Chilean Community Wants Apology From Klein

I also think this says something about the mindset of the Alberta Premier. It is very scary!

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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?

He wants his friends in the insurance industry to keep getting their cut of our money. Here is a guy who, because of a public outcry against escalating insurance rates, froze the rates at the highest level they have ever been at while the enquiry was going on. Of course our rates could be raised even higher during this period, for driving infractions etc, but they wouldn't go lower. He thinks Albertans are stupid, how was he to know that some of us might remember what happened during the CIA backed coup in Chile.

I think Ralph has gone insane. Maybe it's time to get him some professional help. Even Kissinger is trying to distance himself from Pinochet.

Until today I had some grudging respect for Ralph Klein. Now I see he is no better than Mike Harris. Maybe worse. Certainly stupider. Maybe he should start drinking again.

Brett Mann

Did anyone say that it was Nixon and Pepsi that overthrew democratically-elected Allende? Just like the US overthrew the left-leaning, democratically-elected Hugo Chavez in Venezuela? <P> It's kind of pointless to even talk about publicly-funded, no-fault auto insurance corporation because of NAFTA. Rob Rae tried that in Ontario & the American insurance companies like State Farm threatened legal action, and the government had to back down. We can't do anything about that until we kill NAFTA.<p>---<br>"In 2002 Canada will be 135, the same age the USA was in 1911... Americans of 1911 had a very sketchy view of themselves as a nation." - Douglas Coupland

That`s the American apologist Ralph Klein talking. Allende was more social democrat than communist. But Washington just couldn`t have that! Same with Arbenz in Guatemala. The US just couldn`t stand for a government expropriating land away from the United Fruit Company and giving it to Gualemalan farmers to make a good living for themselves. And there are countless other examples in the world! (Iraq today) Ralph should just move to the US and leave Albertans (and the rest of Canada) alone! Alberta is too beautiful for a premier like that!

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Dave Ruston

<P>What sort of professional help did you have in mind? A prison guard perhaps. Or one of those Chilean paramilitaries the US is so fond of in Iraq. Commended for their professionalism they are. <P>Some months ago, one of the participants on this site--possibly one of the Anons--wrung his or her hands and wondered why people accuse Klein of being "American" in his policies. <P>This is why.

I can not write anything here that has not already been posted about this disgusting man and his comments. He does not represent a true Progressive Conservative as I see it. Central and South American plight at the hands of the United States is the greatest cumulative course of injustice since WWII anywhere on the planet. From the Guatemalan Civil War of 36 years that was triggered by the CIA coup against Arbenz, the Iran-Contra Affairs and of course the recent failed coup against Hugo Chavez and all the nooks and crannies in between of Chile, Panama and Argentina, the U.S. has never cared to give the people of this region a fair chance at prosperity and progress. Any efforts to take such measures have been thwarted by bloody coups sponsored by the U.S. and misguided political revolutions to suit the interests of the wealthy. Canada must play a bigger and an even handed role in Central and South America ... it is as much our backyard as it is of the United States.

Asif Hossain
Progressive Canadian Candidate, Trinity-Spadina, Toronto.