you're all polluters

you're all polluters

Yes, you. You with all your breathing. And your little dog, too. Yes, you are a nasty polluter, spewing toxic chemicals every time you breathe, forcing eeeeevil carbon dioxide on our environment.

Ridiculous you say? Tell that to the Canadian government. In order to meet the Kyoto protocol, the feds have decided to classify CO2 as a toxic chemical. Here's what Ezra Levant has to say about it:

"... on July 16, the federal government announced its intention to classify carbon dioxide as a "toxic chemical" under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.

According to the Act, a toxic chemical is defined as "an immediate or long-term harmful effect on the environment," or "a danger to the environment on which life depends" or "a danger in Canada to human life or health". To call carbon dioxide any of these things is to lie. Carbon dioxide is essential not only to plant life, but it's the gas that humans -- and animals -- exhale when we breathe.

Carbon dioxide is not a toxic chemical in science or in common sense, so what's going on? In the same official notice, the explanation was provided: It's the way Ottawa plans to get jurisdiction over the oil patch to implement their Kyoto taxes."

Ottawa does not have jurisdiction over the Alberta oil patch (constitutionally, natural resource development is the responsibility of individual provinces). Therefore, the feds had to declare CO2 toxic in order to gain jurisdiction over it, and in order to tax CO2 production. The oil patch produces a lot of CO2, in part by burning natural gas to extract oil from the tar sands. It amounts to about 45 megatonnes of carbon dioxide for that process annually. At a penalty of $200 million per megatonne, that is 9 billion dollars to be sucked out of the Alberta economy on top of the 9 to 12 billion that is already stolen from Albertans every year by the federal government.

Oh and by the way, the Ontario auto industry is exempt from this carbon-tax grab.

Just a little math to put this into perspective: an average human being breathes at a rate of about 15-18 breaths a minute at rest, exchanging about 500 mL of air with each breath. The exhaled air is about 3.6% CO2. The density of carbon dioxide gas is 0.001977 grams per millilitre. And there are 1440 minutes in a day. 18 x 500 x 0.036 x 0.001977 x 1440 = 922.4 grams of CO2 produced every day by every person (if they are at rest the whole time; if they are performing vigorous exercise the numbers are higher). Multiply that by 365.25 to get a person's annual CO2 production, and you get 336.9 kg per person per year. If the carbon tax were to be applied evenly, then every person in Canada would owe $200 per 1000kg, or about $67.40 per person per year, for the privelege of breathing.

There are 5 million people in the greater Toronto area. Under this scheme, if it were to be applied evenly across the country rather than just targeting Alberta's oil patch, Torontonians would have to pay $337 million annually in order to be allowed to breathe. Pets are extra. And those automotive production plants are WAY extra. And all the cars they drive, as they burn gasoline and produce CO2, those are extra too.

Oh but since it only applies to big, bad Alberta, it's ok, right? 9 billion dollars divided among 3 million Albertans is $3000 per Albertan per year. And for what? Back to Ezra:

"... the Kyoto Protocol's own scientific panel predicts even if every country in the world were to fully implement the treaty, it would only make 0.2C difference by the year 2100. That's less than the natural annual variation of the world's climate."

Think about what an additional tax of $3000 per person per year would mean for your family, on top of your existing federal, provincial, and municipal taxes. Suppose you have a family of four: would you be happy about paying $12000 more every year, to pay for something that you know up front to be useless? And Ontarians wonder why Albertans are so angry.

Technorati Tags: Politics, Canada, environmentalism, Kyoto

do you take this woman and that woman to be your lawful-wedded wives?

do you take this woman and that woman to be your lawful-wedded wives?

Angry in the Great White North talks about the newest legal trend in the Netherlands: legal recognition of bigamous marriages. I talked about this as a hypothetical back in July.

So now that bigamous relationships are legal in Holland, how long will it be before they are recognized in Canada as well? I submit that as soon as someone in British Columbia tries to enforce the current law against bigamy and polygamy on the residents of the Bountiful commune, a court challenge will ensue, and the residents of Bountiful will succeed in striking down the law.

