Jesse Kline's Blog

Privatization is the best way forward for VIA Rail

jesse@kline.ca (Jesse Kline) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:55:59 +0000

Talk about a train to nowhere: VIA Rail plans to spend $25-million worth of stimulus money to purchase 12 luxury cars, complete with double beds, leather couches, showers and heated floors. But who exactly is this money stimulating?

The folks at Rocky Mountaineer Rail — which used to be operated by VIA and was privatized in 1990 — are justifiably upset because they already operate luxury rail tours. VIA plans to charge nearly half the cost of its private-sector competitor and, while competition is usually a good thing, its public subsidy gives the Crown corporation an unfair advantage.

Government usually justifies its use of Crown corporations to correct a perceived market failure; but the private sector is already offering the same service and anyone who can afford $5,000 for a cross-Canada train ride doesn't need to be the beneficiary of government handouts.

Nova Scotia’s war on private liquor

jesse@kline.ca (Jesse Kline) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 01:57:09 +0000

Charles Patton is the owner of Water ‘N’ Wine, a store in New Glasgow, N.S. that sells wine-making kits and rents storage space that customers can use during the fermentation process. But this small business owner may soon be forced to put a cork in it, if the provincial government has its way.

Stores that sell wine kits are common in most provinces, but fall into a legal grey area in Nova Scotia. Police and prosecutors have, so far, been unwilling to go after the industry, which provides much-needed employment and really doesn’t hurt anyone. But the government plans to change all that by introducing a bill that would give the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation (NSLC) — the provincial crown corporation that has a monopoly on alcohol sales — the ability to directly petition judges to grant injunctions against businesses that violate the Liquor Control Act.

“The Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation wants to close us down,” Patton told the New Glasgow News. And from the government’s perspective, this makes perfect sense. What’s the point of having a monopoly on liquor sales, if people can just make their own? Never mind the lost tax revenues that result from home brewing kits being classified as food, rather than alcohol.

Alberta uses wrong fuel to rekindle the Alberta Advantage

jesse@kline.ca (Jesse Kline) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0000

The “Alberta Advantage” was once a powerful slogan that highlighted the province’s low tax, low wage environment, which made it an attractive place for businesses to do business and create employment. But when Ed Stelmach replaced Ralph Klein as premier, he proceeded to increase wages and royalties, which drove business away and left thousands of jobseekers wondering what had happened to the land of opportunity.

In an apt move reflecting the new economic reality, Stelmach dropped the “Alberta Advantage” slogan and spent close to $4-million to come up with the phrase, “Freedom to Create. Spirit to Achieve.” Another $7.4-million was spent promoting it, but polls have consistently shown that a majority of Albertans have either never heard the slogan, or think it’s stupid. To make matters worse, once the oil companies moved to Saskatchewan to escape the new royalty regime, that government adopted the “Saskatchewan Advantage” as its slogan in the recent provincial budget.

Now Premier Alison Redford (a.k.a “Premier Mom“) is promising to change the slogan once again, by handing it off to the same bureaucrats who spent millions of dollars to come up with a phrase that sounds like it was created by a committee of bureaucrats. Redford promises the next slogan will not cost as much money and is doing her darndest to ensure the real Alberta Advantage never returns.

Copyright reform and the case of the illicit t-shirts

jesse@kline.ca (Jesse Kline) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 08:00:00 +0000

After trying repeatedly in a minority parliament, the Tories are once again attempting to change Canada’s copyright laws, which have remained essentially unchanged for decades. Bill C-11 was introduced at the end of September and it has already encountered significant opposition from opposition parties and members of the public.

The Conservatives’ first attempt at copyright reform in 2008 received significant push-back, essentially because it favoured the rights of content creators and distributors, over those of consumers. The government then held a consultation process, receiving submissions and soliciting feedback from Canadians during the summer of 2009.

Although the latest revision to the bill deals with some of the concerns expressed by Canadians, it fails to address the primary issue with the legislation, which was the blanket ban on breaking digital locks.

Alberta let rainy day Heritage Fund dwindle as the storm gathered

jesse@kline.ca (Jesse Kline) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 08:00:00 +0000

In 1975, fresh off the heels of winning his second majority government, Alberta premier Peter Lougheed created the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust fund to put aside revenues from the province’s vast resource wealth for a “rainy day” — which happens quite often in Alberta’s boom-and-bust economy.

Today, we have weathered the worst recession since the 1930s and the European and American economies are dangling perilously at the edge of another. In other words: Welcome to that rainy day. Unfortunately the Progressive Conservatives have neglected the fund and, after more than three decades, it contains just $15.2-billion — not much more than when Lougheed stepped down as premier 25 years ago.

Compare that to Alaska’s similar fund, created the same year as Alberta’s, which now contains over $38-billion and pays an annual dividend to all state residents. In 2008, Alaskans received over $3,000 per person. This year they will get slightly over $1,000 — just for living in an oil-soaked arctic wasteland.

