Same here Marilyn and the constant rage baiting by consecutive Conservative Governments in this province for 50+ years is disgusting. Seems these days Albertan’s don’t even acknowledge the TMX pipeline. They say they are in an abusive relationship. They are but it is not wit Ottawa. It is in Alberta. The UCP is abusive. Removing Charter rights from Albertan’s at every turn and denying judicial oversight and using Notwithstanding Clause regularly js abuse towards the citizens of Alberta. Canadians spent $34 billion for TMX. It came on line in May 2024 and Alberta has profited from it with increased revenue. The fact they blew it all is their doing. Enbridge has stated publicly another pipeline is not required. TMX is not running at capacity. Alberta separatists will destroy the economy of this province. Killing investment and causing corporations to relocate same as Quebec. They never connect the dots between separatist agenda and economic decline. Alberta has never built its own anything. It had involved federal funding. The fools refuse to realize that. I was transferred here from Quebec after the 1995 referendum. It was a horrid experience uprooting ones whole life but hitting the road again I guess is on the agenda. Quebec lost 37% of its population in 1996. Alberta will suffer the same fate since the economic decline just from having separation referendum leaves a stench that never goes away.
I heard this at an NDP offering in High River about the GOA of Alberta, without precedent, flouting a CPP grab. “I am a Canadian who happens to live in Alberta”!!!
One country with provinces and territories all contributing.
Now if only my interim premier would follow her hearts wishes and join her orange love interest south of the Medicine Line and let the rest of us get back to building this country for generations to come!
"Each province seeks maximum freedom of action, yet collectively Canadians lose the freedom on the world stage that a strong federal government provides. We fragment regulatory regimes, duplicate effort, and weaken our bargaining position abroad."
Put that on a t-shirt and repeat it, repeat it, repeat it.
The relationship between feds and provs became a competition for federal spending instead of agreements that provided for equality in the culture. Using federal funds to develop the oil sands may still pull this country apart. Never again!
Only culturally significant projects in the federal future budgeted by head count.Oil fields and Hydro are businesses,not culture. Highways, Railways ,Ships, Parks. Student exchanges. Seniors exhibitions.
Now the action. Single-payer universal healthcare upheld and enforced. Free, fair and informed consent. Regulation that recognizes that air and water cross borders. Clean electricity grid. Interties. Water as a sovereign right, not a commodity. The right to affordable housing.
And how about some federal oversight for those coal mines?
Cause if it's just words and another nice haircut we'll look somewhere else.
Is the liberal party outsourcing all its thinking to AI? The provinces are not economically aligned due to federal overreach and equalization. The federal government has failed to fulfill its most basic responsibilities of border and military protection and yet you believe greater federal power is what’s needed?
The federal government continues to demand that provincial cultures, such as the Acadians, be erased in favour of immigration for “gdp growth” that has not raised our standard of living.
The provinces want sovereignty and they should get it. Only sovereign, self-sufficient provinces and good federal government (that does its jobs well) can create a unified Canada.
Why do you think the federal government has failed to fulfill its most basic responsibilities? Why, for example, has our military budget been so small? Here, I'll help you: because Canadians wanted it that way. Governments, Liberal and Conservative, have governed this way for decades because Canadians have told them repeatedly they'd rather the money be spent on social programs than the armed forces.
So if you have an issue with that, take it up with your neighbours.
We live in a country with a common currency. Currency unions only work with an equalization mechanism. One major reason why the Euro got into trouble is that interstate equalization in the Eurozone was insufficient. When it nearly collapsed, ECB chief Mario Draghi said he was willing to buy as much Greek sovereign debt as it took to support the Euro, and it worked. What is that? That's equalization.
You can keep the Canadian dollar, or you can get rid of equalization, but you can't do both.
What I mean by economically aligned is that each province would have a strong incentive to attract businesses and workers and build housing affordably if they were self-sufficient. Otherwise voters are happy to vote against projects that would grow their economies. Who cares, so long as the Federal government will subsidize our infrastructure, right?
Equalization (and provincial health transfers) have pretty much doomed Atlantic Canada to a Japanese-like future. Young workers just don’t stay and the ones that do can’t afford to have kids. As a result, some counties in Nova Scotia have a median age of 55.
Under the current system, when provincial voters vote in bad governments that increase the taxes and regulations that destroy employment opportunities for young people, or unfairly tax them via the property tax CAP system, or ban economically beneficial industries—the voters don’t feel the painful consequences fast enough.
Now we have a bunch of provinces that are aging with Total Fertility Rates as low as 1.00, don’t have enough workers to attract businesses even if taxes and red tape were eased, and are happy to keep failing because they still have good roads and decent doctors thanks to equalization and health transfer payments and outlandish debt.
Believe me, I have no problem blaming Canadians for the mess our country is in. The only real solution to consistent failure is to let voters in these provinces feel the pain of self-sufficiency.
