<$BlogRSDUrl$>

Ralph Klein has gone and it is time to retire Ralph's World. Thanks to all of you who have supported this venture by contributing material and through your comments. It has been fun.

Should we get another blog underway? Let me know your thoughts by e-mailing me at johnnyslow@gmail.com.

John Slow
January 1, 2007

Friday, February 24, 2006

Pesky Decimal Points 

Premier Klein is shown here explaining to a group of journalists how a simple misplaced decimal point along with a misunderstanding about how zeros work caused him to think that healthcare spending was out of control.

The following quote from a story in today's Edmonton Journal explains the problem.

"During Thursday's question period, Klein made gaffes while trying to defend his plans for health care. In an effort to justify the need for shaking up the system, Klein insisted at least six times that requests from health authorities totalled $100.6 billion for the coming year.
He then downgraded that figure
to $10.6 billion, only to later revise it to $1.6 billion. "I was wrong in my math, it was actually $1.6 billion," he said."

"As Shirley (Finance Minister Shirley McClellan) pointed out to me, those decimal points and zeros really make a difference" he explained.

"So I'm pleased to announce that we don't need any more of that "Third Way" stuff because it turns out I've got $99 billion a year more than I thought. We'll put $9 billion a year into healthcare and we'll still have $90 billion a year to spread amoung the folk which works out to $30,000/year/Albertan.

Have I got those decimal points right Shirl?"
Posted by: John Slow / 9:23 a.m. link

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Kevin Trudeau Appointed Alberta Minister of Health 


Responding to criticism that last night's infomercial on the future of Alberta in the 21st century was fluff-filled, an animated Alberta Premier Ralph Klein today announced the first substantive step of his highly-publicized "Third Way" health care initiative – the replacement of beleaguered Health Minister Iris Evans with health guru Kevin Trudeau.

The Premier elaborated.

"Colleen gave me this book at Christmas called Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want you to Know About. It’s by this guy Kevin Trudeau and get this - it’s 571 pages long and it’s got a cure for just about everything in it, including cancer. Anyway, it got me thinking that if everyone in the Province read this book and followed Kevin’s tips we would pretty much cure everyone that was sick and prevent everyone else from getting sick. Hey, we could pretty well eliminate our health care budget.

So I got Kevin on the horn and stuck a deal with him. He’s going to provide every Albertan one of his books for the low low price of only $18.95 US (shipping and handling extra) and in exchange for the cheap price I’m going to make him Health Minister. That what you call a “win-win”, “thinking-outside-the-box”, “Made in Alberta” solution.” "

The initiative will cost Albertans taxpayers $65.5 CDN million (shipping and handling extra).

See related story here.





Premier Klein addresses Albertans through the magic of infomercial.
Posted by: John Slow / 9:40 a.m. link

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Cleaning Up Our Communities 


Ralph's World relies on an extensive network of correspondents throughout the province to bring forth timely, tasteful, and most importantly, relevant news to our readership. This just in.

“We are going to clean up our communities and keep them that way,” said a spokesperson from Alberta’s Department of Protected Environments.

The Premier’s Taskforce on Waste Elimination will deliver 400 free PoopSacks to every dog-owning family in the province. “We will ensure Albertans enjoy the cleanest roads, sidewalks, and lawns in the country.”

This new and innovative program, known as ‘The Turd Way’, proves once again that our beloved Premier is a visionary leader.
Posted by: John Slow / 10:07 a.m. link

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?