Premier Klein has taken a lot of heat recently from Alberta Liberal leader Kevin Taft on his use of government aircraft. Click here and here for details. The premier has made it quite clear that he needs the fleet of four aircraft, eighteen staff, and a $4.3 million dollar a year budget because a) they won't let him smoke on commercial flights and he likes to smoke and b) they make him wait in lines at commercial airports and he doesn't like to wait in lines. Seems reasonable to me.

However, the Premier also realizes that this is one of those Alberta Advantages that only he and his close friends get to benefit from so he has asked the folks at Ralph's World if they can create a sort of virtual Alberta Advantage on the web that will enable all Albertans to share with the premier, the joys of having your own fleet of airplanes which is paid for by the taxpayer.

We have gladly obliged.

What we have decided to do is take you on a number of virtual business trips that the Premier makes with the Premier acting as your guide and mentor. That way, when you come in after a hard day on the tractor, or after finishing the late shift of your second minimum wage job, you can log on to Ralph's World and relax as Premier Klein takes you on an exciting trip on one of our aircraft. If you find your blood boiling at the thought of $4.3 million a year being spent on the Premier's planes it helps to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and pretend that they are your planes. And they are sort of. You pay for them; you just don't get to use them. And that's why the Premier wants you to come along with him on these virtual trips. It's his way of sharing.

For our very first trip we are going to fly to the beautiful Nova Scotia Resort of Fox Harb'r. You can click here if you want to see their website. This was a place that the Premier recently visited and he likes it very much, particularly because it has it's own airstrip and he can almost fly right to his suite.

All set? Buckle up! Here we go! Hint. Use your mouse to pretend you are
actually flying the plane! Scroll down to start your trip.

	Hi there Albertans. My name is Ralph Klein and I am the Premier of Alberta. I'm going to take you flying with me on one of my our planes. You can call me Captain Ralph, King Ralph, Mr. Premier, or Mr. Klein. Just don't call me Ralph.This is going to be a real trip for me and a virtual trip for you. I know I'm going to have fun and I bet you do too.See all those French fried potatoes? Well I ordered two plates of them. A real one for me and a virtual one for you. We need to eat a lot of food on our important business trips but I think that's part of the fun. Don't you think it's fun too?Enjoy!
	Today we are going to take my favourite aircraft. I park it in the reflecting pool just north of the legislature buildings. You know, where people have those demonstration things. Captain Ralph's an important busy person so he can't spend time going to the airports where ordinary people go.Last time when we took off we knocked three silly seniors who were demonstrating about something right into the pool. Guess they won't be needing our government nursing homes anymore. Ha! Ha! Ha!.Buckle up! Here we go! Smoke 'em if you have 'em.
	Here we are at Fox Harb'r. It has a pretty golf course and light house and boats. It is in Nova Scotia where I like to do a lot of my business. What a Premier does most is network. Can you say network? Would you like to stop here and help the Premier network? I knew you would.I sometimes network sixteen hours a day which is very tiring. That's why I like to network at a place that has a golf course so I can relax after work.
	Here we are in the networking room at Fox Harb'r. The nice lady is called Mimi and she helps me and you and the people we network with relax. She brings us anything we want to drink. Would you like to have a virtual martini? Have as many as you want. What I love to have is a nice cold near beer.It is always important to give helpers like Mimi a big big tip because they will be even nicer to us next time we come here and it makes as feel very important. Do you feel important? I know I do.
	Here we are relaxing after a hard day of networking and golf. This lady's name is Doreen and she helps us relax too. Remember! Don't forget to give Doreen a big big tip!Sometimes I wear a disguise so that people won't recognize that it's really me. Here I am with my favourite grey wig and fake goatee. I keep lots of costumes in the plane. Why don't you go put one of them on and dress up with me?
	Well here we are on our way back to Alberta. We are stopping of in Toronto to take in a Rolling Stones concert. We can do some more networking here but you have to make sure you don't talk to any Liberals. That lady beside me for example, she looks like a Liberal. Make sure you don't give her any tips at all.I'll say bye bye now and let you make your own way home. Hope you enjoyed your trip and that you now have an idea of how hard the Premier works.Hope you'll join me on my next trip. Me and Minister Mark will be going to Mexico.Hosta la Vista!

