Busy day in the bodyshop (next few days, actually), so things will get off the ground slowly today. Flames. Ugh. It’s not that I don’t like how they look – they’re just so bloody much work and technically unforgiving.
In the meantime, check out the blogroll. Plus, there’s lots of good items linked at National News Watch this morning.
Check ’em out, and I’ll be back when I get back.
As of this morning, Google News pulls up nothing from the MSM on the radioactive remarks by Liberal energy critic, Mark Holland.
And if you’re one of those out there scratching your head about why this is such a “big deal” – imagine, for a moment, that Stockwell Day had blown into Montreal in 2005 and mused on live radio that a Conservative government might make transfer payments to the province contingent on Quebec going English only.
That help?
“how dare you think that Barrie isnt the centre of the next orbit from the sun Toronto”
Don’t be silly, Winona (home of the Peach Festival) is the centre of the universe!
Mississauga Matt.
Don’t tar all of us with the same brush. You live too close to the arrogant latte-guzzling metrosexual crowd in Toronto to have a proper perspective.
Take a trip to the hinterlands of Ontario some time.
Ask the question. Listen to the answer. You may be surprised.
True Rattfuc, but given that the average Torontonian is already hostile to the 905 area that rings his city – “soulless suburbs, not enough high-density dwellings, too many big box stores, we need toll roads to keep ’em out” etc – anything beyond that in the “hinterlands” is in “here there be dragons” territory, and might as well be Alberta for all the latte sipper cares.
But I concede the point.
another rip ’em a new one report
3w.fraserinstitute.ca/admin/books/files/Independent%20Summary.pdf
heres a SDA poll.
If the west were to separate – where should they draw the boundary?
A) Manitoba/Ontario border
B) Dryden
C) Sault Ste. Marie
D) Barrie
E) Ottawa River excluding a 10 mile radius around the Peace Tower which has to go to Quebec with all the civil service.and excluding Trona
“Bury, Ontario”, which is where MSM is trying to dispose of this very important story.
How about we all email a link to Kate’s post to everyone we know? Bring the masses to the blog. This one is a good destination.
Why are all chavez dion supporters against the ads supposedly created by the Conservatives. Are they so stupid they don’t recognize their leader on TV. Did they not watch the leadership debates, to know that those exchanges did take place. Of course that could explain dions election, no liberals paid attention to the debates or the campaign that lasted a year. They voted on emotion and look what they got. joey boy, those ads were word for word from the participants mouth. Those ads are probably the first time many liberals saw their god in action, (is he really an atheist)and they don’t like what they see.
All 99 of the liberal caucus are protected from a nomination fight, so expect to see them all running in the next election, even with word 24 are quitting. I expect audio clips of Holland to appear in the next campaign. And, the rift in the liberal party is still there, so expect more of the past caucus to come forward, aka David Anderson. Who will be the sacrificial lambs to run as liberals in Alberta, what will they be promised.
Years ago, when Typical Redneck Albertan was the catch phrase in the east, bumber stickers, T-shirts etc were made and sold with the slogan
I AM A TYPICAL ALBERTA REDNECK AND PROUD OF IT. We wore them everywhere, had them plastered on our doors etc. Who out there can come up with a slogan for T-shirts, bumber stickers etc, that we can start to display, telling the east, keep your hands off our oilsands.. Thousands of us would buy one/many.
There were also stickers etc saying, NEVER AGAIN.
We have to make GREEN a bad word and dangerous policy for the unity of Canada.
If we had a referendum to separate, would thousands of easterners come to tell us to stay, as happened in reverse when Que had theirs. It would never happen again, we would get out there and say, PLEASE GO, THE SOONER THE BETTER.
Jo baloni…apropos handle there.
Frankly as far as these LPC musings about trespassing in Alberta’s oil patch economy under a Kyoto banner are concerned, …there IS no debate…there is nothing to discuss…touch our resource economy again and you better be prepared to get bloodied over it.
As an NEP-victimized Albertan who has lost his income, home and marriage and was forced to sleep in the car and eat from food banks as a result of Liberal centralized energy “planning”, I can guarantee you I’ll never allow it again.
Alberta’s NEP victims: never forget, never forgive
The electoral imbalance that ET mentioned is actually somewhat in control of Mr. Harper and the House of Commons. It is the House of Commons that sets the number of MPs. If they set the number up to 361 from 308 the 53 new MPs would come from: BC +10, AB +7, ON +27, QC +9.
