Free Republic

Alberta’s Energy guru Mel Knight made yet another Energy sector-friendly ‘incentive’ announcement today, bringing the number of similar updates/boosts/don’t-admit-we-screwed-up-…royally announcements to at least three. Do you hear the sound of kissing lips every time Knight holds a presser, or is it just me?

Then Evans made what could be regarded in the future as The Exact Moment Her Career Died when she did not rule out the idea of a provincial sales tax. For the uninitiated in the Alberta culture, let me explain: we are the only province that does not have a sales tax. The very idea is so poisonous, so distasteful, so completely unacceptable under any circumstances, it has been responsible for the deaths of an astronomical number of political dreams. Simply put: we will not have it.

...try it: pick a day next week, walk into your boss’s office and inform him/her that you have voted yourself a 34% raise, with a clear 1/3 tax-free, with all the perks that go with public office. Depending on your boss, you will be considered the ‘life of the office’, tagged for some ‘employee therapy program’, or escorted out the front door....

Whenever in the past I have suggested that Premier Ed Stelmach isn't up to the intellectual rigours of being Alberta's head of government, his loyal followers have wondered how can I say such things. Well, the controversy and unreal expectations set off by his royalty review commission this week are prime examples of how Stelmach digs holes for himself, then willingly flings himself in. There was no broad public demand for a review. Stelmach merely possesses an unhealthy measure of the-big-guys-are-out-to-screw-the-little-guys populism, one he shares with a large number of his supporters. Last fall, while seeking the Tory leadership, Stelmach...