Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
Thoughts on Canada, the IMF, the Banking Crisis, Censorship, and the Common Thread: Socialism
Mr. Mulcair in Alberta, after flying over the “tar sands” as he calls them and being suitably impressed by their “awesome nature,” has stated that we have “internalized environmental costs.” This, I think means that we should raise prices by introducing environmental levies, depress resource markets by inflating prices, and thereby help out Ontario’s manufacturing industries.
Mulcair’s careful insult to Alberta and the resource sectors of Alberta and Saskatchewan is a brilliant political strategy. He needs to impress half the voters of Ontario and three quarters of the voters or Quebec who already agree with him. They resent Alberta even though Quebec receives billions of dollars in equalization every year.
Canadian Equalization:
On the subject of equalization, the National Post is running an interesting series on the costs of nature of equalization payments between the provinces. Some of the columnists have suggested that equalization could be made more equitable to stimulate resource production in places like Quebec, which probably deliberately suppresses its resource revenues, particularly from hydroelectric power, in order to continue to qualify for equalization. But what is the political incentive to do so? There is none. Equalization is a government-subsidized welfare scheme to take from the hard working middle class taxpayers of rich provinces like Alberta, Saskatchewan, and BC, and distribute to the wealthy bureaucratic elites of the so called “poor” provinces who make themselves deliberately poor, and which are encouraged to remain recipients of equalization.
International Equalization:
Looking at the situation in Europe, the European community is asking the International Monetary Fund for more than the $320 billion in additional funding it has already provided to assist in rescuing Greece. It wants $400 billion more. This again is international equalization from the middle class taxpayers of rich countries like Canada to the pampered bureaucrats of the artificially poor socialist countries of Europe who have overextended socialism beyond their productive means. This, of course, is typical of Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. The internationalist elite of all political stripes have recently been revealed as close buddies. While Mr. Mulcair was in Alberta checking out the oil sands, the Premier of Alberta was at the Bilderberg conference in Virginia and couldn’t meet him. (The leader of the opposition is less important than the Bilderberg conference.)
Canadian / Quebec Elite: Socialists All:
This was further demonstrated recently by the leaking of videotaped coverage of the 2008 birthday party for Mrs. Power Corporation Desmarais, which took place at their luxurious estate in Quebec. In attendance were George H. W. Bush, Jean Chrétien, Brian Mulroney, and Adrienne Clarkson. Interesting to note that all the Canadian political elite, be they Liberal, Conservative, or just establishment like Clarkson, basically all came from and to the province of Quebec for this occasion.
Quebec: The Spoiled Child:
Quebec, the spoiled child of confederation, recipient of billions of dollars in equalization, demonstrates once again that the political elite favour socialism, and socialism favours the political elite. It was designed and explained to people as a way to distribute wealth from the rich to the poor, but ultimately it distributes wealth from the middle class taxpayers to the super-rich elite who make deals with government, much the way that Howard Hughes made deals with the military industrial complex in the United States.
Socialism: The Common Thread:
To top this all off, we see that socialism via Mulcair or via the international community represented by the Bilderbergs or the IMF all amounts to basically the same thing: a birthday party for the super-rich and an increased bureaucratic control which eventually will result in a police state where the biggest crime of all is tax evasion. The government never ceases to delight in telling people how they must pay “their taxes.” The government’s taxes never cease to increase one way or another, as does the strength, power, and authority of the state, diminishing the liberty, initiative, and creativity of the individual.
The United Nations: A Socialist Institution:
Those of us who understand this phenomenon are not surprised by the push to give power to control free speech and the internet to the United Nations. Can you imagine a United Nations bureaucrat, even further removed from any concept of free speech than the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal or various provincial tribunals, and how little power or authority one would have when the costs of representing yourself before such an international tribunal was simply beyond the capacity of anyone. Self-censorship has become the norm here in Canada where people go to jail for writing letters critical of certain groups, and even to question things like the Holocaust as a historical phenomenon results in extensive legal persecution and lengthy criminal and Human Rights Tribunal hearings.
All of this demonstrates that if we take the easy road, run from controversy, pay our taxes, and carry on with the political system we have rather than by a referendum peacefully move to one we prefer, we will eventually end up in a form of individual and political slavery from which there is no peaceful escape.
Independence: The Only Option:
Faced with this reality, Western Canada has no option but independence, to in effect restore the balance between the state and the individual so that the individual, their creative capacity, and their spontaneity and enjoyment of life does not become, as George Orwell predicted in the book 1984, a victim of Big Brother, always at war somewhere in the world, constantly taking away more freedom because of the alleged power of a mysterious foreign terrorist. In the case of “1984”, the terrorist was ironically called Goldstein, and in 2012 although Bin Laden is dead, there remains this nebulous international shifting force against which all liberty must be surrendered in the interests of security.
