SOCIAL CREDIT PLATFORM
It’s about our money!
Social Credit is more than a political party. It defines an economic system that enables a society to provide for the needs of its members. Enough money is provided to produce and consume the goods and services they need for a good standard of living. The Alberta Treasury Branch will be mandated to supply this money and will become the economic engine of Alberta. Individuals, businesses and governments will keep the billions of dollars that are now being paid to banks and foreign shareholders as interest and dividends.
Help to elect Social Credit MLAs who will work to:
(Click on title to read details.)
- Make the Alberta Treasury Branch the economic engine of Alberta
- Stop the leakage of $36 trillion of our wealth to foreigners
- Help Albertans own their homes, farms and businesses
- Regain control of our resource wealth
- Give Albertans the health care they want and the education they need
- Regain control of our utilities, property and environment
If we Albertans take control of our credits such as the oil sands, the resulting wealth will provide for our social needs. That’s Social Credit!
Socreds hold a successful Spring Convention
March 5, 2012
The Alberta Social Credit Party held a successful Spring Convention at the Fox & Hound Sports Bar in Innisfail on March 3, 2012. Several new policies were passed to address current concerns of Albertans.
Members participated in a spirited debate on the control of taser usage. Proposed control varied from a complete ban to being governed by the same laws and regulations as firearms to strict regulation by Alberta law enforcement agencies. Two policies were passed which require:
- strict regulation of taser usage by Alberta law enforcement agencies;
- establishing an independent citizen’s body to investigate all uses of weapons by all law enforcement agencies.
Members voiced concern that the provincial government was usurping parents’ rights to educate their children. A policy was adopted that requires Social Credit MLAs to sponsor amendments to education legislation that would grant parents the right to choose the kind of education they want given to their children without intrusion of the state.
The need for Albertans to become more self-sufficient in food production was expressed. A policy was passed to promote the “100 mile diet” – specialized local food production on small holdings or diversification on larger holdings. Assistance would be provided through trained specialists to develop feasibility studies and assistance with production, marketing and consumption.
In preparation for the coming election, a representative from Elections Alberta presented a review of the Election Act and the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act. He emphasized regulations that must be followed by the candidate, constituency association and party.
Len Skowronski
Socreds hold AGM in Innisfail on October 22
The Alberta Social Credit Party held a successful Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Innisfail on October 22, 2011.
Len Skowronski (Calgary) was affirmed as Leader of the Party. Gordon Barrett (Sherwood Park) was re-elected President of the Board of Directors. Helge Nome (Caroline), Garnet Medicraft (Red Deer), Stan Dingman (Innisfail) and Margaret Saunter (Edmonton) were elected Vice-Presidents. Area Directors were also elected: Myrna Kissick (Innisfail), Central Alberta; Tom Stad (Niton Junction), Northern Alberta; Nymbura Aamina Belcourt (Edmonton), South Edmonton.
Leader Len Skowronski spoke to the theme of the meeting “It’s about our money!” He warned that Albertans must stop giving away so much of their resource wealth to foreigners and stop paying huge amounts of interest to the banks. An issue that requires immediate action is the upgrading of bitumen in Alberta. If we go ahead with exporting a million barrels of bitumen/day through the Keystone pipeline instead of exporting synthetic crude oil upgraded from bitumen, at current prices of crude oil versus bitumen, we will be losing $32 million/day, $12 billion/year. Len concluded “If we Albertans take control of our credits such as the oil sands, we will no longer have to be in debt to the banks and multinational companies. The resulting wealth will provide for our social needs: health care, education, seniors’ support, housing, communication, transportation, energy, food. That’s social credit!”
For more information, interested Albertans are invited to phone 1-888-SOCRED1 or email leader@socialcredit.com.
