I think it’s time to revisit it.
Dear Premier Klein:
During and since the recent federal election, we have been among a large number of Albertans discussing the future of our province. We are not dismayed by the outcome of the election so much as by the strategy employed by the current federal government to secure its re-election. In our view, the Chretien government undertook a series of attacks not merely designed to defeat its partisan opponents, but to marginalize Alberta and Albertans within Canada’s political system. One well-documented incident was the attack against Alberta’s health care system. To your credit, you vehemently protested the unprecedented attack ads that the federal government launched against Alberta’s policies – policies the Prime Minister had previously found no fault with.
However, while your protest was necessary and appreciated by Albertans, we believe that it is not enough to respond only with protests. If the government in Ottawa concludes that Alberta is a soft target, we will be subjected to much worse than dishonest television ads. The Prime Minister has already signaled as much by announcing his so called “tough love” campaign for the West. We believe the time has come for Albertans to take greater charge of our own future. This means resuming control of the powers that we possess under the constitution of Canada but that we have allowed the federal government to exercise. Intelligent use of these powers will help Alberta build a prosperous future in spite of a misguided and increasingly hostile government in Ottawa.
Under the heading of the “Alberta Agenda,” we propose that our province move forward on the following fronts:
• Withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan to create an Alberta Pension Plan offering the same benefits at lower cost while giving Alberta control over the investment fund. Pensions are a provincial responsibility under section 94A of the Constitution Act. 1867; and the legislation setting up the Canada Pension Plan permits a province to run its own plan, as Quebec has done from the beginning. If Quebec can do it, why not Alberta?
• Collect our own revenue from personal income tax, as we already do for corporate income tax. Now that your government has made the historic innovation of the single-rate personal income tax, there is no reason to have Ottawa collect our revenue. Any incremental cost of collecting our own personal income tax would be far outweighed by the policy flexibility that Alberta would gain, as Quebec’s experience has shown.
• Start preparing now to let the contract with the RCMP run out in 2012 and create an Alberta Provincial Police Force. Alberta is a major province. Like the other major provinces of Ontario and Quebec, we should have our own provincial police force. We have no doubt that Alberta can run a more efficient and effective police force than Ottawa can – one that will not be misused as a laboratory for experiments in social engineering.
• Resume provincial responsibility for health-care policy. If Ottawa objects to provincial policy, fight in the courts. If we lose, we can afford the financial penalties that Ottawa may try to impose under the Canada Health Act. Albertans deserve better than the long waiting periods and technological backwardness that are rapidly coming to characterize Canadian medicine. Alberta should also argue that each province should raise its own revenue for health care – i.e., replace Canada Health and Social Transfer cash with tax points as Quebec has argued for many years. Poorer provinces would continue to rely on Equalization to ensure they have adequate revenues.
• Use section 88 of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Quebec Secession Reference to force Senate reform back onto the national agenda. Our reading of that decision is that the federal government and other provinces must seriously consider a proposal for constitutional reform endorsed by “a clear majority on a clear question” in a provincial referendum. You acted decisively once before to hold a senatorial election. Now is the time to drive the issue further.
All of these steps can be taken using the constitutional powers that Alberta now possesses. In addition, we believe it is imperative for you to take all possible political and legal measures to reduce the financial drain on Alberta caused by Canada’s tax-and-transfer system. The most recent Alberta Treasury estimates are that Albertans transfer $2,600 per capita annually to other Canadians, for a total outflow from our province approaching $8 billion a year. The same federal politicians who accuse us of not sharing their “Canadian values” have no compunction about appropriating our Canadian dollars to buy votes elsewhere in the country.
Mr. Premier, we acknowledge the constructive reforms that your government made in the 1990s – balancing the budget, paying down the provincial debt, privatizing government services, getting Albertans off welfare and into jobs, introducing a single-rate tax, pulling government out of the business of subsidizing business, and many other beneficial changes. But no government can rest on its laurels. An economic slowdown, and perhaps even recession, threatens North America, the government in Ottawa will be tempted to take advantage of Alberta’s prosperity, to redistribute income from Alberta to residents of other provinces in order to keep itself in power. It is imperative to take the initiative, to build firewalls around Alberta, to limit the extent to which an aggressive and hostile federal government can encroach upon legitimate provincial jurisdiction.
Once Alberta’s position is secured, only our imagination will limit the prospects for extending the reform agenda that your government undertook eight years ago. To cite only a few examples, lower taxes will unleash the energies of the private sector, easing conditions for Charter Schools will help individual freedom and improve public education, and greater use of the referendum and initiative will bring Albertans into closer touch with their own government.
The precondition for the success of this Alberta Agenda is the exercise of all our legitimate provincial jurisdictions under the constitution of Canada. Starting to act now will secure the future for all Albertans.
Sincerely yours,
Stephen HARPER, President, National Citizens’ Coalition;
Tom FLANAGAN, professor of political science and former Director of Research, Reform Party of Canada;
Ted MORTON, professor of political science and Alberta Senator-elect;
Rainer KNOPFF, professor of political science;
Andrew CROOKS, chairman, Canadian Taxpayers Federation;
Ken BOESSENKOOL, former policy adviser to Stockwell Day, Treasurer of Alberta.
all the major dailies should have republished that letter before the election. traitorous sellout fucks. throw the media out with the pols and start over!
“If the government in Ottawa concludes that Alberta is a soft target”
It’s like some warped war mentality. Robert, thanks for re-posting this letter, because frankly it should scare the shit out of everyone, especially when this radical viewpoint wants to amend the constitution.
all the major dailies should have republished that letter before the election.
