Alberta Politics Thread v2

[Fozzie_DeBear]

For me the main issue is who can structure the economy to thrive over the coming decades...

The NDP is focusing on value-add for hydrocarbons and putting market mechanisms in place to price carbon. I have no idea what the UCP plans to do...

The structure of Alberta's economy HAS to evolve...and has to assume that the simple exporting of hydrocarbons is not enough.

I think that if Peter Lougheed were around today, he would lean more towards the NDP than the UCP and the statements made by his sons seem to back that up.

Also, Albertans appear to love their dynasties...Liberal, UFA, SoCred and PC's all had long uninterrupted runs...will that pattern hold?

[puckedoff]

^ Clearly KENNEY negotiated hard with his Mother, to keep his rent down to what he COULD AFFORD. Talk about the ART of the DEAL - not paying a penny More. If his mother demanded more rent, HE'd have a DEFICIT, and those are for Liberals!


Seriously though it does seem wierd that politicians always get tripped up in this stuff. It must be a type of entitlement culture in that sector? Especially given how much Canadian love an expense claim scandal (gazebos, orange juice, rent agreements) you'd think some politicos would wise up.

[Zarley]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Would have expected him not to game the system for personal financial gain.



Does it not seem suspicious at all that the rent he was paying his mother was nearly the amount he could get reimbursed?

How specifically is he gaming the system?

Remember that:
a) All MPs are obligated to maintain a residence in (or within 100 km of) their home constituency.
b) The vast majority of MPs who live outside the NCR receive a housing allowance for accommodation in a secondary residence.
c) $900 per month is a modest and reasonable amount for this allowance - keep in mind the maximum housing allowance at this time was $28,000 per annum or $2,333 per month.
d) This practice was and remains standard practice amongst MPs in the House of Commons.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Zarley

What would you have preferred that he do in instead?

Declare his Ottawa residence as his primary residence. With what I think we can agree would be very little to no upkeep required at his Alberta residence(and I’m using the term “residence” loosely) he would have had no need for any tax payer funded financial assistance in maintaining what would then be his secondary residence, or at the very least not to the tune of $10K per year.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Fozzie_DeBear

For me the main issue is who can structure the economy to thrive over the coming decades...

The NDP is focusing on value-add for hydrocarbons and putting market mechanisms in place to price carbon. I have no idea what the UCP plans to do...

The structure of Alberta's economy HAS to evolve...and has to assume that the simple exporting of hydrocarbons is not enough.

I think that if Peter Lougheed were around today, he would lean more towards the NDP than the UCP and the statements made by his sons seem to back that up.

Also, Albertans appear to love their dynasties...Liberal, UFA, SoCred and PC's all had long uninterrupted runs...will that pattern hold?

Peter Lougheed isn't a deity and also he's not around to endorse or denounce Notley or Kenney. So that statement should count for virtually zero.

How about we not pay carbon taxes until all other jurisdictions that we compete for investment capital actually pay carbon taxes and only in the amount that they apply them for? That way we won't chase away any more investment than we already have.

How about we try and fix the deficit through spending cuts and other revenue initiatives?

Do those two things and let the professionals who work in our economy sort out the best investment opportunities for their capital rather than Joe Ceci or whatever passes for an NDP finance minister should he get defeated (Imagine the oceans of craft beer with no market to sell into!!). A NDP (or any other party) government isn't going to make the best investment decisions and will compromise our budget even further than they already have while trying.

[crazy_eoj]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Would have expected him not to game the system for personal financial gain.



Does it not seem suspicious at all that the rent he was paying his mother was nearly the amount he could get reimbursed?

The amount he is paying his mother in rent has nothing to do with what he can be reimbursed for.

He was reimbursed for his secondary (Ottawa) residence.

The amount of cognitive dissonance on display here is pretty astounding.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Declare his Ottawa residence as his primary residence. With what I think we can agree would be very little to no upkeep required at his Alberta residence(and I’m using the term “residence” loosely) he would have had no need for any tax payer funded financial assistance in maintaining what would then be his secondary residence, or at the very least not to the tune of $10K per year.

Nothing wrong about the residency conditions. But this arrangement with his mother is suspect.

Does he need to pay $10k per year to his mother as evidence that he lives in Calgary? Was he like, “mom, can I use your address? I will barely be around anyway”, “sure I want $900 a month”. I dunno. If I had to prove evidence of living somewhere that a loved one resides in, I don’t think they would charge me. I don’t believe his mother would either, and I doubt she was doing anything untoward either, but how do you explain that?

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by crazy_eoj

The amount he is paying his mother in rent has nothing to do with what he can be reimbursed for.



He was reimbursed for his secondary (Ottawa) residence.



The amount of cognitive dissonance on display here is pretty astounding.

Did he not own his place in Ottawa?

[DJones]

Talk about a weak scandal. Politician uses $900 housing allowance for a secondary residence that he is required to have.

And is that teenage employment graph legit? That's pretty insane. Almost a 15% drop in employment rate. I can't even imagine not having a job as a teenager. Like how big are their allowances?

Should be high school/university/not in school though, that would be interesting.

[Wormius]

And yet if this was city council Farkas and his groupies would be all over it.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I don't understand why politicians keep getting caught in this stuff. If you are at all unsure, take it to the ethics commissioner or whatever, tell them what your plan is, and get it cleared. Then if it comes up in public, you have it in writing that it was approved. And if it isn't fine, don't do it. You get paid enough anyway.