Keystone COPS
September 20, 2011
Do Albertans need the Keystone XL pipeline? Definitely not! Then why are the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) and the Alberta government promoting its construction? Because the multinational oil companies have decided that rather than upgrade bitumen in Alberta they want to upgrade it in Texas. Why? Because many of the executives and shareholders of these companies are Americans and this is a sinister way of transferring much more of Alberta’s wealth to the USA (with $90/barrel oil and a 40% discount on bitumen, this would amount to $36 million a day, $13 billion a year). Why is the Alberta government in bed with these companies? Because their huge political contributions keep the PCs in power. And if the PCs don’t toe the line, these companies have their own party, the Wildrose Alliance, which they will put into government.
CAPP claims that the reasons bitumen must be piped to Texas upgraders are that Alberta doesn’t have the capital and workers to build the required upgrader plants. If TransCanada can find $12 billion for the pipeline to ship 1 million barrels/day of bitumen down south then why can’t the oilsands developers find a comparable amount of capital to build plants that would upgrade this bitumen in Alberta. There are still many unemployed Canadians, especially in the manufacturing heartland of Eastern Canada. We could bring these people to Alberta; retrain them if necessary. Why we could even give working visas to some Americans, if they promise to be nice.
Let’s stop the Keystone COPS (Canadian Oil Profits going South)!
Len Skowronski
Over-Paid Executives
June 8, 2011 The total compensation paid to the top 40 Calgary-based executives was $293.6 million in 2010. Recently, the Alberta government announced that the minimum wage will be raised to $9.40/hour which comes to under $19,600 per year. It would take 14,980 Albertans working at this wage to earn as much as these 40 executives. Is this social
justice?Why are these executives paid such outrageous amounts? The answer is simple; it is found in the colloquial saying: “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” The “corporate elite” have a “cartel of the rich” whereby they serve on each other’s board of directors and buy each other’s company stocks.
“You sit on my board and authorize a high compensation package and I’ll sit on your board and do the same for you. We’ll give you large stock assessments as bonuses and also buy large blocks of your stock so that we can control the majority of the company’s shares. Then we can give shareholder approval to the board’s actions such as the say-on-pay vote to support executive compensation.”
Five of these executives are from Shaw. Together they were paid $55.6 million. This confirms that this company is charging way too much for its services. It is time that cable TV and internet access be declared utilities and regulated for the benefit of the consumer.
Thirty-three of these executives were from oil and gas production and transportation companies. They were paid over $222 million. Now we know where a good portion of the bonanza reaped by these companies as a result of the royalty reductions is going. I suppose Danielle Smith and her Wildrose Alliance are proud of themselves for facilitating their puppet masters to gorge on this wealth instead of sharing it with all Albertans.
(The information on executive compensation came from articles in the June 4, 2011 edition of the Calgary Herald. Go to www.calgaryherald.com and search for articles “Calgary’s top 40 earners” and “Say-on-pay votes reveal few gripes on CEO pay”.)
Len Skowronski
PM Harper: Stop Giving Away Over $30 Billion to the Banks Every Year!
May 9, 2011
Now that the federal election is over, it’s time for the Canadian government to act on important issues such as reducing the deficit, working towards a balanced budget and eventually paying off the debt. I wish Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his new majority government success in achieving these goals. In order to accelerate this success,
I propose a program that would enable the government to easily decrease its expenses by over fourteen billion dollars in this fiscal year and over thirty billion dollars per annum over the long term.According to the March, 2011 budget, the projected deficit for fiscal year 2010 – 2011 is $40.5 billion resulting in a total federal debt of $556.4 billion. The debt charges (interest on the debt) of $30.8 billion account for three-quarters of the deficit. The projected deficit for fiscal year 2011 – 2012 is $29.6 billion resulting in a total federal debt of $586 billion. The charges on this debt are projected to be $33 billion which works out to an
average interest rate of 5.6%. During the year, $258 billion will be borrowed to refinance $221 billon of the debt that is coming due plus other financial requirements. If this loan is financed at the average interest rate, the annual interest on this amount would be over $14 billion. Instead, this portion of the debt should be refinanced with an interest-free
loan from the Bank of Canada. Then the deficit would be decreased by $14 billion in this and subsequent years.As the debt comes due in subsequent years, refinancing should again be done through interest-free loans from the Bank of Canada. Eventually, the government would be free of the interest expense which is projected to be over $39 billion by 2015 if the federal government continues with current financial arrangements whereby funds are borrowed from private banks and other sources.
