PST in Alberta? No, Worse: The Status Quo

                There isn’t going to be a sales tax in Alberta.

                If you’re the sort of person who has always taken pride in our lack of one, if you’re the sort of person who brags about that to the rest of the country, rest assured. It’s a dubious point of pride, sure, but you can retain it. No sales tax.

                But if you’re the sort of person willing to think beyond your satisfaction and ask why there is not going to be one amid falling oil prices and job cuts, your rest may come with just a tad less assurance.

                Oil prices are down, and so are oil revenues. Alberta’s economy is fixed to these like a ship to an anchor, that’s right, fixed to the fortunes of a single, volatile commodity and so a projected surplus gets turned into a projected deficit. In. The. Billions. The most powerful economy in the country goes from champagne and party hats to Depression rhetoric in two months.

                Already the Suncors and the Shells are laying off jobs in the thousands. Belt-tightening for all, in every industry and every sector affected by oil, and because Alberta apparently has such a simpleton’s economy, every industry and every sector is affected by oil.

                The news since before Christmas has been a constant flow of doom, gloom, job losses, service cuts, wage rollbacks. Sales tax. All so much talk. Is it truly as bad as they’re telling us?

                No. But in making it seem that bad, by dangling the threat of the loss of that point of pride, being the only province in the country to run its budget without gaining cash from its citizens as they spend money, the Prentice Government can commit any number of fiscal atrocities. They’ve drummed up your sympathies and your ire, and if they back off from the threatened tax, Albertans will accept anything else because it “has to happen.”

                Because that’s what we’re being told has to happen.

                Because apparently this province’s electorate has lost the good sense to question what we’re told. Did we ever have it?

                There will be no sales tax, there will just be its fear. Instead there will be deep cuts to public sector wages and to services. The targets? The Conservative government’s two favorite punching bags since the Klein era: health care and education.

                Those schools promised last fall? Can’t, oil prices.

                More beds in hospitals? Price o’crude . . .

                Hiring rural doctors? Pesky petroleum.

                Teachers working on increases of 0% for three years while the private sector has seen an on average increase of 25%? It’s just, y’know, oil.

                If it’s as simple and as true as that—of course, it’s neither—why is it we aren’t stopping to question how we have let our economy be bungled so badly by being so deliberately tied to a non-renewable resource? Oh, and that we’re so dependent on that revenue today that we cut something as simple as health care premiums, empty the Heritage Fund, and wouldn’t even dream of something as sensible and proven as a sales tax.

                It’s all very convenient, and by fear-mongering about something as wise as a tax, our provincial (and federal) government show themselves incapable of seeing beyond the status quo.

                Oil is volatile economically, it’s eventually finite, and let’s not forget its acquisition is environmentally destructive (although in Alberta economic crises are treated as real and environmental ones as Hollywood and Athabascan fabrications). Tying our entire economy to crude is like planning a household budget on Dad’s Friday night casino winnings. Actually, it’s worse than that, because no one acts so gob smacked when they lose at a casino. 

                So what? This happens every few years, why can’t our government and the Shells and the Suncors run in the red for a bit until the price goes back up to $80 a barrel? Because the only word more reviled in Alberta than tax is deficit. Companies—and the government—use a downturn like this as an excuse to over-cut jobs and rape services because people for some reason buy into the necessity rather than question the poor planning that got us here.

                This is the definition of fiscal conservatism, then? An absolute implosion of middle and lower class quality of life for the sake of giddily seeing a little black in the ledger? To call it short-sighted is understatement.

                We’re looking at an election this spring. The Wild Rose Party has imploded in a spectacular combination of foolishness and power-greed and Premier Prentice dresses in Teflon every morning. The Left is in disarray and in no way prepared to challenge the forty-year pachyderm and its new handler. I’m idealistic, but not to the extent that I think this government will be ousted from office, but for the love of Pete can we stop rolling over and allowing it to believe we’re a province of rubes? I mean, our political news makes us the laughing stock of a country that is taking perverse delight in watching us fall from our pedestal.

                Opportune time to send a message to our elected representatives, to say that you owe us just a little more creativity when looking at the books. Time is long since passed that this great province has only one resource, and a policy that can only respond to that resource’s fortunes by shrugging and cutting.

                If we can’t elect people clever enough to save surplus for rainy days, to spread our assets across a few fields, to take a little off the top when we spend, to take more from those who have most, well, we deserve what we get.

                If we’re going to fall for this yet again, and let them base their mandate around our stupidity and their own un-inventiveness and duplicity, it’s our own fault.

