🍁 League Story – The Duncan Debacle, On to Edmonton to Build the League Discussion 🍁

But her plan didn’t work.

I ended up becoming buddies with Pherman. I admired a man who wanted to work into his late 70s. He wouldn’t retire—I thought that was 

A fine office he had—a side table that could seat five.

I asked him, Do you want me to remove the extra?

It was Amrut. Three of us around the table, single malt. Darren talked about what the Chinese would do—build a bridge from the mainland to the island. A fascinating idea.

I told them about P. Jandu, a man whose trophies couldn’t be verified as earned. I don’t know, I said—he died four years before I was born, and no one will tell me. Maybe it’s just things rich people give each other.

Laughter broke out. I stood up, swung the door open, and stepped into the hallway to take my stance—hands together, front foot flared.

Fashley’s door was ajar—next door. She had come back to the office. Almost 8 pm. What was she doing here?

Steaming, listening to men bond. Red in the face.

You see, I had convinced Darren to bring his assurance over. I had learned from the best. I told him about Marvin. In fact, I probably emulated M. Shung in that room—no pocket square though. He wouldn’t do that in this setting.

I’d pick up a license. I’d be the man in Duncan to have it. For a moment there, Pherman was with it.

It wasn’t to be.

That was the last scotch Pherman and I ever had. He couldn’t stand up to Fashely.

Now I always check: who is around to ruin the moment? Because some conversations—with the right people and the right scotch—produce the best ideas.

You need safeguards. To drive the thought into action. That’s what Victor would say: insulate yourself from small minds.

But it was both ways—Pherman, knowing Fashley would be jealous, he was insincere. 

A ploy. Both stubborn. There was nothing to be built in Duncan.

But Edmonton—that is no small town.

So now: who’s at the table, and what bottle of scotch, as we continue The League Discussion?

Victor says we keep it simple. A few items only: room-temperature water, ice, glasses, the bottle. No papers. Ideas must come from your brain—who can articulate the simplest and most coherently?

In the previous discussion, we covered the deficit. Now let’s cover the reduction in tax rates—personal tax.

For me, any original idea shows up after the first round. I need time to find my fluency. I watch Victor and find a gap to insert my thoughts. I don’t know them yet.

Suki was fluent—but a different type of conversationalist. Rehearsed and prepared from the get-go. Always looking to create leverage. I don’t emulate him—but then again, I never drank scotch with him. Always gin.

It could matter. Gin can make a man angry. 

In that room—his cigar room—there was a part of me unresolved. Something about Suki reminded me of Phinda. Something in myself I didn’t like. My subconscious knew it—long before my conscious mind figured out Phinda was my father.

For now I’ll despise Suki, but the real culprits are Phinda—myself—and the gin.

I ask Victor what it’s like to vacation in a Yacht. Let him lead the conversation. You see, I have to put up a safeguard: when guys can’t keep up with ideas, they count their money. I’d rather they be quiet.

But what is Q. Gardiner like? 

I’m going straight with a single malt. Two ounces. I’ll enjoy it while building on others’ ideas.

Pour the next — someone offer to do it. Or am I reaching for it myself?

The political battleground would have cleared twenty minutes in. The usual: political promise, Conservatives will cut taxes, everything is expensive, complaints about inefficiency of government spending.

But to me, personal income tax is the stabilizing, load-bearing column of the entire fiscal architecture. It cannot be cut meaningfully until a new revenue base is engineered.

Distributional fairness is where most people take the conversation. I let them talk. Now I dial in and go hypothetical—how to link resource extraction to fiscal stabilization.

I’d ask Quentin: Is oil and gas the only scalable, predictable tax stream capable of substituting for the stability of personal income tax? And do you think Carney knows that? Is that why he’s full throttle on resources? Then I’d ask him: What does full throttle look like to you? What are his constraints?

Let’s look at timelines—how GDP per capita must evolve. What do you need to build, acquire, secure?

On a refill—just a sinlge—that’s perfect to end the scotch.

The thing about Victor is he sees pieces—the big ones—in a discussion. He’ll let me know if I’m right about the high-level structure. I’d ask him: Do you think the ratio between personal and corporate tax—two-thirds to one-third—is an equilibrium we actually like, alongside GST to cover interest?

Because if we start changing the consumption tax and shift how much revenue comes from corporate tax—say we move to a 50/50 ratio—am I right that the fiscal architecture becomes unpredictable? That monetary mandates become incredibly uncertain?

He would know, and he would word it better.

Victor turns and says, Yeah, we can look at macro-fiscal.