Big weekend for Red Deer’s Parker Thompson

Four Races and Four Podiums for Thompson in Busy Victoria Day Speedfest Weekend

CANADIAN TIRE MOTORSPORT PARK – TORONTO, ONTARIO

from Parker Thompson Racing:

Parker Thompson boldly kicked off the new race season in Canada this weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The 21-year-old competed in four races as part of two different series that joined the annual Victoria Day Speedfest weekend at the Toronto area racetrack. In those four races, Thompson earned four podiums. In the Canadian Touring Car Championship (CTCC), he dominated the weekend, taking the Audi R8 LMS GT4 of Speedstar Motorsport to two overall victories. In the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada, Thompson earned a 2^ndand 3^rdplace finish in two tightly contested races.

The performance puts an exclamation mark on what has been a commanding start to Thompson’s 2019 season. Thompson has been racing south of the border since March when the Indy Pro 2000 season commenced in St. Petersburg, Florida. He joined Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA shortly after. Thompson is in contention for championship titles in those two series. After this weekend, he is set up to challenge for the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada and CTCC championship titles as well. In this calendar year, Thompson has already raced 12 times within the four series. In those races, he has 10 podiums and 5 wins.Racing two series in one weekend presented a unique opportunity for Thompson.

“I’m so fortunate to have the opportunity to work with two great teams in SCB Racing and Speedstar Motorsport. Sports GT racing is still very new to me. With some great people behind me though, we’ve managed some great results. We have a great chance to contend for two championships here in Canada. Speedstar Motorsport has proven great results in international series as well. I’m excited about future possibilities that exist with that team and their partners.” – Parker Thompson

Canadian Touring Car Championship

Driven by Thompson, the #1 Audi R8 LMS GT4 of Speedstar Motorsport and New Roads Automotive Group, dominated both CTCC races on the weekend. With future endeavors in other series on the horizon, Thompson and the team had a watchful eye on the SRO GT4 America’s races that also took place as part of the Victoria Day Speedfest weekend. Running cars identically classed to Thompson’s Audi R8, the GT4 America’s series features drivers from around the globe and participation from a variety of manufacturers.

In the Speedstar Motorsport / New Roads Automotive Group Audi R8, Thompson marked a lap time that bested not only all CTCC competitors, but all GT4 America’s entrants as well. In fact, the 1:23.332 that Thompson posted is faster than any GT4 lap on recent record at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

“We’re racing guys over in the SRO GT4 America’s paddock. We’re comparing and making sure we’re faster than all the manufacturers over there. The Speedstar Motorsport / New Road Automotive Group #1 Audi R8 was on rails all weekend long. It’s amazing to drive for this team. Thank you to everyone who came out from New Roads Automotive Group and Audi Uptown.” – Parker Thompson.

photo credit CTCC & Phillip Sutherland)
photo credit CTCC & Phillip Sutherland)
Photo credit CTCC & Phillip Sutherland)

Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada

As expected of the popular one-make series, the opening races of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada were tightly contested. An incident in Saturday morning’s qualifying cut the session short, leaving multiple drivers unhappy with their starting positions for race one. Thompson would start in second position. Over the course of the race he applied good pressure on leader, Jeff Kingsley, but was not able to execute a pass. The two crossed the finish line with a comfortable margin over 3^rdplace Marco Cirone.

The starting line-up for race two put Thompson in the fifth position. Intense battles with Marco Cirone, Jeff Kingsley, and Patrick Dussault saw Thompson make his way up to second position. Heavy rain would fall, ending the race before he had any chance to challenge for the lead. The excitement of Thompson’s dramatic performance was tempered somewhat post-race when he was penalized one position for making a pass outside of track limits. The final result was third place.

After combining point totals for both races, Thompson holds second place in the overall championship standings, just one point behind race 2 winner Roman DeAngelis. The two drivers are also first in second in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA standings. Having shared the track for six races so far this year, Thompson and DeAngelis are demonstrating the tight competition that the GT3 Cup series is renowned for.

MAY 24 – 26, 2019 – INDY PRO 2000 Race 4 & 5 – Lucas Oil Raceway, Indianapolis, IN
JUN. 02 – 03, 2019 – CTCC Race 3 & 4 – Calabogie Motorsport Park – Ottawa,
JUN. 08 – 09, 2019 – GT3 CUP CANADA & USA – Circuit Gilles Villeneuve – Montreal

About Parker Thompson

Red Deer, Alberta native Parker Thompson is regarded as one of Canada’s premiere racing drivers. He started racing karts at age 8 and his natural talent and competitive drive quickly elevated him to international level competitions. By age 13 he was ranked 3rd in the world in Rotax Max karts. Now 21 years old, Parker continues his successful career racing on the Road to Indy, and in multiple sports car series.

Related Topics:feature Parker Thompson Porsche GT3 Cup

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Contrasting the principle of equalization with the execution

Quebec – as an example – happens to be sitting on its own significant untapped oil and gas reserves. Those potential opportunities include the Utica Shale formation, the Anticosti Island basin, and the Gaspé Peninsula (along with some offshore potential in the Gulf of St. Lawrence).

So Quebec is effectively being paid billions of dollars a year to not exploit their natural resources. That places their ostensibly principled stand against energy resource exploitation in a very different light.

