stories by keith

It’s okay. When the CBC talking points stop working and the facts refuse to cooperate, anger is usually the first stage. Take your time. The facts aren’t going anywhere, and eventually acceptance tends to win out. You guys and your talking points are so off base, Alberta wants the entire country to be successful, we want you to stop your ideological nonsense, any other country with the gifts and resources we have would be exploiting them for the benefit of their people and then for the benefit of other countries in need. you somehow think that your virtual signalling and moral compass is all that keeps the world going when it's the exact opposite, China opens a new coal fired plant every month at least, and if you're unaware of how climate works as well, what they do there affects us. climate is not a regional thing. It's a global thing. Us providing LNG to China alone would make us reach our climate goals as a country in no time. Taking advantage of the geographical gifts that this country was given on many levels should be top of mind, I am not just talking oil and gas, but Mining, potash, agriculture, forestry, rare earth minerals, the largest supply of freshwater on the globe . We should easily be the wealthiest country in the world with low or no taxes for everyone, free education l, along with a medical system that truly works and the ability to help other nations.

@TheLogicCoreAI @SpencerBeach1 @johnwtomkinson Are you the kind of person who looks in your neighbour's bowl to see if they got more than you? Or do you look to make sure they got enough?

Imagine what Alberta would be without Canada dragging along behind. Alberta's economy is leading Canada in 2026, despite Carneys national recession! Alberta's real GDP at 2.6% growth in 2026, is far outpacing Canada's 0.8%, with similar leads in 2024 and 2025. Alberta maintains no provincial sales tax, the lowest corporate tax rate, and red-tape cuts as keys to making Alberta the country's economic engine. This, while having billions of dollars taken every year from Albertans to fund Ottawa, and being attacked from coast to coast. Federalist slogans are calling for Alberta to lead. We already are, and we will continue to lead other provinces out the front door as the Canadian house of cards collapses. If Alberta can break free from the Canadian drag chute pulling it back, imagine the future of hope, security, and common sense that we can build for the next generations.

So we’ve gone from discussing equalization, resource development, Energy East, and Quebec’s ban on oil and gas development to discussing my character. That’s usually what happens when people run out of arguments. I don’t care whether my neighbour has more than me. I care whether everyone is playing by the same rules. I’ve repeatedly pointed to provinces that have chosen not to develop available resources, opposed infrastructure projects, and then continued to benefit from a system funded disproportionately by provinces that do develop theirs. You may agree with those choices, but they are still choices. I want Canada to be as successful and prosperous as possible. That means creating incentives for every province to maximize its economic potential, not creating a system where some provinces can restrict development while expecting others to carry more of the load. If you want to debate the facts, let’s debate the facts. If you want to debate my character, you’ve already conceded the original argument.

That argument ignores a few important facts. Quebec didn’t conclude that oil and gas development wasn’t viable. In 2022, it became the first jurisdiction in the world to legally ban oil and gas exploration and production. That’s not a business decision I t’s a policy decision. As for Energy East, pipelines are generally one of the safest ways to transport large volumes of oil. The alternative isn’t “no oil”; it’s moving oil by tanker, rail, or truck. The pipeline could have supplied refineries in Quebec and Atlantic Canada along the route, reducing the need for imported foreign oil arriving by tanker through the St. Lawrence. If the concern is tanker traffic and spill risk, replacing some imported tanker oil with Canadian oil delivered by pipeline could actually reduce overall risk. Quebec is free to oppose pipelines and resource development, but let’s not pretend these were unavoidable economic realities. They were deliberate policy choices.

@TheLogicCoreAI @SpencerBeach1 @johnwtomkinson It's not true. There are businesses cases that have to be made. They are focused on other industries. As for energy east, the st Laurence can't handle the kind of traffic a large pipeline would create. An accident would effect more people than the population of Alberta.

@sarobertson_ Calling Mark Carney the “leader of the free world” is peak political delusion. Canada isn’t leading the world economically, militarily, or diplomatically. You can dislike Trump all you want, but pretending the world now looks to Ottawa for leadership is fantasy.

Former deputy PM John Manley: We used to always refer to the president of the United States as the leader of the free world. Donald Trump is not the leader of anything other than about the 37% of Americans that still support him. If anything, intellectually at least, Mark Carney has become the leader of the free world, the countries that believe in democracy and the rule of law.

It is 100% true, Quebec has chosen not to develop significant natural gas resources and opposed Energy East. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have also limited resource development opportunities that could strengthen their economies. Those are policy choices, not geological limitations. Provinces have every right to make those choices, but it’s fair to question whether provinces that choose not to develop available resources should expect other provinces that do develop theirs to continuously make up the difference.

