Where is Alberta Going?
January 2, 2007 · By Shane Edwards
I thought I would take a different direction with this post. Here is a question for commenters: Where do you think Alberta will be in 5 years? In Canada? Out of Canada? Private Health Care? Communist? Green? Part of America? Liberal? Conservative? A model? A cautionary tale? What do you think? Seriously, no comments like “Between the 49th and the 60th”.
We really are looking at a province at a crossroads. Booming, beginning to realize its own strength within confederation, traditionally conservative, but seeing its politics become more and more centrist, especially with the influx of people from all over Canada.
It used to be that power centres in this nation were threefold: Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. Now, sorry, but one of those has dropped out (the Maritimes), another is dropping (Quebec), and there is a new power centre - the West. There are so many directions this province could go, and I really think that even more than Quebec, as Alberta goes in the next 5 years, so goes Canada.
Alberta will leave Canada in the next five years if Stelmach proves to be weak. Even with a Conservative federal government, Alberta really does not benefit from being in Canada, not like Quebec does. Quebec needs Canada, Alberta does not. The only thing keeping us around for now is that most Albertans are happy with PM Harper, and we love the idea of Canada.
If the Liberals win the nexr election I hope Alberta does go for separation, the west has put up with the Liberals for to long because the east votes them in.
I disagree with Hunters conclusion, but I can appreciate the logic. The simple point is that AB is far to secular to be called “Conservative”; is far too “multicultural” now in both a foreign and Canadian sense; far too comfortable with the new high standard of living, all of which points to lack of cohesion for a cause like Independence. Add to that, a fatal lack of willpower to seriously do anything about being kicked around (see Ralph Klein’s caving in every time), lack of a truly uniting cause (lacking a motive or target for outside animosity), the lack of a truly charismatic and intelligent (credible)leader for leading any such cause, and most importantly - and the main reason why AB will be more Liberal than Conservative in 2012 - is that the Secular Progressive agenda gets more ingrained and accepted by native Albertans, and is already inculcated and accepted by those that are moving here from outside the province.
We’ll muddle along in the same Socialist trench, adding layer upon layer of red tape, bureaucracy, taxation all in order to satisfy the desires of a pampered peoples.
So in short we will be like Canada is now, but only with attitude, and the frustrated Separatists will only get angrier as time goes on.
AB only votes “PC” because we think we are right/centrists and we vote this way out of spite because the ROC votes Socialist! The AB PC’s are majority Progressives (Social Socialists) because it appears to be the only party with a ticket. The two major centers vote consistently Socialist civic election wise, and Redmonton has no qualms about doing it at any level. Calgary is just catching up.
An. Fencer pretty much said it all. Alberta will never separate. Albertans are canadians after all. They lack the balls to do anything REMOTELY courageous.
If you want to further Alberta separation then support QUEBEC separation because if Quebec wins an independence referendum (even by 1 vote) then Albertans will be forced by mere pragmatism & fear of the future to consider independence seriously. They won’t otherwise.
Ironic how, AB is seemingly going towards socialism and QC is showing signs of more and more questioning their worship of socialism. A new independent documentary is currently gaining ground in the province: “L’illusion Tranquille” (The Quiet Illusion instead of Revolution)…
Don’t want to split hairs but the words we use in this debate are crucial.
The recent Parliamentary resolution on the quebecois has done away with the quaint idea that there is only one nation in the Canadian state.
You still seem to be clinging to the uninational Trudeau-vision of the country when you talk about “this nation” even though you seem to want to talk about greater provincial autonomy. Those hardly go together. Centralists have always wanted to curtail provincial strength on the false premise that it weakens a “national dream.”
Now that all political parties in the House have made room for more than one “national dream” by making room for more than one nation, the argument is eroded. In terms of mental spaces –and we’ll have to see how it translates into the world of effective politics in future– there might be more room for Alberta to strengthen itself than there was before.
If there was less room for us to actualise our potential, there might be greater encouragement to separate. In other words, paternalistic, resource-grabbing, unrepentantly utopian, Trudeau centralists in power in Ottawa are a better element in the mix for Alberta separatists.