It would get rid of a lot of the imbalance but may or may not be good for CPC. A lot smaller QC and eastern influence though as BC, AB and ON take rightful share of MPs.
Mississauga Matt said: “the average Ontarian a) is sold on the very idea of Global Warming or at least the need to curb industrial pollution, and b) is hostile to Alberta anyway – most Ontarians would be in favour of Holland’s plans and would simply shrug upon hearing his words.”
Then they do so at their peril….their ignorance will be their (and the nation’s) undoing.
The Shockwaves from this Holland gaffe in Alberta may escape publicity in the controlled corporate media but it has swept grassroots media and watercooler chat like a prairie fire. Alberta is formulating a contingency plan…and that will not be good for Ontario or Canada.
At the very least the taps will run dry and you can get your oil from the tender mercies of the Mid east oil cartels and watch your fragile economy tank from the cost increases….at worst you will become a 9 province confederation.
NEP
its hard to forget the cabs lined up outside the oil companies while professional firers went in a toasted floor after floor of employees.
such izzy money. such izzy izzy money.
meanwhile the feds redirected money through tax incentive up into the arctic.- where not a single mcf of gas has made it out 25 years later. and backed in PetroScamada for 25% of all the federal lands projects.
Oil projects cancelled, money left the country, the feds (liberals) spent billions and the economy tanked.
Western Canada are you ready?. READY,AYE, READY
Didn’t Chairman Mao Strong once run Putrid Canada?
“Mr. Strong returned to Canada as President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Petro-Canada (1976-78).”
I tell you, it’s China the Model.
ratt is on the money…get east of even Ajax(home of the statist arsehole), places like Oshawa, Cobourg, Belleville….they are sick of the librano corruption/moonbat idiocy as well…think back to the days of Mike Harris…just push the right buttons, and the CPC can take quite a few of those ridings…let’s not fall for the libranos east vs west crap, take the higher road, and we can beat the suckers in the next election
WLM Redux: I remember NEP1 very well. Do you also recall that at about the same time we were “enjoying” interest rates on mortgages in the 20+ percent range. Of course this didn’t matter to the typical eastern Canadian with a government job. Nisku was literally a ghost town. Houses were being sold for less than half of what they were worth. I know of a new office building (+/- 50,000 sq. ft.) that sold for 10 CENTS on the dollar. The bank took what it could get. There were stories of suicides. MANY broken marraiges. Even more messed up kids.
I think you could charge admission if someone were to exhume Trudeau’s rotting corpse for the pleasure of a few thousand Albertans the chance to pi$$ on it. Call it grief counselling, Alberta style.
Too harsh a post for the likes of the joebalonis here at Dead Critters? Tough. Tell that to the now grown adult who came home from school one day, half a generation ago to find that Daddy just blew his grey matter all over the living room because Trudeau and Lalonde felt that the Quebec aircraft industry needed his hard earned money more than he did.
Time, ladies and gentlemen, please. Time is on your side. Quebec has a tradition of les bleus. This is the key to a majority Conservative government. Make haste, slowly. Vive les Quebecois bleus. …-
Quebec’s quiet right-wing revolution
Province’s values not all that out of step with Alberta’s
Graeme Hamilton, National Post
Published: Saturday, January 28, 2006
MONTREAL – In the dying days of the campaign, as the Conservatives’ climb in Quebec became undeniable, a mystified Bloc Quebecois tried one, final shot. A full-page advertisement appeared in newspapers in eastern Quebec, declaring in huge print, “We will not let Calgary decide for Quebec.” A black Stetson sat atop the word ‘Calgary’. The message was clear: Beware Stephen Harper’s Conservative cowboys.
Jacques Gourde, who raises beef cattle on his hay farm in Saint-Narcisse, about 40 kilometres south of Quebec City, was not amused. “You could say I’m a Quebec cowboy,” said the Conservative who won the riding of Lotbiniere-Chutes-de-la-Chaudiere by more than 12,000 votes over the Bloc incumbent.
