Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[belsarius]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...833039?cmp=rss


What a disaster decades of PC incompetence has gotten us. It isn't even respiratory virus season, and the system is ####ed. Please don't vote for these clowns. If you can't manage AHS, what hope do you have for a province? Time to fire the failing failers for their failures.

But lightbulbs!

[KelVarnsen]

And Notley's haircut!

[curves2000]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...833039?cmp=rss


What a disaster decades of PC incompetence has gotten us. It isn't even respiratory virus season, and the system is ####ed. Please don't vote for these clowns. If you can't manage AHS, what hope do you have for a province? Time to fire the failing failers for their failures.

I hear you when it comes to the mismanagement of the healthcare system and how much the conservatives in Alberta are to blame but this is a problem across the country and across party lines. Even the federal government has put up their hands and waived the white flag. Provinces asking for $24+ billion extra a year from the feds, they come in with $4.5

I don't know what the answer but I don't think our elected leaders do either. Nobody has the political will to do what needs to be done. Even the President of the Canadian Medical Association said recently that pouring more money into the system wasn't going to work and wasn't good value for taxpayers. https://www.cma.ca/news/bold-choices...invest-new-one

We need a complete 180 on this, big, bold, innovative ideas and we need political buy in from everybody. Canadian's as a whole are extremely proud of our healthcare system but the truth is, it's a disaster across the board. We are arrogant when we have zero reason to be. A sports analogy, we are a bottom feeder who thinks our team is the best and our prospects are top ranked.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by curves2000

We need a complete 180 on this, big, bold, innovative ideas and we need political buy in from everybody. Canadian's as a whole are extremely proud of our healthcare system but the truth is, it's a disaster across the board. We are arrogant when we have zero reason to be. A sports analogy, we are a bottom feeder who thinks our team is the best and our prospects are top ranked.

A complete 180 is basically an argument to go back to private healthcare.

No doubt our system has warts, but a bottom feeder? Come on now.

[PsYcNeT]

No, it's either we're The Best or we're absolute garbage.

Nuance is dead

[Slava]

Originally Posted by kermitology

I'm going to quote myself here because I'd really love to hear from Slava on this.

It’s just not a good analogy.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Slava

It’s just not a good analogy.

Why, because you don't have an answer? How is it not?

[Slava]

Originally Posted by kermitology

Why, because you don't have an answer? How is it not?

It’s just completely different, like in almost every single way. I can’t be bothered to explain why the scenario of someone job hunting doesn’t hold equivalence to a provincial government. If that somehow makes you think you got me, that’s fine.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Slava

It’s just not a good analogy.

You should list all of the political parties that have never in their history ran a deficit(borrowed for operations) and that would add a lot of credibility to your claim that borrowing for operations is some sort of cardinal sin.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Slava

It’s just completely different, like in almost every single way. I can’t be bothered to explain why the scenario of someone job hunting doesn’t hold equivalence to a provincial government. If that somehow makes you think you got me, that’s fine.

If you suddenly have no income, how do you pay your bills? Do you just off yourself? Come on man, this isn’t that hard. You’re deflecting on the actual question. What do you do when bills come due and you have no money?

[Slava]

Originally Posted by kermitology

If you suddenly have no income, how do you pay your bills? Do you just off yourself? Come on man, this isn’t that hard. You’re deflecting on the actual question. What do you do when bills come due and you have no money?

I’ll answer your question with a question. In that position do you ramp up your spending?

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Muta

If we didn't waste money on the stupid useless War Room or the $1.4B loser pipeline bet, that $15M funding could have remained in place, hell - eve added to, supporting our brave firefighters and training new ones. With climate change taking place as we speak, these dry fires will only get more common, and we need to be ready for that incoming scenario. But nope, WAR ROOM, FUNDING PRIVATE SCHOOLS, etc.

If we can't kill BigFoot with our propaganda arm, we'll just have to smoke him out!

Originally Posted by curves2000

I hear you when it comes to the mismanagement of the healthcare system and how much the conservatives in Alberta are to blame but this is a problem across the country and across party lines. Even the federal government has put up their hands and waived the white flag. Provinces asking for $24+ billion extra a year from the feds, they come in with $4.5

I don't know what the answer but I don't think our elected leaders do either. Nobody has the political will to do what needs to be done. Even the President of the Canadian Medical Association said recently that pouring more money into the system wasn't going to work and wasn't good value for taxpayers. https://www.cma.ca/news/bold-choices...invest-new-one

We need a complete 180 on this, big, bold, innovative ideas and we need political buy in from everybody. Canadian's as a whole are extremely proud of our healthcare system but the truth is, it's a disaster across the board. We are arrogant when we have zero reason to be. A sports analogy, we are a bottom feeder who thinks our team is the best and our prospects are top ranked.