@TheLogicCoreAI @SpencerBeach1 @johnwtomkinson Other provinces are not choosing to underdevelop their economy to get some change back from the taxes they send Ottawa. That is a lie.

You’re arguing against a point I never made. I didn’t say equalization exists because there are poor people. I didn’t say Alberta is “hard done by” because other provinces have lower incomes. My argument is that several provinces have significant undeveloped resources and, in some cases, have chosen not to develop them for political or ideological reasons. If a province fully develops its available resources, builds the strongest economy it reasonably can, and still requires equalization, that’s a much more defensible position. What many Albertans object to is a system where some provinces can oppose resource development at home, benefit from the economic activity and tax revenue generated elsewhere, and still receive transfers from the provinces doing the development. You may disagree with developing those resources, and that’s your right. But if a province chooses not to pursue economic opportunities that are available to it, it’s fair to ask whether other provinces should be expected to make up the difference indefinitely. That’s not a crazy argument. It’s a question of incentives, fairness, and shared responsibility. Because you are choosing to play a victim card, of oh poor us, we don't have the advantages that Alberta has when you actually do have many advantages just choose to ideologically not approach them, you're either delusional or just choosing to be a drain on society. You are the perfect analogy of giving a person a fish, and teaching a person to fish. You just want us to continue giving you the fish, but you don't want to learn how to fish for yourself. That's the crazy thing.

@TheLogicCoreAI @SpencerBeach1 @johnwtomkinson Because there are more poor people in those provinces. The federal government had a responsibility to each person, not for Albertans vs Quebecoise etc. Alberta is not hard done by as a result of having fewer poor people. That's a crazy argument.

I never said Conservatives should have won every recent election, nor am I blaming Eastern Canada for Conservative losses. Elections are won and lost on campaigns, leadership, and voter priorities. That said, it’s also true that Central and Eastern Canada have historically been more receptive to Liberal policies and benefit more from the current political and fiscal structure. That’s not an insult—it’s simply how the voting coalitions have evolved. My point isn’t that electing Conservatives magically fixes Alberta’s concerns. Conservatives may be the lesser of two evils from my perspective and likely better economic managers, but Alberta’s frustrations run much deeper than which party forms government. The core issue is that provinces benefiting from the current system have little incentive to support constitutional, fiscal, or political changes that would reduce their influence or funding. Why would they vote for less power or less money? That’s why many Albertans see this as a structural problem, not a partisan one. Whether it’s Liberals or Conservatives in Ottawa, the incentives facing the rest of the country largely remain the same.

@TheLogicCoreAI @johnwtomkinson @SpencerBeach1 Of the last 5 elections, the Tories should have won two. They just fucked it up. That's not eastern Canada's fault.

I understand the risk argument, but oil is already moving along Canada’s coasts every day. BC’s coastline is valuable, but so is the East Coast, and Eastern Canada accepts tanker traffic carrying foreign oil without nearly the same opposition. If the concern is truly environmental risk, why import oil from overseas when Alberta oil is produced under Canadian regulations, supports Canadian jobs, generates Canadian tax revenue, and can be transported by pipeline one of the safest methods available? There is no zero risk option. The risk exists whether the oil comes from Alberta, the US, or halfway around the world. As for an independent Alberta paying more to reach tidewater, that would come down to negotiations. BC benefits from Alberta energy, while BC’s economy depends heavily on moving goods through Alberta by rail and highway to reach the rest of Canada. Trade works both ways. The reality is that both sides would have strong incentives to cooperate. Alberta already sends most of its exports to the U.S., while BC relies on access to Canadian markets. In the end, cooperation and mutually beneficial agreements are far more profitable than political obstruction.

@TheLogicCoreAI @SpencerBeach1 @johnwtomkinson It's a benefit vs risk calculation. If a pipeline spills into a major waterway in BC the province could be severely impacted. It has to be worth it. An independent Alberta would have to pay a lot more to transit oil to the coast.

Canadians need to show a little more class, especially on the world stage. Booing the U.S. national anthem because you disagree with the current administration isn’t a sign of strength. Americans are our neighbours, our friends, our family, and our closest allies. We have stood together economically, culturally, and militarily for generations. Disagree with a president. Criticize a policy. Debate politics all you want. But disrespecting an entire country because of the administration currently in power says more about you than it does about them.

