Soverignty Acts

[blackpowder]

And meanwhile the oil companies are making windfall profits that are coming out of the pockets of every Canadian and driving up their costs of living and we are not getting a rebate from the oil companies!

You are either a highly convicted socialist or don't understand how capitalism works and how you participate.
Increasingly I'm thinking the latter.
If we had as many people walking around with empty guns as we have empty heads they'd call out the army.

[jazz]

Shhh, dont tell chuck that the oil companies pay out rebates every quarter and have been doing so for decades.

And dont tell him the oil companies have paid out $700B to Quebec since 1960, built a lot of nice hydro dams.

[blackpowder]

Or is it no one wants to be told what to do by a democratically elected leader no matter the color of their stripe? Think how many people in the US still call Trump their President even though there is only 1 democratically elected President and is the President for all American citizens.

Canada is no different. The Liberal party has the most seats and with the NDP has a majority if they both agree, Justin Trudeau is the Prime Minister. Yet he is called a traitor and dictator even though he is just doing the job he was democratically elected in Canada to do.

Now, a premier elected by about 1% of Alberta - and even then just over half the support of that small sample, makes an unprecedented Act that removes the courts from making legal and constitutional challenges to suspend an Act and giver her the full power instead..... Isn't a dictator but a hero by most likely illegally not doing the legislation on a whim that is rightfully decided federally by Canada as a whole.

The numbers easily show why the carbon tax isn't popular in an area mostly Cons.

When Research Co. and Glacier Media asked Canadians about the court’s decision, a majority of Canadians (57%) said it was correct, while 29% disagreed and 13% were not sure. Significant majorities of Canadians who voted for the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party (NDP) in the 2019 federal election think the court was right (71% and 70% respectively), while only 32% of Conservative Party supporters share this view.


So it quite easily shows that Canada supports the Carbon Tax. Why would Alberta think that laws and legislation constitutionally created federally all of a sudden does not apply to them? Do they think laws for murder do not apply as well? The Supreme Court easily says it does.

Also, municipalities may want to follow federal legislation - and are required to do so - but yet the Province all of sudden says not anymore, you do what ever a handful of MLA's in cabinet want, you no longer have federal law if we don't want you to.

Best line is "We knew this Act was going to be a dogs breakfast, just didn't know it was going thru the dog first."

Talking to people in the office here, this is the jist of the concern. Bad legislation, but great politics that plays into the favorite slight of hand with populism of woe is the little guy in AB always down trodden.

Will be very interesting going forward.

And there is always Section 33 which makes the SA completely unnecessary if it were not for the sleazy power grab of cabinet. Even Sask used Section 33 for Public/School nwc.

You support the outcomes of our system based on democratic principle.
Do you support the structure of our system as being fairly representative?

[shtferbrains]

And dont tell him the oil companies have paid out $700B to Quebec since 1960, built a lot of nice hydro dams.

They kind of double dip on the dams as they the income is exempt in the equalization.

[blackpowder]

They kind of double dip on the dams as they the income is exempt in the equalization.

And a deduct for the carbon tax

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Calgary Chamber of Commerce is very concerned the Sovereignty Act will create uncertainty, which will make it hard to attract investment.

This we can agree on. Investors want certainty. Even if that certainty is in the form of prohibitive regulations and carbon taxes etc., at least it is predictable, they can budget for it. Right now, they have a genuine fear that Notley could get back in as a result of the media attacks on this bill.

That is my biggest fear with a long protracted separation process of death by a thousand cuts, as we pretend to try to make the current arrangement work. This will stretch out for decades, and in the process, make us a high risk investment area. Much like what happened to Quebec, which they have never recovered from. The difference being, the oil and gas and coal and soil etc. will still be here when this is all over, and demand will still be there. But I still maintain the best possible outcome is to wake up one day and the US announces that we have been annexed. End of story.

[shtferbrains]

With climate activists in positions of power the only certainty is that things will get stupider.

Most of the US is more attractive now.

Sask has moved ahead of Alberta as more political stable.
They need to prove they can control our resource assets and handle the Fed gatekeepers.

[jazz]

The Calgary Chamber represents coffee shops and retail outlets and restaurants. I dont care what they think. They happily closed up shop for a few sniffles.

I only care what Suncor and Canadian Natural think.

60,000 people moved into Ab last yr. I think investment will be just fine.

[jazz]

Holy sht, did Smith drop a bomb into confederation. Quebec is inspired now, both the Bloc and PQ are jealous and endorse it

So if Trudeau tries to shut this down, do we have an ally in Quebec for the fight.

[WiltonRanch]

Holy sht, did Smith drop a bomb into confederation. Quebec is inspired now, both the Bloc and PQ are jealous and endorse it

So if Trudeau tries to shut this down, do we have an ally in Quebec for the fight.

