In an obvious effort to inoculate himself against being identified as an enemy of the Canada Pension Plan, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre yesterday inserted himself into the open-letter uproar over the Alberta Government’s plan to force the province’s citizens out of the CPP with a statement of his own.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent a forceful open letter to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith vowing to defend the CPP and Canadians’ pensions. Ms. Smith responded with an open letter of her own, accusing the PM of fear-mongering and warning of unspecified “serious legal and political consequences.”
Mr. Poilievre’s not-so-open letter – apparently sent only to a reporter of the Conservative-friendly National Post – half-heartedly encourages Albertans to remain in the CPP, seems to imply Alberta is justified seeking “to get some of their money back,” and thereafter degenerates into a tendentious rant about how Ms. Smith’s campaign to wrest control of Albertans’ pension savings from the CPP is all Mr. Trudeau’s fault.
It’s not possible to confidently analyze what Mr. Poilievre’s position is – how much he really supports the Canada Pension Plan – based on the 77 words the Post has given us to work with. However, we can draw certain conclusions.
Obviously, “I encourage Albertans to stay in the CPP” is pretty weak beer when it comes to an endorsement of our popular and secure national pension plan.
The remaining words attributed to Mr. Poilievre in the Post’s story are as follows:
“The division today on the CPP is entirely the result of Justin Trudeau attacking the Alberta economy. His unconstitutional anti-development laws and painful carbon taxes have forced Albertans to look for ways to get some of their money back.”
“We would not be having this CPP debate if I were today prime minister because Alberta would be free from carbon taxes, unconstitutional anti-energy laws, and other unfair wealth transfers.”
First, let’s parse these statements:
- “The division today on the CPP is entirely the result of Justin Trudeau attacking the Alberta economy.” Whether or not Mr. Trudeau has attacked the Alberta economy, a belief not founded on persuasive evidence but held sincerely by many Alberta Conservatives, the division today is entirely the result of United Conservative Party premiers Jason Kenney and Danielle Smith saying they want to pull Albertans’ retirement savings out of the CPP. It is intensified by the dishonest and manipulative advertising campaign by the Smith Government to persuade Albertans this is a good idea. Moreover, the debate about the merits of an independent Alberta pension goes back decades, long before Justin Trudeau was prime minister, and among its advocates was former Conservative leader Stephen Harper, who dropped it like a hot potato when he became prime minister.
- “His unconstitutional anti-development laws and painful carbon taxes have forced Albertans to look for ways to get some of their money back.” This is based on the tendentious claim Mr. Trudeau’s policies have imposed an unfair burden on Alberta and the false premise that that Albertans have somehow paid too much into the CPP investment fund, which since all CPP members pay according to the same formula is nonsensical. The blanket statement that federal environmental laws are unconstitutional is also obviously false, notwithstanding the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that federal environmental impact legislation exceeded federal jurisdiction.
- “We would not be having this CPP debate if I were today prime minister because Alberta would be free from carbon taxes, unconstitutional anti-energy laws, and other unfair wealth transfers.” Notwithstanding the inflammatory language and dishonest characterization of federal policy dating back to both Conservative and Liberal governments, this is probably true.
Now we can now safely draw at least five conclusions from Mr. Poilievre’s known words on this subject:
- He is not a strong supporter of the CPP, if he is a supporter at all. Indeed, it would be reasonable for Canadian voters in all provinces and territories to now assume that Mr. Poilievre will not fight to preserve the CPP with much enthusiasm, if he bothers to fight for it at all.
- He completely supports the quasi-separatism of the Alberta and Saskatchewan governments, and the Smith Government’s efforts to break up national institutions with no concern about the impact on citizens in other parts of Canada, or for that matter Alberta’s own citizens. It additionally raises the question about whether he supports the outright separatism of some Alberta Conservatives, like the Take Back Alberta faction that now dominates the UCP.
- He is prepared to perpetuate the myth – the lie, really – that Alberta as a province has been forced to pay too much for programs that are in fact based on personal income taxes and individual pension contributions.
- As a result, he is likely to favour Alberta, the province in which he was born and grew up, in any negotiations over the division of CPP assets.
- A government he leads will probably abandon meaningful environmental measures and end Canadian equalization programs, surely matters of concern to voters in all parts of Canada.
Now, a caveat: Based on the Post’s story, we can’t tell if this was Mr. Poilievre’s entire statement, or only part of it.