[…]
Maxime Bernier, elected for the Conservatives in the riding of Beauce, disputed the conventional wisdom that Quebecers are inherently on the left. Some analysts have tried to minimize the significance of the Conservative breakthrough, noting the party’s victories were heavily concentrated in Quebec City and the region stretching south to the U.S. border. But Mr. Bernier said support was widespread, and Tories finished second in 40 of the 65 Quebec ridings they did not win.
Nestled between Quebec City and the United States, his native region of the Beauce is known for a fierce entrepreneurial spirit, and he said the spirit is contagious.
“Ask the business community in the Beauce, and what they want is no more government on their back, no more government in their pocket,” said Mr. Bernier, a former vice-president with Standard Life of Canada who also worked with a right-wing Montreal think-tank. “I think it’s in our values, and I think it’s something that is shared by a lot of Quebecers. The 20th century was the century of the state and the 21st century has to be the century of the individual.”
Christian Paradis, a 32-year-old lawyer and former president of the Thetford Mines chamber of commerce, credited the “silent majority” for his huge victory in Megantic-L’Erable, southwest of the Beauce. …-
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=f6fc69bb-4cfc-493c-a128-bd39e0529892&p=1
hawkins- I’m not sure if the answer is to increase the number of MPs by 53. That’s quite a large increase in the number of seats and extremely expensive for the taxpayer – when you think of the salaries and pensions and benefits.
The problem began in 1974 by constitutionally giving Quebec 75 seats at a minimum, which is 11 more than its population merits – if you use the BC/Alberta population as a comparative standard.
Certainly, asking BC/Alberta to increase their population by at least one and a half million above that of Quebec’s, to give them an equal number of seats is, to use the rhetoric of Dion, ‘unreasonable’ and against ‘social justice’ and ‘unsustainable’. But that’s the way it is now.
In my estimation, Quebec ought to have 68; it has 75 and that can’t be changed. Alberta ought to have 33 rather than 28; BC ought to have 42 rather than 36 and Ontario ought to have 124 rather than 106. My suggestion is to simply do the redistribution now, using the ratio that gives Quebec 75.
My suggested increase is 29 or 30. Not 53.
Thanks Lad.
It was getting pretty lonely here. Shotgun as well.
I may be very naive but the amount of pure hatred directed toward Ontarians is surprising, especially to those of us who otherwise generally agree with the comments.
I’m now beginning to understand how it feels to be a Jew.
THE GREENING OF THE OIL PATCH, oil and gas companies embrace the environment. Over 385 offshore wells have been drilled without a spill. (where are Albertas offshore wells). The industry spent more than 260 million on 50 environmental studies. They plan to spend a further 15 million in the next 5 years improving oil-spill preparedness.
Canada’s oil and gas industry insists not only that it is environmentally conscious, but that it has been for quite some time. “I keep reading stories about how the oil and gas industry is hopping on the environmentsal bandwagan” said CPA president Ian Smyth. We have a long history of consulting with environmental groups.
The above is just part of an article printed in the ALBERTA REPORT, June 18, 1990.
If one reads the whole article it appears that the oil and gas industry has spent a lot of money and made many changes, like underground tanks at service stations, refurbishing facilities etc.
It also states that they have raised and donated megatons of money to the World Wildlife Fund, and other conservation groups.
Message to Chavez Dion and Holland. Find out the facts and leave Alberta’s oil sands alone. And, all the above were done during a Conservative govt and conservative environmental minister.
Also in the issue is the cover story on Clyde Wells’ week from hell, re Meech Lake.
For 16 years the industry has been working to solve problems and reduce emmission. Seems it is dion and holland who are late to the table.
Wait times for surgeries have, IMPROVED BY SEVEN PERCENT, in (I think) just one year. (CTV.ca)
CPC, getting it done on health care – the supposed biggest issue of our time.
But oh, our health………….that was sooooooooooooo 2005/2006.
Onto the next media driven hotseat: being charged with the easy task of LOWERING THE EARTH’S TEMPERATURE.
The media will slay their dragon yet.
Interesting how Holland makes use of the words “you” and “we”.
He does not say: “We’re going to say that we cannot exploit that resource …. and blow apart our emissions targets”
He does not say: “We’re going to say that you cannot exploit that resource …. and blow apart your emissions targets”
He says “We’re going to say that you cannot exploit that resource …. and blow apart our emissions targets”
So he seems to wish to make the distinction that the oil sands belongs to Albertans, not Canadians, as if Albertans were not Canadians.
