Sunday, April 02, 2006

Manning Up?

If Preston Manning and the Reform Party had not braved the disdain and ridicule of the Central Canadian media and political elites through repeated raising of heretical notions such as balanced budgets, healthcare reform, respect for provincial jurisdiction and a harder line on Quebec, Canada would have mired itself so deep into the Trudeaupian status quo that it would have sunk before it could pull itself out.

The current Conservative Party and government would also have never come into being. The idea that a Calgary Tory could be a more popular and credible federalist leader in Quebec than a Montreal Grit would have remained a laughable hypothetical. And Stephen Harper would be just another Calgary School academic.

Manning's political legacy is secure. So why would he want to taint it by demanding that the Alberta PC Party crown him leader?

Preston Manning, founder and former leader of the federal Reform party, said he'd need to be persuaded that entering a Progressive Conservative leadership race would be best for the party, the province and him.

Mr. Manning also said he would have to be convinced there would be enough people willing to do the "heavy lifting" required to sell enough memberships for him to win.


Alberta voters have an unusual habit of keeping one party in office for decades, then suddenly blasting it to kingdom come. The Alberta PC Party has been in office since 1971. Before that, Social Credit held power from 1935 to 1971. Less than three years after Ernest Manning's quarter-century premiership ended, Social Credit collapsed.

Preston Manning may want to keep his father's example in mind--the departure of a long-serving premier who became a practically impregnable institution followed by his party's rapid demise.

If the same sudden towards another party is about to happen--most likely to the Alberta Alliance, less likely to the Liberal Party unless it shifts right--Manning could find himself marooned.

And that would be a sad ending to a glorious career.

Source: Globe and Mail

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

a real loser still thinking he can be the premier of Alberta, even Klein, Manning and the others

The repeat of another Albertan, another Elaine McCoy fiasco, for premier of Alberta.. Imagine that real loser still thinking he can be the premier of Alberta, the Provincial Tory leadership hopeful and former Alberta cabinet minister Mark Norris of all persons, the individual who tried to deny my free speech right and threatened before his loss to take me and my writings to the Alberta Human rights commission. So much for free speech when it is anti Alberta ehh? Just what we need another undemocratic Albertan for the Alberta premiership The former Tory cabinet minister who lost his seat in the 2004 election should have gotten the hint back then.. If he could not make it back to the Albertan cabinet already so how does he expect to next get voted as Premier of Alberta? Bad jdugement and Prideful arrogance too eh... Another real loser is Preston Manning now clearly too..

Here are 6 undeniable and unacceptable facts still even about the Conservative politcal parties in Canada

1: The Federal Conservatives are now even really worse overall even in comparison to the previous Liberals we had in power, for they the Conservatives are more pretentious and more more inadequate in governing even as well. They do have a hidden agenda they are pursuing firstly.

2 The Conservatives in Ottawa under Stephen Harper and those Conservatives in Alberta as well under Ralph Klein are unacceptably too now are not looking after the equal, good well being of all Canadians Canada wide, but only the minority few Canadians that hopefully will reelect them. keep them in power, and even thus their false hidden agenda is a self serving one. Many Liberals had warned us of this too and they were right.

3: The Conservatives clearly really do not care to implement or maintain a total adequate universal and fully functional health care system Canada wide as well otherwise they would have implemented real positive needed changes here already too.

4: Even the federal Conservatives for certainty now cannot be trusted to keep their election promises. We continually and unacceptably in Canada seem to elect liars as leaders, people who break their campaign promises, Premiers and prime Ministers in Canada now too. Our new PM had prime minister campaigned on a promise of open government and an accountable one. He already has failed to live up too it and it did not even take him too long to do it too.

5 We have all now also seen that the wrongful, false suppression of democracy, the practice of dictatorship now is a classical Conservative philosophy, approach of too many bad Canadian Conservative leaders.

6 More Openess in the government, and Public exposure and prosecution of the guilty serves everyone's best interest still too.

