your face on one side of the coin and your ass on the other!
Albertastan votes today. The outcome is not in doubt. My riding will go to Julius Yankowski, who inspired a swell of Liberal party hatred when he crossed the floor in the legislature to become a PC. In 2001, Yankowski proposed Bill 212, which would have allowed health care workers to refuse to participate in procedures that they don't agree with. Just as an example of how ridiculous this is, consider that it would have allowed pharmacists to refuse to prescribe Preven, the "morning-after pill", if they felt it to be morally right to do so. Also, Jehovah's Witnesses who worked in the health care profession would have been able, without consequence, to refuse to help with blood transfusions.
Hunnnhhh.
Weirdly, the Social Credit party who had a lock on ruling this province for decades and is now looked upon as a fringe dweller, has a platform that is actually sort of sensible. The Socreds are pilloried these days, mostly for their policy of issuing "prosperity certificates" to all Albertans. The current government does the same thing, but nobody calls it "funny money" anymore - they're energy rebates. Either way, it's vote-buying from a treasury padded to enormous size by royalties which, though they themselves are business-cushily small, are so numerous that the provincial government remains the most heavily rewarded of all the various players in the oil and gas industry here.
A taxpayer dividend, by any other term, is the neverending and completely Albertan solution to the neverending and completely Albertan conundrum of poverty amidst plenty, and every time they try it we all get an X-box for Christmas (in 1935, an X-box cost about $25) but none of our problems get solved. A gander of the Socred's platform reveals their subscription to the idea of taxpayer dividends has not wavered. As well, the Socreds would do nothing to tamper with the way the oil and gas industry is messing around with northern Alberta, piling on industry where there is no infrastructure to absorb it, planning for the future like the worst tetris players ever. But at least they get:
1) that the environment is in trouble, and Alberta farmers are suffering because of it.
2) that raising what is currently the lowest minimum wage in Canada and legislating benefits for part-time employees would be good, solid proactive ways of improving Alberta's quality of life.
3) that eliminating health-care premiums is not only a laudable goal but a possible one as well, given the size of our surplus.
The original social credit theory is more sound these days than ever: banks should be under a society's control to such an extent that the society's demands for basic quality of life are met. The problem I have with social credit theory is the end result - a blanket of money spread around to everybody equally, with no impetus to do things that are constructive with it.
The Socred dude in my riding is screaming nutbar Ken Shipka, who has been kicking around fringe parties for years selling the idea that the best way to close the shortfall in infrastructure, education, healthcare, whatever, is to simply have the Bank of Canada create more money to do it with. Simple, huh? While his ideas betray an almost childlike perspective on how money works, he at least knows that globalization is making the world sick, and the biggest villains are the banks. It would be almost worth it to throw a vote at Shipka, just for that.
Aw, for fuck's sakes, I'm going with the New Democrats. Someone really has to start to enter the fray of the Alberta leg and make some fucking noise, and the ND guy in my riding is the former leader of the party, a name candidate and a good guy. He won't win. But there is no choice. We have to start taking this province back from the hands of those who will never, ever give a shit about it.
Hunnnhhh.
Weirdly, the Social Credit party who had a lock on ruling this province for decades and is now looked upon as a fringe dweller, has a platform that is actually sort of sensible. The Socreds are pilloried these days, mostly for their policy of issuing "prosperity certificates" to all Albertans. The current government does the same thing, but nobody calls it "funny money" anymore - they're energy rebates. Either way, it's vote-buying from a treasury padded to enormous size by royalties which, though they themselves are business-cushily small, are so numerous that the provincial government remains the most heavily rewarded of all the various players in the oil and gas industry here.
A taxpayer dividend, by any other term, is the neverending and completely Albertan solution to the neverending and completely Albertan conundrum of poverty amidst plenty, and every time they try it we all get an X-box for Christmas (in 1935, an X-box cost about $25) but none of our problems get solved. A gander of the Socred's platform reveals their subscription to the idea of taxpayer dividends has not wavered. As well, the Socreds would do nothing to tamper with the way the oil and gas industry is messing around with northern Alberta, piling on industry where there is no infrastructure to absorb it, planning for the future like the worst tetris players ever. But at least they get:
1) that the environment is in trouble, and Alberta farmers are suffering because of it.
2) that raising what is currently the lowest minimum wage in Canada and legislating benefits for part-time employees would be good, solid proactive ways of improving Alberta's quality of life.
3) that eliminating health-care premiums is not only a laudable goal but a possible one as well, given the size of our surplus.
The original social credit theory is more sound these days than ever: banks should be under a society's control to such an extent that the society's demands for basic quality of life are met. The problem I have with social credit theory is the end result - a blanket of money spread around to everybody equally, with no impetus to do things that are constructive with it.
The Socred dude in my riding is screaming nutbar Ken Shipka, who has been kicking around fringe parties for years selling the idea that the best way to close the shortfall in infrastructure, education, healthcare, whatever, is to simply have the Bank of Canada create more money to do it with. Simple, huh? While his ideas betray an almost childlike perspective on how money works, he at least knows that globalization is making the world sick, and the biggest villains are the banks. It would be almost worth it to throw a vote at Shipka, just for that.
Aw, for fuck's sakes, I'm going with the New Democrats. Someone really has to start to enter the fray of the Alberta leg and make some fucking noise, and the ND guy in my riding is the former leader of the party, a name candidate and a good guy. He won't win. But there is no choice. We have to start taking this province back from the hands of those who will never, ever give a shit about it.
posted by gibletquesterrs at 10:56 AM
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