By the right of democratic referendum, initiative, and recall, Western Canada has the means of prosperity, freedom, and control of the vast territories of Western Canada of, for, and by Western Canadians. It was for the same reason that Americans in 1776 and thereafter decided to separate from the British Empire, which was becoming, as Canada is now, a centralized bureaucratic extracting force, willing to take whatever it needed from its various colonies, much as Ottawa takes and equalizes from its various provinces.
If we don’t create our own media, address these issues in a rational, constructive, peaceful, and democratic way, our adversaries will have the capacity to isolate, alienate, and criminalize each of us. We must stand together or we’ll all hang separately. Let freedom and truth prevail, where truth and error are free in rational discourse to refute each other. Political change is essential for the vital function of the state, which is to protect and preserve the liberty, property, and dignity of the individual. Free the West!
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Debate Regarding Western Separatism
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
A National Energy Policy?
The National Post, on Saturday the 26th of May, 2012, at the beginning of the Financial Post section, had a large article by Claudia Cattaneo regarding “The Trouble with Resetting Canada’s Energy Spine”. TransCanada Pipeline was looking to raise rates or even switch its namesake pipeline from gas to oil, which may create a huge controversy.
I read the article carefully, and as far as I can see, what it amounts to is offloading the costs of shipping western oil east onto Western Canadian consumers. I quote the article, as follows:
“After years of unsuccessful negotiation, TransCanada presented a restructuring proposal to the NEB (National Energy Board) in the fall it says achieves ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’ – but that doesn’t seem to make anyone happy. It’s the reason the proposal has landed before the NEB for a ruling.”
My comment is that the greatest good for the greatest number generally means the greatest good for the people of Ontario and Quebec where this pipeline will end.
Quoting further, the article says:
“Western Canadian gas producers find many of TransCanada’s arguments outrageous and its restructuring proposal a way of transferring Western Canadian wealth to the East.”
This, to my mind, is exactly what has happened all too often in the transfer of wealth from the energy sector to the consumers of Eastern Canada, so they can have cheap gas and oil. It is, in effect, requiring Western Canadians to pay and subsidize the main line to Central Canada. The article goes on to say:
“Western Canadians find it ‘very offensive’ that the regional carrier, NGTL, might subsidize the Mainline, said Nikol Schultz, vice president for pipeline regulation and general counsel at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, which will represent producers interests at the hearings.”
The article concludes with the suggestion that probably it would be better for Eastern Canada to pay the world price for oil and gas, relying on the shale gas production from the Eastern United States, rather than having it shipped all the way from Alberta on a “Canada Mainline.” The article in its final paragraph says:
“Whether it’s in the business of shipping oil or gas, producers believe it’s time for TransCanada, as the owner of the mainline to start bearing the risk of its choices, rather than shifting it to others.”
In my opinion, shifting it others (Western Canadian gas consumers) is exactly what the NEB and TransCanada are likeliest to do. In the present political climate, no Western Canadian Prime Minister is ever going to rock this boat when it would cost him the votes of Ontario and Quebec.
Therefore, I find this whole controversy another strong argument why Western Canada should not be trying to ship its gas and oil to the consumers of Eastern Canada, but rather should be shipping it to the port of Prince Rupert, from where it can be sold at the highest possible price to the consumers of Korea, China, Japan, and probably in the future, India and Indonesia.
There is no long term benefit from a pipeline that ships oil and gas from Alberta to the consumers of Quebec so that they can have cheap energy at the expense of Western Canadian consumers or oil and gas producers. Let the revenues from the resources remain in the land where the resources come from and you will see a developing industry, secondary manufacturing, and a reduction in the costs of living and taxation that Western Canada has every right to expect from retaining the ownership, use, and profit from the resources located here for the long term benefit of Western Canadians.
This is something Ottawa can never do for us, and the National Energy Board as they call it will simply do the political thing again, and make the people of the West subservient providers to the consumers of the East in the interests of the political survival of whatever party happens to be in power in Ottawa.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
"Quebec and the Fairy Godmother"
Some time ago, Lisa Corbella, the editorial page editor of the Calgary Herald, published an article entitled “Quebec and the Fairy Godmother.” I quote from it, almost completely, as follows:
Quebec and the Fairy Godmother
Today, let’s have some fun and play Fairy Godmother to Quebec. Let’s grand the province the wish it articulated in Copenhagen. Wave the magic wand and poof, wish granted. Shut down Alberta’s oilsands, except, since it’s Quebec making the wish, we have to call it tarsands, even though it’s not tar they use to run their Bombardier planes, trains and Skidoos.
