Don't Forget to Vote Tomorrow

[Marmot]

Folks are over reacting.

First of all.... The NDPs track record isnt quite as bad as some would like to believe.

Take Rae in Ontario for instance.  One could argue that he did quite well considering that when he extended his hand towards bussiness nobody would shake it AND that a certain PM had just backrupt the nation.

Another thing us that all those things people fear happening to them are or have already happened to others under the PCs and the WRP is too green, too gullible and too full of PCers to be counted on at this point in time.

Finally....it is one government for one term. Give them a chance.... They are still Albertans and right of their ilk anywhere else in the country. They will either bugger up and be replaced by a more moderate and savvy WRP in a couple years or they will not.
Either way our day to day is not going to change over night and whatever change does occur....much of it will have been inevitable and the fault of a couple decades of mismanagement at all levels.

[Marmot]

Oh and Walleyes.... Thanks for the reply.

I couldn't resist the friendly barb and am glad you took it that way.

My feeling is that we were headed for hell in a handbasket beginning a long while back.

Now we will just have to see whether it picked up speed, gets slowed or changes direction.
It was going to be a bumpy ride no matter what though.

[Paul]

Maybe you should get out of Alberta, and let a business owner come in who isn't afraid to pay their share of taxes. Tired of paying double the rate of taxes as the business. I have to struggle to make ends meet in a building that profits a million a month. I haven't had a vacation in years but I bet you business owners have. Probably wrote it off on your taxes too.
 If you can't afford to pay a little more taxes, you must be doing something wrong. I have no choice, whenever us employees get hit with tax increases, they just take it from my mouth.

As a business owner I do sympathize with the workers I give a raise to and it gets taken away from them in a tax or other Government fee, but I will let you in on a little bit of "Alberta business owner" 101.

Most Alberta businesses are small businesses, generally the one's that aren't have shareholders or investors. Owning a business is like a game, the game is to try grow your business to the size that you need more capital, at which point you dilute your share down for investors so you can grow some more.

We do a lot of custom fabrication, it can be challenge when every project you do is different, things tend to take longer than estimated. A relatively decent fab business runs at a gross margin of about 30%. Out of that 30% you pay all your expenses, rent, stamps, phone bills, etc. Once you pay your expenses you hope there is 5-10% left that you can put back into your business in some form so that you can grow and hire more people.

As a business owner your payroll is number one, your priority is to pay your employees, without employees you can't operate. If there's anything left then you pay yourself. As a business owner I work 12 hours a day minimum, some days I work up to 20, 6 hours is a great nights sleep, sometimes it's 4.

I have not taken a vacation in 4 years, because my employees don't care about my business to the level that I do, and while I am away they will gear down. This is especially true when work slows down, they tend to slow down as well and make jobs take far longer than they should so they can maintain their employment. This model doesn't work in my type of business because most of what we do is bid on estimated hours, when they slow down they actually cost the company money, if you can't make a profit then you can't continue to operate.

My employees are my team, they don't own a business, some of them wouldn't want to, and some of them just wouldn't be capable. That is why for every business owner there are exponentially more workers, because it takes a special type of dedication and perseverance to own a business.

I don't have to pay corporate taxes unless I make money. This makes sense. In fact I don't mind maybe an extra percent tax height to my corporate rate if it prevents the general population from having to pay more. But if it's such an amount that prevents me from growing my business and creating more employment, that's a problem. I am not afraid to pay taxes, I am happy when I pay corporate taxes because it means I have had a successful year. Not paying any taxes is bad, that means I am in the red.

So as a business owner I deserve to be rewarded by the Government for giving jobs to workers and contributing to our economy. I spend a lot annually on parts and materials from other Alberta businesses. This allows those businesses to give people jobs. Make sense?

[AxeMan]

Paul, maybe try and cut that sleep down to one hour a night now.....kidding.
I am the supervisor now at work and let me concur, it is the hardest part of my job, ie. dealing with people.

Keep calm and carry on.  That is all we can do now.

[OL_JR]

           And my hats off to you Paul.  Guys like you take the risk so guys like me can have a job.

[Sonny]

My take on the election..

[guido]

I don't care how mad anyone is about the results of the election. Alberta needed a change. If the change isn't for the better, we get to vote again in 4 or less years. Like a poster said earlier, we were already going to hell in a hand basket.
Where Albertan's really screwed up was the election 3 years ago.

[Sonny]

I think most of us agree that Alberta needed a change,that's not what bugs me.

I kinda hoped that the WR would get in but a NDP win didn't surprise me.What surprised me was that they got a majority,hell a minority would have kept them in line a bit....but..

A MAJORITY....that's full retard..

[guido]

LOL. Yeah any minority would have been good. I was hoping for wildrose the last 2 elections. More so 3 years ago. This time I was hoping for change and a bonus would have been wildrose winning. I don't think anyone really would have guessed an NDP majority....... especially Walleyes. oh, Alberta didn't go full retard. The Cities did.