Some may argue cranking immigration back up could solve this. And while I am pro-immigration, I don’t support it as a bandaid solution that accepts the extinction of the languages and cultures already here. That’s not pluralism. Canada needs to work for the people and cultures that are already here as well as the people who choose to make it home.
Ummm....I am not sure I buy the logic here. Part of your point is that a single province cannot function as a sovereign country, but Canada can. However, Canada has been not really acting so much as a sovereign country, when it cancels a digital tax because it angers the Americans. That's just one small example.
I guess the other question for me.....if our current government believes in working with the whole federation, why sign a MOU with one province, without consultation with other affected provinces or First Nations? That just put BC and Coastal first nations in a hell of a spot where the PM decided a project just had to go ahead, and then he decides to listen AFTERWARDS. So if your argument is that we all need to start rowing in the same direction, you might want to stop by the PM's office and make sure he's on that same page, or maybe he would rather that people just take dictates.
Excellent stuff, Corey. Fascinating to think how much sovereignty has changed in practical terms over the past few decades, yet the paradigm remains the same.
I’m reminded of Premier Ford banging the table about Chinese EVs the other day, and how they would decimate Ontario’s auto sector.
The auto sector contributes about $16 billion to Canada’s GDP. Carney opened about 3% of that to China.
The canola industry, on the other hand, contributed nearly $44 billion to Canada’s GDP — nearly triple.
I understand Dougie’s got to keep his party in power, but can we not be thankful for the rest of the country at the same time? Does he think Canada exists to serve Ontario’s needs?
China...extreme loss of sovereignty. All your lovely reflections are now but a mere memory. China wins, Brookfield wins, Carney gets richer and Brookfield taxes are in the Cayman Islands or paid to the US.
Well that's an overstatement. Don't like Chinese EVs? Don't buy one. The deal is good for beleaguered farmers... When was the last time Scott Moe and Danielle Smith said nice things about Mark Carney on the same day? We do indeed have to adapt to the world as it is, not the world as we'd like it to be. I'd like to see more pipeline capacity to the coast as I imagine you likely do... Who do you think we're going to be selling to? Will you bemoan Chinese purchases of energy exports, too?
So what I'm hearing you saying is, "Confederation is worth fighting for."
Agreed.
BRAVO Mr. Hogan. I live on a dot on the map called Canada, in the province called Alberta but I am first, foremost and always Canadian. Forever.
Same here Marilyn and the constant rage baiting by consecutive Conservative Governments in this province for 50+ years is disgusting. Seems these days Albertan’s don’t even acknowledge the TMX pipeline. They say they are in an abusive relationship. They are but it is not wit Ottawa. It is in Alberta. The UCP is abusive. Removing Charter rights from Albertan’s at every turn and denying judicial oversight and using Notwithstanding Clause regularly js abuse towards the citizens of Alberta. Canadians spent $34 billion for TMX. It came on line in May 2024 and Alberta has profited from it with increased revenue. The fact they blew it all is their doing. Enbridge has stated publicly another pipeline is not required. TMX is not running at capacity. Alberta separatists will destroy the economy of this province. Killing investment and causing corporations to relocate same as Quebec. They never connect the dots between separatist agenda and economic decline. Alberta has never built its own anything. It had involved federal funding. The fools refuse to realize that. I was transferred here from Quebec after the 1995 referendum. It was a horrid experience uprooting ones whole life but hitting the road again I guess is on the agenda. Quebec lost 37% of its population in 1996. Alberta will suffer the same fate since the economic decline just from having separation referendum leaves a stench that never goes away.
I couldn’t agree more with your statement. Keep opening eyes please!
I heard this at an NDP offering in High River about the GOA of Alberta, without precedent, flouting a CPP grab. “I am a Canadian who happens to live in Alberta”!!!
One country with provinces and territories all contributing.
Now if only my interim premier would follow her hearts wishes and join her orange love interest south of the Medicine Line and let the rest of us get back to building this country for generations to come!
"Each province seeks maximum freedom of action, yet collectively Canadians lose the freedom on the world stage that a strong federal government provides. We fragment regulatory regimes, duplicate effort, and weaken our bargaining position abroad."
Put that on a t-shirt and repeat it, repeat it, repeat it.
A good critique as I read it
The relationship between feds and provs became a competition for federal spending instead of agreements that provided for equality in the culture. Using federal funds to develop the oil sands may still pull this country apart. Never again!
Only culturally significant projects in the federal future budgeted by head count.Oil fields and Hydro are businesses,not culture. Highways, Railways ,Ships, Parks. Student exchanges. Seniors exhibitions.
For the people,by the People
Yes.
Now the action. Single-payer universal healthcare upheld and enforced. Free, fair and informed consent. Regulation that recognizes that air and water cross borders. Clean electricity grid. Interties. Water as a sovereign right, not a commodity. The right to affordable housing.
And how about some federal oversight for those coal mines?
Cause if it's just words and another nice haircut we'll look somewhere else.