He wishes to emphasize that the emissions targets belong to Canadians, and not just Albertans, even though it is Albertans that would be making most of the sacrifices to meet these targets.
And to top it all off, he wishes to make the point that only Americans benefit from this arrangement.
So this is a give-away, and the Americans are beneficiaries, in a scheme perpetrated by Albertans, that violates the emissions targets that apply to Canadians.
And in case you’re wondering, I live in Ottawa and I’m from Quebec, so this is not a personal reaction, I’m just calling it as I see it.
Breaking news in Edmonton…..there was a sexual assault on an 8-year-old girl in an elementary school washroom about a month ago. The police have nabbed the primary suspect, and seems as if he’s the one who’s linked to the assault that happened over a year ago in a different elementary school in Edmonton.
The kids were telling the truth. Schools need to lock their doors all of the time. It’s just too easy to get in and hide in the washrooms which are usually close to the entrances.
It’s unfair to compare Dr. Didlittle to Hugo Chavez. Chavez is trying to use his countries oil and gas industry to project power. Dr. Didlittle wants to cripple Canada’s
P.S. rattfu*: I don’t purport to speak for Albertans but when we rant about Ontario we really mean the 416 latte crowd. Most of us are fully aware that there are many fine Ontarians but get careless in the heat of the moment.
Bart. Good point. I have met many excellent people from Ontario, and agree that in the heat of the moment it’s easy to just type Ontario, easterners, etc rather than being more specific regarding the urban Torontonianasses.
Rattfuc,
Wow, who knew that Ontarians were being blown up and genocidely murdered en mass.
Toronto deservedly has the moniker of “Center of the universe”. Knowing what is best for the rest of us has been the raison d’etre of Toronto. Toronto has stacked the deck against everyone else and is oblivious to the concerns other than their own.
The simple fact is Canada is ruled by population. that population is in Ontario and more precisely Toronto. Until there is fairness in the Canada political system (senate reform), the rest of Canada will hold a grudge.
Have you not noticed that Alberta can be a target of Toronto politicians and that seems to be fine?
Jews indeed.
enough
Enough. I wasn’t attempting to in any way compare
with mass murder and genocide. What I was trying to project is that, as an Ontarian who happens to agree with the majority of what’s expressed here, I and other Ontarians continue to be vilified by many of the commenters. Much like the Jews in past and recent times. It’s all the fault of the Jews is not an uncommon remark one hears today. Replace the word Jew with Ontario and you may see my point.
Or if you prefer, replace Jew with Maytag Repairman-as in it’s lonely being an Ontarian on a Western blog.
By the way, the rest of your comments I heartedly
agree with.
Excellent news about the arrest of the suspect in Edmonton, Anonymous. What is it the same guy who was pointed out by his first victim while he loitered in a playground, causing the father of the victim to tackle him and have him arrested?
By the way, is there anyone in Winnipeg left (alive) who still believes in global warming? Eskimo, the weather you had in Key lake rivals that of what Winnipeg experienced over the weekend. This GW stuff will fizzle out once and for all and Holland’s remarks will bury the Liberals as a single platform party of power mad reactionaries. Nothing left for them to stand for except their dark and secret agenda. Let’s not let them forget.
ET, your suggestion requires a change to the constitution (not happening), increasing the number of MPs simply needs passage in House of Commons (doable). It is like Mr. Harper’s elected senate strategy, effect change by working within the rules.
It can be very lonely as a card carrying member of the CPC when you live in Ontario. It is like being the proverbial rock in a very hard place…try explaining the likes of RW, or some of the other extremists that have been elected Reform/Allianc?CPC…but we carry on, carrying the flag, posting the signs and canvassing during elections….remember, we have to win this fight together, not apart…don’t fall for the librano east vs west garbage
Question period is on. Susan Bohnar is salvinating at the prospect of the votes today.
Layton saying we had Mr Dithers, Mr Denier and Mr Delayer re Kyoto. Susan just said that the conservative position is that implementing the targets, between 2008-2012, to reduce emmissions to 6% below 1990 would devestate the economy. Newman replied, yes, but that is just a new position for them. Upset Baird would not comment other than saying he would vote for the best interest of canada. Whipped vote tonight for the conservatives. I hope Baird brings up all the areas that would be hurt by Kyoto, especially those industries in Ont. If he does, at least it is out there, even if the msm refuses to report it as a fact. Why does newman always give a little laugh before he says anything about the conservatives, but is very serious re lib goofs.