Lacking that information, we can’t fully analyze what Mr. Poilievre’s position is.
I asked the author of the story if he could provide a copy of the entire statement and tell me the time at which it was received by the Post and he informed me that since I planned to include what I learned in this column, I would have to make my request to Postmedia’s communications director.
This is Postmedia’s policy and as an employee, he has to live with it. However, readers will understand why I didn’t bother wasting time tilting at that particular windmill. Been there, done that, didn’t get the information.
It will have to be incumbent upon media with access to Mr. Poilievre to insist on seeing a copy of his entire statement, and to ask him appropriate questions about the obvious conclusions listed above.
If Mr. Poilievre refuses to provide other media with the same statement he gave the Post, some obvious conclusions can be drawn from that too.
Excellent. Not timid waffling from our favourite scribe.
But now, please, tell us what you really think PP means (wink)
PP does not mean anything. PP only has convenience positions depending on what brings votes. Unfortunately that is the way our so called democracy works. The objective number one of any politician today is to get voted in so that they can implement whatever is that brings thumbs up on Facebook.
Skippy Pollivere seems to be feeling a little left out. I mean, if his whole gimmick right now is being a smart ass and talking while munching on an apple, then he’s really having a credibility problem, spiking crazy poll numbers aside. I mean, those who peak early, say, in high school, usually come across as linear thinkers and prone to pursue careers in automotive sales.
So, now PMJT is turning toward Danielle Smith’s special brand of crazy concerning pensions. What a fantastic opportunity for PMJT to expose Alberta as a lunatic asylum! Of course, Pollivere noticed that Smith’s crazy is totally crazy and he better jump in and act like the adult in the room. I guess the news coming to him is that Alberta is against being forced into an APP, because Danielle Smith and the UCP are a tribe of grifting mental cases. Pollivere knows that the UCP, if the rest of Canada finds out about them, he’s done.
Danielle Smith is just like all the rest of the phony Conservatives and Reformers. All mouth, and the inability to think. Their bad ideas end up costing us a fortune, and harm people. If Pierre Poilievre was prime minister, we would not have this CPP debate, because Alberta would be free from carbon taxes, unconstitutional anti-energy laws, and unfair wealth transfers. I do not know how those things relate to the CPP. Alberta would not be free from carbon taxes, because we started the concept of carbon pricing in Canada, when Ed Stelmach was premier. The UCP also outdid the Liberals in the carbon tax department, and increased Alberta’s own carbon tax by a substantial amount. What unconstitutional anti-energy laws are there? Oil is a commodity, and it is like a roller-coaster. Prices go up, and they easily go down. Oil prices can remain low for extended periods of time. In fact, oil prices can even go really low. They did in the year 2020, where they reached the negative numbers. What wealth transfers is Pierre Poilievre talking about? The only wealth transfers there were in Alberta was when these phony Conservatives and Reformers cheated us out of our oil and tax wealth, left us with a massive orphan well cleanup cost, and did a lot of very pricey shenanigans. Hundreds of billions of dollars, and likely even more, is what we are without, because of this. It’s the exact opposite of what Peter Lougheed was doing. He wasn’t foolish. Pierre Poilievre is just posturing, and trying to avoid the CPC losing to the Liberals. So, of course he will try to oppose the provincial pension plan for Alberta. He isn’t concerned about people’s pensions, because he gets a very substantial pension at age 55, due to being a lifer in politics. When things go awry, it’s always the fault of Rachel Notley, and Justin Trudeau. Danielle Smith is also trying to detract from her abysmal record as premier of Alberta. Albertans were warned, and they refused to listen. I even remember reading about someone who was asked to join the Wildrose, because the Alberta PCs were so bad. This person wasn’t interested in getting into politics, but did acknowledge how bad the Alberta PCs became, and they knew something had to be done about it. When they heard Danielle Smith give praise to Ralph Klein, this person backed off, because they were aware that Ralph Klein was very bad, and he turned Peter Lougheed’s sound track record of governance into a very big mess. This person also said, on numerous occasions, that he and his family knew Ralph Klein for a long time, and that he was a nasty person even then. The individual also stated that Ralph Klein’s own family was not pleased with what he was doing. They also stated that Don Getty said that he regretted letting Ralph Klein be part of his government. This is what we are getting with Danielle Smith and the UCP. A disaster of epic proportions.