Is the liberal party outsourcing all its thinking to AI? The provinces are not economically aligned due to federal overreach and equalization. The federal government has failed to fulfill its most basic responsibilities of border and military protection and yet you believe greater federal power is what’s needed?
The federal government continues to demand that provincial cultures, such as the Acadians, be erased in favour of immigration for “gdp growth” that has not raised our standard of living.
The provinces want sovereignty and they should get it. Only sovereign, self-sufficient provinces and good federal government (that does its jobs well) can create a unified Canada.
What does "economically aligned" mean to you?
Why do you think the federal government has failed to fulfill its most basic responsibilities? Why, for example, has our military budget been so small? Here, I'll help you: because Canadians wanted it that way. Governments, Liberal and Conservative, have governed this way for decades because Canadians have told them repeatedly they'd rather the money be spent on social programs than the armed forces.
So if you have an issue with that, take it up with your neighbours.
We live in a country with a common currency. Currency unions only work with an equalization mechanism. One major reason why the Euro got into trouble is that interstate equalization in the Eurozone was insufficient. When it nearly collapsed, ECB chief Mario Draghi said he was willing to buy as much Greek sovereign debt as it took to support the Euro, and it worked. What is that? That's equalization.
You can keep the Canadian dollar, or you can get rid of equalization, but you can't do both.
What I mean by economically aligned is that each province would have a strong incentive to attract businesses and workers and build housing affordably if they were self-sufficient. Otherwise voters are happy to vote against projects that would grow their economies. Who cares, so long as the Federal government will subsidize our infrastructure, right?
Equalization (and provincial health transfers) have pretty much doomed Atlantic Canada to a Japanese-like future. Young workers just don’t stay and the ones that do can’t afford to have kids. As a result, some counties in Nova Scotia have a median age of 55.
Under the current system, when provincial voters vote in bad governments that increase the taxes and regulations that destroy employment opportunities for young people, or unfairly tax them via the property tax CAP system, or ban economically beneficial industries—the voters don’t feel the painful consequences fast enough.
Now we have a bunch of provinces that are aging with Total Fertility Rates as low as 1.00, don’t have enough workers to attract businesses even if taxes and red tape were eased, and are happy to keep failing because they still have good roads and decent doctors thanks to equalization and health transfer payments and outlandish debt.
Believe me, I have no problem blaming Canadians for the mess our country is in. The only real solution to consistent failure is to let voters in these provinces feel the pain of self-sufficiency.
Some may argue cranking immigration back up could solve this. And while I am pro-immigration, I don’t support it as a bandaid solution that accepts the extinction of the languages and cultures already here. That’s not pluralism. Canada needs to work for the people and cultures that are already here as well as the people who choose to make it home.
So you can keep the Canadian dollar, or you can get rid of equalization, but you can't do both.
Ummm....I am not sure I buy the logic here. Part of your point is that a single province cannot function as a sovereign country, but Canada can. However, Canada has been not really acting so much as a sovereign country, when it cancels a digital tax because it angers the Americans. That's just one small example.
I guess the other question for me.....if our current government believes in working with the whole federation, why sign a MOU with one province, without consultation with other affected provinces or First Nations? That just put BC and Coastal first nations in a hell of a spot where the PM decided a project just had to go ahead, and then he decides to listen AFTERWARDS. So if your argument is that we all need to start rowing in the same direction, you might want to stop by the PM's office and make sure he's on that same page, or maybe he would rather that people just take dictates.
You’ll need to dig deeper into the Mou - which lays out the work that Smith/AB must do to secure federal approval. It’s not a ‘done deal’.
Corey Hogan, thank you for saying so well what needs to be said. United we stand, divided we fall.
Excellent stuff, Corey. Fascinating to think how much sovereignty has changed in practical terms over the past few decades, yet the paradigm remains the same.
Well said (as always) Corey.
Isn't that what Carney has been talking about since he was elected?
I’m reminded of Premier Ford banging the table about Chinese EVs the other day, and how they would decimate Ontario’s auto sector.
The auto sector contributes about $16 billion to Canada’s GDP. Carney opened about 3% of that to China.
The canola industry, on the other hand, contributed nearly $44 billion to Canada’s GDP — nearly triple.
I understand Dougie’s got to keep his party in power, but can we not be thankful for the rest of the country at the same time? Does he think Canada exists to serve Ontario’s needs?
Thanks again, Corey.
China...extreme loss of sovereignty. All your lovely reflections are now but a mere memory. China wins, Brookfield wins, Carney gets richer and Brookfield taxes are in the Cayman Islands or paid to the US.
Well that's an overstatement. Don't like Chinese EVs? Don't buy one. The deal is good for beleaguered farmers... When was the last time Scott Moe and Danielle Smith said nice things about Mark Carney on the same day? We do indeed have to adapt to the world as it is, not the world as we'd like it to be. I'd like to see more pipeline capacity to the coast as I imagine you likely do... Who do you think we're going to be selling to? Will you bemoan Chinese purchases of energy exports, too?