We don’t need a Donald Trump North
By Bill Phillips
So Kevin O’Leary thinks a duly-elected Canadian premier is only worth a million bucks.
The Canadian fat-cat and reality show star (Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank) has said he’ll invest $1 million in the oil industry if Alberta premier Rachel Notley resigns. Wow, what a personal sacrifice he’s willing to make, shelling out $1 million to invest in an industry that is currently suffering (so stock prices are down) but will rebound eventually. That would make O’Leary, wait for it, richer. If he promised to give the money to charity then at least it would look like he’s in it for someone other than himself.
Sure it’s a stunt to gain attention, but what an arrogant buffoon. If the one-per-centers ever wonder why the 99-per-centers despise them so much, this a good example.
Here you have someone with money who doesn’t like something and the only solution is to throw money at it to try and make it go away.
Even worse is the notion that business trumps democracy. We seem to be far enough down that road already.
We have a newly-elected federal government promising some sort of electoral reform and if O’Leary had his way that reform would mean those with a seven-figure bank account would get all the votes.
If O’Leary doesn’t like what Notley is doing in Alberta, then maybe he should move to Alberta and run against her next time. It’s called democracy. However, we only need to look south of the border to see how frightening uber-rich reality television stars can be when they get involved in politics.
We don’t need Donald Trump North.
At least Notley took it in stride, referring to a group of Alberta businessmen, whom she dubbed the Monopoly Men, who urged voters not to elect the NDP.
“The last time a group of wealthy businessmen tried to tell Alberta voters how to vote, I ended up becoming premier,” she reportedly said.
She added that was when she knew she had won the election.
As we prepare for some sort of debate on electoral reform, it’s ironic that it’s the Conservatives who most vehemently abhor Notley and the NDP (or any New Democratic Party government) and it’s the also the Conservatives who staunchly support the first past the post electoral system.
One of the arguments Conservatives give in favour of keeping the electoral status quo is the system gives a majority government the mandate and stability to rule for four or five years. That system has given that power and that mandate to Notley and the NDP … Let her do her job.
Bill Phillips is a freelance columnist living in Prince George. He was the winner of the 2009 Best Editorial award at the British Columbia/Yukon Community Newspaper Association’s Ma Murray awards, in 2007 he won the association’s Best Columnist award. In 2004, he placed third in the Canadian Community Newspaper best columnist category and, in 2003, placed second. He can be reached at billphillips1@mac.com
Comments
I think we better be very nice to Trump. He very well could be delivering the next State of the Union.
So having a successful businessman running a province, or country, is worse than a kid who has never worked in his life, and has zero credentials? Gotcha.
Sure it’s a stunt to gain attention, but what an arrogant buffoon
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One could argue that Bill’s opinions are just stunts to gain attention as well. Every theme of every column he writes is predicable: the NDP is great.
Oh he got his advice from Prentice and Harper..all arrogant fools.
Seems to me that the **First past the post** system worked well for Canada since Confederation,. Not only did it work, but it worked best for the Liberals who were the Government for the majority of those years.
The only reason lesser Trudeau wants to change the system is that it works best for the Liberals at this point in time. ie; Peoples second choice on the ballet would work much better for the Liberals, and would almost certainly keep them in power for many years to come. Their buddies ie; NDP, Greens, etc; would get some scraps at the table, and would be able to pretend that they are making an important contribution to Canada.
If Trudeau was really up to the task of being a Prime Minister he would allow this issue to go to a referendum, or better still, he would take it off the table and leave well enough alone.
I suspect most who are in favour of changing our system know very little about how the present system works. Perhaps they should do a little reading on the Westminster System of Government that we and many other Countries around the world have been using for many, many years.
‘One could argue that Bill’s opinions are just stunts to gain attention as well. Every theme of every column he writes is predicable: the NDP is great.’
Bill used to be a half decent writer before he became an unabashed shill for the NDP and the left generally. Now his ‘opinion pieces’ are simply recycled, socialist slop for the sole purpose of firing up the loopy lefties that post to this site.
Cue the loopy lefties!
Back to the Donald Trump and O’Leary phenomenon. The American media reports that Americans are really mad at the politicians of both parties, mad as can be! They are tired of the bickering and tit-for-tat muscle flexing with very little getting done. Anything is possible in an election when the majority of the voters are fed up to the gills! Canada hasn’t quite reached that state yet and hopefully never will.
Got to hand it to the Conservatives and other right-wing parties and their rich handlers: nobody knows the economy like they do. In fact all you need in order to see just how prescient they are, economy-wise, is how often they conveniently lose the election right after they’ve ransacked the public coffers, driven up public debt, and just before the economy goes into the tank. The Socreds and Liberals did it in BC, the Cons in Alberta, and now the federal Con party in Ottawa. Yup, gotta give ’em credit.
The righties never take responsibility . They never own their mistakes . That’s why they point fingers at others . Over 40 years of cons running Alberta and they are flat broke . Over ten years of the idiot Harper and we are now the most indebted population in the world . So what exactly did they conserve ? Poor stupid canada . Never mind logic . Just keep passing around the cons cool aid .