Danielle Smith has a hard time telling the truth. The amount of lies that spew out of her mouth are astronomical. She has said that she has Cherokee ancestry, but this was proven to be false. There are people who do have Cherokee ancestry, and are able to prove it, and very easily. They have proper documentation, records, and family photographs. Danielle Smith’s records of when her Ukrainan great grandfather left Ukraine, is also suspect, and has raised eyebrows. Danielle Smith has mentioned that the provincial pension plan was off the table during the provincial election. Now it has resurfaced, and is a cause for concern. The unprecedented cost of power in Alberta came from the UCP being involved with economic witholding, and Danielle Smith admitted this herself. Not long after, Danielle Smith blames Justin Trudeau and the Liberals for why power prices in Alberta are costing us so much. There are so many lies that come out of Danielle Smith’s mouth, that she believes they are true. This is what we have to put up with.
Anonymous There is no bigger lie than the one trending today. Blame Trudeau for our high electricity costs when it was their pal Ralph Klein who created it just like the former MLAs from the Lougheed era knew it was. One told me that it was the dirtiest trick Klein could have played on the Alberta people. This will cost us billions he stated and it has. Just think what it will do to our health care and education systems, they use a lot of electricity. But that’s just how stupid many Alberta Seniors are they will believe every lie these fools feed them and you can bet they know it. Ralph Klein certainly did. He loved to treat them like morons , but then he was doing it when we were teenagers and he never changed. Dad called him “ that sleazy bastard” for good reason and a lawyer told me dad was right that’s what he is. The morons just weren’t smart enough to see it, and they still don’t. While they feed them the lie that the Carbon Tax will financially ruin them, they aren’t smart enough to figure out what the Carbon Tax Rebate is for, that’s how stupid they are. Some of my friends that live in senior homes talk about how stupid they really are at coffee everyday they have a hard time believing it and don’t associate with them very much they come to have coffee with us instead.
pp is a crook in the same manner that tRump is a crook. Lies, lies and more lies,
pp is a dishonest man. Why would anyone trust him and his cronies to do anything good for the population?
“Alberta, the province in which he was born and grew up”. I only take issue with your article with the last two words in this phrase. Why is it that no one opposed to the carbon tax ever mentions the quarterly rebates so many people get from the Federal government? I know of a legally blind man, who obviously cannot drive, who gets over $350 rebate every quarter!!! Are the Cons going to take that away, or just what is their plan to replace that income?
UPC AND PP spell disaster.
The absence of good faith from all Canadian conservatives is truly breathtaking.
How could it be any other way when a moral elitism portraying Alberta as the perpetual victim has become the default political strategy? Constant axe grinding, the need to constantly seek recognition for a narrative of victimhood, the development of false narratives/stories, and the dwelling on (past/present) grievances have become a Provincial obsession/compulsion for a certain class of noisy academics, ‘opinion’ columnists, ‘populist’ cranks, ‘separatist’ cranks, lobbyists, and political actors.
It is an old well worn and well used ploy that has proved effective as a PR/persuasion/manipulation tactic when directed at a certain subset of the Provincial population, i.e. [more generally]:
“This “Western alienation” shtick allows Alberta Premier [fill in the blank] to distract Albertans from a massive destruction of public services and unions coupled with a surreptitious economic and political policy shift. Having failed to attract new, private investments for fossil fuels, [the] raiding [of] public sector pensions and demanding provincial control over the Canada Pension Plan in Alberta to expand funds available for petroleum investments [becomes the du jour ideological political option].”
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/this-albertan-regards-western-alienation-as-manipulation-by-local-elites/article_e7dec307-3482-5057-b1a8-445cbc05f771.html
You can always trust the National Post Stenography Co. to get the message out to the masses regardless of the smell of mendacity.
In the meantime, any and all progressive politicians across the country should be repeating your parsing of Skippy’s missive on a daily basis, loudly! Sadly, they will not, It has always been a mystery to me why the progressives ALWAYS let the right define the narrative.
JE: Always! Beats me, too. DJC
As an aside, is Don Urquhart, ace interviewer from the Times Chronicle out of Osoyoos, a plant for the CPC? If not, he should stick to farm reports and weather. Again, if he is not a CPC plant, these are the best questions he could come up with for a career politician that has been obfuscating his entire adult life?
Do you know what James Francis Dinning et al. are being paid for the fantasy consultation?
Wow! a barn burner of a column. Courageous reporting despite the roadblocks by the usual suspects at the National Post. Great work, David.
