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

To: BEEF JERKEY who wrote (3770)	3/28/2004 11:52:27 AM
From: Michael Watkins	Respond to of 37804

Its simple: The people of Alberta have their eye on the long term. Klein can increase funding to health care and no doubt he will when other goals have been met. Imagine just how attractive Alberta becomes to both business and individuals considering relocation when they have a) no debt, b) a very attractive corporate climate and c) perhaps a revamped healthcare system one day down the road? No debt means every penny gets to be used for the public good. Talk to any provincial treasurer and ask them if they would enjoy having no debt and not having to fork out funds to bond holders every year. Sure, Alberta's got money from oil but what is also true is that funds from Oil Royalities will diminish over time - that's a given, and is already happening in some of the most heavily explored and exploited areas. Is it so wrong to take the long term view for the benefit not just of this generation or the next election's voters, but for everyone's children? Why you'd have Alberta spend every dime, even though they know for a fact that their income stream from oil revenue will one day look more like the income stream from grain farming during a drought? Now that is short sighted, typical Liberal (elect me at all costs) thinking. Perhaps the average Albertan voter, where unemployment is extremely low compared to the Rest Of Canada and the nature of jobs (higher quality higher wage) is better compared to the ROC, understands that putting some savings away is indeed the Canadian way and a ticket to an even brighter future. That's why they do not punish Klein at the polls.

To: BEEF JERKEY who wrote (3770)	3/28/2004 1:51:53 PM
From: SofaSpud	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 37804

Hello? Alberta spends $8 billion a year on health care, from a budget of $22 billion. To put that in perspective, the entire provincial budget in 1988 was $11 billion. WTF do you mean they're not spending money on health??? Look, I live here. The system has all the shortcomings you mention. I'm not a Klein supporter. But come on, folks. They could double the $8 billion they're spending today, and in 10 years the problem would still be there. The answer is NOT to pour more money into the existing system, because as presently structured health care in Canada is a black hole. Conservative thinking my ass. Klein is no more a Conservative than Jack Layton.

To: BEEF JERKEY who wrote (3770)	3/28/2004 1:52:49 PM
From: Lino...	Respond to of 37804

More problems with Liberal thinking: .......admitting there are things deadly wrong with the liberal-created universally bad health care would be admitting to a failure, and no liberal will do that no matter how many people they kill with their waiting lists. If it's broken, fix it....and that starts with voting liberal corruption out of ottawa

To: BEEF JERKEY who wrote (3770)	3/28/2004 10:07:56 PM
From: Gulo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 37804

He could easily make Alberta's healthcare the envy of the whole world Yes, he could - by pulling us out of the communist Canada Health Act. Universality (i.e., "share the poverty and death") has evil implications. As others have said, Klein is not all that conservative. Certainly, he is to the right of the Liberals, but then the NDP is to the right of the communist party. They are all to the left of what used to be considered "center". How much of the economy should be run by the government for it to be considered centrist? 50%? I think not. If anything over 10% or so of GDP is government, the system is obviously socialist to some degree. When we compare Klein to the alternatives, we can only describe greater or lesser degrees of socialism. Klein is a populist, and tries to cater to Albertans demands for the government to stick to governing and to stay out of the rest of our lives. To that end, he has been more-or-less successful in avoiding piss*ng us off. Health care and education, however, are two areas where he has adopted the socialist agenda because many Albertans still want him to. The fact that he realizes the system is not sustainable and requires some reforms doesn't make him a conservative. He is just less socialist than the ROC. -g