It was obvious at that time that the corporation-media complex decided Canadians were not going to be reminded of just exactly what Stephen Harper’s vision for Canada has always been.
Oh for fucks sake. We were reminded of the “firewall” a billion fucking times. Take a look at Dinning’s comments yesterday. He’s still evoking the “Firewall” letter as though it’s a reason not to vote for Morton. Not surprising, since federally he supported Paul Martin and not Stephen Harper. (Not publicly of course — he, like Dithers, would never take an actual stand on something, but it’s a well known fact he donated to Dithers’ leadership run and quietly worked against Harper’s.)
Protecting provinces from further encroachment from an activist federal government — what a radical concept eh?
No we weren’t, you pathologically lying arsehole. It was hardly mentioned at all, and when it was, it was seriously downplayed by our wunnerful, wunnerful, “happy conservative days are here again” media whores.
sooey nailed it! Every major daily had a responsibility to publish this letter on its front page in the days before the last election so that the Canadian citizenry could make up their minds about who deserved to be Prime Minister of Canada.
Up to your usual trick, (singular, because you are nothing if not a one trick pony), raging panties? You know - lying at every opportunity to mask the rot-gut stench that emanates from the modern Reicht?
It must be exhausting…no wonder you disappeared from My Blahg for all that time! It must be next to impossible to keep up the constant barrage of bullshit that you consider necessary to protect your ideologically bankrupt brethren from themselves and their very public utterances.
Think maybe it’s time for another leave of absence?
(Who am I kidding? Leave of Absense? More likely you just got out of lock down in whatever prison you’re presently serving time in. Or you just got out of rehab for your drug habit, Or you just finished drying out from your latest alcoholic binge.)
It certainly wouldn’t hurt my feelings to see the door hit you in the ass on your way out of here on your way back inside.
How does referring to Dinning’s comments yesterday with respect to politics in one province prove that we were reminded of the firewall letter “a billion fucking times” during the last federal elections?
Protecting provinces from further encroachment from an activist federal government — what a radical concept eh?
Oh, so now it’s not only “activist judges,” it’s “activitist federal government.” You brownshirts really are desparate to turn the word “activitist” into a pejorative…although, pejorative only with regard to the type of activism you don’t like. Harper’s “constitutional activism” is of course, completely acceptable.
Wingnuts….angry and incoherent until the bitter end.
The point being, Ti, is that people haven’t forgotten about it, and in fact are STILL TALKING ABOUT IT. And being reminded about it one more time would have changed the course of the election? Christ, the word “firewall” became a fucking cliche when referring to Harper, that’s how often it was mentioned. As for the media not reprinting the letter, they did print an entire speech of his that was made in 1997 to some American think tank visitors, if that makes you feel any better. It seemed to have little effect if I remember correctly. But somehow the Firewall letter (cue scary music) would have sent people running? If the other parties couldn’t make any hay with the firewall letter, it was because it no longer had any impact. Outside of Toronto, people generally quit responding to something if they hear it often enough.
As for the recommendations in the Firewall Letter, what exactly is so scary?
That Alberta should have it’s own police force like the OPP and the Surete? SCARY!
That Alberta should have it’s own pension plan like the QPP? SCARY!
That Alberta should collect its own income tax like Quebec already does? SCARY!
Transfer tax points to the provinces so they can actually raise the money to pay for their own programs instead of running cap in hand to the feds? SCARY!
The last point is mildly controversial. The rest is fucking pablum. And Artie, you need to take some relaxation classes or something.
Anyway, on an unrelated note, I thought I would link you to Sheila Copps latest musings on the Quebec is a nation bullshit. Your welcome.
The point being, Ti, is that people haven’t forgotten about it, and in fact are STILL TALKING ABOUT IT.
REALLY?!!! HAVE YOU….er….have you conducted a survey of the electorate to determine what proportion is even aware of the “firewall lettter?”
Your solipsism is showing, Rantie. You (and most conserva-boys, generally) have this sad tendency to consider your own beliefs and ability to remember things as being generalisable to everyone. I suffer no such delusions. The electorate has to reminded constantly about what people with power have said in the past and how it contradicts what they’re saying now, all in an effort to provide the background information necessary for people to properly judge someone’s credibility.
There was nothing inherently illegitimate about what was recommended in the firewall letter; it’s just that it represented the paranoid and narrow politics of one Stephen Harper, qualities that the rest of the country continues to find resistible with respect to the leader of the national government.
Now piss off and go back to being Alpha Male at your ‘tard blog. You’re far more useful in educating/pandering to the wingnuts there than being a boring troll here.
Just when I’ve all but given up on you, something that makes a little bit of sense comes out of your mouth.
In any case, you needn’t worry about me becoming a regular here again. I drifted away because it got too boring, and the prevailing orthodoxy here just too shrill and extreme. Those factors are still present. But I do enjoy popping in from time to time.
Now go find a cock to suck somewhere Ti.
But I do enjoy popping in from time to time.
That’s because you enjoy being a pest (a mommy issue, I’m suspecting). Really, some people try for a bit more nobility in their lives, but…well, not you, eh?
The West is already in folks…
Please don’t forget it.
Appease the Quebec Nation if you must lefties…
We’ll always be Canadian, and in your fucking face.
What is this? Redneck Sunday?
Redneck Sunday. Has a nice ring to it.
Didn’t you flounce off earlier?
What is the date of this letter …. ?
who cares? buddy harper hasn’t renounced it. for all we know - his priority is still an independent alberta. he hasn’t been called to account for anything - by the media or other parties or even his fellow conservatives.