Happy New Year everyone! As promised I am back blogging, although with work and family commitments I will not be able to spend as much time as I would like right now. Hoping that this will change going forward.
So here we are 2012, a lot has changed over the past few years, socialism has reared it's ugly head to the point of taking down large amounts of the world's economies, dictators have fallen, countries are waking up to a new conservatism while others are diving in deeper into the socialist/communist regimes.
In Canada and particularly here in Saskatchewan we have taken a look at what has continued to transpire around the globe and decided we do not want to fall prey to the same left wing tactics that have taken Europe by storm over the past few generations. We see countries losing their Triple A status, we see the unrest in the streets and we see the fall of many leaders who have done little or nothing to help their own people.
In Saskatchewan we spoke loud and clear this past fall, we do not want to fall back into our socialist ways, we have seen what comes of it over time and that has served as a wake up call.
Socialism has worked in Saskatchewan for many years because of the hand outs we always knowingly accepted from the Federal Governments. We were always there with our hands out asking Ontario, Alberta and the like to pay for our out of control spending, our socialist practices and out offensive union contracts. Without that help we would have suffered the same fate as Greece, Italy, Spain!
But we have turned the corner in Saskatchewan and we like what we have found, prosperity that could last many generations based on our resources alone. But does that mean we can sit back? Not at all, we must use some of this wealth to develop others areas of our economy that will move us forward after the resources. We cannot look at a 5-10 year plan, we must think 50+ years into the future. Where will future wealth be created? I will not try to make myself sound like a person who is capable to seeing the future but I am capable of realizing that most resources are finite and some day they will run out. By then our population could be around 2 million people and this is where some outside of the box thinking can go a long way.
We have seen a growing trend right next door in Alberta, they have taken their economy from a mostly resource driven economy to a more balanced economy. With large investments in financials, medicine, engineering, services and much more you have borne witness to an economy that has been able to weather the storm better than in the past. You may think that Alberta went through the recession with a lot of bumps and bruises and that is true, but a large part of this slowdown was caused by their own government getting greedy and upping the royalty rates on oil & gas. I submit that they would have done much better if the rates had gone unchanged. There still would have been a slowdown but not nearly as deep as it ultimately came to be. Sure oil & gas still plays a huge roll in Alberta's treasury but not nearly as much as in the 70's and 80's. Alberta has done a great job of diversifying their economy so that if one segment goes down it will not affect them nearly as much. This is what Saskatchewan needs to now do, we have oil, gas, potash and uranium, plus our yearly crops, but we need more. We witness the crash of potash prices a couple years back and how is impacted out government finances. Diversification would allow for us to better absorb a slowdown in certain parts of our economy.
Diversification will lead to a more sustainable economy, one that will be able to buck the trend, one that will weather the ever increasing storms and one with a bright future. No longer can we be considered socialists, but at the same extent we must not lose sight of what is important and what will help Saskatchewan continue to be the envy of our country and even the world. We cannot sit back, we need to keep moving our economy forward through innovation and of course value added businesses for our resources. We made the right choice in November and going forward we need make sure that socialism stays where it should.......in the past!
So here we are 2012, a lot has changed over the past few years, socialism has reared it's ugly head to the point of taking down large amounts of the world's economies, dictators have fallen, countries are waking up to a new conservatism while others are diving in deeper into the socialist/communist regimes.
In Canada and particularly here in Saskatchewan we have taken a look at what has continued to transpire around the globe and decided we do not want to fall prey to the same left wing tactics that have taken Europe by storm over the past few generations. We see countries losing their Triple A status, we see the unrest in the streets and we see the fall of many leaders who have done little or nothing to help their own people.
In Saskatchewan we spoke loud and clear this past fall, we do not want to fall back into our socialist ways, we have seen what comes of it over time and that has served as a wake up call.
Socialism has worked in Saskatchewan for many years because of the hand outs we always knowingly accepted from the Federal Governments. We were always there with our hands out asking Ontario, Alberta and the like to pay for our out of control spending, our socialist practices and out offensive union contracts. Without that help we would have suffered the same fate as Greece, Italy, Spain!
But we have turned the corner in Saskatchewan and we like what we have found, prosperity that could last many generations based on our resources alone. But does that mean we can sit back? Not at all, we must use some of this wealth to develop others areas of our economy that will move us forward after the resources. We cannot look at a 5-10 year plan, we must think 50+ years into the future. Where will future wealth be created? I will not try to make myself sound like a person who is capable to seeing the future but I am capable of realizing that most resources are finite and some day they will run out. By then our population could be around 2 million people and this is where some outside of the box thinking can go a long way.
We have seen a growing trend right next door in Alberta, they have taken their economy from a mostly resource driven economy to a more balanced economy. With large investments in financials, medicine, engineering, services and much more you have borne witness to an economy that has been able to weather the storm better than in the past. You may think that Alberta went through the recession with a lot of bumps and bruises and that is true, but a large part of this slowdown was caused by their own government getting greedy and upping the royalty rates on oil & gas. I submit that they would have done much better if the rates had gone unchanged. There still would have been a slowdown but not nearly as deep as it ultimately came to be. Sure oil & gas still plays a huge roll in Alberta's treasury but not nearly as much as in the 70's and 80's. Alberta has done a great job of diversifying their economy so that if one segment goes down it will not affect them nearly as much. This is what Saskatchewan needs to now do, we have oil, gas, potash and uranium, plus our yearly crops, but we need more. We witness the crash of potash prices a couple years back and how is impacted out government finances. Diversification would allow for us to better absorb a slowdown in certain parts of our economy.
Diversification will lead to a more sustainable economy, one that will be able to buck the trend, one that will weather the ever increasing storms and one with a bright future. No longer can we be considered socialists, but at the same extent we must not lose sight of what is important and what will help Saskatchewan continue to be the envy of our country and even the world. We cannot sit back, we need to keep moving our economy forward through innovation and of course value added businesses for our resources. We made the right choice in November and going forward we need make sure that socialism stays where it should.......in the past!