Some nut managed to sneak into the Premier's hospitality suite at the plush Banff Springs Hotel last weekend and passed on this secret video they filmed. It captures the Premier in a candid moment talking to the Tory faithful.

It was filmed from a discrete location under the hors d'oeuvres table so the audio is a little muffled. It says: "We convince Martha and Henry that they have to pay more for health care, power and gas. That leaves more money from our oil for you, my loyal Tory supporters." He forgot car insurance and nursing homes for those Marthas and Henrys that drive and get old.

You have until May 12th to view the video before it vanishes into the ether. Don't tell anyone about it though - it's secret.

Click here to view the video. Make sure to turn up the volume.

If you come across any videos of our politicians at work, pass them on.

This article appeared in the Edmonton Journal on April 28, 2004 and was sent to me by a reader of Ralph's World. One has to wonder what secret things would be going on at an event like this that opposition MLA should not know about. Perhaps honorary degrees in caretaking, custodial, or housekeeping certification are being to offered Tory MLAs in exchange for legislation favorable to NorQuest College.

Kelly Cryderman
The Edmonton Journal
April 28, 2004

EDMONTON - Invitations sent to opposition MLAs for a reception this evening at NorQuest College have been withdrawn because the event is exclusively for Tories.

NorQuest College said as a result of a clerical error, invitations went to Liberal and New Democrat MLAs for tonight's event, co-hosted by Bow Valley College.

New Democrat MLA Brian Mason said it is particularly galling that his party has been turned away from this event, since NorQuest is a public institution.

"What it really says to me is that the Conservative party believes it has an exclusive mandate to govern and to represent public institutions, and they're not going to share even a little bit of their power with anybody."

Wednesday-night MLA receptions are held in Edmonton most weeks when the legislature is in session. Conservative MLAs are wined and dined, lobbied and given presentations by various post-secondary institutions, industry associations and companies that host the events.

NorQuest said the opposition members' invitations to the reception were withdrawn as soon as the mistake was discovered, without any prompting from the Conservative government.

Government whip Carol Haley didn't know the specifics Tuesday, but said if someone at her office had known the invitations went to other parties, they would have made it clear to NorQuest that opposition MLAs are not welcome.

"My staff would have reacted to that by saying this was supposed to be a government MLA reception."

Haley said she's not sure whether her staff would have asked the college to withdraw the invitation. "I have young staff, and yes, anything is possible. They're young guys and they're trying hard to do their job properly. If it offended anybody, then I'm sorry."

Haley said groups are free to set up receptions for all the parties anytime they want, but "the point of going through my office is they wanted it to be a government reception, not an opposition reception."

John Carpay, Alberta head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said his organization has supported numerous Klein government policies. However, he disagrees with the exclusivity of MLA receptions.

"It should be for all MLAs out of respect for the 38 per cent of Albertans who did not vote for Ralph Klein's government," Carpay said.

"There's nothing wrong with these meetings, provided all 83 MLAs are invited."

kcryderman@thejournal.canwest.com

© The Edmonton Journal 2004

This was received at Ralph's World editorial desk a couple of days ago signed Stephen - a disillusioned Alberta senior. It chronicles his interaction with the Alberta Connects website concerning Health Care Premiums.

On April 16th, this disillusioned senior logged onto the Alberta Connects website AlbertaConnects@gov.ab.ca and posed the following question: "When is it our government's intentions to eliminate Health Care Premiums for all Alberta seniors regardless of income?"

Alberta Health and Wellness a few days later responded as follows:

"Thank you for contacting Alberta Connects. You inquired as to why Alberta charges health care insurance. While other provinces have implemented alternate methods to generate revenue for health care, Albertans share the cost of the Alberta Health insurance program, through payments of premiums. These premiums not only support a part of the program costs, but also raise individual's awareness of the overall cost of providing health care in this province. As a senior citizen and a resident of Alberta, a registrant is entitled to premium-free Blue Cross when they turn 65 and their date of birth is validated. However, senior citizens are required to pay Alberta Health Insurance premiums. Lower income seniors may be eligible to have their premiums eliminated or reduced as determined by the Alberta Seniors Benefit program."

