Once in federal hands, the Alberta money will be used to prop up Ontario and Quebec manufacturing industries against competition from China.
Since such an endeavour is futile, those industries will collapse anyway, and the temporary advantage provided by our natural resources will be lost to both Canada and Alberta.
So what can Albertans do about this? I think we can do two things:
First, we must quickly develop programs of research and technology that will put Canada in the forefront of the world, and we should use the undoubted billions that will accrue to this province --the revenues Martin wants to steal -- to carry out that program.
We should design it so that it will be centred, not only in Alberta, but in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia as well.
He is trying to prolong the past.
We are preparing for the future.
(He finishes like this)
If they give us the usual answer -- that they prefer the crooks to the Westerners -- then the hour of decision will be upon us.
It will be then or never.
Radical?
You bet!
But has anybody got a better idea?
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Byfield_Ted/2005/09/11/1211559.html
So I sent a response:
Dear Editor
Ted Byfield (Sept.11 CalgarySun) plots out the battle plan for Alberta against Canada, and wants to know if anybody has a better idea? Is he the head of the Alberta Separation Party? He certainly minces no words in his attempts to aggravate the boil on the backsides of Albertans! I never heard him express his concern over the Maritimes or Canada’s north in all his sputtering. Yet he expects Canadians to choose an Alberta Solution as opposed to a Canadian Solution! What a poor choice of words and shallow plan. Canada isn’t Martin and sure he’ll call an election after Canadians see the corruption Gomery reveals. Byfield wants us to think we must chose between corruption and separation, when there is a very clear choice for Canadians, called Canadian Action Party. You won’t hear him talk about that though, because it doesn’t involve destroying the country, it requires patriots to once again build the nation, like the builders he wrote about in the 12 volume, ‘Alberta in the 20th Century.’ Or was that series just a money-making venture? So to answer his question, Anybody has a better idea than the one he proposed, take a look: www.CanadianActionParty.ca
Yours truly
Catherine Whelan Costen
Canadian Action Party Vice President/Candidate
[Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on September 12, 2005]
Note: http://calsun.canoe.ca/...
www.CanadianActionParty.ca
Ted Byfield Offers No Choice Only Western Spin
Posted on Monday, September 12 at 14:03 by whelan costenContributed By
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Everything I've read about CAP indicates that they are simply another centralist party, content to leave in place the inequities that MacDonald's National Policy put into place and Trudeau's National Energy Program further cemented. It seems to me that the C in CAP could stand for "Centralized" as easily as it does "Canadians".
Central government, central bank, central Canada. All power to the centre, and Westerners should be happy with the crumbs off of the central table.
One thing that makes me absolutely ashamed to tell people that i am from the west is the arrogant attitude that all that flows west of the Manitoba Border is good and pure. Those that somehow think an "independant" Alberta is a realistic option are completely retarded and no better than the smarmy quebecers they so regularly disparage.
They showed a poll this summer about how many people would consider splitting from Canada and all of the people who support it happen to be conservatives. This country does not need to be decentralized anymore to please the right wing in Alberta what is needed in Canada is actually leadership. A government that believes in this country would be a nice thing to have.
For the person who said that the Canadian Action Party would be anti american I ask you why is it that when people care about protecting the interests of Canada, keeping Canadian values Canadian and fighting for the sovereignty of this nation you believe that this is anti american?
First thing we need to do is expose it for what it is, I've lived in Alberta since 1977, and I absolutely love it, but never felt more alienated from government than in the last several Klein years. Just because the leadership in Alberta can't or won't deal with Ottawa like grown-ups but prefer to use the media to throw barbs, doesn't mean that the people should buy into the spin. If the conservatives are so much better why didn't they address it when they held the power in Ottawa under Mulroney? Why don't the conservative mp's do something now?
Western alienation is a propaganda tool used to pit Canadians against Canadians. The first thing I would like to see is a rebirth of our trains, so that people all over this country could have easy access to her vast beauty, and get to know fellow Canadians. That is the biggest problem I see, lack of education about our own home and native land, we wouldn't be so easily swayed to believe the b.s. if we knew the truth of what a great nation we are, people, landscape and culture.
