Alberta’s newly-formed United Conservative Party and its Leader, Jason Kenney, have tapped into a wellspring of regional grievances within that province’s electorate by harshly criticizing the federal government’s fiscal equalization program. Kenney has promised to hold a referendum on whether that program should be modified to remove non-renewable natural resources from the equalization formula. He has made this promise even though he is fully aware that, under the equalization program, there is no direct transfer of fiscal resources from “have” provinces like Alberta to “have-not” provinces.
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