Canada is the greatest hotel on earth, the kind of place people can pass through at their leisure, claiming citizenship as if it were a room key”. Yann Martel

    The National Post on 17 Mar 12, under caption “The changing meaning of citizenship”, outline some of the measures  being taken to get control of the of many undesirable traits that have cheapened the value of Canadian Citizenship.

                    There are approx. 285,000 thousand people with Canadian citizenship living abroad (google).  They are sometimes described as “citizens of convenience.”  A recent war in Lebanon showed the value of dual citizenship to such citizens. The cost to Canada was, I expect, considerable.  That and similar costs are negligible however compared to the potential price should these “citizens of convenience” decide, in declining years, to return to Canada for our social programs.

                   Mr. Kenny, Federal Minister of Citizenship, is doing much to correct the travesty our Citizenship process has become.   I commend him and wish him every and early success.

Much has been written on this topic and the following sampling captions will present further reading should anyone have an interest.

          “Refugees are us”                                   Barbara Kay      3 Mar 10

          “Making Canadian citizenship matter”      National Post   21 Feb 12

          Canadian Immigration reform Blog          Martin Collacott

Escape the nursery

                         Escape the nursery – "States real danger goes beyond Drummond's numbers" So says a headline on the comment page of the Financial Post of 28-Feb-2012. 

          The nursery, in this context, refers to government and more specifically the Ontario Govt.  Premier McGuinty had engaged Mr. D. Drummond for a report basically on the economic condition of Ontario.

          Mr. Drummond, an economist, and as economist are wont to do, has lots of numbers.  The interesting and concerning part of this article is beyond the numbers and into the current and long term effect of those numbers on the citizenry.

          The article opens “Big governments spend too much, borrow too much and tax too much; they push their way to the front of the economic queue and grab resources…..” then later “….Big expensive government is dangerous for reasons more profound.  It weakens us. It transforms makers into takers.  The power of the modern state is deep, subtle and dangerous;  If uncontrolled, in the words of (Alexis) Tocqueville “ Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd…”

          You are invited to venture into the realm of this "comment" at:

  http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/Escape+nursery/6219450/story.html

KT

Election Grist

Beriefly, when it happens, and if reported, some of us get incensed/appalled at the generous "departure pay outs" to politicians .  The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has outlined in the following link that their self legislated "remuneration" goes into what might generously be called fiscal debauchery.  The words theft and fraud also come to mind.  This article itself is not too long but it should evoke a stirring to read the enclosed links and reply as suggested in one of them. 

   It should also be a timely reminder of John Diefenbaker and his quote that "Governments and babies should be changed often and for the same reason" 

KT

The MLA committee that never meets

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Dear Supporter:

$261,000.

That’s how much 21 Alberta MLAs got paid, combined, in 2011-12 for sitting on the Standing Committee on Privileges and Elections, Standing Orders and Printing.

Despite 21 MLAs being paid at least $12,000 per year (the chair and vice-chair get paid $18,000 and $15,000 a year respectively) to sit on this committee, do you know how many times this committee has met since 2008?

Not once.

Clearly the way we pay our MLAs needs to change.

Ever since the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) discovered and blew the whistle on the secret 30% MLA and cabinet pay hikes in 2008, we’ve been calling for a citizens’ commission on MLA pay.  Premier Redford stopped short of that, but she did launch a one-man “independent” review.

The CTF’s Scott Hennig appeared before Justice Major recently to lay out the CTF’s recommendations for MLA pay, which included reversing the 2008 secret 30% cabinet pay hike and committee pay, making 100% of their salary fully taxable and eliminating the over-the-top “transition allowances.”

In total, the CTF made 12 recommendations in their 35 page submission to Justice Major.  You can read the CTF’s submission here: http://taxpayer.com/sites/default/files/Reversing-the-Kowalski-Legacy.pdf

Unfortunately, neither the government, the Legislative Assembly, nor Justice Major’s committee put out a single news release to alert the media to his province-wide hearings.  As such, virtually all of the remaining public sessions were cancelled.

But that doesn’t mean that you can’t still have your say.  Justice Major’s commission will accept submissions from Albertans until February 24^th.

And he needs to hear from Albertans, and how! 

If Albertans don’t stand up and tell Justice Major that they want to see transparent, fully taxable MLA pay and the elimination of gold-plated perks like these transition allowances that gift MLAs three-months salary for every year served, he will likely recommend rich transition allowances remain.

Moreover, if only a few people make submissions, the government will claim that nobody was interested in this issue.

It’s time to take action!

Can you take 10 minutes right now and send Justice Major a piece of your mind?

Mail:

MLA Compensation Review
801, 9718-107 Street
Edmonton, AB T5K 1E4

OR Email:

submissions@mlacompensationreview-alberta.ca

Be sure to cc the CTF at updates@taxpayer.com and Premier Redford at premier@gov.ab.ca

If you are looking for more information on MLA pay, don’t forget to read the CTF’s submission: http://taxpayer.com/sites/default/files/Reversing-the-Kowalski-Legacy.pdf
 

Auto-industry profits don't mean bailout was a success

   RR and I have discussed the merits of the bailout of Chrysler and GM where I took the position that there should not have been government intervention.  I had only a vague concept of the numbers involved but that was less important to me than the concept, a concept that is all to prevalent in government.

       Mark Milke in the following article, go to link, fills in a lot of the blanks in his usual articulate manner.  He sided with my position although not necessarily for the same general reason.

                  http://www.nationalpost.com/scripts/474K/6160715/story.html

   KT

The Elephant in the Room: The Economic Issue They Won't Discuss

n 2008, the average hourly pay rate for a worker in the Canadian manufacturing sector (not including benefits) was $24.23 and in the USA, $23.32. Most fair-minded people would agree that $24.00 an hour is a living wage (barely) in North America *. At this level of income, supported by a second job or an additional wage earner, a family could possibly afford a middle class life style. However, the average family faced with a mortgage, car payments, school fees, utilities, food and clothing, insurance, etc. would have to budget very carefully and could certainly afford few luxuries, if any.

Compared to China ($1.36 hour) and India ($1.17 hour) Canadian and American workers are compensated at a rate roughly 18 times that of their Chinese and Indian counterparts

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