Most every bad guy who set out to do something awful wanted to do it in secret and keep it secret so he or she unlawfully could keep their false gains too. Most of the bad power hungry dictators started out pretending to serve the good welfare of the all of people now too.

Clearly the Citizens respect and trust of our elected leaders still relies on an open government. Secrecy moves us all down the path of distrust. Openness enables the public to trust that government and their agents, agencies are really doing the best they can now for all of the taxpayers, each and every citizen. Openness! All elected officials should want this and all voters should and do demand openness. Sadly these days the rightful transparency in government is clouded by the false increasing Conservative government secrecy. Secrecy not only covers up mistakes, it obstructs accountability. "It is only by shining a bright light into those dark corners where the secret deals are made that the public can be assured of honest, forthright representation". Any Politicians tend to get into more trouble when they go behind closed doors to do their work. They rather sometimes do mischief. Too often when politicians cite privacy issues, they simply want to avoid embarrassment to themselves. Too much secrecy also is rather an obstruction, and is also a challenge also to accountabiluty, to a fair and honest justice now as well.

The citizens always have a right to be informed about all government actions, and to ven complain anout them oenly and freely and nothing should be done be done by the fovernemtns now in secret, even because all decisons tend to eventually concern the citizens .and it is the citizens that will affected the most negatively or positively by the actions of the governments anyway. We the citizens have be allowed to know about all things that could harm our health, well being and even our tax money too. If our elected officials feel it is a too heavy burden for the citizens to know how they conduct business, they clearly do now need to find another career. Especially since these days it seems at least half of the politicians tend to be liars, immoral persons as we all tend to agree. Too many officials in Ottawa, and the other governments, civil and public services still do things that they don't want the citizens to know about. They do things they know are wrong. Most Canadian Citizens do rightfully now want, demand in our democracy even a wider window to the open government and freedom of information, both in our nation’s capital and around Canada even at all of the federal, provincial and municipal levels too especially related to the citizens good welfare and their tax payers money being used, spent. Their desire for a fully accountiable democracy is now again being clouded by the false increasing Canadian Conservative government secrecy, but nevertheless all of the citizens and it' elected officials should still purse always, continually the unhindered goal to have and to provide, to achieve even a greater access to public records and meetings, a free flow of information,full transparency in government issues and efforts. One of the chief functions of government is to serve the people and one way to do is is to is to keep them fully informed, then it is a simple one. Aside from matters of national security, I can’t think offhand of too many instances where the state/local government shouldn’t keep the public informed of decisions and actions by elected officials. In the past I think that in most, if not all cases, where secrecy has prevailed it is for reasons that had nothing to do with protecting the public but rather to protect an individual/government body from criticism and/or embarrassment, should the public learn of it and this usually occurs when they (the officials) feel they can’t properly justify their actions.

All Public officials whether they now like it or not are always, continually thus answerable to the public and how can the public now even really judge performance if they are not privy to the decisions by made their elected officials. Whether the actions/decisions in our opinion were ultimately right or wrong depends on our rightful access to all of the facts too that would help us the citizens to make better informed decisions now next too as to what elected leaders, parties are acceptable even. Open Government is an essential part of any democratic government and allof the citizen's right to know as well. "Openness both preserves democracy and saves money," The Citizens can use the governments 's liberal public-records laws to uncover secret documents, or keep officials from falsely meeting in secret, and doing wrongs. The secret exemptions all have one thing in common: They wrongfully do shut the public out of the public's business. Keeping the sun shining on government should be a priority of us all."The reason for open government is to prevent the consolidation of power by an entrenched few, and to prevent the abuses that inevitably follow. The reason the entrenched few want to work in secrecy is so that no one knows what they are doing, which allows them to continue abusing power. If their abuses were made known, they would likely lose power and/or have to stop the abuses and/or make restitution for what was improperly accumulated. The human temptation to abuse such unmitigated power is irresistible. Only Christ has not been tempted. So we must know what is going on, to keep the checks and balances system working properly."

