Abhorrent Solutions II

I have a number of "ignorant and abhorrent" ideas about how to do things - and I'm comfortable calling them that because I know first how little I know, and second that no expert would ever consider any of them. With that in mind, here are three of them - with rational comments very much requested.

A recent substack essay by Rod Martin: Should Alberta Become the 51st State?" makes what I think is a largely irrefutable socio-economic case for having voters in Alberta and Saskatchewan break out of the Canadian confederation to join the American one instead. Making the change would give us:

What happened in the recent Canadian election is that liberal leader Mark Carney ran against Trump rather than for anything - and the media, which are largely controlled by the liberals, applauded everything he did or said while denigrating the conservatives.

Prior to Carney's ascension to the liberal leadership a week before the election was called, the conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, had a 30 point lead in the polls - which he'd gained by attacking the then current liberal leader: Justin Trudeau, rather than by being for anything.

A recent piece by Hadley Arkas on Stevehayward.substack.com included the bit below:

But the real test of citizenship is whether one could give a moral defense of that regime that commands his loyalty as a citizen.

I'm Canadian, but I couldn't do that - and I've never met, heard of, or read anything by, a Canadian who could - although Conrad Black, in his History of Canada (Rise to Greatness) tries for something over 1200 pages, I read it as demonstrating the

This is an extract from (and revision of) something I put on this site last November - with a minor addition. The reason I'm doing this is that the current Russia/Ukraine peace process doesn't seem likely to produce a long term solution.

I'm writing this on March 5th, 2025 - one day after the latest "Trump tariffs" took effect. At present it seems highly likely first that Mark Carney will be elected liberal party leader, and so prime minister of Canada, on March 9; and, second, that he will run in either an immediate or slightly delayed election as the man to protect Canada from Trump.

Note

1. • Anyone not already knowledgeable about Canada and contemplating Mr. Trump's 51st state idea should consult at least Wikipedia's basic pages describing aspects of Canada's geography, population, governance, and economy before reading this essay.

      

   • Further, I take a very negative view of Canadian politics but anyone interested in the opposite view, that Canada is the positive and intentional construct of great men, should consult Conrad Black's epic 1,100 page History of Canada.

      

I have a number of "ignorant and abhorrent" ideas about how to do things - and I'm comfortable calling them that because I know first how little I know, and second that no expert would ever consider any of them. With that in mind, here are three of them, all variations on the poison pill idea  - with rational comments very much requested.

At present (September 4/24) the democrat campaign for president has re-iterated a proposal previously rejected by Congress to tax what they're calling unrealized capital gains. According to the campaign the new tax will only affect the very rich - those with net assets valued at over 100 million dollars - but, of course, the same people swore monies spent on an IRS hiring binge would only be used to pursue very rich tax delinquents instead of the poor and middle class filers they're really going after.

An Alberta Nuclear Strategy

Background information

Saskatchewan and Alberta are western Canadian prairie provinces both of which are currently run by conservative political parties; both have economies largely dependent on agriculture and hydrocarbons; and, both governments claim responsibility for the management of electrical power generation and distribution in their jurisdictions. Saskatchewan has about 1.35 million people; Alberta just over 4 million.