                Because this has long since ceased to be a sensible way to conduct business. 


On this: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/01/16/alberta-oil-prentice_n_6488252.html?utm_hp_ref=alberta-politics

http://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/alberta-sales-tax-the-most-detested-budget-solution-poll-says

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-prepare-for-further-spending-restraint-due-to-cheap-oil/article22511451/

My Year of Living Hobbitly

Role models.

I recently read an article where Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield was quoted saying that he thinks every person should have a New Year’s resolution, because it gives you something to strive for. Even when we fail, we improve somewhat by trying. And I’ve always been a big fan of self-improvement.

So I made a resolution. Several, in fact. I’ve decided to live 2015 with the values of a hobbit.
            "A hobbit?" you ask. "You want to live like a hobbit?"
            No, not "like" a hobbit. I can't put my life on hold just to dig a cave that's likely to fall in on me, to forego shoes in the deepest part of winter or to suddenly add three or four extra meals to my day. I have a plan. This is a thing that’s been on my mid for a while, I haven’t just sprung it. The half-baked resolutions are the ones most likely to fail.

So, what does it mean to be a hobbit, thematically-speaking? It means taking pleasure in the things that are, at once, most simple and yet most meaningful in life. Hobbits appreciate nature, family, lore, reading, good food, good drink, and socialization. They enjoy living life, but they don’t give in to too much of anything. It’s not hard to think that hobbits depict what their creator J.R.R. Tolkien—a staunch Catholic—sees as living a virtuous life. True, there are exceptions--some nasty hobbits more jealous or ignorant than dangerous—and gluttony appears to be the one deadly sin most hobbits as a rule all fall victim to, but by and large hobbits are pure. Simple and pure—achievably pure.

So, I intend to concentrate on simple things in my attempt to behave more hobbitly this year. One of the only big shifts I’m looking at is many more walks outside. I know I walk more than your average winter-bound North American as it is, but a hobbit needs time to concentrate on the outdoors. And I mean peacefully: not just when I exercise.

A few days ago, as I was setting into what I thought I would do to live up to this lofty and vague claim, I came across one of those “New Year, New You” articles in the lower recesses of the Huffington Post feed. Normally I only partially attend these “habits of happy people” proclamations, but in thumbing through them I saw a lot of things I needed to consider more, and especially that tied to being more hobbitly (you’ll forgive my continued use of a created adverb for the purpose of this).

So, here it is, my manifesto for a Year of Living Hobbitly, using the bullets taken directly from the Huffington article.

1.       Forgive more.

Hobbits see the best in people—even potential or former enemies. Both Bilbo and Frodo are willing to see the undeserved best in Gollum, and that’s a good thing in the long run. Forgiveness comes quickly and easily to hobbits.

2.       Meditate daily.

Sure, it might be a nap, but I think hobbits stop and think or—in some lucky cases—stop and fail to think at all. The point is that they consider and have no trouble at all finding inner peace (ring-bearers aside).

3.       See the world as awe-inspiring.

I’d say this is a feature of what makes hobbits hobbits. They are awed by all they see and encounter, it’s all bigger and grander than them. That’s of course the reason Tolkien made them his vehicle.

4.       Let go of things you can’t control.

Hobbits easily accept and give over to anything they can’t control. They accept much, they trust much (sometimes too much), but they leave it in control of whatever is in control. They let go easily.

5.       Experience the flow of things you love.

It says in the Huffington article that this means to lose all sense of ego in time while doing an enjoyed activity. I think, comically, a hobbit smoking on his doorstep on a lovely morning is about as into the flow as you could ask.

6.       Be more present.

This one is similar to #5, meaning to love for right now rather than in the past or for things yet to come. Love where you are and what you’re doing. Perhaps this alludes a little to the hobbit’s fear of change, but certainly this is in here.

7.       Spend time in nature.

Nature is where hobbits thrive. They enjoy long walks, being beside (rather than upon) bodies of water. Trees and seasons and growing things. This one is easy.

8.       Take up yoga.

This one is not. No hobbit ever does anything even remotely similar to yoga. But, when pushed, hobbits can try to exert themselves in a new way. They’re not especially active creatures, but when you consider the lengths Sam, Pippen, and Merry go to better themselves on their quest, maybe it could be considered the Middle-Earth equivalent of downward dog. I don’t know, this is one I’ll have trouble with myself, even without the hobbit-metaphor.

9.       Spend more time with yourself.

Although they’re social creatures, the hobbits we’re most fascinated by—Bilbo and Frodo—are a bit more reclusive. All hobbits are comfortable on their own, and all documented hobbits have at least one instance of talking to themselves. Gollum takes this to the extreme.

