[e.p.1]

"By their fruits ye shall know them." (Matt.7.20)

Quoting a Federation director:
"The mandate of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is ‘lower taxes, less waste and more accountable government’. So, yes, we advocate for lower taxes!"

Sounds pretty apple-pie to me.

There are also "poopie-pants!" comments, of course. Examples:

"Harper Conservatives and CTF are basically joined at the hip."

Anti-Kyoto and global-warming-denier.

& (specific to Alberta): "Real health care reforms must look at both allowing choice and innovation, neither of which is likely to happen under the current government monopoly. Minister Liepert should be looking at allowing Albertans to purchase supplemental private health insurance, and allowing surgeons to work outside of the government monopoly."

Here in Alberta, our municipal governments (IMO) are failing us badly in quality-of-government including (particularly) thrift. Property taxes are rising steeply.
And CTF looks to be stepping in to exploit popular annoyance. My concern is that any CTF "improvements" may leave us in a worse state.

Help, please: where can I find thoughtful opinions on this?

Vive la reine,
e.p.1

[Dr Caleb]

I don't disagree that taxes are out of control . . . but . . .

e.p.1 e.p.1:

& (specific to Alberta): "Real health care reforms must look at both allowing choice and innovation, neither of which is likely to happen under the current government monopoly. Minister Liepert should be looking at allowing Albertans to purchase supplemental private health insurance, and allowing surgeons to work outside of the government monopoly."

"Premier Ed Stelmach has distanced his government from Klein's proposals, which were eventually dropped under public pressure.

"The Third Way is DOA," said Stelmach said after his election victory in March."

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/ ... ml?ref=rss

[e.p.1]

Thank you for your prompt response, Doc.

The quotation which you extracted is not from Mr. Klein, Mr. Stelmach, nor CBC, nor even from Dr. Death. It's straight from CTF.

May I ask in the friendliest way: can we please try to keep this as unfuzzy as possible? I'm trying to get a quick, accurate handle on what CTF is about. What conclusions can we gather from their statements and actions?

e.p.1

[Dr Caleb]

e.p.1 e.p.1:

Thank you for your prompt response, Doc.

The quotation which you extracted is not from Mr. Klein, Mr. Stelmach, nor CBC, nor even from Dr. Death. It's straight from CTF.

Quite welcome.

I realize the quote was from CTF. The other quote was spoken aloud by Premier Stelmach. I only post it to show that the CTF's quote was incorrect.

The minister is not looking for access to Private insurance - that route is now closed. The Mazenkowski report is to be implemented.

e.p.1 e.p.1:

May I ask in the friendliest way: can we please try to keep this as unfuzzy as possible? I'm trying to get a quick, accurate handle on what CTF is about. What conclusions can we gather from their statements and actions?

e.p.1

So as to be less fuzzy, are we looking to explore the CTF as a group, or a critique of how they do what they do?

From the inaccurate statement, I would say it was fear mongering - but you didn't post a link so I don't know if the quote was before or after the last election. If it was after, then the quoted text is inaccurate.

As a general statement about the CTF, I like what they do. I've been watching and listening to them for years, and they are quick to point to government waste, lame policy and excessive patronage. They watch government spending with an eye to how much value for our tax dollar we receive, and offer suggestions as to how to reduce or eliminate that waste.

In general, I believe their intentions to be honourable.