Len Skowronski
The Alberta Social Credit Party holds an exciting Policy Convention
The Alberta Social Credit Party held a successful Policy Convention at the Royal Canadian Legion in Innisfail on March 26, 2011. In his opening speech, Leader Len Skowronski encouraged members to pass policies that would bring back control of Alberta’s economy from the energy companies and banks, moving towards economic democracy for all Albertans.
An electric atmosphere pervaded the meeting, punctuated by lively debate on innovative policy proposals. The perspective of young adults relying on good government to facilitate a happy, prosperous future was given by several new members from Calgary. They have chosen to join the Alberta Social Credit Party because of the Party’s “Alberta First” goals.
The new policies passed would require Social Credit MLAs to sponsor legislation that would
- Establish the Alberta Upgrading Company to build and operate bitumen upgrading plants throughout Alberta.
- Not allow foreign workers to work on Alberta projects as long as qualified Albertans are available to do the jobs.
- Not allow non-Albertan governments, corporations or organizations to become provincial government lobbyists.
- Direct the Alberta Treasury Branch (ATB) to provide prime-rate mortgages with acceptable administration fees to Alberta homeowners.
- Direct the ATB to provide interest-free loans to municipalities so that municipal interest-bearing debt to banks and other financial institutions can be paid off.
- Require that all provincial judges be elected by their peers to fixed, four year, re-electable terms.
- Require the building and staffing of more facilities for long-term care so that this service will be available for all seniors who need it.
- Direct Alberta Health Services to develop a program that will assist smokers to quit.
- Establish processes and environments that will result in increased numbers of wildlife and fish for the enjoyment of Albertans and visitors.
- Support and help finance recreation trails along the highways between towns and cities in Alberta.
Socreds hold rally to regain gun and property rights
February 28, 2011
The Alberta Social Credit Party held a rally in Innisfail on February 26, 2011 concerning the erosion of gun and property rights. Leader Len Skowronski started his slide presentation with the rhetorical question “Why do you have to register your firearms?” To answer this question, he reviewed how Marc Lepine shot and killed fourteen women students of Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique in 1989 and how Jean Chretien’s Liberal government tried to appear that they were doing something constructive in response to the outrage of Canadians, especially feminists and Quebecois. The government’s knee-jerk reaction was to pass the Firearms Act in 1995 which requires licensing of firearms owners and registration of all firearms.
Does the firearms registry prevent shootings? No, it doesn’t! If Marc Lepine had been required to register his rifle, this would not have prevented the Montreal massacre. Even after the registry was in force for several years, this did not stop James Roszco from shooting and killing four RCMP officers in 2005.
An Alberta Social Credit government would pass legislation to ensure that Alberta residents have the right to responsible ownership, enjoyment, and use of firearms. In addition, the Federal Government’s encroachment into the provincial domain of property rights with the Firearms Act would be challenged. Instead of registering firearms, criminals and mentally deranged individuals who would likely use firearms to harm others would be registered.
Next, Len alerted the audience to recent legislation enacted by the PC government that greatly erodes the rights of property owners.
Bill 36, the Alberta Land Stewardship Act was developed under the tutelage of Ted Morton when he was Minister of Sustainable Resource Development. It gives the Cabinet power to over-rule municipalities and other agencies in regional planning. The Cabinet’s regional plans can extinguish water licences, grazing leases, land titles and freehold mineral titles. The property owner’s rights to compensation, appeal and claim against the government have been removed.