On top of that its a wasted vote. It will never be allowed in Alberta, the NDP will never rule. The incumbent government does not have to give up its seat. If by some chance the commies get in the PC's and WR would form a coalition party and over rule them. Alberta will not be thrown to the dogs,, never happen.

[AxeMan]

Saw this on the news this morning.  Danielle Smith blabbering about blame.
http://www.630ched.com/2015/05/07/floor-crossing-and-election-results-danielle-smith-speaks/

This woman is truly delusional.
She claims she was blind sided by the spring election call.  Most Albertans knew full well Jim was going to pull that stunt.
I wish she would fade off into obscurity forever.
I rank her #2 in the list of stupidest politicians ever.  Worse than Alison but Jimmy topped them all.

[MrDave]

Lmao. The scum who like to insult people don't like being insulted. Proved what kind of person you are. Foul mouthed and out of date. Commies. Lol that is a bully trick from the 60's, just as out of date as the PC's.
 Yes some employers treat the working stiff better than others, but think of what was just said about the employees of the foul mouthed fool. He just called a bunch of his customers and employees down. Wouldn't want to be this guys employee.
 As for starting my own business at earning more, I snapped my right knee over backwards in my trade. I went from pipefitting to crippled in less than a minute. Then got a crooked WCB worker, a crooked doctor and a PC MLA who didn't care. Wait until you end up not being able to work in a world where discrimination against those with physical problems is every where.
 Also I hope you or your kids get in a car accident and find out that the PC's set that system up to screw the claimant too. $4000 won't even cover the cost of future problems.

By the way, my family came here on Red River carts idiot. My mothers side was here before your family even heard of this country. We are not recent immigrants, we have been here for centuries. We settled this area way before this place was even a province.

[guido]

Calm down boys. I'm starting to wonder if I'm on that other forum.
It's politics. Not everyone is going to agree, but not worth getting your panties in a knot.

[AxeMan]

Guido is right.  Let's calm down.
We allowed the rebuttal, now that should be it.
Let's save our attacks for the politicians, they will give us good enough reasons.

[Walleyes]

My rebuttal is over,, people who believe in a socialist government don't even deserve my attention. I don't consider them to have even the slightest hint of intelligence,, it's impossible it really is.

As far as the NDP being Albertan and not wanting to wreck our province,, so what if they are. Lennon was a Russian, so was Stalin. Castro a Cuban so on and so on. These people are loyal to the cause only and that's socilism. No I don't think at this point the NDP are any where's close to thes people but given free rain eventually they would get there on that there is no doubt. Socialism is a cancer that can not even be considered in any form not a chance. Yes we need social programs for our needy and our elders but not based on the ideals of these people.

I have been in talks with some people more in the know than most of us and was assured at no point will the NDP have free control. They will be monitored closely by the powers that be. My biggest worry is the dept that may be accumulated during this experiment,, how long will it take us to pay this off after this mess is over.

[Sonny]

Is that Rachel Notley standing with these protesters?

Why yes it is....hmmm..not looking good for the oil patch..

[BruceW]

I suspect every business owner in the provinces chequebook slammed shut with the results.  It'll take awhile to see what direction this gov't will take and that will determine wether or not those chequebooks open up again or not.  Was out of the province the last week.  On the radio on the way home I heard how, "this" ndp gov't will be different than all the others........somehow................despite them all having the same policy book and constitution?

A lot of unknown right now.  Any major change in gov't causes unrest.  The ndp's track record in other provinces does not bode well.  The news is poo-pooing things obviously trying to calm the masses, the smart money's on hold.

Going to be an interesting next three months.  Then we'll without a doubt know for sure. 

[Walleyes]

The investment money will be on hold for some time. No way anyone is going to dump money in here for some time until they know if it's going to earn for them. We were just getting ready to get things rolling some what around the end of June beggining of July sometime it was looking pretty good, now things are on hold again for the who knows how long. I would suspect most of the investment money will start to head down into North Dakota, Montana, Northern BC, and Sask for sometime. Happy I am mobile in my work I seldom work closer than 5 hrs from home anyways so makes me no differance where I drive to. It's the province as a whole that has me concerned and my children that I worry about.

The thing is,, this was nothing more than a retaliation vote. People voted out of anger and spite rather than rationality. Emotion should never come into economics it can't,, economics is based on rationality and that's all a province or a country is its a business.

[AxeMan]

I have taken a bath on my energy sector investment money in the last couple of years.  It is a good thing my portfolio is widely diverse.
Not much of an incentive to invest more.  It was bleak even before this.

[Sonny]

I have taken a bath on my energy sector investment money in the last couple of years.  It is a good thing my portfolio is widely diverse.
Not much of an incentive to invest more.  It was bleak even before this.

You have a portfolio? Wow.

I have a line of credit..

[AxeMan]

Lol@Sonny...that what my banker calls it.  I call it a few GICs, RRSPs,Stocks, and Mutuals. And a TFSA.
I am almost scared to say I have a LAPP pension too.  Doesn't make me a dipper though...