Alberta PCs haven’t realized that runoff elections produce duds

jesse@kline.ca (Jesse Kline) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Many were floored when, in 2006, Ed Stelmach was chosen to replace Ralph Klein as leader of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative party, thus becoming the province’s premier. Over 144,000 Albertans cast a ballot in that race.

The contest to replace King Ralph was billed as a race between Jim Dinning, the moderate, and Ted Morton, the staunch conservative. The two of them were neck-in-neck after the first round of voting, but PC leadership races use a French-style runoff election system. Most people learned long ago that unless you’re a fan of stinky cheeses, the French don’t have too many institutions worth emulating. But some Canadian political parties seem to have missed this point.

After the second round of voting took place, one candidate was dropped off the ballot and the second-choice votes on the preferential ballots were counted. Ed “the farmer” Stelmach — who was basically everyone’s second choice and the third most popular candidate — managed to sneak up the middle. Many Albertans were rightly perplexed. Ed Stelmach? Who the hell is that guy?

Mexico opens to door to a ‘market’ solution to drug war

jesse@kline.ca (Jesse Kline) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

June marked the 40th anniversary of when Richard Nixon declared the “war on drugs.” In the four decades since, the drug war has shaped American policy, both foreign and domestic.

If we stick with the war analogy, it’s safe to say that it’s been a bigger failure than Vietnam, but unlike that war, no politician has been willing to cut and run when it comes to drugs. The U.S. has spent over $1-trillion prosecuting the war, but has failed to curb America’s insatiable lust for drugs. Quite the opposite: Illegal drug use has gone up by about 10% in the last 40 years.

According to a recent United Nations report, worldwide consumption of opiates increased 34.5% between 1998 and 2008, marijuana usage increased by 8.5% and cocaine by 27%. The United States imports a majority of it’s cocaine from Mexico, which has been embroiled in a brutal war among rival gangs for control of the lucrative trade.

Obama’s tax-the-rich plan sets the stage for the 2012 election

jesse@kline.ca (Jesse Kline) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Earlier this month, U.S. President Barack Obama stood in front of a joint session of Congress to push for the passage of his proposed American Jobs Act. The bill is essentially another stimulus program that will cost taxpayers $447-billion. Surprisingly, however, there initially seemed to be some support among Republican lawmakers — who have built a reputation of saying no to everything the President proposes.

That was before Obama announced how he planned on paying for the second round of stimulus. In a press conference Monday, Obama proposed $1.5-trillion in tax increases, mostly on corporations and the wealthy, who he believes are not paying their “fair share.” But the plan is riddled with problems.

While it may feel good to blame rich people for everything that’s wrong with America, it’s simply not true that they don’t pay their fair share of taxes. According to numbers compiled by Mercatus Center economist Veronique de Rugy, the top 5% of income earners pay a majority, 60%, of the income tax, while earning only 35% of the wealth. In comparison, half the population pays a mere 2.7% of the total tax base.

It’s clear from these numbers that the rich pay more than their “fair share,” while half the population gets a free ride on the backs of those who actually keep the economy moving. Surely President Obama is aware of these statistics, but populists have always needed a scapegoat — whether it be immigrants, communists or the wealthy — in order to push their agenda. So while raising taxes during a recession might be bad policy, Obama is betting that it will be good politics.

CRTC wants to control the volume on your television

jesse@kline.ca (Jesse Kline) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

For years, television viewers have had to contend with the knowledge that when their program goes to break, the volume will increase and scantily-clad women begin touting the merits of cheap beer, while Billy Mays tries to sell — well, what didn’t Billy Mays try to sell?

There was a time when this was a real problem. Before the invention of the remote control, one had to actually put aside their TV dinner and walk across the room to turn down the volume. Assuming they didn’t want noisy commercials waking the baby that is. In the age of iPads and HDTVs, however, solving this problem is as easy as pressing the Mute button on the remote or setting the TiVo to filter out this commercials.

But even this is too much for some couch potatoes who would much rather see the government do something about the mild annoyance. Canadians whine and the valiant CRTC listens. On Tuesday, the telecommunications regulator issued a decree mandating that broadcasters normalize the volume on television commercials and gave them one year to comply.

Stelmach adds ‘ugly’ museum to his legacy of failures

jesse@kline.ca (Jesse Kline) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

As a proud Albertan who has been displaced from his homeland for a few years now, I love telling people about the wonderful land of my birth: From the sprawling golden fields of the prairies, the magnificent snow-capped Rocky Mountains, to the glittering lights that dot the Calgary skyline.

Last night, I was asked what was worth seeing in Edmonton. “A really big mall,” was my reply. But soon Edmonton will have another claim to fame along the really big mall: A really ugly museum.

The Alberta government has unveiled the design for a new Royal Alberta Museum in downtown Edmonton. And … well, it resembles my old high school. Not only is the design unoriginal, but so is the name. Ontario has the ROM and Alberta has the RAM.