Alberta fed up with the Robin Hood routine

National Post ^ | 2010-03-12 | Don Martin

[Clive]

When the billions flowed as a hefty budget surplus, Albertans didn't mind subsidizing a better life for poorer provinces.

Petro-dollars helped Nova Scotia become the national leader in physicians per capita, gave Quebec students the lowest-anywhere tuitions, created unrivaled regulated daycare space in Prince Edward Island and gave New Brunswick the bucks to hire plentiful nurses.

So lucrative has the transfer of wealth become that, according to an excellent new analysis by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, the less fortunate provinces now outperform almighty Alberta in delivering almost all services, including health care and the cost of post-secondary education.

In the good times, it was shrugged off as the price of Confederation. Easy come, easy go, it seemed. But Alberta's deep in deficit doo-doo -- and it's had enough.

The increasingly perverse equalization formula is under renewed attack by an Alberta finance minister hoping to recruit B.C. and Ontario allies to join a fight to ensure rich provinces can afford to match the service levels provided, as strange as this sounds, by their poorer cousins.

The guy leading the charge is a former Calgary academic named Ted Morton. He might not be a household name in the rest of Canada, but Alberta's new finance minister is increasingly popular at home and has some interesting history on strained federal-provincial relations.

Less than ten years ago, he co-authored a proposal warning against the evils of Ottawa stealing money from Alberta to feather the government's electoral nest in other provinces during recessions. He urged then premier Ralph Klein to build a protective ‘firewall' around areas of provincial jurisdiction.

His co-author for the letter? Why that would be you, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was then serving as the head of a Calgary advocacy group.

[Clive]

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[Gay State Conservative]

Hey,as long as Alberta promises not to be another Colorado (which is unlikely...it's too cold for the typical illegal Mexican) we'll take her on as our 51st state.

[mirado]

Alberta, is indeed a great province endowed with great natural resources. However, my current province is endowed with as many natural resources—if not more— as my birth province. The only problem I have with Sask., is we are too Obama like.

If Alberta became the 51’st state of the USA, I’d be back there in a big hurry, but not under the leadership of brain dead Progressives. All my grandparents were immigrates to the US; papa was born on US soil, but the family moved to Alberta, were I was born(Raymond, Alta., 1959).

[Gay State Conservative]

Interesting.The only experience I have with central Canada is a trip up I-29 through the Dakotas to Winnipeg and then east toward Montreal.Talk about the middle of nowhere! But then,the Dakotas are the middle of nowhere too.But having a father born here means you’re a US citizen.Is there a particular reason why you don’t live here? Just curious...I’m not trying to imply that it’s wrong for you to live in Canada.

[mirado]

Interesting.The only experience I have with central Canada is a trip up I-29 through the Dakotas... It is indeed in the middle off nowhere;  I live about 15 minutes from the North Dakota border,  Estevan, Sk., or about 2 hours from Minot, North Dakota--both are enriched with oil. I moved here in 2000, and it took me two years to get used the the middle off nowhere.

But having a father born here means you’re a US citizen.Is there a particular reason why you don’t live here? Just curious... Great observation.  My siblings and I have gone through this with mom and dad, but from what I understand is that dad has to sign certain documents, and he is unwilling to do that; why is dad unwilling to sign, well it's a cultural thing.  Freepmail me, if you want to know.