The rightful transparency in our federal government now as well is clouded by the false increasing Conservative government secrecy, and a dictatorship approach. Is now "Muzzling the media, Harper style any more acceptable by him also now, next muzzling the citizens as well? No, Never. It really is the same thing.

7 It does not take a rocket scientist to know, to confirm these facts. One can easily tell who they are by what they do, have done so far. "18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." (Matthew 7 KJV)
The Alberta's spin doctors unacceptably lie still about the true state of Alberta's present overall well being, covering up the major negatives all while they slant the positives. Alberta's spin doctors do wrongfully and unacceptably lie still.

Not having local access for your children to go to school, and having them to be bussed far away is not a major problem? Not having adequate access to local doctors and/or car mechanics as well? Don't forget the high costs of living with the many high property taxes, high school taxes, high electrical costs, high home heating costs, high home insurance costs, high car insurance too, and many other very high consumer purchasing costs are not a major problem for many persons in Alberta too now? especially for all of the newcomers? and what about the often bad water quality that is hard, is realy high in minerals, and that requires costly water treatment as well? and so forth..

Reality: Alberta today has many significant, big problems not only for all newcomers but for the existing Alberta's now too. While Wages are going up so are the high cost of living there now as well, and it is a great problem consuming next almost most of the benefits of the supposedly high wages too. And that is just the start.

The Alberta attraction of high wages also leads to the citizens consumer higher costs, even produces real hardships as the major communities struggle to deal with the people influx. The booming economy does swallows up every worker, skilled or unskilled that it can find, means as well one not only cannot find enough of them but the consumers also do long waiting periods when you need to get one too. "The traffic everywhere in Calgary is bumper to bumper and if anything goes wrong, we hit gridlock pretty fast," says Calgary Ald. Gord Lowe, who notes the city is hundreds of millions of dollars behind in housing, roads, schools, hospitals, libraries and recreational facilities just for a start. Nor are these inherent major problems associated with sudden massive growth limited to Calgary. All of the major communities do even need more Dentists, doctors, nurses, police officers, firefighters, teachers, nurses, bus drivers, qualified technicians, car mechanics, repairmen, and other many professionals and obtaining them in the near further is clearly even impossible.."

Last week, the president of medical staff in the Grande Prairie region warned that northern health care has reached a crisis because of demand and staff shortages."Imagine someone having a heart attack or a car accident casualty requiring immediate medical attention, but unfortunately there is no surgeon or specialist available," said Dr. Miloslav Bozdech "We only have two doctors to service the entire population of Grande Prairie, Peace River, Manning, Fox Creek, Grande Cache, Fairview, Valleyview, McLennan, Beaverlodge and the rest of the communities within our health region.. We are just overwhelmed," he said. Bozdech also said it's unacceptable that the health system is so badly strained when Alberta boasts multibillion-dollar budget surpluses. Imagine that the basic health need of all persons is falsey crically jeopardized.

Even Housing for all the newcomers represents just one of many major challenges, shortcomings in Alberta. Home and Real estate prices and rents are costly and climbing dramatically in many communities - if a place to live can be found at all. And rental rates are among the highest in the country espcialy since there is no Rental controls in Alberta, or valuid consumer protection for that matter. Average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the oilsands capital of Fort McMurray in December was $1,478. That compared to just over $1,000 for a similar apartment in Toronto or Vancouver. Almost all of Firms are drasticaly short of carpenters and other trades much needed to build new homes, apartments, sewage and water systems. The average selling price of a home in Calgary last month was $305,000 - up and increase of almost 25 per cent in one year. The Alberta province for years now too and likley this will not change has been unwilling to meet the challenges of these growths head-on, The provincial government has earmarked money for infrastructure projects but that still doesn't include money for new primary or secondary schools, however. It is clear not enough money for decades as well will be provided to meet the needs of all of these newcomers as well. The Alberta citizens themselves are still now demanding cutbacks on governmental spending. For there are still real inklings of fear that the rich gravy train might not chug along forever with sad memories of the way Alberta's last big boom - fuelled in large part by the energy industry - quickly disastrously melted in the 1980s like snow during a sudden chinook when oil prices fell.