Bill 24, the Carbon Capture and Storage Act, gives ownership of the pore space below the surface of all land in Alberta to the Alberta government. This legislation was enacted to facilitate the sequestration of carbon dioxide by the electricity generation and oilsands processing plants. No compensation is payable to the surface owner nor does he/she have the right to bring a claim in Court.
Bill 19, the Land Assembly Project Area Act, authorizes the Government to freeze large tracts of private land for potential future use as road, electricity transmission line, pipeline or utility corridors. There is no time limit for the freeze. The Cabinet can file an order against the land title that prevents the owner from making changes or improvements to the property without getting permission from the Minister of Infrastructure.
Bill 50, the Electric Statutes Amendment Act, is designed to streamline the process for approving power lines by giving the Cabinet authority to approve critical needs infrastructure and bypass hearings by a regulatory body. It was enacted to facilitate the building of transmission lines called for by the Alberta Electric System Operator which would cost more than $14 billion. Alberta consumers will pay the full cost of these power lines which are not the best way to meet their electricity needs but will enable the large power companies to sell cheap, Albertan-subsidized electricity to the USA.
Len concluded that he is disappointed that once again the PC government has capitulated to the demands of the Energy Industry. His anger, though, is directed at the Wildrose Alliance Party which is going around the province, hypocritically claiming that it is the champion of property owners. Danielle Smith and her Wild Bunch are in the pocket of the Energy (Oil, Gas & Electricity) Industry. The Energy Industry chose Danielle Smith to lead the Party and contributed $250,000 to her leadership campaign. The oil and gas companies used the Wildrose Alliance to coerce the PC government to drop the royalty rates which is costing Albertans billions of dollars. Energy companies give large political contributions to the Wild RA. Which would a WRA government stand-up for: the Energy Industry or Alberta property owners?
In contrast, the Alberta Social Credit Party does not accept political donations from the large Energy Companies. Socreds believe that Bills 19, 24, 36 and 50 should be repealed and that other bills which have governed development in Alberta can continue to do so.
Rally participants expressed their appreciation for the information presented and agreed that MLAs must be elected in the next election who will work to regain Albertans’ gun and property rights. They recommended that this presentation be brought to other communities within Alberta.
Anyone wishing to have this presentation given in their community should contact Leader Len Skowronski at 1-888-SOCRED1 (762-7331) or leader@socialcredit.com.
Middle East turmoil will cause suffering for many, riches for a few
February 21, 2011
The increasingly volatile situation in the Middle East is causing an increase in commodity prices right across the board on world markets. That includes grains, energy, metals and everything that goes into making finished products. In thw long term, that can only mean one thing: The inflation in prices of finished products. For those that are direct participants in this apparent oncoming boom, such as commodity producers, exporters and their employees, contractors and so on, this would seem to be good news. For those that are sitting on the sidelines, it is decidedly bad news because their monies will buy less of what they need to sustain themselves and their families. This is particularly true in third world countries in the Middle East and can only become an additional stimulus for revolt against the status quo. So, we are dealing with a process that has the potential to feed upon itself, sending commodity prices soaring even higher.
In the short term, oil patch workers here in Alberta are being overloaded with tasks involving the construction of new facilities and pipelines and labour shortages will develop as the boom gains momentum: Alberta’s huge tar sands deposits are considered to be a safe haven for energy supplies in light of Middle East upheavals and energy companies from all over the world are now investing heavily in energy properties and related infrastructure. The Americans in particular are taking some comfort here
because of the effectively integrated political systems of Canada and the US.For us Albertans it is a different story. Property ownership for us means less and less as Big Energy effectively runs our government and designs legislation to suit themselves by planting their people within the political parties and the civil “service”. For example, the President of the ruling Progressive Conservative Party here recently resigned from his post (after presumably long service) as he is one of the Vice Presidents of Altalink,
one of the two companies given an estimated $16 billion construction contract by the Alberta Government for major power lines to be constructed to carry electric power from Northern Alberta to the south, including United States markets. Even people with plugged up noses can smell what has been going on here. So Albertans are taking their place alongside folks in third world countries, watching minorities in their midst get into bed with large corporate interests and doing you-know-what.Helge Nome
Let’s love and protect our unborn children!