[ATTACH]11514[/ATTACH]

The west and Quebec have more in common than they know. Central Canada have pushed the narrative forever to keep us all Balkanized. Even the equalization scheme stokes division and is a carrot to keep Quebec in Canada. It’s a weird situation.

[blackpowder]

Foreign investment has curbed over a few decades due to ignorance of many politicians over those years. The Liberal push has always been the driver.

Ask anyone who moved back to the Maritimes recently and is coming back here. You'll get the same answer.
They no longer seem to fit in.
And living where the money is allows them to be home every night while making 3 times the income.
It's really the Chuck's of the world with their heads in the sand.

[tweety]

You support the outcomes of our system based on democratic principle.
Do you support the structure of our system as being fairly representative?

Based on population, it is fair representation. Except for SK and MB in the West, and the maritimes, they have a few too many MP's. But when you look at the majority of the seats - what is there to complain about?

Population per MP

BC 121k
AB 120k
Sk 84k
MB 98k
Ont 121k
Que 110k
NB 79k
NS 90k

So, do you think there is fair representation?

[jazz]

So, do you think there is fair representation?

A country runs on more than representation by MPs.

You forgot PEI which has 4 MPs for 150,000 people

Here is the distribution of Senate seats. See any problem

[chuckChuck]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-some-of-canadas-premiers-appear-to-be-losing-their-minds/

opinion
Some of Canada’s premiers appear to be losing their minds
The Editorial Board

The recent actions of some of Canada’s provincial premiers bring to mind a scene from Woody Allen’s 1971 comedy Bananas, in which the newly installed dictator of a Latin American country greets his cheering compatriots for the first time.

“Hear me,” he commands. “I am your new president. From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish. In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside, so we can check.”

“Power has driven him mad,” says an observer.

We are not saying that Canada’s duly elected premiers are tinpot dictators. But we are saying that some of them have gone off the democratic deep end in the pursuit of their political agendas.

The latest example is Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Her government this week tabled its promised deliverance from the iron chains of federalism, the Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act, and it’s as loony as anticipated.

The bill proposes, after the simple passage of a resolution in the legislature, to give cabinet the power to unilaterally amend legislation via orders in council. Cabinet can do so if it’s been decided that a federal law is unconstitutional, or even just “harmful,” without first testing the constitutionality of the law in question in court, and without defining the word “harmful.”

Cabinet can also order provincial bodies not to enforce specific federal policies or laws. It verges on insanity.

By all accounts, the Smith government had a difficult time on Tuesday explaining the workings of its law during a confused and chaotic press conference. That’s to be expected of a bill whose incoherent goal is to usurp the constitutional powers of the federal government, and to neuter the provincial legislature along the way.

In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford has gone mad with power in his plan to build 1.5-million homes over 10 years. This month he reversed himself on a promise not to allow development in the province’s Greenbelt – a vow he had repeated like a mantra for years. And his government has neutered the municipal councils of Toronto and Ottawa, by allowing the mayors to adopt pro-housing bylaws with only one-third of the vote.

Mr. Ford also has made a regular habit of resorting to the Constitution’s notwithstanding clause to get what he wants. This fall he tried to use it to essentially strip an education workers’ union of its right to strike. He backed down in the face of a general strike, a predictable outcome that Mr. Ford somehow failed to imagine might be the result.

On to Quebec Premier François Legault, whose Coalition Avenir Québec government in 2019 unashamedly enacted an unconstitutional law, Bill 21, that prohibits some public employees from wearing religious symbols or garb at work. Mr. Legault calls it a defence of Quebec’s secular culture; a Quebec Superior Court judge called it a cruel violation of Charter freedoms in a 2021 ruling, but he had to let it stand because the law is shielded from restraint and tolerance by the notwithstanding clause.

What the premiers of Alberta, Ontario and Quebec share is their predilection for populism. All three focus on a base of voters that they portray as the victim of an uncaring enemy. In Quebec, it’s the federal government and immigrants that are the peril. In Ontario, it’s “elites” in big cities. In Alberta, it’s Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Their populism is exacerbated by Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system, which allows parties to target voters in particular ridings, often divided along rural-urban lines, to win enough seats to control a legislature with as little as a third of the popular vote. Carving up voters this way is something all parties at all levels do.

But the blame for the worst consequences of the rise in polarization in Canada falls on premiers who, in the name of their allegedly aggrieved voters, are quick to undermine democratic voting principles, pass incoherent laws, break key promises and gorge on the notwithstanding clause.

Political leaders always have options when facing big challenges. But instead of working within the norms and conventions that form the foundation of our democracy, too often lately there are premiers who like to make people wear their underpants over their trousers for the entertainment of their base.

[sumdumguy]

A country runs on more than representation by MPs.

You forgot PEI which has 4 MPs for 150,000 people

Here is the distribution of Senate seats. See any problem

[ATTACH]11516[/ATTACH]

How ridiculous is this! What a country!