Re: LETTER: Leave Canada? The answer is yes
It is next to impossible to address her argument, and I hesitate to call it that. It is mostly rambling incoherence, peppered with irrelevant personal details. But I can speak to a couple of issues.
Ms. Flemming writes, “We do not plan and will not become the 51st State.” On what is she basing this statement? Is it merely her wish, or does she have some sort of mystical foreknowledge? The facts are these: once Alberta leaves confederation, it will no longer be under the collective protection of NATO. It will have to defend itself.
The Alberta Prosperity Project, the organization that has supposedly done all the “thought, planning and research” she refers to, has budgeted only $1 -2 billion dollars to establish a military. This is a farcical amount. In the world of defence procurement, it will get you next to nothing.
Does Ms. Flemming suppose the Republic of Alberta will fend off a determined resource grab by the United States, the most powerful military in the world, with an army created on a shoestring?
I will agree that Canada has a civil service “bloat” problem. But so does every other jurisdiction on the planet.
Why does Ms. Flemming assume that a fledgling, politically inexperienced independent Alberta will buck this trend and become some sort of utopia of bureaucratic efficiency? Has she seen an org chart? Has she had discussions with the president of Alberta’s Treasury Board in waiting?
Yes, Canada hands out generous bonuses and pay raises, but so what? Bureaucracies are comprised of human beings with mortgages and families. A government must offer competitive compensation packages if they want to attract the best people. Does Ms. Flemming think that in the utopia of the Republic of Alberta, that civil servants will be driven by pure altruism and work for free?
I could go on, but really, it’s pointless. There are some interesting and compelling arguments for independence; Ms. Flemming presents none of them.
Paul Bond,
Innisfail
