What is a Klein Tory?

[cowman]

Cropduster asked it? How do you see them?
Are they good fiscally responsible managers? Have they managed the resources of the province for the equal benifit of the people? Have they followed policies that the majority supports? Do they have a long term plan for where we are going?
My own opinion is it's not too hard to look competent when you can hardly find a place to put all the cash rolling in! I will admit I find them a sick joke! My old aunt put it very well, in my opinion, after Ralphs little escapade with the winos in Edmonton...." It is a sad day when the best we have is a common drunk! I'm afraid the man wouldn't have been fit to sweep out the office when Mr. Manning was premier"!

[Horse]

I salute your whisdom but sadly the people of alta like the little beer drinking fat man as they all figure him as a personal friend.
Mabey when he leaves there will be enough infighting that we will get a chance at something new ,40 yr of this govmt is way to long.

[Horse]

cowman, I think that the 'Tory' image will undergo a real change once Ralph's successor( whomever that may be) takes over. Not many of the candidates look as though they would be comfortable tipping a pint at the neighbourhood pub....more like a dram of single malt !

[cropduster]

Even with all their rhetoric the Klein torys(notice the small T) have never been more than representative politicans.What we NEED are VISIONARY provincial politicans.It would certainly seem nothing will change federally.I think Ted Morton is our only REAL choice for a VISIONARY leader to take ALBERTA forward in this new century.Unfortnately, the Rod Love`s and all their financial backing simply want to win,with no PASSION(pretty SHALLOW I`m thinkin`) for the truth.So we`ll just have to wait and see what/whom Albertan`s are swayed to vote for.

[cowman]

Horse: Here is the problem?...If not the Tories...then who?
I don't know about you but I sure as hell never intend to vote Liberal or NDP! Not in this bloody lifetime! Just goes against the grain...I'd rather vote for the Nazis!
cropduster: I agree I like Ted Morton but the fact is he doesn't stand a chance. Instead we'll get some lame thing like Stelmach or Oberg.
It has always been my personal opinion we need a strong seperatist party...but obviously Alberta isn't there yet! Still hoping...in my lifetime.

[cowman]

I understand that Ted Morton is going to run for the leadership,he won't win but if he gets enough delegate support in the first round of voting he could be a giant killer when he decides who he will throw his support behind.

Dinning is a visionary but is the golden boy of oil money and backing, he has some good ideas for an environmentally sound industry, but he isn't informed enough about the agriculture industry . I would be more comfortable if he would make the effort to combine geting out in rural Alberta talking to the folks in the ag. industry vs his constant delivering speeches to petroleum groups etc.

[farmers_son]

Cowman: I noted your determination not to vote Liberal, NDP or Nazis.

Prior to about 1965 you would have said the same thing about the Progressive Conservatives, a small party going nowhere who never had a chance of gaining power until Peter Lougheed stepped into the leadership role. The Social Credit party had the same grasp on power as the PCs do today and had been in power for about the same length of time yet they were vulnerable to Lougheed.

You will be surprised what party you may be voting for if not in the upcoming election then the next. Political parties are nothing more or less than people working together to achieve a goal and the right people with the right goal could gain power no matter what party they happened to be associated with. Alberta's opposition parties just have not attracted the right people.

[cowman]

Farmers son: Why were the people of Alberta vulnerable to Lougheed? I would suggest three things: One. He promised to lower the drinking age to 18. There was a vast number of baby boomers that voted en masse to assure they would be able to booze it up!
TWO: Earnest Manning was gone and Stromm was not a very good politician.
THREE: He promised massive spending...which he sure lived up to! Manning had always run the province like a business, being extremely thrifty and a very good manager. Alberta was debt free prior to Lougheed...without the massive oil revenue! Lougheed lucked out by hitting the oil crisis that moved Alberta into a huge boom, unheard of in the past. He managed to squander all that wealth and then basically bailed when the going got tough and left Getty holding the ball!
The Alberta Liberal Party might very well try to "buy" an election with lavish promises of spending! Unfortunately for them they will have a hard time outspending the likes of Ralph Klein! The Alberta Tories are not exactly what you might call "fiscal conservatives"?
I truly doubt any Albertan should ever vote for a Liberal Party after their federal counterparts pulled the NEP which saw a $100 billion rip off of the people of Alberta!
However you never know, people are funny? You can buy them again and again if they think they are getting something for nothing. People clamor for more funding for medical and education, thinking that will improve their lot in life...when in fact all it means is more money for the same incompetents now running those systems! And guess who pays? You and me.

[farmers_son]

I meant to say the Social Credit party was vulnerable to Lougheed. Yes the party's fortunes fell with Strom as leader.

Strom did promise spending in the form of community centers and old folks homes.

Lougheed portrayed the Social Credit Party that had been in power for 36 years as old and worn-out. Prior to Lougheed the Conservative party even disappeared for several years between 1940 and 1952, when Liberal and Conservative candidates banded together under the “Independent” label in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn the governing Social Credit party.

Klein’s Tories have stressed fiscal responsibility, deficit and debt reduction, and reduced government role in the private sector, much the same platform as the Social Credit Party had before their defeat.

[cowman]

The main difference is Manning walked the talk, while the Tories have not.

[cowman]

some of the fiscal responsibility exhibited by the current government included cut backs. The poop is hitting the fan in the area of long term care, which in my view suffered dearly from the choice to regionalize health care. Some health regions elected to build office space, hire more support staff, build fancy foyer's in the hospitals and not add one long term care bed !!!

I hope that the current review of long term care facilities leaves no stone unturned in getting to the bottom of issues that have been raised and my bet is that provincial cut backs is one key problem.

It is great to balance the budget, pay off the debt, and Klein deserves credit for doing so, but the Alberta advantage isn't helping everyone and its time to make some changes and have a vision for the future .

[SW1-32-5-4]

In 1935 William Aberheart said" If the people of Alberta haven't suffered enough, it's their God given right to suffer some more." It still holds true today. Lets go Ted Morton!!!!

[cowman]

When Ralph Klein first was elected, on the promise of slashing spending, I did not vote for him because I figured he was all talk! I did vote for him the second time around...because I believed he deserved a chance to finish the job and hey, he kept his promises!
Of course he promptly started to backslide and spend more money! Today the Tories are on a spending spree like a bunch of drunken sailors!
The real reason Alberta is out of debt is not good responsible spending but an infusion of cash like we've never seen before! It would be pretty hard for any government to piss away the money rolling in today!...although I bet an NDP or Liberal government could take a good crack at it!
Ralph is an excellent politician...probably the best we'll ever see? And I am not adverse to some of his ideas. For instance I believe he has the right approach when he tries to bring reality back into the medical health situation? And points out how much of the budget is being spent on education and health care? The fact is without some sort of control on these costs we are eventually headed for a meltdown?
How much money is spent on education and health costs? Where does it end? Is 60% of the budget enough? How about 70%? Do we keep cutting infrastructure and other programs to pour more money into a black hole that always clamors for more?
Personally I don't believe either education or medical health should be the responsibility of the government, but obviously I am not with the majority in the nanny state!

[cowman]

I have said previously that I feel there is ample funding for both health and education, but there should be checks and balances on a regular basis to ensure that school boards and health regions are spending the largest chunk of their budgets ensuring that health care is delivered adequately.