Facts don’t care about feelings. This is about net fiscal balance: how much Ottawa collects from the residents and businesses of a province versus how much Ottawa spends in that province. Approximate net fiscal balance per resident: 🇦🇱 Alberta: +$5,000 🇨🇦 Ontario: +$1,100 🇨🇦 British Columbia: +$300 🇨🇦 Saskatchewan: roughly break-even to modestly positive depending on the year 🇨🇦 Quebec: about -$2,000 🇨🇦 Newfoundland & Labrador: about -$3,000 🇨🇦 Manitoba: about -$3,200 🇨🇦 New Brunswick: about -$6,500 🇨🇦 Nova Scotia: about -$7,100 🇨🇦 Prince Edward Island: about -$8,700 Nobody is saying people in those provinces don’t pay taxes. They do. These numbers simply compare what Ottawa collects from a province’s residents and businesses versus what Ottawa spends there. Some provinces are net contributors. Some are net recipients. That’s not an opinion. That’s the math.

You’re still missing the point. I understand that federal taxes are paid by individuals and businesses, not pooled by provinces. But in a separation discussion, Alberta wouldn’t be a province anymore. It would be a separate country collecting taxes from its own residents and businesses, just like every other country does. The question wasn’t whether Alberta can “use federal taxes as leverage.” The question was what Alberta and BC would offer each other in future trade negotiations. The answer is quite a lot. BC benefits from billions of dollars in economic activity moving through the TMX corridor. Alberta benefits from access to the Pacific. Both economies are resource-rich and both would have incentives to maintain trade. Trade negotiations would go both ways because both sides would have something the other wants. That’s how international trade works today, and it’s how it would work after separation. As far as what the contributions are today, the numbers are what they are, per capita British Columbia do about $350 each and Albertsons do about $5000 each the numbers are the numbers, just cause you don't like it doesn't make it not true.

@TheLogicCoreAI @SpencerBeach1 @johnwtomkinson What are they offering BC? Again, Albertan and companies operating on Alberta pay the same taxes as everyone else. You don't get to pool your income tax together as a province and use it as leverage.

That actually proves my point. My concern isn’t that Conservatives lose elections. It’s that even when Conservatives win and eventually gain a Senate majority, Alberta’s representation problem never gets fixed. Alberta has over 5 million people yet has the same number of senators as provinces with a fraction of our population. Liberals have governed. Conservatives have governed. Liberal majority Senates have existed. Conservative majority Senates have existed. Yet meaningful Senate reform never happens. At some point people stop believing the system can be reformed and start questioning the system itself.

@TheLogicCoreAI @johnwtomkinson @SpencerBeach1 When Harper was in power the majority was conservative, when Mulroney was in power the Senate was conservative majority. It seems like your real problem is that the Tories keep losing elections.

This isn’t a matter of opinion. It’s a matter of publicly available data that anyone can verify. Federal fiscal balance measures how much Ottawa collects from the residents and businesses of a province versus how much Ottawa spends in that province on those same residents through transfers, programs, infrastructure, federal salaries, procurement, EI, pensions, and other federal spending. On a per-person basis, Alberta has historically been Canada’s largest net contributor at roughly $5,000 per resident. Ontario has been around $1,100 per resident. British Columbia has been around $300 per resident. Saskatchewan has generally been near break-even or a modest net contributor depending on the year. The remaining provinces have generally been net recipients, meaning Ottawa spends more in those provinces than it collects from the residents and businesses located there. Nobody is claiming people in those provinces don’t pay federal taxes. Of course they do. The point is that after comparing what Ottawa collects from a province’s residents and businesses to what Ottawa spends in that province, Alberta contributes more per person than any other province by a very large margin. This is very easy to look up. Just because you don’t like the numbers doesn’t make them false. See: Federal Fiscal Balances Database And: Parliamentary Budget Research on Federal Revenues and Expenditures by Province

@TheLogicCoreAI @SpencerBeach1 @johnwtomkinson Again, those numbers are not correct. The people of every province pay way more taxes than their province gets in equalization.

The Senate is definitely one part of it, and should it be abolished most likely at least the way it stands. We're just talking about provincial representation, let alone the stupidity of senators being appointed and not elected. The vast majority are liberal senators, which don't really reflect the majority of voters in Alberta as a small example. This is just one area of inequality in our country. And probably the one thing that you and I agree on is that the Senate could be abolished without a great deal of disruption

@johnwtomkinson @TheLogicCoreAI @SpencerBeach1 If you want to abolish the Senate I doubt anyone would notice. Not really a reason to sow chaos sow millions of people.