Ah, at last! The blight on Canada’s reputation shut down. All those dastardly workers from across Canada living in Fort McMurray, Calgary and Edmonton out of jobs, including those waitresses, truck drivers, nurses, teachers, doctors, pilots, engineers etc. They can all go on Employment insurance like Ontario autoworkers and Quebec parts makers!
Closing down Alberta’s oil industry would immediately stop the production of 1.8 million barrels of oil a day. Supply and demand being what it is, oil prices will go up and therefore the cost at the pump will go up, too, increasing the cost of everything else.
…The 530-square-kilometre piece of land currently disturbed by the oilsands (which is smaller than the John F. Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla. At 570 square kilometres) must be reclaimed by law and will return to Alberta’s 381,000 square kilometres of boreal forest, a huge carbon sink…
Quebec, of course, has clean hydro power, but more than 13,000 square kilometres were drowned for the James Bay hydroelectric project, permanently removing that forest from acting as a carbon sink.
…Quebec hasn’t made a net contribution to the rest of Canada for a very long time. This is not to be critical (after all, Fairy Godmothers never criticize), it’s just a fact. In 2009, Albertans paid $40.46 billion in income, corporate and other taxes to the federal government and received back just $19.35 billion in services and goods from the feds. That means the rest of Canada got $21.1 billion from Albertans or $5,742 for each and every Alberta man, woman and child. In 2007 (the last year national figures are available), Alberta sent a net contribution of $19.49 billion to the ROC or $5,443 per Albertan – more than three times what every Ontarian contributes at $1,757. Quebecers, on the other hand, each received $627 net or a total of $8 billion, money which was designed to help “equalize” social programs across the country.
…The July 2009 Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI) report states that between 2008 and 2032, the oilsands will account for 172,000 person-years or employment in Ontario during the construction phase, plus 640,000 for operations over the 25-year period. For Quebec, the oilsands will account for 84,000 person-years of employment during the construction phase, plus 292,000 for operations over the 25-year period.
…The dream of many Quebecers to form their own nation and separate from Canada has died at last. Alas, in Alberta, separatist sentiment has risen dramatically, citizens vote to separate and the oil and gas industry returns.
Albertans start to pocket that almost $6,000 for each person that used to get sent elsewhere and now their kids get free tuition. Fairy Godmother’s work is done. Wish granted. Quebecers must now sign up for foreign worker visas to work in Alberta to send their cheques back home so junior can start saving up to pay for college.
My comments are as follows:
1.) If, in 2009, Alberta surrendered a loss of $21-billion to subsidize the rest of Canada, which in the hands of Quebecers is now being used to subsidize their university education, and if as quite correctly alleged, the oil sands will generate 170,000 person-years of employment in Ontario and 84,000 person-years of employment in Quebec, why should this money and these jobs go to Ontario and Quebec when they could provide for the people in Western Canada who live here?
2.) Why should we continue to subsidize a bankrupt government in Ottawa that annually goes deeper in debt, while a Western Canadian government could be self-supporting with all our government services paid for with reduced taxation?
3.) Why should Western Canadians continue to cater to the Ontario preference for a multicultural society with bilingualism everywhere, while we in Western Canada have to listen to bilingual announcements on WestJet airlines?
4.) Why should Western Canadians in Fort McMurray, Prince Rupert, or anywhere else, be held to ransom by foreign-subsidized “environmental groups” receiving vast sums of donations from American corporate entities while Western Canadian jobs are held to ransom by an Ottawa-based decision making process?
5.) Why shouldn’t Western Canadians have their own country, with their own Parliament, with a regionally-elected Senate, and the rights of referendum, initiative, and recall, which would give all Western Canadians a feeling of participation in their own government for a change?
6.) Why shouldn’t lower taxation be translated into greater respect for private property and perhaps a constitutional entrenchment of that right, which the Ottawa government has not and will not give us?
7.) Why should Western Canadians continue to allow decisions to be made where the decision makers are primarily elected in Quebec and Ontario, where the Supreme Court of Canada is appointed primarily from Quebec and Ontario with six of the nine judges coming from those provinces, and the Senate and central Canadian media, owned, operated and dominated from Quebec and Ontario? Why is this good for us and why should we continue to pay for it?
8.) What is the reason and benefit behind all the wonderful analysis of Lisa Corbella if it doesn’t provide a positive alternative in a Western Canadian independence that makes all the economic sense in the world?
