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.
“We don’t mind helping Canada with the basics but when we start hearing that we are funding Librano money laundering schemes, golf courses in Quebec, billionaire jet companies (in Quebec), artists that hang rabbits from trees, lesbians that sell their breast milk, etc etc. all the while listening to you tell us to quit whining and calling us moronic rednecks”
Ilove that Johnboy, keep swinging for the bleachers!
For my two cents….I’ll take my brothers and sisters in Alberta over Quebec anyday! Not because you’re rich. I just happen to like you a lot more.
Dave in Markham, ON
Re internments: Our country was at war with Japan during that time. Trudea was in an undeclared war with Alberta. Another attempt to have NEP 11, will mean Alberta is at war with GTA and Que. Maybe we should start building the camps for you now. Trudeau tried to kill us, but, didn’t succeed. He just killed liberal votes in Alberta. And dion expects to get 6-8 seats. And how many jobs were lost when Dief PC, killed the Avro. That is the danger of electing a pm who holds grudges, says I am the boss, and otherwise acts as dion. The hate for the trudeau name here is so deep it will take another 2 generations to start to forget. And now the libs have a leader and members of his caucus that want to re-invent him under the name -environment.
I think I might send money to the PQ party in the coming Prov election. Wonder how their leader would react to receiving thousands of cheques from Albertan, for 10.00, with a memo, from an Alberta Separtist, it’s you or us.
“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.”
Amen my brother NEP patsy..The fate was swift for oil patch employees but it only took about 6-8 weeks to make it to the technical support industries and another month to hit the retail sectorbyt the next Christmas, retail was devastated…I saw some malls with 2/3 vacancy….the housing industry went on immediate halt and the finace industry crash occured about 9 months to the day when the first wave of victim’s UI ran out. I recall seeing for sale sinage in virtually every community in Calgary…the Ottawa made deparession was an equal opportunity malefactor striking all income groups.
I didn’t have the luxury of moving back in with Mom and dad as I was a young father I had to endure watching my family put out of our home and moved around to a number of less than decent rentals as my wife and I struggled on UI and a waitress’s tips. After 2 years of struggling and friction over money in a depressed job market she left and I went on my own living and working out of my truck camper. Once single I worked 3 jobs and finished my engineering on a grant. I didn’t get decent full time work after graduating until the economy started to rebound a few years later. I wasn’t alone… I met lots of graduate techs engineers and other trades and professions doing seasonal manual labour for the city and counties.
The unemployment and under employment lasted almost a decade…people with jobs made a windfall buying property at 1/3rd its value as treasury branch and CMHC panic sold properties gained on mortgage default for pennies on the dollar just to unload them to anyone who could buy.
The human toll was, as you say, devistating and wide spread,…part of the bad times were alcohol abuse, broken families and a lot of petty crime…these are the human toll that are extracted from unworkable utopian economic meddling by arrogant cold ideologues isolated from the impact of their mistakes.
Here’s one Albertan that will piss on that bastard’s grave and deface his picture any time I get the chance. He damaged me in ways I wish to forget with his praetorian agenda and intrusive governing.
I won’t forget…or forgive.
”But for fifty years Canada has never said, Thank you Alberta, for all the hard work you do under difficult conditions to better us all: We love you. Instead, we are ridiculed and insulted.”
Vitruvius, Albertans don’t work any harder under conditions any more difficult that anyone else. All things considered, what you do have is a wisely chosen geography. Far from expressing thanks to anyone else for anything, all one hears from Alberta is the hubris of a puffed up rooster taking credit for the sun coming up in the morning.
If you want to know how punitive the whole NEP was to the nation as a whole, think about this: prior to NEP, western separatism wasn’t discussed in polite company. Today, and ever since 1981, it is a tremendous undercurrent within mainstream society. It is but a penstroke away, and every day, more and more westerners ask themselves just a little bit more earnestly “what does Canada mean to me?”. Quebec will never leave because it may have the desire, but it lacks the money. The west may leave because it has the money, just lacks the desire, so far. Quebec separatism is based simply on anti-Anglo bigotry. Western separatism is rooted in libertarianism. That’s a huge difference. The other pertinent point is that after pumping billions of dollars into Petro-Can (with a hand-up that some companies would kill for it still lost money), the Canadian govt. was able to divest it’s shares for pennies on the dollar. The final tab means that roughly one dollar in seven of the national debt is directly attributable to our Petro-Can boondoggle. Just so we could save a few pennies a liter on gas? And to think people wonder why I think anyone who supports the Libs is just a stupid person.
