Saturday, March 30, 2013

Tom Flanagan's Too Brief Exile

Consider Tom Flanagan rehabilitated.   All it took was a dead premier to get him back in the public eye.   That and the Globe & Mail.

On the occasion of the passing of Ralph Klein, the G&M is running a testimonial from Tom Flanagan:

All politicians say they went into public life “to make a difference.” Ralph Klein actually did make a difference. He showed Alberta – and Canada – how to deal with runaway deficits and public debt.

The Klein model was a steroidal version of short-term pain for long-term gain. Rather than just level off the growth in spending, he made deep actual reductions. He imposed a 5 per cent salary cut on all public servants in Alberta, including teachers, professors and nurses. By moving quickly, he got results. If you try to get rid of deficits over a long period of time, the unexpected will always happen. Tax revenues will decline, or interest rates will go up – maybe both of those, with lots of other contingencies, too.

Ralph Klein certainly has many friends this weekend, perhaps a good many more than he had while he drew breath.   All I can say about Ralph is that he seemed like a much nicer guy while he was still drinking.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here, let me fix that:

"The Klein model was a steroidal version of short-term gain for long-term pain."

There, fixed.

Anonymous said...

Add to that, they did an entire article based on tweets from that intellectual giant Don Cherry, bemoaning unelected Liberal Judges.

"The tweets take aim at what Mr. Cherry calls an “unelected left-wing judge,” a lawyer he says whittled the jury down to feeling sympathy for Mr. Kachkar and the “left-wing media.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/don-cherry-tweets-his-disapproval-of-kachkar-verdict/article10584555/

Apparently the Globe feels Canada's premiere supporter of goons pummeling each other into an early grave, and committing acts that would land anyone else in jail if they weren't done on a Hockey rink, is qualified to speak to these issues.

The Mound of Sound said...

In the context of Klein's ill-conceived resource development policies followed by his successors to Alberta's ruin, you're right on the money, Anon. Well put.

Dana said...

I eagerly anticipate Mr Cherry's death.

That is all. And fuck your judgements.