As this senior did not get a direct response to his question posed on Alberta Connects, he replied as follows:

"Thank you for your response. Actually, I would have been surprised if you had sent anything different from what the Seniors' Minister keeps repeating and repeating.

It is sad that this province, blessed with resource revenues for countless years, the envy of all other provincial jurisdictions, continues to be one of only two provinces where premiums are required to be paid. We all know that nothing comes free, but in a province that has been in a debt-free financial position for a number of years, our MLAs under their current leadership should be ashamed of themselves for not eliminating this regressive tax.

It seems that it is all right for public sector workers who received the highest increases in salaries during the six year period l996 - 2002, averaging 45%, with public sector workers in other jurisdictions receiving 18.6% in Saskatchewan and less in the remaining provinces would have their Health Care Premiums costs subsidized by our tax dollars. Likewise our MLAs whose incomes are double or treble and more the incomes of many seniors and other Albertans, have their Health Care Premiums paid for in part by our tax dollars, and the rest of us have to pay full Health Care Premiums, and that is considered by our MLAs as all right.

All the rest of us can only say 'SHAME'.

By all means, please share these comments with the MLAs of our Party. It seems that neither they nor the public sector workers seemed concerned with this horrible inequity in this great province of ours. And, further explanations as provided in response to our request only verifies the well orchestrated response we always receive, no matter how we plead for equity by our government.

Stephen - a disillusioned Alberta senior

The following letter appeared in the April 13th Edmonton Journal and was sent to Ralph's World for posting. For other stories related to expense accounts and Tory Ministers click here.

Prime Minister Paul Martin must be commended for imposing his government's expense-disclosure policy in the mandatory releasing of expense accounts for Cabinet Ministers and top civil servants as part of his government's various accountability policies to Canadian taxpayers.

It has been many years since the Alberta government did likewise for all MLAs with the government' annual reports, which was discontinued by the current government several years ago for reasons not fully shared with Alberta taxpayers.

Now is the time for Premier Klein to show similar accountability to Alberta taxpayers by also introducing a policy for mandatory annual public release of expense accounts not only for all MLAs but also for Alberta's top civil servants.

S. Michael Marlowe

The Klein government brought in the "generic royalty regime" back in 1996 to encourage oilsands development. It provided oilsands developers pretty much a royalty holiday until their cost were recovered. At that time, their royalty fee to the Alberta government would jump from 1% of net revenues to 25% of net revenues. According to an article in the Edmonton Journal by Graham Thompson on April 8, 2004 this currently costs the Alberta treasury about 1.4 billion dollars a year in royalty income.

Many people (click here) have questioned whether Premier Klein needed to be so generous with our money in order to incent these companies. We'll never know. However, there are two important questions that need to be answered if Albertans are to feel confident that the Klein government isn't giving away the store today.

First, why do we the taxpayer have to pick up the cost of massive cost overruns in the construction of plant expansions. The overrun on Syncrude's latest expansion is anticipated to $2.1 billion over the planned cost of $5.7 billion dollars. That's a 36% planning error. Syncrude should fund their bad planning out of company profits, not out of royalties that belong to Albertans.

Secondly, what controls does the Alberta government have in place to make sure that costs are properly allocated between expansion projects that are eligible for the 1% royalty holiday and new projects that have to pay royalties at 25%. For example, according to a recent story in the Calgary Herald, Suncor's chief executive Rick George picked up $2.35 million dollars in salary and bonuses last year. What proportion of this was expensed against expansion projects (1% royalty) vs. new projects (25% royalty). And his salary is just a minute portion of Suncor's expenses which need to be allocated.

Energy Minister Murray Smith is currently discussing with Suncor whether the 1% or the 25% royalty applies for their Firebag project. Hopefully when he resolves this, he will answer these two critical questions to the satisfaction of all Albertans.