For those who are unwilling to believe in the slippery slope argument:

1) have the State interfere with the Church (so much for separation of Church and State), and usurp the solemnization of marriage: check.
2) remove the stigma on bearing children out of wedlock; indeed, subsidize the practice: check.
3) remove the stigma against homosexual practice; force Christian Schools to retain homosexual teachers against the school's beliefs; force homosexuality to be taught in schools: check.
4) remove the stigma against adultery and prostitution: in progress.
5) remove the stigma against divorce; enable easy divorces: check.
6) redefine marriage to include homosexual relationships: check.
7) redefine marriage to include polygamous marriages: check (no doubt in progress in Canada too).
8) remove the stigma against pederasty and pedophilia: in progress.
9) remove the stigma against bestiality: in progress.
10) express surprise that society is breaking down (after each of steps 1-9): check.
11) when a new society arises from the ashes of the old one, ignore the lessons of the past and repeat steps 1-10.

Technorati Tags: Politics, Same-sex Marriage

take me out into the black

I went to a sneak-preview of Serenity tonight. You know how you see the trailers for a movie, and think, "hey, that looks really cool", and anticipate seeing it, then when it finally comes out you go see it and are left feeling empty and disappointed? Well, enough about the Revenge of the Sith.

Serenity was nothing like that. Where Sith was fast food that left you feeling nothing but gas, Serenity was a seven-course meal. Serenity is shiny.

Now, I have been a fan of Firefly (the TV series on which Serenity is based) ever since I first saw the series after the DVDs were released. So, I figured that my review might be somewhat biased. Therefore I took a friend's 11 year old daughter, who had never seen Firefly, to see it with me. Her response? "That was cool"... "Zoe was off da chain" (which I think means cool)... "awesome"... and to her dad: "Now you and (her sister) have to go see it too".

WARNING: SOME SPOILERS AHEAD

In Serenity, some of the mysteries that formed major plot points in the TV series get resolved: the origin of River's madness is explained, and also the origin of the Reavers. And yes, the two topics are related. Another mystery that drove the series is not solved, and indeed may never be due to action that takes place in the film.

Joss Whedon has a delightful habit: he takes a cliche, builds up to its oh-so-predictable conclusion, and at the last moment stands the cliche on its ear. Whether it is with a deft turn of phrase or an unexpection action, he manages to demolish cliches left and right.

For instance, the cliche might be the damaged ship, having taken a beating, attempting to make an emergency landing. In the cliche, the damaged ship manages a picture-perfect landing. In Serenity, when the damaged ship comes in for the landing, it is really rough, and large, crucial chunks of the ship get torn off.

In the cliche, the badly-wounded crewmember makes a miraculous recovery. In Serenity, he dies. And not in a Spock-cop-out way either, he's done for, fini. And to see two members of your regular cast kick the bucket? Unheard-of except in Whedon's 'verse.

In the cliche, the bad guy doesn't think he's the bad guy. In Serenity, not only does the bad guy know he's bad, he even says that he is evil. And he is comfortable with that. And instead of the good guy killing the bad guy, or vice-versa, at the end they agree to never see each other again.

There are some memorable moments in this movie: the hulking fighter Jayne getting knocked out by the waif-like River - twice; the space battle between the Reavers and the Alliance, instigated by the Serenity; the extraordinary grace of River as she fights entire rooms full of people.

And there are some memorable quotes as well. Jayne to Mal: "sure would be nice if we had some HAND GRENADES right about now." Kaylee to Simon: "you mean... like... sex?" Mal to the crew, talking about his conversation with Inara: "Did you see us fighting?" "no." "Trap."

All in all, this was a very satisfying experience. It had everything: comedy, tragedy, romance, violence, despair and hope. I definitely want to see this movie again.

Serenity opens across North America on September 30th. Go see it. Several times.

Update: Justin Buist reviews the movie here.

Update 2: another review by Jason Kuznicki

Update 3: Holy wow, thanks for the instalanche, Professor Reynolds.

Update 4: Orson Scott Card reviews Serenity here.

Technorati Tags: Science Fiction, Movies

visualize whirled peas

visualize whirled peas

Baron Bodissey infiltrates a vegetarian festival, and finds a coalition against civilization. Robert Bidinotto will get a kick out of this.

Update: Yep, Bidinotto unloads on this group.

