A little shocked to see how changed the world is today monitoring it as the day passes. Canada is a quiet place in the north and it remains that way really. We like our quietness and our calmness. Budget deficits come and go with the rise and fall of trade and commerce. I remember an Alberta recovering slowly from the depression and then the World War reactivated some of their economy (all this before I was born) but the recovery was ongoing and eventually the extraction of oil put them into the black and they became a have province. The natural resources in this province will sustain them for many years if the money is carefully invested like Norway did but it was wasted by earlier Premiers. That is the value of provincial taxes as it gives them a surplus in the good years to invest in items that produce a steady income to support all of the province's needs. Alberta pays very low provincial taxes.
Taxes produce a future for the generations to follow and are a good thing in my opinion. I do not begrudge my taxes to the government and always I pay taxes in March/April just because I prefer that. The donations I do as well but donations do not reduce taxes that much unless you have a lot of money you are donating. Yesterday my groceries were $135 for the week to come so I have not noticed prices creeping up as I was around $85 last year at this time but I did buy some extras like a bar of lovely 90% cocoa chocolate and some prepared canned tuna which caught my eye plus a few other items that make up perhaps $30 of it but that is still up somewhat over last year. Mostly I just buy basic things but a package of chicken was nearly $35 up quite a bit I think but it is lovely chicken. The salmon maybe up a little I do not always pay that much attention.
But I still believe in taxes being the best way to manage a country and ensure that all of the people are taken care of although I am a conservative in that regard as people should not expect the government to pay for their upkeep. It unbalances the tax system forcing the well to do to pay too much of their income into taxes - when it is over 50% of your income then you wonder about the taxing system unless you are the ultra-rich in which case they made their money on the backs of Canadians and should find a way to support the government and not expect to pay low taxes. Mostly it is the well to do who are using private medicine because they like the convenience whereas public medicine does cost a lot of money (I had to go private for my cataract surgery because I simply couldn't timetable it when I had 100% support as I knew when my eyes were operated on I would need that and I did). I also accept that that was my problem not the problem of the health care system. As it turned out this young ophthalmologist trained here and did a fellowship in the United States immediately recognized that I would be best with the simple lens. The original ophthalmologist paid no attention at all to my time frame which I do understand may not be high on the list with public medicine but I was telling her more than half a year ahead of when I needed the surgery to happen. But had she said so at the beginning I would have gone private immediately and had the surgery earlier but it was delayed by nearly a year (it took several months to get my records transferred as the secretary did not appear to be able to manage that quickly - having worked in the hospital that was a surprise). I do believe we should only hire people in our medical system trained in our country personally. I can now see like I absolutely never have and, do not wear glasses except for reading. I am getting old and so I keep resting them as I have a lot more to transcribe from Latin.
Completed ancestry yesterday and moving into Gedmatch full time for a couple of days probably as I look at all the matches that have been added since 2024. There are a lot of new matches but so far not too many that fit into my categories.
Tea all drank and on to solitaire puzzles. Another work and exercise day.
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