February 14, 2011
The Alberta Social Credit Party is pro-life. We believe that we are keepers of our brothers and sisters, that we are responsible for protecting and sustaining every person from the moment of conception to the time of natural death.
Even though abortion lies within federal jurisdiction, provincial governments can do much to convince women with unexpected pregnancies to carry the child to full term and provide support for the mother and child after birth.
In this regard, the Alberta Social Credit Party has policies that it would implement if it formed the government or would direct its MLAs to lobby for if in opposition.
These policies are as follows (numbers are from the Policy Manual which can be viewed on our website, www.socialcredit.com):
10.4.1 Defunding: The Alberta Social Credit Government would eliminate the funding and use of abortion as a birth control method.
10.4.2 Alternatives: The Alberta Social Credit Government will promote positive alternatives to the practice of abortion that are within provincial jurisdiction. Support for the Divinely given sanctity of innocent human life at all stages will be given priority in all proposed legislation and practices.
10.4.3. Counselling: A Social Credit Government would develop and implement a counselling program that would strive to convince women with unwanted pregnancies to carry the child to full term.
We ask all Albertans who value the lives of our unborn children to help us bring these policies to fruition in Alberta. Once this was achieved, it could spread to other provinces and finally to the federal government which could outlaw abortion.Len Skowronski
The Long and Short of Market Manipulation
February 13, 2011
I used to have a small orange orchard while living in the tropics in Australia. The trees grew in sandy marginal soil with few naturally occurring plant nutrients readily available to the trees. For that reason, some trees had a hard time making a go of it if they missed out on irrigation water or sufficient fertilizer from time to time. A very obvious pattern emerged: Those trees that were weak were attacked by aphids and a black sooty mold to a far greater degree than the strong trees were. The same pattern occurs in the animal world where ticks are found in great numbers on weak individual animals in the domestic cattle and wild moose populations here in Canada, for example. These blood sucking parasites take advantage of the inability of the host to defend itself from their onslaught.
Regrettably, in human society, this pattern is repeated, not just by tiny parasites taking advantage, but also by humans preying on humans. We look back at the Viking age and shake our heads as to what some people would do to others without any provocation other than perceived opportunity.
Today the scale of parasitism has changed, but not its nature. The tools are different but the end result is the same: The strong preying on those that are least able to defend themselves. In our world the primary tool for doing this is a deregulated financial system that allows rampant speculation to cause wild fluctuations in prices of goods and services, including essential ones such as energy, shelter and basic food stuffs. The predators have arranged things to win both ways; when prices go up and when they come down. They use the doctrine of the “free” market to justify what they are doing while all the while manipulating that market vigorously to their own advantage.
The mechanics of the process is something like this: Being effectively able to create new money at will, the manipulator will focus on a commodity, like oil, wheat or whatever, and buy, buy, buy, on the open market creating a band wagon effect with other speculators falling into line and helping prices increase: Everybody goes “long” anticipating increasing prices. Now, at the same time the manipulator develops a “short” position, betting that the prices will fall at a certain point in time. And that’s pretty easy to do because you decide when you are going to dump what you have bought back onto the open market. So you make money on the way up and you make money on the way down with no risk attached because you control the timing and amount of the rise and the fall in the market price of the commodity. And there is no physical movement of the commodity involved, just ownership, at present or in the future.
And who pays the ultimate price for this gambling? Mostly those that live on the
breadline and have to fill their stomachs as best they can no matter what the price of the commodity, like wheat for example. That’s what is happening right now in the Middle East. The consequences are predictable, as we can see and hear on the daily news.Helge Nome