Poilievre, Smith Playing With CPP Fire

First it was Danielle Smith, the angry WEXITeer in Alberta, who laid claim to half of Canada’s Pension Plan for Alberta.

She’s made the absolute ludicrous claim that Alberta is owed $334 billion from the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP).

This is madness.

Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative party leader, has taken the miserable bait laid out by Smith. He pretends he’s being centrist on the issue, but the real news is captured in the following quote from Poilievre in the National Post:

The division today on the CPP is entirely the result of Justin Trudeau attacking the Alberta economy. His unconstitutional anti-development laws and painful carbon taxes have forced Albertans to look for ways to get some of their money back.

We would not be having this CPP debate if I were today prime minister because Alberta would be free from carbon taxes, unconstitutional anti-energy laws, and other unfair wealth transfers.

Of course, he blames Trudeau and his rage-bating followers will also follow suit. And of course, he wants to back away from any environmental responsibility associated with the Tar Sands.

All his statement and slippery back-handed support for Alberta’s position prove only one thing: he’s not a capable FEDERAL leader as he enters into the shallow depths of separatists and financial absurdists.

Canadians NEED to be REALLY mad about this. Poilievre and Smith are playing with fire and Canadians are going to get burned.

The CPP belongs to individual Canadians and it is NOT the property of politicians to argue over.

They might as well argue over who owns the sky.

They think they’re just like Quebec and can withdraw. It’s not 1965 any more.

Looking at the Full Ledger

Unfortunately, a lot of politicians are only considering one side of the equation: the contributions.

They’re not calculating the cost of remediation, the externalities associated with the Tar Sands and endless environmental disaster that the oil economy is imposing on the rest of Canada. Add this up and you enter the TRILLION dollar range.

Will Albertans want to be saddled with this much debt just to support a provincial leader that can’t tell this different between a debit and credit in an  accounting book?

Let’s also consider Treaties 6, 7 and 8 with Canada’s First Nations people that surrendered Alberta and other areas to colonists. If Alberta really wants to get into a financial fist-fight with Ottawa, they’re going to be left with NOTHING after Canada revisits and renegotiates these Treaties.

So, let’s stop treating any of these separatists seriously.

If we treat them seriously, Canadians have to start treating the idea of separating from Alberta seriously and leaving them with nothing.

Last thought: as we engage in a discussion about foreign influence on provincial and federal politics in Canada, we need to analyze the sources of funding for the Cons and angry WEXITeers across the country.