Actually, this post should be tagged with "Die, media Die!" You won't see CanWest-Global screaming about handouts when it comes to Ottawa, cap in hand. And you won't see it champion equity when it comes to the CBC.
This is how CanWest sends Western Canadians into rage and fury all the time. And this, after Ontario has paid over a 100 billion in transfers over the decades.
And this, after Ontario has paid over a 100 billion in transfers over the decades.I'd be interested to see how much money has actually flowed from Ontario to Western Canada. Most of those transfers have gone to Quebec and a good chunk more has gone to the Atlantic Provinces and the Territories.
Transfer payments ebb and flow over the decades, so trying to figure out who paid how much to whom and when is a mug's game.
I have absolutely no sympathy for Alberta and Albertan's who essentially squandered their oil resources through inadequate royalties and foolish government spending under Klein et al. However the forestry industry is another matter entirely. Thriving communities in northern BC (and for that matter, right across northern Canada) are now all but ghost towns due to years of neglect by governments at all levels and of all political stripes. For them I have some sympathy if they are looking eastward with fury in their hearts.
I'd be interested to see how much money has actually flowed from Ontario to Western Canada.When one considers the billions that flow to SK and Alberta in the form of farm subsidies, western Canada can in no way be said to be on the short end of the public tax dollar stick. But for reasons incomprehensible to me, these transfers are not seen as comparable as any other business subsidy, which they most certainly are. Hell, I'll bet Kate McMillan gets some kind of farm subsidy for her poodle ranch, besides writing off her expenses when she takes her filthy mutts on the road.
Huh. Gee, I wonder why Albertans feel so cozy in confederation.
I don't want one dollar of bailout to come to Alberta. Two wrongs don't make a right.
The answer is to stop pouring money into GMC and the auto industry. As opined on CBC radio yesterday, Professor D'Cruz from the University of Toronto also questioned:
a) Why are we throwing money into a bad business, when market forces will eventually fill the void without tax dollars; and
b) What makes jobs in Southern Ontario more worthy of support than jobs in the B.C. lumber industry.
(This is an Ontario Professor speaking..)
The answer, clearly..
..is votes. Harper cannot win without Ontario, particularly with how terribly he's doing in Quebec... so, get out the cheque book, and screw the West.
It's so freaking predictible, it's almost become mundane. If it weren't such a crap hole, I'd move to Ontario, just to take advantage of the voter appeasment bonuses.
" If it weren't such a crap hole, I'd move to Ontario"
I've been across this country several times Rob and let me tell you: there is no place shittier than Cremona Alberta.
Holy shit have you people made your province ugly. I'll take the Great Lakes anyday over looking at endless fields of grain, cattle or oil derricks. Now if you're talking about western Canadian beauty then BC just knocks you off the map and then some.
Plus Rob, we don't really share your immature hate for Ontario in BC. They're Canadians like us and unlike Alberta, they dont try to speak for us repeatedly. If I hear another "speaking for the west" argument from an Albertan... just more prattle from an easterner ;)
I think Rob is having an episode. He's been beside himself with his fallen free-market hero, Harper, who's betrayed both his ideology and Alberta (which could only have supported him less by 1 seat). And, as per usual, who you gonna blame? Ontarians. Not just the governments or the politicians but the people themselves.
"...there is no place shittier than Cremona Alberta."
Actually, it is kind of pretty around there - much nicer to take Highway 22 to Banff than Highway 2.
But then we Albertans did not "make" the prairies, and those endless fields of grain and cattle are kind of necessary for food, so...
But then beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and those of us raised on the prairies can see the beauty in the prairie. And of course, south of Calgary along the foothills and into the mountains is breathtakingly beautiful. If only we could get rid of all the Calgarians.
What you have to avoid are the tar sands - because Albertans have definately made Alberta ugly up there.
Actually TG, I frequent this blog, and happened to notice the post. But your little ADL thing is kinda cute nontheless.
You can feel free to scold Rob for his comments about Ontario. I do not know enough about it to know if it is a crap hole or not, though certainly the parts I frequent are not.
I do not know enough about it to know if it is a crap hole or not
So you're entertaining the possibly that it *is* a crap-hole?
I am wounded...
Ontario is, objectively, a very beautiful province. Not every part, not in every season, and not dramatically, but there aren't vast expanses of desolate, barren wastelands unless you go north of the treeline. At least the province has lakes.
Of course, urbanisation can manage to make any landscape ugly, but that's not restricted to Ontario. If Calgary didn't have the Rockies as a backdrop, I don't think there'd be much else to recommend it, quite frankly. The people are in fact, quite nice, as long as you don't mention Ontario, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec, Trudeau, NEP, the Official Languages Act, multiculturalism...
...taxes, Elections Canada, the Supreme Court, beavers, maple trees, maple sugar...
Actually, this post should be tagged with "Die, media Die!" You won't see CanWest-Global screaming about handouts when it comes to Ottawa, cap in hand. And you won't see it champion equity when it comes to the CBC.
ReplyDeleteThis is how CanWest sends Western Canadians into rage and fury all the time. And this, after Ontario has paid over a 100 billion in transfers over the decades.