Technorati Tags: environmentalism, moonbats

the Standard

the Standard

Yep, it's that time again. Kateland at The Last Amazon hosts the Red Ensign Standard XXVIII today. Her opening statement is pretty damn good. Hopefully I can equal her effort when I host the Red Ensign Standard XXIX in two weeks' time. Good job, Kateland.

Technorati Tags: Red Ensign

gun control in canada

gun control in canada

Captain Ed talks about the impending gun control program audit in Canada, and Greg (Aizlynne's hubby) at Exposed Agenda goes into the numbers that are known so far. Greg's money graf:

"Total lives saved by gun registry (over a 10 year period) - 4 *

Total tax money spent to save 4 lives (over a 10 year period) - $1.5 Billion (less $87 million collected in taxes from gun owners) *

...

* - Sources from Statistics Canada"

Suppose you get a job at age 18 and work there until age 68. Suppose further that such a job pays $100000 a year (on average over 50 years) in 2005 dollars. You will then make, over the course of your lifetime, five million dollars.

That's for a fairly high-paying job, say doctor or lawyer or Revenue Canada agent.

Now find 299 other people, each of whom has the same hundred-thousand-dollar-a-year job for 50 years. Pool all of your lifetime earnings together in a big pile. That's 1.5 billion dollars right there, assuming you all saved every penny you ever made, and never had to pay for things like rent, food, gasoline, cars, your childrens' education, entertainment, or taxes.

Now, divide that big pile of money up into quarters. Each of those four piles represents the lifetime earnings of yourself and 74 other people just like you.

And each one of those four piles of money is how much was spent to save the life of one person under the gun control program. The lifetime, before-taxes-and-other-expenses earnings of 75 well-paid people was sacrificed to pay to save one person.

Now, nobody saves every penny they earn. Canadians pay on average something like 53% of their earnings on the total of federal, provincial, and municipal taxes. Let's call it 50% for a nice round number. And let's say that a person making one hundred thousand dollars a year (and paying 50 grand in taxes) might save half of their after-tax income, after paying for rent or a mortgage, food, transportation and so on. This amounts to $25000 in savings per year (I know, this never happens, and savings are much lower than that for the average person. Bear with me.) for someone who is financially very well off.

Collect 1200 such people, who each save $25000 a year (2005 dollars) for fifty years. The lifetime savings of those 1200 people add up to 1.5 billion dollars. And those lifetime savings have been wiped out to save the lives of four people; the equivalent of wiping out the lifetime savings of 300 people to save the life of one.

I'm sorry, the "if it saves only one life, it will be worth it" argument just doesn't hold any water if it means the equivalent of wiping out the lifetime savings of 300 people, or the lifetime earnings of 75 people. If gun control (or indeed any policy) saves one life at the cost of the lifetime earnings of one person, then it is a break-even proposition. Sacrificing dozens or hundreds to save one is ridiculous.

Update: Debbye at Being American in T.O. has more.

Technorati Tags: Politics, Law, Canada, Gun Control

electron band structure

electron band structure

Lucas Kovar shows us how undergraduate science gets done. Hilarious.

Technorati Tags: Science, Humor

can't stop the signal

can't stop the signal

Serenity is the most hotly-anticipated movie of the year. At least, I have been anticipating it ever since I heard last year that the TV series Firefly was going to be turned into a Big Damn Movie.

The buzz for this movie has been incredible - and has spread entirely through the internet. Think of the promotion for the Blair Witch Project, and raise it to the power of 3.

The TV series Firefly was killed by Fox. They showed it out of order (even showing the premiere episode last), moved the show around in the schedule several times, and basically hid it from whatever fans it had. It was really the fans who kept it alive, and bought up the DVD set in droves.

The writing on the TV show was amazing. Of course, that is to be expected, as Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel TV shows, and the writer of Speed and Toy Story) is the creative force behind the show. And now the kind folks at Universal have let Joss put together a movie.



Synopsis:

Joss Whedon, the Oscar® - and Emmy - nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE, ANGEL and FIREFLY, now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity. The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family –squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

If they let me, I will be attending a preview screening of the movie, along with a bunch of other bloggers, on Tuesday the 27th. Yay for the blogosphere!

Technorati Tags: Science Fiction, Movies

hip, hip, hippopot.. ahfergetit

hip, hip, hippopot.. ahfergetit

Eric at Classical Values writes that a cure has been found for hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of very long words). Well, good. Now I breathlessly await the cure for pneumoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

Breathlessly, get it? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. (wipes tear from eye) Oh, I slay me.