And that is just the beginning of Alberta's real negative realties as well that is not wrongfully, fully, honestly being presented.
Meanwhile Conservative Premier Ralph Klein was this week disappointed with the results of a low approval rating by his own political PC party. The clearly "self centered, self absorbed, proud, arrogant, abusive, undemocratic Premier Ralph Klein really now has no one to blame but himself for he reaped what he had sowed himself. Most people at their senior age, mellow, soften, but Ralph instead stayed the course of being a bad person rather as he always was and continued to show us all his dark sides. He had also already too many years, too much time to finish his pet projects, to do all he had wanted too. He should not be given any more time as well. He Premier Ralph Klein really did not care about the good welfare of all the poor welfare recipients firslty too in Alberta and so why should anyone really now even care next about him?"

"A THIRD WAVE SEPARATE PRIVATE SYSTEM WILL STILL NECESSITATE PROPER MANAGEMENT OF THE EXISTING HEALTH SYSTEM. SOMETHING THE MOSTLY INCOMPETENT HEALTH MINISTERS HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO DO IN THE PAST, TODATE. SO THE HEALTH CARE PROBLEMS IN ALBERTA WILL REMAIN LIKELY FOR THE REST OF US POOR FOLKS" "

The Fourth way Health care. There is a serious fourth way to keep and to improve the Health care system, and that is to manage the existing health care system better, seriously. You think there can be no improvement here? Just sit down in the corridor anytime you want in any major Hospital and observe hospital employees leaving their cubby holes and walking around the hospitals cause they do not have enough to do? or what?

The Fourth way Health care, just requires firstly seriously implementing positive changes and also now desiring to do so. Merely pretending to manage the health care system mostly by buck passing it down to line or to the others is also never an acceptable alternative approach as well A complete basic very common, simple solution review of the how the complete health system is being now managed today is all that is needed. This ongoing detailed managerial reviews includes reviewing all the sub components and looking seriously at ways to improve their effectiveness. It includes a review of how competent the designated, existing personnel really there are now as well, including how and why they were selected for their jobs too. This would as well require the need to review and to define all the bottle necks as well. Mostly pretentious health ministers and their deputy ministers at the federal and provincial levels rarely tackle such jobs. Putting into place the past pretentious, incompetent health Minister like the ex health Minister Gary Marr of Alberta will still also never do. So a competent person a qualified manager needs to be put into place. The also unacceptable practice of unnecessarily spending the rest of the designated budgets so that you can ask for more next year has also to be stopped too. But you firstly have to really care about the good welfare of all the citizens to do any of this continuously and effectively even in Alberta. I got another undeniable fact for you if all of the pretentious mostly Premiers, PMs and Health Ministers had really wanted to find a real solution they would have done it a long long time ago.

Alberta these days is not all rosy. The very High costs of living, incompetence, mismanagement are the basic complaints one hears, experiences in the private and public, civil service sectors of Alberta. Even Premier Ralph Klein came into pwer because of the Albertan PC provincial government's own mismanagement Premier Ralph Klein too now still is not generally respected outside of Alberta. Under Premier Ralph Klein the consumer basic costs went up seriously, sky high too. My own valid experience is that Alberta lacks still even the adequate basic health, justice, even the good police forces for a start.

http://groups.msn.com/CanadaToday3

Brian C said...

"The Alberta PC Party will not be "blown up" by Albertans in the midst of one of the strongest economic booms in Albertan history. Preston Manning is VERY popular here"

Preston Manning is likely the only thing that will prevent a massive exodus from the PC Party. Over 70% of Albertans still supported Klein...this was clearly a party revolt which should be dealth with by the Alberta electorate.

Hey Paul, nothing could be worse than the Liberal party record on health care. If you want talk and no action, by all means vote Lib.