Athabaska wrote:
"George Grant, the philosopher, a transplanted Upper Canadian, called Halifax "the cultural centre of Canada". Perhaps this is where Nova Scotia derives it's worth; through art, literature, music, song dance, history, philosophy, law."
Sure, all funded via governmnet taxdollars from folks in Ontario and the West.
First off, equalisation money doesn't come from anywhere but the federal government; who collects the taxes. The Federal Government then decides what it will spend money on, so infering that money is actually paid by the West or Ontario is at best somewhat disingeneous. It is the federal government which sets its own priorities.
Secondly, The West have not always been a "have provinces". This is one of the reasons why the feds gave resource rights to Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1930. To put it bluntly before the transfer they were unable to generate enough revrnue to fund even basic pre-welfare state services and it was not until the 70s and the oil crisis that Alberta became a have province.
Thirdly, in regards for who pays for what. Currently the Nova Scotian government receives about 1 billion dollars from the federal government every year. This represents about 20% of government revenue, the other 80% being generated by Nova Scotia. However, not all of this money is equalisation money. All provinces receive some funds from the federal government in order to pay for social services etc...what used to be called the Canada Health and Social Transfer. What % of the 1B is actually equalisation money I don't know.
Athabaska wrote:
Fortunately many of us Nova Scotians (same applies to ex-pat Newfounlanders) see through the artificial 'quaintness' of a culture that doesn't exist except in the minds of a few artsy-fartsy intellectuals. The culture I lived in before getting out was one of fellows who collect their EI cheque and drive the back road with a case of beer in the back seat.
Many of the smart, hard workers have left the province. Many of the remaining population are litle different than they were when they were 18-years-old... with a bottle of beer, TV on and the last thing they do is listen to a fiddler and highland dancer that never was part of their youth or adult culture. There is the real Nova Scotia and the phony one.
Once again your genralisations are somewhat astounding. Obviously you have some personal issue regarding the time you spent in Nova Scotia. I should point out that driving the back roads with a case of beer on the back seat is not exclusively a Nova Scotian phenomenom but, is done almost anywhere in Canada where back roads exist amongst a certain class of people.
When George Grant refers to the cultural centre of Canada-and I would point out he is speaking of Halifax- he is not talking about fiddle music exclusively but a way aof life, community, respect, tradition, continuality. Now it is true that most Bluenosers do not go to the bar and start highland dancing on a Saturday night but, from my own anecdotal experiences Bluenoser and Maritimeres in general do seem more musical than people form other parts of Canada or perhaps there are simply more musicians in that part of the world. The destitution, alcoholism etc... you spoke of earler is I am afraid, similar in all rural parts of Canada with high unemployment.
Finally, I don't know why you are so down on Atlantic Canadians in general. They are as you pointed out only 8% of the population. The rest of Canada really doesn't spend that much in equalisation money to them every year-Quebec being by far the primary beneficiary of this program. Also while equalisation money does go to Nova Scotia, NB, NFLD, PEI, Que, Man, YK, NWT, Nunavut(who receive 80% of revenue from the feds) they miss out (Nova Scotia) on other federal programs. For example, Vancouver is building a new rapid transit line called the Canada Line. Guess which government ponied up the 500 million dollars to have a subway named after them? Halifax doesn't receive that kind of generosity for their transit needs. My point being that I think this who'le equalisation debate has been misconstrued since somethings are deemed equalisation while others such as the Canada Line are dubbed infrastrucutre projects etc...In actual fact out of a 200 billion dollar federal budget less than 10% is allotted for equalisation.
Finally as I pointed out before the provinces who don't receive equalisation receive other benefits. Alberta and Saskatchewan were given the federal government's resource rights in their provinces, Ontario is home to the Capital and federal government and all the benefits and jobs that entails and BC-who really in my opinion got the short end of the stick- got a railroad as did Alta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan paid for by Ontarians, Quebeckers and Maritimers. So in a way all provinces are somewhat subsidised by one another.
