Preston for Premier????????

[wilagro]

Ivbinconned: Gotta agree with U on Manning.

Jeez I had that,(the agreeing with you) that is.

[ivbinconned]

I don’t know why you would be surprised Wilagrow, it has always been an attribute of principled “western libertarian conservatives” to call a spade a spade!!

Unlike diehard liberals and NDP’ers and “Tories” who will turn a blind eye and excuse all blatant evidence of corruption and hypocrisy about their favorite parties!!

Politics is not hockey…we should always hold their feet to the fire.

You know that I have always referred to Klein as a liberal. He can not take all the credit for the prosperity in your province. Much of it, as far as leadership is concerned, must go to Stockwell day, Steve west and Jim Dinning. At this point my choice, if I had one, would be Ted Mortin.

I will try and influence the six kids I have sent to Alberta!! ha

Manning can’t be trusted.

[ivbinconned]

"he is a federalist"

From his own mouth...at the convention...

""When my father was elected to the legislature in 1935 (during the Great Depression) Alberta was $161 million in debt thanks to a railway spending spree by our one and only Liberal administration in the first part of the century. The budget of the province was $15 million, $8 million of that was pledged to debt service. That left $7 million per year on which to run the province, with cash flow insufficient to even meet the public service payroll, let alone provide services," recalled Manning.

"That dark and desperate part of our past should keep us ever mindful in our present affluence of those citizens and provinces less fortunate than ourselves, and energize us in the development of fresh policies to deal with poverty and regional disparities in our time," said Manning to loud applause.""

[ivbinconned]

I like Ted Morton's vision and ideas too,but he isn't well enough known across the province to get the job done.

The old guard of the tory party are urging Klein to stay on regardless of what the vote percentage was, so who knows what he will decide to do.

I can't help but think that if Rod Love was still the mastermind things would have never gotten as out of hand as they are. Love him or hate him, he kept things running on an even keel and if a cabinet minister needed to be given an attitude adjustment it got done in a hurry.

[cowman]

I don't know. Manning had a tough job with Reform? Every wing ding and rebel without a cause joined up...hard to deal with and become something viable?
As far as Stockwell Day...when I was young I worked with good old Stockwell at a packing plant? Quite frankly he was a butt kisser, a rat, and not very truthful! I was always amazed how he later used his "religion" to get a bunch of zealots to hijack the PC nomination in his area! A truly great manipulator of the gullible!

[cowman]

cowman, he and many others I am afraid !

[ivbinconned]

That may be true but that does not excuse Manning Grey and others for their juvenile undermining of Day at every turn, after he won the leadership.

Day has proven to be a good soldier following the new leader...Manning could learn from him!

With out his dad's name, Manning would be a nobody.

[ivbinconned]

Stockwell did a fairly good job of making an ass of himself, without Manning and Grey helping give him the boot.

[cowman]

In the end I doubt Manning will run? The fact is a lot of his supporters were older people...who probably did remember his old man! And time marches on....
I would certainly hope whoever gets in will have the fortitude to reign in spending...no easy task in this day and age and when the money is rolling in?
This Tory government has got pretty bloated no matter how you look at it?
I would also like to see a premier who will once and for all stand up to Ottawa and protect Albertas assetts and interests?
In other words we need a statesman instead of another politician!

[cowman]

I doubt that Preston could get the financial backing to run, that will be the deciding factor.
I agree we need a statesman, one that will ensure that the government is there to serve the people, not the other way around. The arrogance of the PC party over the last few years hasn't helped the image of government in AB.
The cuts that happened early on in the Klein years were on the backs of the elderly, sick and municipalities.
Alberta may be debt free but municipalities aren't.

I hope that big money and power don't elect the leader thats for sure.

[cowman]

Well emerald, I am going to ask you then, if spending is out of control, where do we cut? Or maybe you don't think $28 billion is out of control? I see $10.4 Billion of that $28 billion is health care? Not sure about education?
Infrastructure is $13 billion over 3 years or $4.3 billion a year...and I assume that includes all the latest goodies to the municipalities?
The elderly had a pretty sweet deal under Getty and Lougheed? Like free dental, no premiums, free blue cross? Why shouldn't they be paying their way just like everyone else?
Why is it okay to suddenly treat the elderly so special? Does the retired millionaire really need free dental care? And maybe if the retired bum had worked a little harder and saved his money he too could afford to take care of himself? Personal responsibility...not in Canada you say?