Robot Guy, your veritable cornucopia of polysyllabic verbiage.

Update, a few seconds later: Apparently not satisfied with the already obscene length of the word, the geniuses at Merriam-Webster added two additional letters to produce pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which means precisely the same thing - a lung disease (pneumoconiosis) caused by breathing fine silicates or quartz dust. The silly part of this is that the new word should mean the opposite, due to the addition of the letters "no" between pneumo- and -ultra.

I guess these are the same guys who decided that flammable and inflammable should mean the same thing. As Woody on Cheers said, "boy, did I ever learn that the hard way."

Technorati Tags: Linguistics

bad ass

bad ass

Stever has a series of pictures of an encounter between a mountain lion (cougar?) and a mule. Advantage: mule.

Rita gaining strength

Rita gaining strength

Here is the latest water vapour image of the Gulf of Mexico:



Hurricane Rita currently has maximum sustained winds of 175 miles per hour, and is expected to reach 180 mph in about 12 hours. It is currently the third most-intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic basin.

Technorati Tags: Hurricane

exploration systems architecture study

exploration systems architecture study

Yesterday NASA unveiled their roadmap for implementation of the first phase of the Moon, Mars and Beyond initiative. There are some good points to their new plan, which I will cover in this post.

They have separated cargo launches from personnel launches. This is as it should be, as the requirements for launching cargo and personnel are different. Cargo should be launched at as high an acceleration as possible (generally speaking, a higher acceleration through the atmosphere means a bigger payload delivered to orbit for the same price), but launching people requires accelerations that the human body can withstand.

They are abandoning the side-by-side configuration and are instead going to an inline launch system. This eliminates the debris problem that plagued the shuttle, and allows an escape tower at the top of the stack: if there is a problem during launch, the tower at the top can fire its small booster, separating the manned capsule from the rest of the rocket and allowing the crew to escape from a situation such as the one that killed the Challenger astronauts.

They are re-using existing technology, in particular the space shuttle main engines and the solid rocket boosters. The SSMEs are some of the most powerful rocket engines ever developed, and they are proven quantities. The SRBs are also proven technology, with the only modification being the addition of a fifth section to the stack (current SRBs have four sections). For the cargo launcher they are also keeping the existing diameter of tankage (although much longer) as is currently used for the space shuttle external tank, allowing existing tooling and production methods to make the fuel tank for the cargo.

They are not trying to recover the SSMEs on each launch, and would instead be building new ones every launch. At first glance, this might seem like an increased cost in comparasin to the shuttle, but that first glance would be wrong. The requirement to build a great many such engines means that production line methods can be brought to bear, decreasing the total per-unit cost. Furthermore, the current system of refurbishing engines with every launch means increased wear on each engine (reducing safety) without reducing cost, as each engine currently needs to be completely rebuilt by hand.

Finally, they do not have wings on the crew compartment. It will reenter the atmosphere much the same as the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Soyuz craft: as a blunt wedge with a small heat shield. The shield will be consumed and jettisoned on each reentry, rather than trying to make a shield that can withstand multiple reentries and which must be carefully inspected and refurbished with each launch.

I will be writing about the drawbacks to the plan in a later post.

Technorati Tags: Space, NASA

here we go again?

here we go again?

As if the Louisiana coast hasn't taken enough of a battering: Tropical Storm Rita is heading west right now from the Bahamas, and is expected to become a hurricane within 48 hours or so. In 72 hours it will be in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, and by that time there is a 50% chance that it will be category 3 or higher. The map below (taken from the NOAA website) shows its possible path over the next five days.



Folks who fled Louisiana seeking refuge in Texas may be hit by Rita, or it may turn north and slam Louisiana for the second time in a month. I will be keeping my eye on this, and I won't be the only one.

Technorati Tags: Hurricane

hell freezes over

hell freezes over

NASA is supposedly cutting 2000 jobs from its workforce in the next year. Yeah, right.

Technorati Tags: NASA

unique sea

unique sea

How can a sea not be made of water? It can, if it is made of methane at a temperature of -179C.