Stephen Harper was so tight fisted during his majority government that Kathleen Wynne, Ontario premier at the time announced preparations for an Ontario based plan with decent payouts. Fortunately Trudeau and the Liberals gave Stevie the boot, immediately improving benefits for all Canadians. Wynne’s Ontario plan was shelved.
Question for Albertans: Under an AB stand alone plan would benefits be as good as the CPP’s? If the Harpers of this world were in charge, food banks would be run off their feet. Would Danielle Smith buddy and Harper protege Mr. Peepers be any different? Shudder.
Tom– I just came across the info about the proposed ORPP; along with : the 2016 reforms were triggered by several events, including the election of a new Liberal government in Ottawa that favoured enhancing CPP benefits in large part to make up for the decline of corporate pension plans among Canadian workers. ( In 1977 more than 46% of Canadian workers had registered pension plans through their jobs. By 2011 that number had fallen to fewer than 39%. An expanded CPP was one way to alleviate the disappearance of corporate pensions.
(interesting note- the federal government collects personal income tax tax for 9 provinces (excluding Que.) ,it collects “corporation income taxes” for 8 provinces ( all but Alberta & Quebec)..hmmm?
{from Canadian Encyclopedia}
{the 2011 Conservative party election platform unequivocally stated- “we will not cut transfer payments to individuals or to the provinces for essential things like health care ,education and pensions. ” Less than 1yr after the election victory , Harper revealed his plan to cut OAS. Between the election and the announcement of the cuts no new information on OAS came to light, so there was no reason Harper could not campaign on this point honestly.
IMHO; DS & PP are using the same old playbook , and Dani using 2025 as a timeline for “possible implementation ” just happens to correspond with the federal election and I’m guessing that PP’s ” stay with CPP Albertans ” in public, was offset by a probable call with the right “tonne ” of — when I’m PM , you can have your APP , etc etc.
Going by what happened with the Income Trust investors,where Harper while campaigning before the Jan 23 election, promised that the tories would leave the income trusts alone. Fast forward and instead of Jim Flaherty,we had PP and DS pushing crypto currency , would be interesting to see how many people got burnt on that one.
Footnote–from the standing committee on finance — Wed May 16- 2007—bill C52
“Advantage Canada focuses on 5 key advantages….1.reducing taxes of all kinds…..2. eliminating Canada’s total government net debt in less than a generation…3.an entrepreneural advantage reducing unnecessary reductions and red tape..
..4. a knowledge advantage creating the best educated, most skilled most flexible workforce in the world …..5.an infrastructure building the modern bridges, roads, gateways we need to link our nation…….”
imo:Readers digest condensed version for PP to use flitting around the country , wasting taxpayers money and then doubledipping by “fund raising selling merchandise ” back to them( d’rump would be proud)….. anyway..
after 9 mths of not campaigning this year, Common sense, axe the tax powerful paycheques, best products, best people, local success story but…it’s all Trudeau’s fault .lol
Final thought, as someone had stated previously, I would have a question for Danielle- “what is your definition of an “Albertan”…?
>Born and raised -yes
>worked there-yes on 3 separate stints
>worked in other provinces-yes
>live there now-no
and just like the “Canadian”D Forces Personnel, I have paid into CPP wherever I’ve gone. If Lifeworks thinks they can breakdown the contributions by province, over a career of 50+ yrs and being a gypsy, I will join the popcorn corner and watch the smoke coming from the tech/computer.That will be fun. I presume my travel expenses to come to Alberta to sort this out will be taken care of., right??
D’mn….just had a light-bulb moment……Is DS/ Telus using the contributions of everyone in Alberta since CPP started? including all the people who have passed away? OMG, it would absolutely NOT surprise me……
Perhaps the biggest strategic mistake related to Alberta and CPP has already been made – the study, apparently supported by Smith and her party, claiming Alberta would be entitled to a disproportionately large share of the CPP fund. If Alberta had only claimed a proportionate share, the rest of the country would probably not care so much, so this has now become not just an Alberta debate, but an issue of national concern.
It would have been naive not to expect a strong response from the PM to Smith and her assertions, and it is naive to think the national discussion of this is over now both the PM and Poilievre have spoken – it is just beginning. So, Poilievre will not be able make this go away, just by saying he “encourages” Alberta to stay in. He will need to go further, to say he will vigorously defend the national CPP fund, otherwise his support will seem tepid and weak.
