MORGAN: Alberta's prosperity paints a target on its back

Alberta is doing well despite Canada. Along with Saskatchewan, Alberta is surpassing the rest of the country by most economic measures. Oil prices have been tumultuous, yet Alberta’s economy is going strong. Unemployment is below the national average; the government posted a surplus of over $8 billion and new housing units created will hit a record high of nearly 60,000 this year. Having a low tax rate and a welcoming business environment has diversified the local economy and it’s paying off.By comparison, Canada’s economic outlook is a basket case. Under Prime Minister Mark Carney’s leadership, the deficit increased from $62 billion at the election to a staggering $92 billion and continued to grow. Carney’s spending spree is making his predecessor, Justin Trudeau look like a cheapskate. Just paying interest on the current national debt costs as much as the government brings in with the GST. That’s as much as the federal government sends out in annual healthcare transfers to the provinces.It gets worse though.Carney’s fiscal irresponsibility is sure to lead to a credit downgrade for the federal government soon. That means interest rates will rise further as the balance grows by nearly $100 billion per year. Canada is swirling into a debt catastrophe, and Carney is showing no indication of trying to stop it.Carney was sold to Canadians in the last election as an economic and diplomatic wizard. His economic ineptitude so far is only being overshadowed by his utter failure to get a deal with Canada’s largest trading partner and now rising tariffs are devastating some Canadian industries. The “elbows up” approach has been a total failure.Not to be outdone by the federal government, Doug Ford’s bumbling management of Ontario has put the province into have-not status, and they rely on equalization payments to pay the bills. Ford jumped into bed with Justin Trudeau with subsidy sinkholes such as battery plants that never began construction and edible cricket factories that went broke. The unemployment rate in Ontario is nearly 8% while the cost of living continues to rise. Despite having three times Alberta’s population, Ontario only managed to build the same number of housing units in one year. Too much government has made increasing housing at a sustainable rate impossible.Mass immigration continues to pressure the country while billions are spent to house refugees in hotels. The influx has contributed to the near collapse of healthcare systems in every province despite constant spending increases.The Maritimes remain in perpetual dependency, while unemployment in Newfoundland pushes 10% with no relief on the horizon. Canada prefers to subsidize people to stay in regions without resources rather than move people to the regions that need labour. A recipe for national population imbalance.Quebec, of course is in it for Quebec. They control the national agenda in keeping terrible policies with everything from supply management to imposed bilingualism upon the West. They happily hinder Western economic development while sucking in billions in equalization payments among other bribes.Manitoba and B.C. have both elected socialist governments that are opposing pipeline development while stunting their own economies. B.C. will likely join the majority of Canada as a have-not province and begin collecting welfare through equalization soon. That leaves just Alberta and Saskatchewan to pay the nation’s bills. Rest assured, being the national sugar daddies won’t earn the prairie provinces gratitude or respect. Alberta and Saskatchewan will get nothing but contempt and ire from Canadian powerbrokers. Rather than emulate Alberta’s success, they will strive to tear the prairie provinces down to their level of economic and social failure. Canada’s Laurentian elite are driven by ideology and entitlement. They would rather sink the nation than admit their ideology is one of failure.Alberta and Saskatchewan’s success has painted a target on their backs. The Liberals have nothing to lose in enraging prairie voters, and they see the accumulating wealth of the West as a plum to be harvested for the East rather than an asset earned by Westerners, which must be kept by Westerners.Premiers Moe and Smith both recognize this threat. That’s why legislation such as the Sovereignty Act was created, and while the provincial governments aren’t overtly supporting independence, they aren’t hindering independence movements from growing and pursuing referenda either.The West must prepare for another economic assault from Eastern Canada. It will be the last gasp from a central government going broke.Alberta and Saskatchewan can’t save Canada. They can save themselves though by pursuing independence rather than letting misguided federalists pull them into economic insolvency with the rest of the nation.

MORGAN: Alberta's prosperity paints a target on its back

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