Why is this always so hard for politicians? Clearly this looks like an arrangement that may be in the grey zone. Why risk it? Bonkers.

When you're corrupt, generally speaking you aren't just "a little" corrupt. You feel entitled to try and take every single dollar you can. But yeah there's truly no reason these expense claims should be allowed to be made in the first place, the pay, pension and post-political career earnings increases are more than enough benefit to being in politics. Should just be stopped altogether.

[GaiJin]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Declare his Ottawa residence as his primary residence. With what I think we can agree would be very little to no upkeep required at his Alberta residence(and I’m using the term “residence” loosely) he would have had no need for any tax payer funded financial assistance in maintaining what would then be his secondary residence, or at the very least not to the tune of $10K per year.

Ffs, stupidest post in this thread yet.

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Locke

And I still maintain that you still have no idea what you're talking about.

If a person has no skills or anything to offer other than their time and labour and then you make that too expensive for the market conditions...

Yeah...market conditions, you know, that thing that businesses have to operate within....sorry I'm getting too technical again.

Remember that thing that you use to defend all of the NDPs failings?

"The NDP didnt suck, nobody could have done better, how would *insert whataboutism* have done better...."

Yeah, those.

If you price the only thing some people have to offer out of the available market you are not helping those people.

But hey, thats just one among many in a lengthy checklist of NDP idiocy. I'm sure the Rhino Party or the Canadian Communists couldnt have done any better.

What about 'could they have done worse?'

Literally this post (+ a whole bunch of aspersions thrown about nothing I've ever said on this forum).

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by GaiJin

Ffs, stupidest post in this thread yet.

You don’t give yourself enough credit

[DJones]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Literally this post (+ a whole bunch of aspersions thrown about nothing I've ever said on this forum).

Just on this page, you dismissed teenagers as having no economic value, then dismissed any business using low skill as not being ethical. Implying that them not having jobs is a good thing I guess since they aren't being exploited. Not really sure wtf you are on about.

You should probably stop talking on the subject haha.

High minimum wages hurt kids. It's undeniable and it hurts unprivileged kids the most. Like my kids won't work for minimum wage. If you are unskilled, you are only worth $15/hour for menial labor. No one is going to waste the time to teach you something worth learning.

I'll have them job shadow me, or one of my friends/colleagues. Call it an internship or some nonsense. It's either your parents or someone who knows your parents. Otherwise you aren't going to get trained. Do that for 6 months and they'll leap frog people that have been stuck in the minimum wage trap for 10 years and you can start climbing the ladder. 6 months of training and you're out of the trap. It's foolish to expect to be paid for the training. And $15/hour? Who the hell would spend the time training kids making that?

Every good job I had until I was 22 was either personal acquaintance or I worked for free to get trained. How the hell else do you even get your foot in the door? Just pray someone takes pity on you and trains you?

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Peter Lougheed isn't a deity and also he's not around to endorse or denounce Notley or Kenney. So that statement should count for virtually zero.

How about we not pay carbon taxes until all other jurisdictions that we compete for investment capital actually pay carbon taxes and only in the amount that they apply them for? That way we won't chase away any more investment than we already have.

How about we try and fix the deficit through spending cuts and other revenue initiatives?

Do those two things and let the professionals who work in our economy sort out the best investment opportunities for their capital rather than Joe Ceci or whatever passes for an NDP finance minister should he get defeated (Imagine the oceans of craft beer with no market to sell into!!). A NDP (or any other party) government isn't going to make the best investment decisions and will compromise our budget even further than they already have while trying.

Peter Lougheed understood that industry can’t and won’t make investments that are required for the good of the economy as a whole (e.g. AOSTRA) and that natural resource revenue should be saved (Heritage Fund). And while healthy industry is crucial companies will not invest with economic growth in mind...they invest to provide returns to shareholders.

One problem I see with scrapping carbon tax to be competitive is that it’s a race to the bottom and there is nothing stopping another jurisdication from going even lower than Alberta.

Basically, what I’m (awkwardly) trying to say is that cutting taxes and reducing the role of government isn’t going to point Alberta’s economy in the right direction for the long term.

[monkeyman]

Our economy is floundering, our province is racking up debt, we can't get our oil to market, and the NDP have nothing better to do than focus on someone paying his elderly mom rent?
Sad.
Yet another example of why this government needs to go.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by monkeyman

Our economy is floundering, our province is racking up debt, we can't get our oil to market, and the NDP have nothing better to do than focus on someone paying his elderly mom rent?

Sad.

Yet another example of why this government needs to go.

How is The NDP involved in this?

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by monkeyman

Our economy is floundering, our province is racking up debt, we can't get our oil to market, and the NDP have nothing better to do than focus on someone paying his elderly mom rent?
Sad.
Yet another example of why this government needs to go.

Maybe it was just me, but I swear I saw Notley on TV announcing a $2 billion investment in Alberta's industry today. However since I didn't have the sound on, it may have just been her complaining and wasting time about Kenney's rent monies and how he lives in a retirement home.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Maybe it was just me, but I swear I saw Notley on TV announcing a $2 billion investment in Alberta's industry today. However since I didn't have the sound on, it may have just been her complaining and wasting time about Kenney's rent monies and how he lives in a retirement home.

It's not just you. I heard the same announcement.

I can't believe I said something positive about Notley. Is there a doctor in the house?