The bolded requires a bunch of managers/administrators, but of course that is the first thing people bitch about.

It's a massively complex issue. At a surface level, we can say that a lot of metrics like doctors per 1000 have increased over time, but I suspect the prevalence of medical 'demand' per person has increased way more due to various factors:
- age demographics,
- medicine advancements (more care options actually available for more problems),
- general information available (google research leading to a doctor visit vs. blissful ignorance in the past),
- and a bit of a guess on my part, but I suspect a far higher proportion of the population are actually eager to seek care for more issues than in the past. Not as many Joes working in factories who never visit a doctor for 30 straight years. Women's medicine has evolved dramatically over the years, too.

So...it actually might be as simple as more resourcing. And/or adjusting our expectations in terms of breadth/depth/quality (liability) of care. Resourcing has maybe kept up with either the advances in medicine OR the increase in population, but definitely not both.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

You should list all of the political parties that have never in their history ran a deficit(borrowed for operations) and that would add a lot of credibility to your claim that borrowing for operations is some sort of cardinal sin.

The federal NDP hasn’t!

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Slava

The federal NDP hasn’t!

That’s the spirit!

[fotze2]

We need to pay our politicians a lot more.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by fotze2

We need to pay our politicians a lot more.

I don’t really disagree, but how much would you realistically want to do that job? Because it seems like an absolute nightmare compared to almost anything private at that level! Who’s taking an enormous payout to deal with it and everything that comes along with it?

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Slava

I don’t really disagree, but how much would you realistically want to do that job? Because it seems like an absolute nightmare compared to almost anything private at that level! Who’s taking an enormous payout to deal with it and everything that comes along with it?

Given some of the professional careers and earning potential that our current elected officials have voluntarily left to get into politics it can’t be that big of a nightmare

[Slava]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Given some of the professional careers and earning potential that our current elected officials have voluntarily left to get into politics it can’t be that big of a nightmare

They’re just blind to it until it’s too late. Or their ego is so huge that they crave power that badly. Like imagine you’re Danielle Smith today and you just want to go out for dinner after a long week. It’s got to be both impossible and exhausting. And that wouldn’t have been better last Friday, or basically for months.

It’s a combination of sycophants and people who hate you and just pester you.

[kermitology]

Originally Posted by Slava

I’ll answer your question with a question. In that position do you ramp up your spending?

Depends on what that spending is going towards. timun provided the budget summary that does see increased operational expenses year over year, but you'd have to look at each budget to see where the expenses are going. I did a quick look for 2015-2016 and there were significant investments in things to try and make life less expensive for Albertans.

Budget 2015 reflects total 2015-16 spending of $49.9 billion, which is an increase of $1.5 billion over the March 2015 budget released by the previous government. This spending is expected to increase to $52.3 billion in 2017-18. Primary sources of these expenditures in 2015-16 include:

• $19.7 billion for health, up $800 million from the March 2015 budget, including increased funding for expanded public homecare, long-term care spaces, as well as $10 million for a mental health strategy;
• $7.6 billion for education, including $20 million for a targeted school nutrition program and longer term efforts to reduce school fees;
• $5.7 billion for advanced education, including a two-year freeze on tuition and a rollback on market modifiers in 25 specific programs; and
• $4.3 billion for human services.
  

In an effort to support jobs, growth and diversification, $299 million is earmarked for the new Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, including $50 million in new funding over two years for Alberta Enterprise Corporation.

Government borrowing is much more stable than personal borrowing. So I see that in times were a lot of people are probably struggling for the same reason that the GoA has a revenue problem, and for the same reason, it's reasonable to borrow.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Slava

They’re just blind to it until it’s too late. Or their ego is so huge that they crave power that badly.

I’d guess the latter.

Like imagine you’re Danielle Smith today and you just want to go out for dinner after a long week. It’s got to be both impossible and exhausting. And that wouldn’t have been better last Friday, or basically for months.

Sorry I passed out for a second there while I was imagining what it would be like to be Danielle Smith today. What were we talking about again?

It’s a combination of sycophants and people who hate you and just pester you.

Fair enough. I see my MLA out at different places from time to time and they seem to be enjoying themselves so long as I don’t go talk to them, but honestly I don’t hate them and anytime I have spoken to them it hasn’t been with the intention of pestering them. They should know going into it that that’s part of the gig though.