10.   Keep an inspiration file.

Each hobbit has his particular interests. Bilbo and Frodo with maps and languages and lore, Sam with gardening, and Merry with pipe-weed. It’s not hard to see evidence throughout Tolkien’s works of hobbits accessing some work or seeing some object that inspires them. Upon consideration, this is a very hobbit-like activity.

11.   Establish a morning ritual.

Hobbits are creatures of routine, and Bilbo is certiasly in the middle of a nearly obsessive-compulsive morning when Gandalf comes to see him to bring him on Thorin’s adventure.

12.   Practise gratitude.

Easy one, as I think hobbits show true appreciation for everything they are given. The only times they are uncomfortable are when sincerity and social norms are not followed.

13.   Give without strings attached.

Bilbo lets the Sackville-Bagginses have his home and he throws a party for everyone on his own birthday with gifts for them.

14.   Embrace uncertainty.

As Gandalf reminds all of them at every possible chance, they are little fellows in a big world and generally idiots. They are constantly uncertain whenever outside the Shire, and deal with it very well most of the time.

15.   Write a soul journal.

Stream-of-consciousness writing is probably not ordered enough for your average hobbit, but they aren’t afraid of writing with their souls. Letters and histories and lore and studies and lists—when a hobbit puts his open to paper, he does even the most meaningless task with soulful passion.

16.   Replenish your well.

The activities that fall under well replenishment are fun and laughter and pleasures. Who but hobbits put these not only as important, but as critical, indeed the most important things in life at all times?

17.   Compare less.

When hobbits compare themselves to others it’s in a positive way, meant to grant them courage or wisdom as they choose to be more like Aragorn or Gandalf. The rest of the time, they are certainly content with their own selves.

18.   Make time for friendship.

The friendships between hobbits are some of the purest in literature. Sam’s dedication to Frodo is a love that we have trouble understanding in a time where men aren’t supposed to express their admiration for each other.

19.   Trust yourself.

Hobbits are plagued with doubts, true, but they never fail to trust their instincts. Even when they end up getting into or out of scrapes by dumb luck or the aid of others, hobbits trust themselves. To a fault.

20.   Commit to living a life true to you.

The best thing about hobbits—something Gandalf remarks on—is how they surprise you despite never changing. They are stoic, traditional, and require simple pleasures. They are as true to themselves as anyone could be.

21.   Be gentle on yourself.

Hobbits are naturally gentle folk, and so to ask them to be gentle with themselves is an easy one. They put themselves through the greatest of extremes, but are endlessly forgiving, and only seek to make themselves more comfortable in some way, if only briefly.

When you want to self-improve, it’s best to have an inspiration. This is not me breaking rule 17, it’s me saying that, like hobbits, I can recognize merit in someone—in this case an entire race of fictional someones—who can live by each of these steps. I can decide, thus, to try to live my life more like this for one year. 

Booklist 2014

Booklist 2014

January 1-March 19

1.       The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingslover

2.       The Great Depression by Pierre Berton

3.       The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

4.       Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

5.       Because of Winn-Dixie b Kate DiCamaillo

6.       The Pagan Lord by Bernard Cornwell

7.       The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

8.       The Camping Guy by Dianne Greenlay

9.       The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien

10.   The Last Viking: The Life of Raold Amundsen by Stephen R. Brown

11.   How to Publish a Book in Canada by Kim Staflund

12.   Write to Learn by Donald M. Murray

March 20-June 21

13.   John Gardner: Literary Outlaw by Barry Silesky

14.   Debt Free Forever by Gail Vaz-Oxlade

15.   A Glossary of Literary Terms by M.H. Abrams

16.   The Iliad by Homer

17.   Life of Pi by Yann Martel

18.   Life of Pi Book Club in a Box by Marilyn Herbert

19.   The Odyssey by Homer

20.   The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

June 22-Sept 20

21.   The Road to Middle-Earth by Tom Shippey

22.   On Writers and Writing by John Gardner

23.   Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

24.   The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell

25.   The Invasion of Canada by Pierre Berton

Sept 20-Dec 31

26.   Genesis: Chapter and Verse by Philip Dodd

27.   Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

28.   Flames Across the Border by Pierre Berton

29.   The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

30.   Finding Water by Julia Cameron

31.   Enemy of God by Bernard Cornwell

32.   The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

33.   The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbovsky

34.   Number9Dream by David Mitchell

35.   You Are Here by Chris Hadfield