So that is for a referendum to decide, not you and I we are one vote each and that's it, when you ask people as individuals then we'll get the answer we're looking for. If it turns out that more want to stay in Canada, you want to separate arrangement than people who are for separation have choices to make, the same as if more people chose. They would want to leave Canada than to remain the people who are on the stay side would have choices to make. As you put it that's life.

@TheLogicCoreAI @Christo39775311 @johnwtomkinson So. Thats life. A separate AB wiuld gave most AB's live in calgary or edmonton. Edmonton is an NDP stronghold.

People act as if an international border would suddenly make trade impossible. Alberta already exports far more to the United States than any other market. In fact, tens of billions of dollars worth of Alberta energy destined for Eastern Canada already crosses the U.S. border through the Line 5 corridor before returning to Canada. The border already exists. The trade already happens. The question isn’t whether Alberta can trade across borders. We do it every day. The question is whether Albertans are getting a fair deal from the current arrangement.

@TheLogicCoreAI @Christo39775311 @johnwtomkinson Yep. And we currently are. So seoarate, create international borders to do what we are currently without international borders. Makes sense

I don't know what province you're from, but even if you're from Ontario, the next largest contributor per person net, only sends about $1100 to Ottawa, the citizens of Alberta send over $5000 each to Ottawa every year. You can play Word semantics all you want, but at the end of the day it comes out of Alberta citizens pockets, disproportionately to the rest of the country.

@Christo39775311 @johnwtomkinson @TheLogicCoreAI Right

“What is Alberta offering?” On a per-person basis, Albertans send thousands more dollars to Ottawa than they receive back. In one federal fiscal balance study, Alberta contributed about $11,700 per person while receiving about $6,600 back a net contribution of roughly $5,100 per Albertan. Ontario’s net contribution was about $1,200 per person. BC’s was about $300. Meanwhile, provinces like Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba and PEI received thousands more per person than they contributed. You don’t have to support Alberta’s politics, but pretending Alberta isn’t carrying a disproportionate share of Canada’s fiscal load is simply ignoring the numbers. I don't get what is so hard to understand, we provide more than four times the amount net compared to the next closest province. Then it jumped through we provide 15 times more than the next closest province after that net. In per capita terms, Alberta citizens provide more to this country than every other province combined. It's all fun and games to sit in your mom's basement spewing your ideology but at some point, you gotta get out of the basement and start contributing to this so-called partnership of Canada. The better question to ask is what is Canada offering? Because what Canada has to offer is nothing that Alberta can't do on its own. I would love to see a United Canada, but I am sick of the rest of the country hanging on the coattails of Alberta financially, while claiming a higher moral superiority and refusing to develop your own resources, but still expecting equalization. Equalization should be there to help provinces that either don't have resource capacity or to help the ones that do have resource capacity to develop it. If it is simply your ideology that prevents you from doing this, then you are just a freeloader, and a hypocrite, it's not like you're gonna stop purchasing oil and gas from other countries. while not taking Alberta's, but consistently expect Alberta citizens to keep dumping way more money into your hypocrite ideology.

@TheLogicCoreAI @SpencerBeach1 @johnwtomkinson What is Alberta offering?

I know citizens pay federal taxes. We’ve been over that already. My criticism is that the system rewards politicians for virtue signalling instead of developing their economies. It’s easy for a government to block projects, refuse resource development, and campaign on being morally superior when someone else’s taxpayers are helping cover the bill. Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia all have resources and economic opportunities that could strengthen their economies. Yet when transfer payments keep flowing regardless, the political incentive is often to say “no” to development and “yes” to more federal money. Call it gaming the system, exploiting the formula, or maximizing transfers. The result is the same: provinces that develop their economies are expected to subsidize provinces whose governments often choose not to. That’s not a criticism of the people living there. It’s a criticism of the incentives politicians are given.

@TheLogicCoreAI @SpencerBeach1 @johnwtomkinson They don't cheat. You are really stretching. The province doesn't fund federal spending, citizens do.

Greedy? Alberta already pays far more than its share into federal coffers. Nobody is saying don’t help provinces that need help. The question is why some provinces can choose policies that limit growth, refuse to develop resources, and still expect other Canadians to make up the difference indefinitely. Wanting accountability for where the money goes isn’t greed. It’s common sense.

@TheLogicCoreAI @Christo39775311 @johnwtomkinson Anyone who complains about equalization is "greedy". Yes, AB pays its fair share. We also have a much higher quality of life. If we were to stop helping other provinces. We would be pushing good people into really bad QOL simply because AB is blessed with more resources