Alberta, Quebec and Language, NB & Nuclear Power, The Health Debate We Never Had

We don't need to turn Alberta into a second Quebec Mark Milke, Financial Post, April 14, 2005

The last thing Canada needs is another province that duplicates Quebec and its approach to the federal government. That's led to an unnecessary duplication of bureaucracies with the predictable extra costs, both in that province and others because of equalization and transfer payments. But apparently the Quebec model is popular with some Alberta conservatives.

Last week in the Post, Alberta MLA Ted Morton argued that despite the best efforts of the West over several decades, despite increased population ratios relative to the rest of the country and of billions of tax dollars transferred to our distant colonial capital, Western power has actually decreased.

[. . . . ] I grant that the federal government should be leaner, tax less, spend less, and that both provincial and federal governments should stay out of each other's jurisdiction. And Morton is understandably frustrated that the West still transfers so much money eastward in net terms.

But . . . . [. . . . ]

Down the tube Terence Corcoran, Financial Post, April 09, 2005

One can also assume, given Mr. Godfrey's record, that there would be few strings, such as efficiency-generating contracting out provisions, attached to federal handouts.

Which pretty much means most of the federal cash will find its way into padding and protecting union contracts and expanding the empires of local political operatives such as Mr. Moscoe. An elected politician, Mr. Moscoe heads the TTC and, as he says, he has no plans to rock the union boat or end the TTC's extravagant capital and operating programs.

Cementing the status quo, with all its waste and entrenched monopoly powers [. . . . ]

Nurse 'too proficient' in French for licence -- Watchdog backs down Nurse 'too proficient' in French for licence -- Watchdog backs down

MONTREAL - A Montreal nurse who passed Quebec's mandatory French proficiency test with flying colours was told she did too well and would have to rewrite the exam or lose her licence.

But yesterday Janice Douglas had tears streaming down her face as her lawyer said the Office Quebecois de la langue francaise had backed off and changed its position.

"They knew they were going to lose," said lawyer Brent Tyler.

Apparently, she worked hard enough to do well and they might as well have accused her of cheating.




Nuclear Power and Subsidies

Losing power: Bernard Lord demands nuclear subsidies, while Ottawa plans an East-West electricity grid. The inevitable result waste and blackouts Tom Adams, Financial Post, April 15, 2005

[. . . . ] Provincial power systems need competition, not subsidies. Competition would sort out the efficient producers from the inefficient and provide the dynamism needed to respond to changing business conditions. But instead of encouraging competition by allowing new entrants with fresh ideas into the electricity marketplace, the subsidies will have the opposite effect. They will all go to existing players, entrenching inefficient monopolies, keeping innovative, cheaper and often cleaner decentralized solutions out of the market, and all at taxpayers' expense. [. . . . ]

The health debate we never have Editorial, Toronto Sun, Apr. 15, 05

To hear our ever-more-hysterical (read: desperate) prime minister tell it, Stephen Harper's Conservatives have a radical new plan to replace the Canada Health Act and allow more private sector involvement in health care.
If only it were true.

But like so many other products of the Martin Liberals' fevered imaginations -- in particular, the notion that only their corrupt party can safeguard Canadian values -- it's nonsense. As is Paul Martin's loony claim that this plan is the Conservatives' latest "hidden agenda." [. . . . ]

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