Pork Barrel Politics Pulling Out of the Station!!

With the massive surpluses being pulled in, what would the Alberta government do with even more money that it is proposing to pull in from private investors?

I can pretty much guarantee that the average Albertan won't see it.

Welcome back to the bad old days of pork-barrel politics. Of whacky subsidies in the quest to diversify Alberta's economy.

Apparently being neck and neck with Toronto for head offices in Canada isn't an indication that Alberta diversifying and has become the destination of choice for doing business in Canada.

No, let's go back to the bad old days. The days of provincial government subsizing losing companies chasing hair brained business plans. Like the Novatel wireless phone company fiasco. Or ALPAC. Those two alone are past S10 billion.

Well it looks like the new pork barrel fiascoes are already well in development.

The "Alberta bullet train" and an Alberta Biofuel pork barrel industry are well into the planning stages.

Indeed, the debate over building a multibillion-dollar high-speed rail link between Calgary and Edmonton -- with a stop in Red Deer -- is one of the most fundamental public policy debates facing the Alberta government today.

Premier Ed Stelmach is already on board the high-speed-rail bandwagon and could be the chief conductor who ultimately drives the train into the station.

For background into the biofuel porkbarrel read the linked posts.

My eyes are rolling back. If those things were profitable, or desirable, they'd be well underway by private initiatives.

The train has left the station. The Royalty Review Panel was a setup, engineered to come up with a rapacious answer. The Auditor General's Report was a setup, I mean isn't the timing of its release just a little bit suspicious?

Alberta, get ready for a long dark night. Albeit on a whizzy biofuel powered bullet train.

As my 14 month old says: choo choo!