The system in Alberta is at this time is very seriously corrupt based on the significant evidence we have and a major part of this involves their secret partnership with the company known as CGI, which is one of the riches most powerful companies in Canada and which, though it publicly reports it is an IT company, primarily and aggressively represents the interests of most of the insurance companies in Canada, including at least 19 major ones, and specifically is paid 100’s and 100’s of millions of dollars each year to specifically, aggressively, unethically and illegally defend against potential claims and claims and lawsuits filed against their insurance company clients by Canadians, while also keeping data bases on Canadian which contain their private and personal information, which they then sell to insurance companies, which they have been licensed by the government to do, since privacy and information laws don’t allow insurance companies to access this information themselves to defend against claims and lawsuits filed against insurance companies. CGI has aggressively pursued and obtained significant contracts in all areas of the private and public sector,including abundant and significant federal and provincial government contracts, which we have clear evidence to prove they then use to unethically and illegally access information belonging to Canadians, which is protected by law including the privacy and information laws in this country, to aggressively and unethically do everything in their power to protect Canadian insurance companies from having to pay Canadians for injuries, damages, losses, etc… they have suffered. One must ask why Canadian insurance companies are willing to pay CGI 100’s and 100’s of millions of dollars each year to specifically provide them with information to protect them from having to pay money for claims and lawsuits filed by Canadian citizens,and ask if was legal and ethical for insurance companies to obtain this information, then why don’t they just do it themselves rather then pay the extreme amount of money they are paying CGI to do this for them. Albertan’s and Canadians need to ask if it is ethical for a provincial government to be secretly in partnership with a company that gets paid very significant amounts of money for providing Canadians personal and private information to Canadian insurance companies, and how it is ethical that they have given them in excess of 40 very significant provincial and local government contracts to give them full access to all of Albertan’s personal and private information, and how this could possibly be in the public’s best interests…what government is expected by law and publicly proclaims and are paid to represent. For example CGI currently has a renewed $60 million dollar contract to manage Alberta Health and Wellness’s records, Albertan’s private health records, again while representing the interests of Canadian insurance companies, which any idiot can clearly see is a very serious conflict of interest and which we have significant evidence which strongly suggests they are using to serve their private and financial interests and that of their insurance company clients, including evidence to support they are doctoring Albertan’s health records to fraudulent assist their insurance company clients in defending against claims filed by Albertans, specifically a very serious medical malpractice case involving the very serere injuring of 2 children and a Calgary health professional. The evidence we have shows 16 appointments of them seeking medical attention directly after they were injured by this health professional are mysteriously missing from their Alberta Health Benefits paid records, though is supported by the doctors records and prescription receipts, as well as 2 fake appointments added prior to them being injured and actually seeking medical attention, which are clearly meant to make it look as if they were injured prior to seeing this health professional and him injuring them, and which are clearly proven to be fake by the doctors records, as well as the fact that they didn’t even have Alberta Health Benefits coverage at this time, or even a number, as they had just moved to Alberta and had not yet received a health number or qualified for benefits at the time this fake appointments were documented to have occurred. All the significant errors, both added information and missing information, are all in favor of CGI and their insurance company client, while CGI just happens to have the contract to manage these records and are getting paid tens of millions of dollars every few years to manage, despite their very serious and obvious incompetence. Alberta Health and Wellness have refuse to explain the false information in these records and the doctor mysteriously moved away at the time these records came into question, though he did provide us with the evidence we needed to prove the truth prior to leaving, and despite the 100’s of millions of dollars Alberta Health and Wellness have paid CGI, if you contact Alberta Health and Wellness about CGI they will pretend to not know what you are talking about or who they are, despite the fact that the odds are that you are talking to a CGI employee, but we have the undeniable evidence, including evidence from CGI’s own website that clearly reports what I am reporting to you to be fact. CGI are also behind Alberta switching to electronic health records, for which the Alberta government have paid them 100’s of millions to do, yet consider this…electronic health records are much easier to doctor then paper records which can be analysed for authenticity, making CGI’s work of doctoring Albertan’s health records in their insurance companies favor much easier, as well as allowing them to track Albertan’s attendances on health professionals and inforamtion about this to be shared. Think about it…you are hurt by a health professional and file a claim or lawsuit and then go and see other health professionals to seek treatment for your injuries and it’s all monitored and documented on electronic health records…CGI can know your every move and even illegally and unethical contact the health professional you see to assist them, if Albertan’s and Canadians truly understand the threat of electronic health records they would be strongly opposed to them but they don’t realize big brother CGI, with significant help from the Alberta government, is watching them. I could go on and on about what CGI is up to but for now I will just say that Alberta is already CGI land and Canada is rapidly becoming CGI land as well, so Alberta doesn’t need to separate from Canada because Alberta is CGI and CGI is simply going to take it over like they already have taken over Alberta, and keep in mind Stephen Harper is part of the Alberta government and significant evidence suggests he’s involved in helping CGI position itself even more so in the federal government, clearly against the best interests of Canadians.