You’ll need to search long and hard to find a Canadian unwilling to help those less fortunate. And, so long as we identify as members of one nation¹, that feeling stretches from coast to coast.

So the basic principle of Canada’s equalization payments – where poorer provinces receive billions of dollars in special federal payments – is easy to understand. But as you can imagine, it’s not easy to apply the principle in a way that’s fair, and the current methodology has arguably lead to a very strange set of incentives.

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According to Department of Finance Canada, eligibility for payments is determined based on your province’s fiscal capacity. Fiscal capacity is a measure of the taxes (income, business, property, and consumption) that a province could raise (based on national average rates) along with revenues from natural resources. The idea, I suppose, is that you’re creating a realistic proxy for a province’s higher personal earnings and consumption and, with greater natural resources revenues, a reduced need to increase income tax rates.

But the devil is in the details, and I think there are some questions worth asking:

Whichever way you measure fiscal capacity there’ll be both winners and losers, so who gets to decide?
Should a province that effectively funds more than its “share” get proportionately greater representation for national policy² – or at least not see its policy preferences consistently overruled by its beneficiary provinces?

The problem, of course, is that the decisions that defined equalization were – because of long-standing political conditions – dominated by the region that ended up receiving the most. Had the formula been the best one possible, there would have been little room to complain. But was it?

For example, attaching so much weight to natural resource revenues is just one of many possible approaches – and far from the most obvious. Consider how the profits from natural resources already mostly show up in higher income and corporate tax revenues (including income tax paid by provincial government workers employed by energy-related ministries)?

And who said that such calculations had to be population-based, which clearly benefits Quebec (nine million residents vs around $5 billion in resource income) over Newfoundland (545,000 people vs $1.6 billion) or Alberta (4.2 million people vs $19 billion). While Alberta’s average market income is 20 percent or so higher than Quebec’s, Quebec’s is quite a bit higher than Newfoundland’s. So why should Newfoundland receive only minimal equalization payments?

To illustrate all that, here’s the most recent payment breakdown when measured per-capita:

Equalization 2025-26 – Government of Canada

For clarification, the latest per-capita payments to poorer provinces ranged from $3,936 to PEI, $1,553 to Quebec, and $36 to Ontario. Only Saskatchewan, Alberta, and BC received nothing.

And here’s how the total equalization payments (in millions of dollars) have played out over the past decade:

Is energy wealth the right differentiating factor because it’s there through simple dumb luck, morally compelling the fortunate provinces to share their fortune? That would be a really difficult argument to make. For one thing because Quebec – as an example – happens to be sitting on its own significant untapped oil and gas reserves. Those potential opportunities include the Utica Shale formation, the Anticosti Island basin, and the Gaspé Peninsula (along with some offshore potential in the Gulf of St. Lawrence).

So Quebec is effectively being paid billions of dollars a year to not exploit their natural resources. That places their ostensibly principled stand against energy resource exploitation in a very different light. Perhaps that stand is correct or perhaps it isn’t. But it’s a stand they probably couldn’t have afforded to take had the equalization calculation been different.

Of course, no formula could possibly please everyone, but punishing the losers with ongoing attacks on the very source of their contributions is guaranteed to inspire resentment. And that could lead to very dark places.

Note: I know this post sounds like it came from a grumpy Albertan. But I assure you that I’ve never even visited the province, instead spending most of my life in Ontario.

Which has admittedly been challenging since the former primer minister infamously described us as a post-national state without an identity.

This isn’t nearly as crazy as it sounds. After all, there are already formal mechanisms through which Indigenous communities get more than a one-person-one-vote voice.

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Alberta

Big win for Alberta and Canada: Statement from Premier Smith

Published on April 2, 2025

Government of Alberta

Premier Danielle Smith issued the following statement on the April 2, 2025 U.S. tariff announcement:

“Today was an important win for Canada and Alberta, as it appears the United States has decided to uphold the majority of the free trade agreement (CUSMA) between our two nations. It also appears this will continue to be the case until after the Canadian federal election has concluded and the newly elected Canadian government is able to renegotiate CUSMA with the U.S. administration.

“This is precisely what I have been advocating for from the U.S. administration for months.

“It means that the majority of goods sold into the United States from Canada will have no tariffs applied to them, including zero per cent tariffs on energy, minerals, agricultural products, uranium, seafood, potash and host of other Canadian goods.

“There is still work to be done, of course. Unfortunately, tariffs previously announced by the United States on Canadian automobiles, steel and aluminum have not been removed. The efforts of premiers and the federal government should therefore shift towards removing or significantly reducing these remaining tariffs as we go forward and ensuring affected workers across Canada are generously supported until the situation is resolved.

“I again call on all involved in our national advocacy efforts to focus on diplomacy and persuasion while avoiding unnecessary escalation. Clearly, this strategy has been the most effective to this point.

“As it appears the worst of this tariff dispute is behind us (though there is still work to be done), it is my sincere hope that we, as Canadians, can abandon the disastrous policies that have made Canada vulnerable to and overly dependent on the United States, fast-track national resource corridors, get out of the way of provincial resource development and turn our country into an independent economic juggernaut and energy superpower.”