January 22, 2007

Dion easy target
Shots at oilpatch put province against rest of country

By Ezra Levant

Well, there's a surprise: Stephane Dion thinks the oilpatch's wealth is nothing more than "easy money."

Not slowly, thoughtfully earned money. But easy money.

There's something shady about it, something unreal. We are not worthy of our wealth.

It's a sort of trick.

Give the man credit: At least Dion had the guts to come into the heart of the West to tell us what he thinks of us.

Dion was speaking in Edmonton, which is the gateway to northern Alberta's oilsands, the source of so many billions of dollars of tax revenues for Ottawa, and the source of employment for tens of thousands of Canadians.

That employment is not limited to Alberta, but extends to Ontario and Quebec, from where much of the equipment for the oilsands comes.

It is a touch rich for a Liberal from Quebec, who was in Jean Chretien's cabinet when the AdScam strategy was implemented -- sending nearly a quarter of a billion dollars to Quebec ad agencies in the name of a "sponsorship" program, much of which was kicked back to the Quebec Liberal Party -- to call anything, ever, for the rest of his life, easy money.

Dion -- who has sucked at the teat of the taxpayer his whole life, first as a professor, then as a politician -- proposes to teach hard-working oilpatch workers what is easy money and what is not.

The wealth of Dion's beloved Quebec -- the beneficiary of billions of tax dollars extracted from the oilpatch, and transferred to la belle province -- doesn't count as easy money to him.

That's well-earned.

It's not the first time Dion had lessons for the West that he does not teach to his own Quebec base.

His first day on the job as Liberal Leader saw Dion call for the continuation of the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly rights to farmers' fields -- but only in the West.

Dion was adamant Western farmers would not be granted the freedom Quebec farmers have.

We eagerly await Dion's commentary on Quebec's dairy industry -- which receives enormous subsidies from the rest of Canada through quotas and tariffs. Is charging more than market rates for milk and cheese easy money?

Dion's comment about easy money was not a slip of the tongue. It was a comment made at a scheduled speech; it was not retracted. It wasn't a gaffe or an anomaly. It is Liberal Party policy.

This should not be a surprise to anyone who followed Dion as a cabinet minister under Chretien and Paul Martin.

In July 2005, Dion promulgated new environmental regulations targeting Alberta's oilpatch. He announced carbon dioxide, a harmless, naturally-occurring gas, was now officially toxic, and it would soon be fined at $200/ton -- but only if emitted by Alberta's oil patch. Eastern "polluters" -- such as Ontario's auto industry -- were officially exempted.

Had Martin been re-elected in 2006, there is little doubt those punitive fines would have been started, skimming billions of dollars a year out of Alberta's oil patch.

Dion named his dog "Kyoto" -- there's no doubt he would have implemented it had he had the chance.

Will Dion's Alberta-baiting work?

Maybe. It worked for Chretien and Martin, who won four elections by pitting Alberta against the rest of the country.

Here's hoping, though, Ontario and Quebec voters in 2007 don't share Dion's salivating envy.

And you folks out east think electing little retarded Stephany won't force a breaking up of Canada? Well, may I suggest you take a good hard look at the average Alberta conservative's opinion of Dion and take a guess how 73% of a population who support a conservative government could walk away from Canada without even as much as a look back at Ottawa.

As an Ontarian, I am ready for Ontario to leave Canada.

That's funny because I don't remember Ontario ever getting equalization payments from Western Canada. If Ontario buying goods from Western Canada means we've used you, then I guess we're guilty as charged. Ontario and Alberta are the only self-sufficient provinces in Canada. Every other province uses Ontario and Alberta.

Canada is at war with radical Islamic Terrorists.



This site no longer advocates the separation of Alberta from Canada. It supports the government of Stephen Harper. If the Harper government falls this website goes back up harder and stronger. Internationally, and domestically we now have a government we can be proud of.

Link to old Site which will re-activate if the Liberal left regains Canada.

Ya, wait for it. When Western Canada seperates and all those cars you folks manufacture suddenly have no where to go, well you too will be looking for equalization payments... And I'm all for Ontario leaving Canada. The sooner the better!

So it's "if you don't elect our guy we're leaving".

How is that any different from Quebec?

Stevie Stevie he's our guy!
If we can't have him we're gonna cry!

It doesn't look like the NEP has anything to do with this. It appears that the separatists just don't want a left leaning government - they want the Cons or they're going to threaten to leave.

I wonder if they're serious or if they're just testing their power and are threatening separation as a bully tactic.

Western provinces consider separation: poll
Updated Tue. Aug. 9 2005 2:23 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

At least one-third of Western Canadians think it's time for their provinces to consider quitting Canada, a new poll suggests.

The survey was commissioned by Western Standard magazine, a right-leaning bimonthly news and opinion magazine founded in 2004 by Ezra Levant, a former Reform Party and Alliance Party activist.

The magazine's survey found that 35.6 per cent of respondents from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia agreed that "Western Canadians should begin to explore the idea of forming their own country."

The poll claims that Albertans, at 42 per cent, were most likely to consider independence, followed by Saskatchewan at 31.9 per cent.

"Westerners are very frustrated with their position in Confederation," said Faron Ellis, a political science professor at Lethbridge Community College, who conducted the survey.