[cowman]

cowman, the elderly that only exist on pensions don't have the money for basic dental care etc. I am not talking about handing freebies to everyone ove 65, but those that fall into the low income need some assistance. You can check numbers if you wish but I guarantee you that there are more employees in government or at least as many as there were prior to the cuts.

Salaries are all over the place. For instance, the new CEO of the NRCB will make around $180,000 plus benefits.

Government employees will receive a performance bonus the end of June which will vary from 4-9% depending on their job description. Deputy Ministers will get the top number.

How many farmers will get a bonus this year ? How many single moms will get a bonus ?
The bonus is paid to government employees for ensuring that their department operated within their allocated budget.
I can just hear you yelping if your county councillors took a 8% bonus for operating within budget !!!!!

Health care spending is out of control, not because more money is going toward helping sick people but the money is being handed to Health Regions without stipulations on how its spent.

When MRI machines are sitting idle and people wait for months to get one, it makes no sense. If they want to pay out of their pocket they can get in for an MRI within a week.

Education spending is all over the place. In some areas kids are going to schools that are older than you and I, and in other areas schools that are less than 12 years old are closed and sit idle with the local school division paying the power and heat bills.

I could go on for hours about some of the lack of vision and waste that takes place in government, so I am hoping that the new leader will start off with a new direction which will see Cabinet Ministers held accountable, so the bureaucrats don't keep running things.

[wilagro]

emrald1: Good posting...especially regarding the educational quagmire. We need some people running things that have COMMON SENSE. Using a stupid fixed formula to determine school closures is goofy to say the least. I have seen where the costs to bus kids thirty miles nearly exceeded the cost of running the schools that they closed.

[wilagro]

every morning the busses start going past my home at 6:45 AM. Three busses travel up and down this road one after the other morning and evening, plus one small feeder bus meets one of the larger busses half a mile north. In the two miles adjacent to my property there are a grand total of seven kids. There is no common sense at all with regards to bussing.
Given the cost of fuel, insurance and operators I would think that efficient running of busses would be top priority, but its not. Alberta Education can set the school mill rate wherever they want to, so the taxpayers pay the price for inefficiency.

When I was a county councillor a mom of a grade one student called me to see what I could do to help her dilemma. Her youngster was picked up at 7:30 AM on a primary highway, the bus would not drive into their yard to turn around, and they would not pick the child up when they were heading south which meant he did not have to cross the highway.

The mom had contacted everyone with any clout at the school division office and was told that was the way it was going to be, like it or not. She bundled up her other little tyke and walked her son across the highway ( a very busy one) every morning and met his bus at night to make sure he got across the highway safely for two months until enough pressure was put on the school board to over rule the bus administrator and change the route so the youngster was picked up at his gate in the morning and let off at his gate at night.

[cakadu]

The costs on health care are rising cowman, but there needs to be a little perspective put on it. Emrald is right about the spending that goes on with the health regions - just like in education - it is trapped in the administrative layers and doesn't get to where it needs to go.

The population of Alberta has increased steadily in the last few years because of theimmigration and migration that has been spurred on by the red hot economy. Alberta's population has increased by approximately 1 million people in the last 10 to 15 years and it hasn't been because we have had a dramatic increase in birth rates. That alone would put a lot of strain on the health system.

We are also an aging population and people have more trips to the doctor, surgeries etc. because older bodies wear out. For example, if you look at the stats on cancer, 1 in 2.6 people will have cancer in their lifetime. That alone is a huge draw on the system.

How many millionaire seniors are there? I would guess that there is a lot more seniors at or near the poverty level than there are at the millionaire level. Even the help that they did get didn't fully cover the cost of prescription eyewear for example. I don't know if you wear glasses or not, but with my own insurance $200 every 2 years for glasses doesn't amount to much.

Everything is relative and of course the costs are going to increase substantially when you look at how quickly other factors are increasing.