“So what exactly did they conserve ?” Perhaps their salaries, benefits and life time indexed pension benefits? Not to mention potential seats on the board of directors of many corporations? Did you check what Brian is doing lately, as in Mulroney? A five dollar a month increase in OAS or Canada Pension on the other hand is just not affordable!
BTW, this news should please Kevin who usually wants to outsource all manufacturing to Asia: GM is about to bring the first all Made In China Buick to the US, next for sure Canada! Who knows, the three domestic brand dealerships may soon be just distribution locations for Chinese made jalopies! Same fate as Australia.
Yes we are a pathetic lot . Funny you mention Australia . Our dollarette is now on par with theirs . All thanks to quasimodos ten years of mismanagement .
Kevin is considering running for con leadership . I think that would be perfect .
Ya, conservatives like to give themselves the reputation of being fiscally responsible. Too bad the cons ran consistent deficits federally, too bad Christy Clark has added similar amounts of debt (debt to GDP) as Glen Clark of the NDP. And the 44 years of Cons in Alberta sure worked out for them…
Posted on Thursday, January 14, 2016 @ 9:48 AM by Ataloss
Over ten years of the idiot Harper and we are now the most indebted population in the world .
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Really? You hadn’t heard about Greece’s recent monetary problems? What about the US with their growing $19 trillion debt? Let’s do the math. With one tenth the population, to be as indebted as the US we would have a debt of $1.9 trillion. Not even close.
Bill, if you had been keeping up with what Notley is doing in Alberta you’d understand his displeasure. Among other things, despite the hardship the oil industry is enduring, she’s doubling down her attacks on the biggest engine of Alberta’s economy and investors are pulling money out, moving it to other jurisdictions like Saskatchewan. That’s why O’Leary offered to put money in. Not that he really expects her to step down, with her majority she has a free hand for 4 years. Only question is, will the damage she does be permanent?
Dirtman do you know the difference between personal debt verses government debt ? The ratio of debt to income is the highest in canada . ~ $1.67 bc and Alberta lead the pack . The highest debt to income ratio is in Alberta . They made big bucks but paid nothing back . Kids these days . What could posibly go wrong .
PG you missed Glen Clark, he is doing alright for an NDP’er. Oh right he doesn’t count.
Ataloss,
Why is personal debt the Government’s fault? Every loan I have ever taken was my choice, with my signature on the bottom. I don’t remember seeing Harper there telling me to do it.
Zero down 40 year amortization , zero down 35 year amortization , zero down 30 year amortization . Emergency low interest rates. Further chopping interest rates every time real estate wobbled in order to engineer housing frenzy by our young people . Resulting in insane rises in prices with no increase in wages or employment . Classic government engineered bubble of epic proportion . Harper might as well have been screaming ” hey kiddies free candy ” .
Ataloss, you are right, the Government is responsible. How dare those greedy politicians let average Canadians decide how much they can afford to spend! People really are too stupid to make their own decisions and must be protected.
Ataloss, you state: “Over 40 years of cons running Alberta and they are flat broke. Over ten years of the idiot Harper and we are now the most indebted population in the world. So what exactly did they conserve ? Poor stupid canada. Never mind logic. Just keep passing around the cons cool aid.”
We all know that you are not a fan of the Conservatives! So, how about telling us how wonderful things are in Ontario, what with Kathleen Wynne at the helm? Last I heard, Ontario’s debt now exceeds the debt of the entire state of California!!
And how is Rachel Notley doing next door in Alberta? Things are NOT looking so rosy in the Wild Rose Province!
And then there is our wonderboy, heavy on the boy, light on the wonder, Justin!
So far, he has changed and changed and changed his refugee targets.
Now it would appear that his Defence Minister is flip flopping or at best waffling on bringing home our jets!
Economy tanking, oil prices plummeting, dollar dropping and yet, JT is far more concerned with vacations and selfies that actually running our country!
Thankfully we have you Ataloss, here to tell us how bad the Cons are doing!
Wait a minute, aren’t the Cons in opposition now? Time to start blaming JT and crew!
Cheers!
Hart Guy wrote: “Last I heard, Ontario’s debt now exceeds the debt of the entire state of California!!”
According to debt clocks on the internet, here are the total debt figures for Ontario and California in that order: C$295.455 billion versus US$425.488 billion. Converting the Ontario debt to US$ at the current rate makes the Ontario debt $211.039 billion.
Thus the Ontario debt is about half the debt of California.
It is always good to check these things out oneself. The internet blogs are like church pews. Tell a story on one end, by the time it gets passed along to the other end one would not recognize it anymore.
Debt clocks are rough estimates. So, if you have some other sources which prove your statement, please let us know.
Sources = Debtclock.ca and usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-california-debt-clock.html
cheers!!! ;-)
Here are all the provincial debts/person in order of least to most based on the above listed source.
alberta $4,021
sask $4,876
bc $14,690
nf&L $14,766
pei $14,791
ns $16,082
nb $17,066
ont $21,513
que $21,836
man $27,846
Each person can add the national per person debt of $17,243 to the provincial debt. All in Canadian dollars.
The US debt is US$58,489/person. That is C$81,885/person ….
Moral of the story …. owe a lot of money and you can rule the world.
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