And this, after Ontario has paid over a 100 billion in transfers over the decades.I'd be interested to see how much money has actually flowed from Ontario to Western Canada. Most of those transfers have gone to Quebec and a good chunk more has gone to the Atlantic Provinces and the Territories.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested to see how much money has actually flowed from Ontario to Western Canada.
ReplyDeleteWell, get to work on it then.
Transfer payments ebb and flow over the decades, so trying to figure out who paid how much to whom and when is a mug's game.
ReplyDeleteI have absolutely no sympathy for Alberta and Albertan's who essentially squandered their oil resources through inadequate royalties and foolish government spending under Klein et al. However the forestry industry is another matter entirely. Thriving communities in northern BC (and for that matter, right across northern Canada) are now all but ghost towns due to years of neglect by governments at all levels and of all political stripes. For them I have some sympathy if they are looking eastward with fury in their hearts.
I'd be interested to see how much money has actually flowed from Ontario to Western Canada.When one considers the billions that flow to SK and Alberta in the form of farm subsidies, western Canada can in no way be said to be on the short end of the public tax dollar stick.
ReplyDeleteBut for reasons incomprehensible to me, these transfers are not seen as comparable as any other business subsidy, which they most certainly are.
Hell, I'll bet Kate McMillan gets some kind of farm subsidy for her poodle ranch, besides writing off her expenses when she takes her filthy mutts on the road.
Huh. Gee, I wonder why Albertans feel so cozy in confederation.
ReplyDeleteI don't want one dollar of bailout to come to Alberta. Two wrongs don't make a right.
The answer is to stop pouring money into GMC and the auto industry. As opined on CBC radio yesterday, Professor D'Cruz from the University of Toronto also questioned:
a) Why are we throwing money into a bad business, when market forces will eventually fill the void without tax dollars; and
b) What makes jobs in Southern Ontario more worthy of support than jobs in the B.C. lumber industry.
(This is an Ontario Professor speaking..)
The answer, clearly..
..is votes. Harper cannot win without Ontario, particularly with how terribly he's doing in Quebec... so, get out the cheque book, and screw the West.
It's so freaking predictible, it's almost become mundane. If it weren't such a crap hole, I'd move to Ontario, just to take advantage of the voter appeasment bonuses.
Gee, I wonder why Albertans feel so cozy in confederation.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wonder too.
...If it weren't such a crap hole...
Oh wait, now I remember.
" If it weren't such a crap hole, I'd move to Ontario"
ReplyDeleteI've been across this country several times Rob and let me tell you: there is no place shittier than Cremona Alberta.
Holy shit have you people made your province ugly. I'll take the Great Lakes anyday over looking at endless fields of grain, cattle or oil derricks. Now if you're talking about western Canadian beauty then BC just knocks you off the map and then some.
Plus Rob, we don't really share your immature hate for Ontario in BC. They're Canadians like us and unlike Alberta, they dont try to speak for us repeatedly. If I hear another "speaking for the west" argument from an Albertan... just more prattle from an easterner ;)
ReplyDeleteI think Rob is having an episode. He's been beside himself with his fallen free-market hero, Harper, who's betrayed both his ideology and Alberta (which could only have supported him less by 1 seat). And, as per usual, who you gonna blame? Ontarians. Not just the governments or the politicians but the people themselves.
ReplyDelete'Twas ever thus.
"...there is no place shittier than Cremona Alberta."
ReplyDeleteActually, it is kind of pretty around there - much nicer to take Highway 22 to Banff than Highway 2.
But then we Albertans did not "make" the prairies, and those endless fields of grain and cattle are kind of necessary for food, so...
But then beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and those of us raised on the prairies can see the beauty in the prairie. And of course, south of Calgary along the foothills and into the mountains is breathtakingly beautiful. If only we could get rid of all the Calgarians.
What you have to avoid are the tar sands - because Albertans have definately made Alberta ugly up there.
But then we Albertans did not "make" the prairies, and those endless fields of grain and cattle are kind of necessary for food, so...
ReplyDeleteI see the ADL (Alberta Anti-Defamation League) is on patrol. Do you have a Google Alert set up for that?
Give us a break, Gayle. Scold Rob for calling Ontario a crap hole.
Actually TG, I frequent this blog, and happened to notice the post. But your little ADL thing is kinda cute nontheless.
ReplyDeleteYou can feel free to scold Rob for his comments about Ontario. I do not know enough about it to know if it is a crap hole or not, though certainly the parts I frequent are not.
I do not know enough about it to know if it is a crap hole or not
ReplyDeleteSo you're entertaining the possibly that it *is* a crap-hole?
I am wounded...
Ontario is, objectively, a very beautiful province. Not every part, not in every season, and not dramatically, but there aren't vast expanses of desolate, barren wastelands unless you go north of the treeline. At least the province has lakes.
Of course, urbanisation can manage to make any landscape ugly, but that's not restricted to Ontario. If Calgary didn't have the Rockies as a backdrop, I don't think there'd be much else to recommend it, quite frankly. The people are in fact, quite nice, as long as you don't mention Ontario, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec, Trudeau, NEP, the Official Languages Act, multiculturalism...
...taxes, Elections Canada, the Supreme Court, beavers, maple trees, maple sugar...
...Edmonton
ReplyDeleteHeh.
ReplyDelete