Any info on how many cdns, if any, are going to jail, and receiving lashes to the face, in Saudi Arabia for mixed dancing and drinking. Hope they don’t sue canada for torture.
Harper just quoted the Nat Post re dions stmt of 7 mos ago saying targets could not be met.
Lots of empty seats on the lib benches, and no green ribbons in view.
Remember the sneaky vote the libs pulled a few years ago, when most mps were leaving for the wkend. Maybe Harper will pull the same thing today.
Adler’s blowing the “Liberal” regulation of the oilsands out of proportion. If the Liberals don’t do it, then whoever does get into federal government will have to use a carrot and stick system to get oil production to stabilize or slow down.
rattfuc,
I like the maytag repair man analogy.
You know, it is lonely being a Conservative or a conservative in Vancouver too. Proudly became a card carrying member, proudly donated and proudly tell my acquaintenances. The default position is Liberal and yet most people do not know what that entails. It is up to all of us to tell them.
Imagine what it must be like to be a real conservative on the east coast.
enough
disagree saskboy…let the market determine production at the oilsands…the trick is for gov’t to invest the royalties wisely, like, say, oh, nurses/education/etc…like the greenhouse cucumber fiasco and bombardion subsidies(we have a dead bombardion plant in our community), and anything else to do with our economy, gov’t should just keep the $%^& out
Kingstonlad.
Joe Average Canadian is so engrossed in the government supplying and regulating – he now expect the “gubmint” to fix the weather.
this from the government and civil servants that brought us Adscam, the gun registry, the NEP, Department of Indian Affairs. whadda complete joke.
This is from a taped interview at the Ottawa Citizen:
OC: “When did your thinking on these issues start to change? When did you become aware of them? At the time that Paul Martin appointed you, or…”
Dion: “No, I must say I have always been a lover for nature…um, love with a nature and, as a Quebec city kid it’s not difficult to be in the wood — twenty minutes and you are, it’s a beautiful lake in the woods, and I love that, and I’m always reading and very concern about protection of nature and involved and so on…”
Later on, same answer, same question, “Where I’ve been convince that the environment and the economy must be together, and it will become the issue of the century, it came over years, and when I became Minister of the Environment, right away, it’s what I said to Mr. Martin and to my deputy minister. It was my plan.”
OC: “After you became the Minister…”
Dion: “No, the very moment I became. The first thing I said to the Prime Minister was ‘oh, if you give me that, this is the orientation I want to give to this department.’ I think it’s the key point to that.”
Mr. Harper will surely wilt under Dion’s displays of leadership at the next election debates.
With regards to the Holland comment on the weekend and Anderson’s comment today can anyone get a link to the interview that Dion did on CFAX- Victoria last week where he mentioned his position on an elected senate. These comments should all be placed in the CPC war chest for the next election!
Try being a card carrying liberal in Alberta. I know a couple of them and do they ever get a bad time at the coffee shop. I know I phone them all the time to point out dions gaffes, and ask for their thoughts. I phone them at their business so they have to take my calls.
I can hear the pastoral part of the William Tell Overture playing while Borat Dion expounds his verbal fertilizer.
the MSM is playing in a Bugs Bunny fantasy land with this guy.
EBD,
nice job, did you transcribe that yourself, I’d die to get the transcipt. I listened to much of it, but it even looks worse (if that’s possible) on paper.
“According to the rightwing masses, the liberals did nothing of significance to control the adverse affects of oil sands processing for 13 years. Now, it was only during the last 2 years of their mandate that global warming achieved its present salience. During that period, however, they, in minority government status, could only enact policies with the succor of the CONservative Party of Canada who consistently demonstrated reluctance. I suppose it didn’t serve their dual constituencies, Alberta and the U.S., where the dichotomy increasingly blurs. So the CONservative party makes these ominous character-centric ads critical of Liberal leadership on this matter (cheers from stage right). ”
Apparently math was a poor subject for joebaloni.
Liberals only needed the support of Bloc or NDP after the Stronach defection to pass any bill.So please explain how Conservatives blocked anything.
