Public Interest Alberta (PIA)
PIA is a province-wide organization focused on education and advocacy on public interest issues. PIA exists to foster in Albertans an understanding of the importance of public services, institutions and spaces in Albertans' lives and to build a network of organizations and individuals committed to advancing the public interest.
Founded in June 2004, PIA is a non-partisan organization which, with its network of member organizations and individuals, undertakes a wide range of activities to promote the public interest including:
- Developing strategies and actions to preserve and enhance public services, spaces and institutions.
- Coordinating political action related to matters affecting the public interest.
- Providing a point of contact for mass media on issues of public interest.
- Collecting research, media and other information on the public interest to disseminate to member organizations and the public at large.
- Directing new research on public services and the public interest.

More information on PIA is available at their website www.pialberta.org and the organization can be contact by e-mail at pialta@telus.net, by phone at (780) 420-0471, or by mail at Suite 35, 9912 - 106 Street, Edmonton. AB T5K 1C5.

Thought
The constant undermining of our Alberta public health care system which began in 1993 and the subsequent attempts to introduce more and more privatization, brings to mind Joni Mitchell's song Big Yellow Taxi. Do you remember some of the words? "You don't know what you've got till it's gone!"

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ARTA © 2005

Have you heard of Adam Smith?
In 1994 the National Citizens' Coalition in Canada published Blueprint for a Revolution by Madsen Pirie. The book, a mere 147 pages, was first printed by the Adam Smith Institute (UK) in 1992 and was written by its president, Dr. Madsen Pirie.
The book explains the importance of a transfer of power in society from the state, the public sector, to the private sector and how the implementation of this policy by the British Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher has resulted in the privatization of numerous former state run industries and utilities.
If you are wondering where this 'transfer of power' leads us in Alberta, consider the attempted deregulation of the electricity and natural gas utilities, and perhaps even the premier's musings about a third way in health care. Pirie comments on health care in Britain:
It's all very well for Milton Friedman to go and rant at Mrs. Thatcher and say get rid of the National Health Service (NHS) but Mrs. Thatcher isn't going to get rid of the NHS. What she wants is to find ways of reducing its costs and making it more efficient without incurring too much political flak.
For NHS read Medicare! Does it sound familiar?

A little bit of levity from West Jet!
As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at the Vancouver Airport, a lone voice came over the loudspeaker: "Whoa, big fella. WHOA!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to smoke, the smoking section on this airplane is on the wing. If you can light 'em, you can smoke 'em."