As Susan Ruttan reports in her Edmonton Journal article of April 4, Alberta Health Minister Gary Mar has cited Sweden as a model country that has done a good job in controlling health-care costs.

We need to be very suspicious when the free-market Alberta Tories say they are looking to a country that places a high priority on their citizen's welfare (i.e. a social democracy) to provide guidance in the area of health care. In particular, watch out for cherry picking the parts of the Swedish solution they like while ignoring the parts that don't fit with their right-wing philosophy.

My guess is that Minister Mar will love the user fee part but won't like the $160 a year cap that the Swedes have on user fees. The reality is that Sweden pays for most of its health care through revenues collected by their progressive income tax system. Alberta substantially reduced the revenues available through income tax when it introduced the flat tax in 2001. The government won't raise income taxes anyway because Premier Klein said they wouldn't and it would greatly offend those Tory supporters who benefit hugely from the flat tax scheme.

So folks, look for user fees in our future followed by private insurance companies willing to insure us against the risk of having to pay excessive user fees. Just like auto insurance. This will cost us all more in total but those that pay the most will be the middle class; the severely normal Albertan.

This letter was printed in the Edmonton Journal March 29th, 2004 and was forwarded by the author for posting on Ralph's World.

Once again our revered leader, the Honourable Ralph Klein, has threatened to proceed with legislation that will adversely affect a large number of Alberta residents. Having brought us deregulated energy costs, privatizing (a.k.a. giving away) services such as liquor stores and highway maintenance, limited resource revenues through reduced royalties, etc. our bold leader is now considering an un-Canadian move regarding healthcare.

As was expected many staunch supporters of the status quo for healthcare are being heard in all types of forums. Their arguments are passionate, often well founded, and usually call for a democratic solution to the problems. But democracy is not well in this province. Public debate is not welcome by our government. King Ralph will not stand questioning. The bully boys (and girls)cut off debate through closure more often than any other parliamentary body despite their overwhelming majority.

Unfortunately, there is no end in site for this unhealthy majority that limits individuals' influence over political matters. We are not going to see proportional representation, or even a true one person - one vote with balanced constituencies. No government is going to willingly bring about its own discomfort or possible defeat.

However all is not lost. We do have a solution that will cost only a few dollars and some time for each person interested in making a difference. Remember the old motto - 'If you can't beat them, join them'? I suggest that we all join the Conservative Party of Alberta through their local offices. Imagine the real changes we could make if thousands of disaffected liberals and other left wing nuts like myself joined their local conservatives in voting for the PC candidate. What makes this even more interesting, you do not have to vote for them in the provincial election!

Ian Simpson

Tory MLA George VanderBurg Experiences Lucid Moment. Click here for details.

What is happening?

Yesterday the Tories in New Brunswick started to entertain the notion of public insurance and today a Tory Caucus member who sits on Alberta's electricity advisory council says the province should stop short of implementing full electrical deregulation.

Mr. VanderBurg made the observation that it doesn't make sense to force his constituents to shop for electricity at a deregulated rate when there is only one utility, Enmax, currently selling it.

Message to George. It is good that a light has flickered to life in a Tory mind. However, do not expect it to find a place in the oxygen-free craniums of Klein, West and Smith. Suggest you seek new home with Liberals or NDP where you will be welcomed amongst kindred spirits.

Public Auto Insurance Proposed in New Brunswick

Oh my!

Alberta's Energy Minister Murray Smith must be apoplectic. Smith, Chief of Dogma for the Alberta PC party, had a pretty simple message that all of his colleagues could understand. "Boys - any political party that does not have the word Conservative somewhere in it's name is communist. That's all you have to know. Keep saying it over and over and the voters will eventually believe it too". The Minister never passes up a chance to reinforce this as he did at a recent energy conference in Banff. Click here for his comments.

Now an all-party legislature committee on public insurance in New Brunswick, a committee struck by the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick, is recommending something that Alberta Tories would call "very communisty". They are recommending a model for public auto insurance in New Brunswick.

Minister Smith will have to amend his definition of communist so it refers to a political party that do not have the words Conservative and Alberta in its name.