quebec City.

Playing hard for eastern votes, Harper also vows to cough up $2.2 billion for HST harmonization in Quebec, and support Newfoundland's Lower Churchill power project with a loan guarantee of up to $4.2 billion.

Not many Albertans expect such promises to be matched dollar-for-dollar in every province. The national treasury wouldn't survive the campaign.

But if there aren't to be any goodies for Alberta, the least we can expect is not to be penalized.

And yet it's still happening, with the full agreement of local MPs.

Ottawa pays Alberta $240 less per person for health care than the average of other provinces. The total shortfall this year is more than $900 million.

A campaign might seem like the ideal moment to cut a deal on this. But Conservative MPs, instead of sticking up for their own health system, cry that the Klein government signed the deal in 2004 and the province is stuck with it.

Yes, but the deal now violates the basic principle that every province and Canadian is entitled to equal funding for basics like health care and education.

With such a potent government caucus, and a PM whose riding office is in Glenmore Landing, Alberta should be a proud and potent player in any campaign.

Instead, we're a political ghost province whose hazy outlines are mainly negative. Some days it hardly feels like Canada around here.

[Ben Kenobi2]

Invalid Poll.

[Asher]

If you're real, **** off.
If you're a DL, **** off.

[Ben Kenobi2]

Glad to see I've not lost my touch.

No, it's the real Ben Kenobi who can't seem to access his account. Have I been banned without noticing?