The Harper group started the feud as far as I can see, and I think in part because they wanted to create and atmosphere of us against them, ensuring votes for the future. As for the blame game, CAP is fully aware of our own government's role in the destruction of Canada, you can't just blame those who wish to invade you, or take away your liberties, or even have access to all your natural resources, you must look to those who have enabled the process. Why would you feel so angry at a national energy program for Canada, but not object to being part of a foreign country's NEP, as we are now?
Alienation is a great word which conjures up all kinds of chest pounding, but the reality is that most Canadians have been alienated from government policy, decision making consultation, in favour of corporate dominance and influence on everything that can offer a profit, in every province and territory, because we fail to elect mp's that work for us!
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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?
fear and polarization.It might work in Alberta, where
rabid right-wingers like Byfield and Rutherford appear
to run the disinformation show, but it turns off the
rest of the country.
A really appalling thing is the relatively small
western-seperatist element in Alberta.Instead of trying to unify the country and make things work, they pout and threaten to run away when things don't go their way.
The concepts of seperation and Americanization gets them salivating, as if they are completely oblivious to
the empirical evidence that Canada is one of the
greatest countries in the world to live.
Why don't they just move to Madison, Boise or
San Diego if they *really* want to seperate...
nothing is stopping them.
Also raised in the West - other than a shittty procedure for Senators, Western alienation is myth and fad proped up by those hoping to capitalize on it. They are in the minority those voices, but they do control vast media holdings in CanWest Global so their echo chamber sounds louder than it really is.
49% of Canadians in a recent poll said they support nationalization of oil and gas. I can hear the bemused moan from the rabid pro-oil pro-American corporate types in Alberta all the way here in Vancouver. They don't mind one bit if money flows to foreigners but God forbid if Canadians can share in the wealth! They are a twisted bunch whose priorties lie south of the 49th. Call them on their twisted loyalties - make them reassert their zeil for Canada or make them come out and say what they truly feel - they like foreign companies better than Canadians.
And Mulroney wasn't much better in terms of dealing with Western Canada than Trudeau or Chretien. Like them, he believed that Canada = Quebec + Ontario. Hence his robbing Winnipeg of that CF-18 contract. Perhaps you might recall the birth of a certain political party in response to the abandonment of the West by the PCs.
And perhaps you might give me an answer to the question that I've been asking over and over. What makes Quebec's hydro-electricity theirs exclusively, but Alberta's oil all of Canada's?
Canada is full of alienation in many different forms. A diverse country with diverse indifference amongst its people.
I was born in Calgary, but was raised in Ontario. I can tell you that a double standard does exist in that many Ontarians far and wide are sycophantic towards Quebec separatists and dismissive and intolerant towards westerners. They're all knuckle-draggers and rednecks to many.
If western alienation (not western separatism) is a myth than so too is Quebec separatism. Only a Liberal would say other wise. After all it is the fear of Quebec separatism that has gotten French Canadian Liberal leaders elected over the past 40 years, not the threat of western separatism.
Alberta shares much of its wealth with the rest of Canada. Over $11 billion in fact. Why can Alberta not keep some its surplus revenues? Why must it be that we have to give $15-$20 billion (tranfer payments with Alberta's surplus) to the rest of the country?
And the separatist who posted under this topic appears to argue that Alberta or Western Canada have no legitimate reason for pursuing independence because their desires are not driven by ethnic nationalism like those of Quebec.
Do you think the CAP representative on here is going to answer my question whether Quebec and Alberta should be treated the same way with regard to energy policy. No one else on here has. Preferential treatment for Quebec has become so ingrained in Canadian politics that it is almost considered heretical to question it.
One question I would ask is are the people of Quebec getting a fair price on their power and what price is it exported at? Does NAFTA not fall into place on this issue also?
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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?
I would suggest Quebec dictates the price of their power, if the Quebec grid goes down so does northeastern u.s. The grid in Quebec is direct current(DC), the grid in the rest of north america is alternating current(AC), when the american AC grid fails, it doesn't affect Quebec, so, if you want/need Quebec electricity you are going to have to pay for it, then convert it to AC. Something similar in Alberta, at least 2 48" natural gas pipelines crossing the peace river going directly to california, so THEY can generate electricity. Kind of like digging a big trench from James Bay to new england, so THEY could generate their own electricity.