Technorati Tags: Space, Saturn, Titan

now that's aiming high

now that's aiming high

4Frontiers, a new company incorporated in Florida, has set a goal of opening a small settlement on Mars in about 20 years. Hey, if you're going to dream, dream big.

Technorati Tags: Space, Mars

the CBC is on strike?

the CBC is on strike?

Day 34 of the lockout, and still nobody gives a damn.

Can you imagine what a sorry state this ultra-left wing broadcaster would be in without its billion-dollar-a-year subsidy from the Canadian government? And how much better off the country would be if that money had gone to pay down the debt instead...

Technorati Tags: Canada

water, water everywhere

water, water everywhere

Ceres, the largest asteroid, may be composed of as much as 25% pure water ice.

Technorati Tags: Space, Asteroids

teensy weensy

teensy weensy

Researchers at Dartmouth College have created the world's smallest untethered controllable robot. It is 250 micrometers long (about 1/100th of an inch) and 60 micrometers (about 1/420th of an inch) wide and moves by bending its body and dragging itself around on a "foot".

Technorati Tags: Robots

a piece of the sky

a piece of the sky

The Japanese probe Hayabusa is within 20 km of its target asteroid, Itokawa. At closest approach, the probe will fire a "bullet" at the asteroid and then scoop up the resulting ejecta with a funnel-like device, returning under a teaspoon's worth of material to Earth when it lands in the Australian outback in June 2007.

Technorati Tags: Space

womb with a view

womb with a view

The artificial uterus is nearly here: within 20 years.

Technorati Tags: Science

truckin' across the desert

truckin' across the desert

The elimination round of the DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 has begun. The current field of 40 teams will be winnowed down to 20 which will compete in October, in a driverless race 150 miles across the Mojave desert. The winning team gets 2 million dollars.

Technorati Tags: Robots, Artificial Intelligence

ten thousand

ten thousand

Well, my sitemeter finally rolled over to five digits. And the winner is... somebody in Athens, Georgia. Congratulations, you win... umm... well, I don't have a prize for you.

I know that my blogging has not been very extensive these last few weeks. I'm going to spend a little more time working on it in the next little while. Really. No kidding. This time I mean it. Seriously.

Most likely. Possibly.

Technorati Tags: Blog

great canadian blog survey

great canadian blog survey

Aaron Braaten has put together a quick survey on the impact of the Canadian blogosphere. Take five minutes to go fill it out.

Technorati Tags: Canada, Blog

what a mess

what a mess

I took a trip to Louisiana this week. The trip was on Greyhound, which is always the best way to see the country; one gets to meet lots of interesting people too.

Louisiana is in an uproar. The bus stations and every bus are just packed with people. Many of those are refugees from New Orleans; they have been living in shelters, in campers, in tents for over a week, and are mostly just trying to get someplace with a more or less permanent roof over their heads.

Baton Rouge has been absorbing lots of these people, and the roads there just can't handle the sudden doubling in population. Traffic jams stretch for miles.

Other towns throughout the state have been absorbing people too. If anyone has property for sale, it gets snapped up right away, generally the day it is listed. Often people are buying property sight-unseen. The neighboring states are also absorbing refugees from the gulf coast.

Just to give a sense of the scale of this disaster for people back in Alberta: it is as though Calgary has been rendered uninhabitable for the next several months, and every town from Airdrie to Leduc simply wiped off the map. Now, take the million and a half people in that Calgary plus highway 2 corridor, and force them into Lethbridge, Edmonton, Rocky Mountain House, Whitecourt, and Fort MacMurray. Have many of them travel through Saskatchewan, northern Alberta, the Peace district of BC, and back into central Alberta before finding them a place to live. Have thousands upon thousands living in what amounts to prison camps.

There are so many lives turned upside down by this; so many homeless, so many now jobless. The jobs will return though, particularly in construction. They will need every trade, and lots and lots of material. They will also need money, lots of it. and doctors and medicines.

Alberta has a huge surplus this year; the provincial government ought to seriously consider sending a billion dollars to split between the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army. The people of Louisiana will not forget it, and they need it now more than anyone.

Technorati Tags: Hurricane, New Orleans

proper preparation prevents piss poor performance

proper preparation prevents piss poor performance

Check these two pictures out: this one from Google Maps, and this one on JunkYard Blog. I counted 262 buses on the image from JYB, and 137 buses from the Google Maps image. These buses are all sitting in their parking lots in New Orleans.