So the right-wing Harperite crowd is upset becaused the MSM won’t report on Holland’s comments…I suppose when you spend all your time putting down the MSM you shouldn’t be surprised that they don’t want to do any favours for you.
lberia,
“favours” are for mobsters and liberals.
The MSM should report the straight news, plain and simple.
Predictions of a coming ice age of the 80’s are finally comeing true. Northern states in deep freeze, Hawaii experienceing chilling temperatures. It takes 20 years for expert ideas to come true or proven false. DDT/70’s-death of millions, ddt ok/2006. I wonder if algores movie is showing in any of those states and what kind of reception he would get.
Years of predictions re disappearance of species, hundreds of new underwater species found.
But, I suppose with dr did little being an atheist he has to believe in something other than a higher being, in his case his religion is kyotology. Following it will be more costly to believers than Scientology.
I hope somebody finds out the utility costs of storneway up to Dec 2006, and Feb 2007 on.
Harper got a good jab in today telling the House that dion stated years ago that kyoto could not be met, and recently stating they could not be met from 2008-2012, and it seems the only year they can be met is this year, when he is not responsible for them. Wonder where dions green ribbon went today.
Saskboy,
Read the constitution under the “Distribution of legislative powers” section. Resource development is the exclusive purview of the provinces and there is no mention of the enviroment. There is even specific mention of the “rate” of development. Lougheed saw Dr. Didlittle coming when he was still a pimply faced little sociology student.
Neither carrots nor sticks are available to any federal government in this regard.
Holland was likely talking out his donkey about what he would like Dr. Didlittle to do and not what Dr. Didlittle could actually do.
Good points here for the Ontario crowd. I don’t mean to bash my fellow Ontario people, or feed the east-west divisive fire. There is an apathy in my community (not 416).They are voting Lib,”cuz they always have”.
Nice people really, they just don’t care for the details…and they don’t trust ‘any politician’…gee wonder why?
Libarano’s
“we’ll give them a consequence they cant refuse”
Marco Hollandianvino
the MSM remains mum, CBCpravda catatonic while the west steams.
“All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else.”
-H. L. Mencken
“Newspapers should have no friends.”
-Joseph Pulitzer
I wonder where the need of favours to write the news started becoming necessary. I can’t wait until we need favours to have a police officer catch a murderer and a Fireman to put out a fire … That’d be sweet
Johnathan Ross:
A nice post today. As one of the unfortunates who had to live through the NEP, allow me to try and expand a bit on why Albertans in particular are wary of Federal interference in Alberta’s constitutionally-protected resource base.
First, others here have said “they remember stories of suicides.” I don’t remember stories: I remember actual suicides. I knew people who lost their homes (some sold them for $1.00, others simply walked away), I knew couples that declared personal bankruptcy and whose marriages dissolved, and I remember standing in an unemployment line at the Edmonton Northwest UI office, as well as spending the better part of the next year looking for work. I never found any; instead, I went and applied for student loans and went back to post-secondary education (it was either that or starve). What I remember most is that none of the above tragedies were necessitated by some fundamental aspect of the existing economic milieu — they were all precipitated by the divine fiat of an arrogant, vainglorious fool of a Prime Minister with an astonishingly weak understanding of economics and the limits of government intervention. It’s little wonder that there are people out west who would like nothing better than the chance to urinate on PET’s final resting place.
I also remember the blinding speed with which the damage was done — from the announcement to the commencement of the meltdown of Alberta’s economy was only a matter of a few weeks. For some people, unemployment was almost instantaneous — I knew individuals who were terminated by the end of the week of the announcement, and I heard about others who were fired the very next day. Not that it helped their erstwhile employers survive; they too soon went under.
The NEP, for all the damage it did, is not the central issue, however. For many Albertans, the NEP simply represented the truth of the statement “The best guide to future behaviour is past behaviour.” This is almost infallible in areas like the psychology of marketing, and it’s a pretty good guide to other areas of life, too. The NEP represented the latest (and to date, the most profound and successful) attempt to economically rape the residents of Alberta for the benefit of Central Canada. In essence, people killed themselves because Trudeau wanted to deliver gasoline and heating oil to the residents of Ontario and Quebec for a few measly cents less per litre.
