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Politics : Canadian Political Free-for-All -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gulo who wrote (2805)	7/7/2003 1:34:54 PM
From: SofaSpud	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 37574

It would be a useful exercise in public policy to have a comprehensive national discussion about equalization. What are we trying to achieve, are equalization payments the best way, and what are we actually accomplishing under the present system. A number of years ago, while working as an economist in Ottawa, I mentioned to a (Toronto) colleague the absurdity of the (then) current system, which threatened to put Ontario into the have-not category, leaving Alberta as the only "have" province. Their response blew me away: "What's wrong with that?" That uncritical mindset allowed equalization to be written in to the constitution in '82, and now effectively prevents any serious reconsideration of how to achieve our goals.