President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana on Saturday. Mayor Nagin of New Orleans waited until Sunday to declare a state of emergency. The storm hit on Monday morning, and those 399 buses sat idle in their parking lots and are now creating an oil slick.

Every single person who took refuge in the Superdome could have been bussed out of the area.

Update: Bill Hobbs points out that the New Orleans Regional Transportation Authority (NORTA) has 364 buses that could have been used to evacuate people, but which were not used to do so. I think that the picture from Google Maps above may be some of those 364 buses, but I know that the picture at JYB is of school buses... so right there is over 600 buses that could have been used to evacuate the poorest residents of New Orleans, that were not used and are now destroyed.

Mayor Nagin is pleading for "500 buses" (and Greyhound has stepped up to the plate and has routed some to help out in the evacuation)... but Nagin had over 600 (and possibly as many as 763 if those on the Google Maps image are school buses) at his disposal and he didn't use them.

Technorati Tags: New Orleans, Hurricane

After 100 years, Alberta is unCanadian

After 100 years, Alberta is unCanadian

Today is the 100th anniversary of Alberta's entry into confederation with Canada. Whether Alberta remains as a province of Canada ten years hence is an open question.

The separatist movement in Alberta has been growing steadily for decades. The National Energy Program was a gauntleted fist to the nose of Albertans, and yet Alberta stayed, like a battered wife who remembers the good times during courtship.

Well, the courtship is long gone, the honeymoon is over, and the kids are all grown up. Instead of being an equal partner in the relationship, Alberta has become the wife that goes out and works two jobs while Canada sits at home drinking beer and gambling the rent money, maxing out the credit cards.

A Western Standard poll showed that the above is not an isolated sentiment. In fact, 42% of Albertans say they are willing to consider the idea of forming a new nation.

Leon Harold Craig says Alberta should get while the gettin's good. Calgary Sun columnists Paul Jackson, (senator-elect) Link Byfield, and Ezra Levant all weigh in on the separatist issue as well, with Levant and an Edmonton Sun editorial pointing out how the Kyoto protocol is the equivalent of the National Energy Program Part 2.

The Alberta blogosphere also gets in the act. Check out these posts from the Ed at Maple Leaf Blog, from Candace at Waking Up on Planet X, from Bill at The Reformer's Firebrand here and here, and some more historical perspective from J. Franklin.

There will be a federal election in Canada soon; Paul Martin promised it would be called 30 days after the end of the Gomery inquiry. Watch for Alberta to once again be portrayed as the bad guys by the Liberals and the mainstream Toronto media. And if a Liberal majority government should result, watch for the Alberta separatist movement to grow by a mighty leap.

In fact, I think it is already too late. The federal government has burned every bridge it ever had with Alberta. The only things that ties Alberta to Canada now are fading memories. It is time for reality to take over; it's time for a divorce.

Update: Licia Corbella has this to say on Alberta's oil revenues:

In 2004, the feds collected $25.6 billion gross in personal and corporate income taxes from Albertans -- the largest per-capita haul in Canada.

According to Tracy Balash, spokesperson for Alberta Finance, Alberta receives about $16.3 billion back in federal government services and programs. That means the net contribution Albertans generously share with the ROC comes to $9.3 billion -- or $2,914 per Albertan -- by far the largest per capita transfer payments of any other province. Next in line is Ontario at $1,856 per Ontarian.

Now this next bit of info is important -- even somewhat shocking -- and shouldn't be lost on anyone -- particularly Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who is concerned that Ontario will soon become a "have-not" province and who described Alberta's oil wealth, as the "elephant in the room" during the recent premiers' conference in Banff.

The royalties Alberta received from the oil and gas industry -- which includes natural gas, crude oil, synthetic crude and bitumen -- for the fiscal year of 2004-2005 was $8.4 billion.

In other words, the feds take the equivalent of the entire royalties the Alberta government receives from its oil and gas industry PLUS $900 million.

Remember her words the next time someone complains about "oil-rich Alberta". The federal government already confiscates all that money.

Update 2: Of particular interest is today's Calgary Sun reader poll, to the question "Are you going to celebrate the Alberta centennial?". As of 3:30pm, 80% said no.

Technorati Tags: Politics, Canada, Alberta