If they get the chance, what would the Liberals do next? “The best guide to future behaviour is past behaviour.” Unfortunately, this is a pretty good guide for how Albertans are likely to respond to another NEP-style meddling. Contrary to popular perceptions in Central Canada, most Albertans (and I include myself, a self-declared “reluctant separatist” in this) see themselves as more magnanimous and more patriotic than Centralers, and thus more willing to allow the Feds to interfere if it’s either “good for Canada” or if fighting the Feds would cause undue hardship and suffering for other Canadians, even those we perceive as being profoundly ungrateful for the massive (and per capita, massively disproportionate) economic contributions we’ve made to Confederation.
I have no idea whether this attitude of deference on the part of Albertans is changing, but I do know that we have long memories, and there’s an entire generation of people in Alberta who have much more power and sophistication than a quarter of a century ago (age and experience is actually good for something!). NEP II, in any form whatsoever, would be unlikely to pass muster in the same way that the original ultimately did.
And if you love Canada, that’s not a good thing.
I posted this on an earlier thread too. I hope it is ok to add a slightly amended post here.
E.T. wrote,
-I am beginning to think that the Liberal focus on the Environment is a cover for the Real Agenda, which is Alberta’s money.-
I am afraid there is a whole lot more to The Real Agenda. The left has exploited the love that Canadians and Americans have for their countries great beauty and resources and have used it to very effectively undermined many of the foundations of our culture. This is not only a political war over money. It is a cultural war about power. Conservatives are under attack on all fronts and to conserve means to defend. It is a big weakness, as how can one ever win, when there is no offence?
Does anyone else remember the Dictator Castros’ crocodile tears for the salmon in B.C.? IMHO it was the possiblity of offshore oil exploration in B.C. that was his real agenda but he very effectively plays on our love for our wild and open spaces. At least in pictures. Most people hightail it back to the city pretty quickly after a vacation in the Canadian wilderness. And Mr. Dion does too. And then extols his urgency to take control of the tarsands stems from a great love for ‘Where The Wild Things Are’, i.e. the woods near his house.
‘Take care of the salmon,’ Castro advises during Vancouver stopover
Sleepy Cuban leader forgets to call PM
Derrick Penner
The Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, March 05, 2003
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada — Amidst expressing his hopes to avoid war in Iraq, vowing to continue resisting the United States trade embargo against his country and lamenting that hosting Olympic games has become the purview of the privileged, Fidel Castro advised Canadians to take care of their fish.
Mr. Castro was in Vancouver yesterday for a short stopover on his way home to Havana from an 11-day trade mission to Asia. He took a brief respite at the Delta Vancouver Airport Inn while the three planes his 175-member delegation travelled on were refuelled.
Before departing, a genial Mr. Castro, bundled up in a black wool overcoat and scarf, stopped for the press, who had compliantly crushed themselves against a wall behind a velvet rope stretched out to make a lane in front of the elevators.
He entertained reporters for about 10 minutes, and in departing advised them “to take care of your city.
“And take care of the salmon,” Mr. Castro said in parting. “You have the very few natural salmon that still remain in the world. It has been a pleasure, thank you so much for being here.”
The Cuban leader said he did mean to have a few words with Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, but began to work as soon as he arrived and later fell asleep. “It is possible I can talk to him before I go. I’ll try to because we really had agreed upon talking,” Mr. Castro said. “Thank you for reminding me.”
When asked about Iraq, Mr. Castro said while “99 people out of 100” believe war is inevitable there is “still the remotest possibility” a U.S. attack can be avoided. He said that even within the countries that support the U.S., such as Britain and Spain, the people are opposed to war.
Mr. Castro also noted the economic costs of war. “Even the United States economy is being harmed by the threat of war,” he said. “The political price of a war under such circumstances would be too high for any country to pay.
“I believe it would be convenient for even the U.S. to avoid such a war, let’s say, in a way that’s acceptable to all parties involved.”
“I suppose when you spend all your time putting down the MSM you shouldn’t be surprised that they don’t want to do any favours for you.
What a great example of the Librano business model.
You ah scratchca my ah back and I scratcha you ah back. Capiche?
There’s an interesting site up, called the Natural Resources Stewardship Project, based in Ottawa, which is offering realistic examination of the ‘hysteria’ on climate change, deploring its politicization by activists – and, is filled with scientists.
The site is www dot nrsp dot com.
Check it out.