Insurance companies are not angels. Most people know that. I could not help but to hear black helicopters flying outside as I read your protocols-of-the-elders-of-CGI comments.
I could have sworn that Harper was the prime minister.
We learn something new everyday!
Obviously you didn’t quite get the point…CGI represents basically all insurance companies and are breaking the law in a way that is destoying democracy in Canada entirely and seriously breaking the law and violating the rights of all Canadians, not to mention betraying the most vulnerable of Canadians…the sick and injured and those that have suffered the loss of their homes to a fire, etc…how can you be so dismissive and accepting of this, like they are just naughty children so accept this? Do you have insurance or could you be injured in a car accident or by a negligent doctor or become ill with M.S. or suffer some other devastating misfortune that CGI will be quick to deny you compensation for? Or are you somehow special and not affected by this very serious issue? Is it okay with you that CGI are acting in a grossly criminal manner that violates the laws of this country and rights of Canadians and deceiving Canadians for money,in fact for a obscene amount of money? Are you not concerned for your privacy and rights or that of your loved ones? Do you not care about how this is destroying people and their lives and our country? Are you so rich that you don’t have to worry about this being done to you? Lucky you.
It would be nice if you cared about Canada and it’s integrity and citizens and what behavior like this now is going to lead to in the future and for our children. Clearly it’s moving backwards and not forwards and shameful beyond belief.
As far as your comment about Stephen Harper, clearly I know he’s Prime Minister so your comment was less then intelligent or not as clever as you seem to think. Clearly I was simply pointing out that he is an Albertan politician and therefore connected to the corruption in Alberta, as well as he associates with people we know to be connected to CGI and has chosen many for positions in his government and his government has awarded millions of dollars of federal government contracts to them.
Anyone that would dismiss the concerns I have raised is not only not thinking of what this information means to them personally and to millions of people it has and is going to destroy, but also is not thinking about what this is doing to Canada, our country, and it’t integrity and what is supposed to stand for.
Oh and by the way if you don’t care about this issue, how about them defrauding the government. CGI was the company that was awarded the gun registration contract that cost tax payers and obscene amount of money, in part because they had so much trouble setting it up when CGI specializes in this type of thing and infact revamped the entire federal government computer system. You see what was more likely the cause of their problems and behind them and the obscene amount of money they cost tax payers working on setting up something that should have been easy as pie for them is that they are in partnership with the Alberta government and have been for some time and the Alberta government strongly opposed and opposes the gun registry, so isn’t quite a coincidence that CGI had so much trouble setting it up and required so much money to do this very simply task and then that this was exposed and blamed and the Liberals and recommended to be scrapped because of their mishandling of it? Is this okay with you to, that they are doing this type of thing with an obscene amount of Canadians money that is not going to take care of Canadians? Oh, right your right and have no concerns and nothing to worry about and this should be expected too…is this your position?
Oh and Kaqchikel, let me know if this is your definition of CGI being no angels…
My 2 precious sons and I moved to Alberta and only a very short time after were severely mutilated and injured by a Calgary orthodontist that mutilated our teeth so badly they no longer closed and rammed our teeth so far back our normal occlusions because grossly deformed class 3 bites and our jaw joints were completely destroyed and we were left suffering with severe TMJ when we had been beautiful, healthy people with a wonderful life. When we attempted to get help and report what was done to us, CGI was assigned to open a file and do what they do…aggressively do anything and everything to stop us from proving what was done to us and to begin with CGI represents ING who insure more than 90% of the dental professionals in Canada, so we were denied emergency treatment and forced to travel to St. Paul, Minnesota for several years to try and correct the severe injuries and mutilation that were caused to us. The treatment we have required to date, and which is not complete yet, has cost me, a single mother, over $200,000 to date, which is all of the money I had, and again we are not finished yet.