You might recall the last Federal Conservative leader O’Toole was doing well until he was forced to choose between supporting our previous Premiers weak COVID restrictions and supporting stronger restrictions. He was wishy washy, to the point where reporters started constantly asking him questions and he avoided them or gave glib non answers that satisfied no one. Maybe Poilievre has learned from that, but I feel the Federal Conservative’s are prisoners of their extreme base, much as Smith and the UCP are.
It is possible Smith will drop pursuing an Alberta Pension Plan, after she realizes it is not popular with Albertans and perhaps there will also be some pressure from Federal Conservatives on her to do so. However, Smith seems attracted to wacky ideas like a bug to light and she also has her own extreme base pressing her on this one.
So, at some point expect more questions for Poilievre about his position on the CPP. “Encouraging” Alberta to stay in sounds nice, but will not cut it or stand up to more rigorous scrutiny. And there will rigorous scrutiny, because this is not just about one provinces grievances, real or imagined. The rest of the country is not going to stand idly by while one province tries to run off with a disproportionate share of the national pension fund.
Is that a picture of that character from that new show, you know that Miami Vice knock-off, Moosejaw Vice? I believe it is. His name, on the show, is Detective Milhouse Crocket and he’s partnered up with that black woman detective, Detective Trudy Tubs. Political correctness demands a white man be paired with a black women. Darn wokeness! Anyway that episode where they bust the poutine smugglers or the one with the counterfeit hockey pucks are hands down my favourites. Go get em Detective Milhouse!
I realize this is a serious topic and I appreciate David’s excellent analysis, but seeing the photo of PP, the only thing running through my mind is the decades old Brylcream jingle: “Brylcream, a little dab will do ya. Use more only if you dare. Brylcream, the girls will all pursue ya. They love to get their fingers in your hair.” As a retired Alberta civil servant whose golden years are being ruined by Denial Smith and her ship of fools, I guess my mind just cannot take any more stress at this point and serious thinking is taking a holiday!
LAS: I remember that jingle well. Alas, given the current state of my hairline, Brylcream will do me no good at all. DJC
How funny, the pix of the great leader, P.P. brought that and Top Brass hair cream to mind. Oh that perfumed odour.
Keep in mind that his own riding is in Ottawa.
He already has one black mark because of his overt support for the Freedom convoy.
And it is all getting rehashed in the media during the Tamara Lich trial.
What do you think his constituents in civil service Ottawa feel about the Alberta CPP proposal. Or….all of those voters in the critical GTA and Vancouver urban ridings?
Wealth transfers is the old dog whistle about equalization, they’ve had to stop using the actual word because folks call them liars to their face when they say alberta pays more than it’s share to Ottawa. Being that they have no other tactic than lies and obfuscation of their class war policies all they’re able to do is slightly rephrase it.
JS Bow Valley-political correctness: Peter Rabbit-fur has Leslyn Lewis (1 of 4 meeting with Christine Anderson ala we didn’t know excuse), and she is as “unwoke” as they come.
LAS— that lil’ dab will do you is not enough going by recent pics from the House of Commons, where he’s sporting the little wing on the right side— arroooo !!!!
Footnote: all the news headlines with him and his apple, has gone to his head, now he’s posting pics of himself with the apple at other events-Libertad!
( say what?)…..
this is beyond sad .
I got the AB propaganda in the mail today.
UCP claim AB has over – contributed.
I went to STATSCAN and looked at the average wage in Canada for 2018. For that year the CPP max was based on earnings of $57, 400.
The stats for the provinces show that Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and Newfoundland met the $ 57,400 average wage amount.
The only provinces that did not were PEI, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick which where within $3000 of meeting the $57,400.
So where does the over contribution come in ??
Excellent question, Hazel. In fact, I think an argument can be made that Alberta has under-contributed, since so many people come here to work but maintain their home addresses in the province where they grew up, which they love, and where they eventually retire. All of the costs of providing them with public education when they are young and health care and other public services in their old age are borne by the province in which they retire – but Alberta thinks it deserves their pension contributions for its slush fund because they spent their productive, youthful working years here? Pshaw! We need to be able to ask Lifeworks questions about its dubious methodology. DJC
I swear, the more I see Skippy Pollivere’s face, the more I am convinced that the man’s eyes are moving closer together.
I may as well start calling him Halibut Pollivere from now on.