9.) Why does Lisa Corbella have to address the subject as if she was a “fairy godmother,” knowing full well that the changes that will be inflicted on Western Canada in the name of environmentalism and by the transfer process will inevitably kill the oil sands and the pipeline to deliver to the hungry consumers of China, India, and the Pacific Rim?
10.) Why do we need a fairy godmother to pretend when actually Western Canadians could, if they chose in a referendum, make these wishes which were always tongue-in-cheek less likely to be a reality?
11.) If we need a fairy godmother, why wouldn’t we want one that would give us our wishes and not accomplish the dire and destructive preferences of the central Canadian establishment, who have one sole goal – that is to keep Western Canada as a captive audience for provision, at less than world market price if possible, of oil, natural gas, fresh water, fishery, forestry, mining, and agriculture, to the rapacious spendthrift governments of Ontario and Quebec? Why should we continue to put up with this?
These are questions that Lisa Corbella and those who only complain about the problem, never really ask. It seems it’s so much easier to pretend than deal with the real world and do something about it. At least with the Western Block, Western Canada Concept, and my efforts since 1974, there was a clear alternative provided and an answer that would make Western Canada a better alternative.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Multiculturalism vs. Religious Freedom
The contrary argument goes that the goal of religious, racial, and ethnic harmony supersedes the rights of free speech and freedom of religion because if free speech or freedom of religion were superior individual rights they could cause intolerance. Of course they could. Of course they will. Speech and religion will inevitably express views advocating the superiority of one culture, race, religion, or sexual orientation over another. True tolerance is the tolerance given to one person by another to say A is right and B is wrong. The great questions of morality, ethnicity, culture, language, or philosophy to the extent they are important at all will inevitably claim one is right and the other is wrong. When we ask if we should allow this, the first and more important question to ask first is which is true.
To the liberal, the answer is nothing is true or false, because all truths are merely opinions and they are equal and must be tolerated. This is where the liberal and the believer part company. So far, the liberal has been able to silence the believer by force of law using the trump card of multiculturalism, which criminalizes the believer in any religious, racial, moral, or ethnic superiority. Multiculturalism is a state religion, and religious belief of any other kind cannot peacefully co-exist.
Multiculturalism is the new totalitarianism which the Canadian state has enshrined as a state religion. The place of the inquisition has been taken by the Human Rights Tribunals. Nothing could more clearly demonstrate this than the new Alberta Education Act, which incorporates the Human Rights Act. The combination will make it illegal for a school, public or private, to teach the correctness of any religion over another or that homosexuality is wrong.
The Human Rights Act in every classroom will make it illegal for a teacher to tell any unpleasant truth about a race, religion, or sexual practice which might cause discrimination. This, 30 years after the fact, seems to point at the Keegstra case.
Quebec’s new “ethnic and religious culture” curriculum aims to teach religious tolerance by teaching that religious differences don’t matter. As Father Raymond de Souza put it: “If you are a Muslim parent who wants to teach your child that Islam is superior to being an atheist or being a witch, the education system will teach the opposite.” There are no exemptions. All children must go to these classes. The Supreme Court of Canada, the ultimate authority in Canada in these matters agrees. Parents have no right to disagree with the State religion.
Similarly in Ontario, the government demands schools teach homosexuality is right and proper under the guise of defeating bullying. They are not satisfied to stop bullying by punishing the bullies. They demand a moral affirmation of homosexuality as well.
So everyone is free to teach their children one set of morals, religious values, or cultural beliefs at home, so long as they surrender their children to the State to be taught the opposite in many cases. It is the State’s version upon which they will be tested and if they disagree, they will be marked down and held up to scorn and ridicule by or in front of their peers. That, the State teaches, is teaching tolerance.
The Libyan Experience & Western Canada
They claim under Gaddafi, this oil rich eastern province was marginalized and exploited to support the dictator’s popularity in the densely populated areas of Tripolitania and Fezzan. This sounds very familiar.
How ironic that Nato has achieved the hiving off of the oil rich region which no doubt will be more than willing to sell oil at a reasonable price in exchange for independence. The residents of this area will no doubt be better off individually, freer as a people, and better able to preserve their democratic rights and legal and cultural identity than subordinated to the Libyan version of Ontario which Moamar Gaddafi had so carefully manipulated.
Everywhere in the world, small nations are emerging from resource-based economies, which are better able to reflect the democratic will of the people in the land where they live. Usually this is by force of arms. Here in Canada, we have a legal method – The Clarity Act – whereby this can be achieved by the peaceful means of a democratic referendum. Why should we blindly surrender to the Ontario dictatorship and more than Cyrenaica did the Gaddafi dictatorship? They had to fight for their freedom. All we have to do is wake up, organize, and vote!