While we were at our very sickest with the severe injuries a Calgary orthodontist caused my children and I, CGI through it’s contract with Calgary children services and their relationship with Iris Evans subjected my children and I to a fake child protection investigation that they said was because I was too sick to care for my sons because of the injuries that were caused to me, my sons who were in jr. high at the time, and they threatened to take my sons away from me when I was at my most vulnerable and my sons were injured and scared and needed emergency treatment, and they threatened us not to file a lawsuit against the orthodontist and interogated us like criminals and got my sons alone and threatened them that if they didn’t answer all their questions they would take them away from me, which scared them to death, and then proceeded to ask them endless questions about my character to try and find dirt on me to use against us if we filed a lawsuit. As sick as I was I thought to audio tape them and their threats and eventually they closed the case admitting that it was groundless, but not before they put us through hell.
Then another thing that happened was that my sons school said that if my sons missed school for treatment they would not give them the work they missed and would not pass them, which forced them to home school and further devasted their childhoods.
And it was my health records that were doctored and CGI have put us through so much you can’t imagine what it has done to our lives but I assure you it is far beyond them just “not being angels”.
We did file the lawsuit it is currently in litigation and we will take it all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to but we are the lucky ones when it comes to the victims of CGI, because we were lucky enough to have the records and evidence and endless audio taped evidence to prove what was done to us, but that hasn’t been enough to stop the harrassment CGI continues to subject us to.
I have had to submit to i days of discovery and they are asked for 2 dozens more full days, 4 to 5 days in a row, while I have a severely injured jaw, and we have them on tape saying they don’t care if their excessive discoveries cause me pain or further injury…do you care about this or is this expected and acceptable to you too.
I won’t go into everything that we were put through but we are writing a book about it and we believe we are not the only ones this has happened to…do you care about children being injured and then made to suffer by CGI or is this also no biggie and par for the course?
They have planted information in my records lying about my mental health, they have had a psychologist pretend to be a dentist and try and trick us and then secretly call our doctor and report false information about my mental health and contact with him. The stuff that has been done to my children and I on top of the original devastating injuries we were caused is so devasting that when the public read our book it will forever change their understanding of Canada and the privilege of being Canadian…thanks to CGI it is not at all what I grew up believing and my view of being Canadian is forever shattered. I thought I was safe, I thought my children were safe but we clearly are not and are no better off then a 3rd world country and in some ways worse because no one understand what is being done to Canadians like my childen and I.
We has newspaper reporters come to our home and promise to do a full page on our story and then suddenly stop calling and stop returning our calls, obviously because CGI got to them. We had a TV reporter from Toronto, from the Whistleblower show promise to cover our story and to even fly to Alberta who again suddenly disappeared and never did the story, which we have all the evidence to prove. Is this the Canada you want? Is this acceptable to you?
I applied for CPP disability because I was too injured to work and had to travel for treatment and guess which department has a significant contract with CGI…needless to say I was not only turned down when I had all the reports and medical evidence to support my claim and many Canadians have been granted it for less, but magically false information about my mental health appeared out of no where in my CPP file when I have never been diagnosed with any such problem. Again is this the Canada you want…one that takes money from every paycheck I received with the promise they will take care of me if I need it, only to let CGI in the henhouse to rob me of these long promised benefits after taking my money? This acceptable to you?
Aren’t you worried that with CGI doing what they are doing health professionals in Canada won’t care about their patients if they are not decent people and some may even hurt them because they have nothing to fear if they do? You don’t think that could happen, well consider this…the orthodontist that severely injured my children and I wrote and published articles in the Journal of the Canadian Dental Association a decade before he treated us that the very treatment he did to us causes very serious injury, and then he did this very “treatment” to my children and while he was being paid by the University of Alberta to do “clinical research” in his private practice…does this sound like the Canada you want to live in, where health professionals can do anything they want to you and then CGI steps in and protects them and threatens and harasses you? How could this ever be acceptable to you, do you work for CGI or an insurance company? God help you if you ever lose your job or get sick because you don’t expect people who could do this to a woman and 2 children to give a damn about you do you?
You just don’t get it and don’t seem to care and that means you don’t care about what was done to my precious sons and I, which is disgraceful.
The maritimes used to be a power centre?? Oh my god I can’t stop laughing!!
A, it is laughable now, but believe it or not, the Maritimes were once big shots in Confederation.
Kelly Marie Richard, while I don’t doubt your pain, this area is for comments, not novels. Few will take the time to view your comments. I’d suggest starting a blog. If your ideas have merit, they will garner attention.