Except for poor dumb mislead leftie kyoto-blinded frank the rest of you get it. Bureacratic centralising socialist control freaks clustered in the greeners dippers and lieberals are crazy to shove there mythic “global warming claptrap trojan horse to gain what they had when joe and his killers rode high wide in the saddle. War measures was the only act in his sorry life that did any good for anybody. By the way frank did you ever hear how the japs treated bona fide canadians in hong kong in ’41? Too young too bad one of those horribly mistreated japanese was my schoolmate in ’41 at jarvis collegiate in toronto and never a word of complaint about the awful necessity of moving him from a possible area vulnerable to japanese attack-he was anice contented schoolmate at atime of real national peril! quite a contrast
It doesnt matter to me if central Canada says thanks or not. I lost my home in pierre’s
swindle. EVERY BLOODY SENT MY WIFE AND I WORKED FOR WAS LOST BECAUSE THE fEDERAL lIBERALS PLAYED THE SAME GAME THEY ARE UP TO AGAIN.
for those who want to rationalize this crap, go ahead. There is one answer and that is for Alberta to force a constitional crisis and demand and end to the Federal Liberal bullshit or Alberta should leave and go their own way.
enough is enough!
Hello Greg, it’s always good to hear from you. I, too, am hoping that over the next ten years Prime Minister Harper can shepherd in some structural changes to the government of Canada that can keep Alberta on side, and as ET and I have discussed here at SDA, I think that’s what he’s trying to do (amongst other things, of course). It’s just that considering the actual changes on the ground over the last fifty years, I think we’re now getting into the do or die time frame.
Yet, even if we consider only the attitudes of those Albertans who might be more likely to consider the possibility of American statehood, I don’t think many of us are willing to go that far. Not at this point, or in the short to medium term. Now, if Texas were willing to split off and join Alberta, that might be interesting. Yeah, yeah, I’m just kidding 😉
The left of the aisle in the United States would be unlikely to accept Alberta, even if we went though a shortened process. It might be possible that we could fake them out by bringing in British Columbia on the grounds of the Marxists in the lower mainland, which might placate the left side of the isle, if they don’t catch on to the fact that the interior is quite right of the aisle. After all, if you can survive with San Francisco, we can survive with Vancouver. And that would I think also be more interesting to the United States in terms of the land bridge to Alaska.
The best trick though would be to get the Yukon and North West Territories, Alberta, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas to form a new country from the north-west passage to the gulf of Mexico. The east/west division of North America has always been a cultural anomaly, as ET has often mentioned here. Though I don’t expect to see much progress on that front in my life-time.
Oh, and my dear MaryJane, I didn’t say Albertans work harder than others. I can easily argue that we do, by various criteria, but I didn’t. I just said that we have never been thanked for all the hard work we do under difficult conditions to the benefit of all, rather, we have been ridiculed and insulted. Politics isn’t about logic (for better or worse), it’s about perceptions. And we’re getting the perception that you’re taking us for granted.
That won’t do any more.
A lot of you people might not remember what precipitated the nep and it was the scummy lieberals purchase of petrofina, after they had all loaded up on stocks,for I think over 2 billion taxpayers dollars, for a 900 million dollar company. Yes one of those on the inside lives very nicely in a town nearby and has since these scums Turdeau and co. turned petrofina into petrocanada and we all know where the stocks went for a while, big money was made by these thieves back then and if these same lying thieves are allowed to ram through their phoney Kyoto there is no doubt a long line of fart bottling warren kinsella types to capitalize on some despicable aspect of this money transfer. Hard to believe there are people stupid enough like Frank that are capable of making a living much less wiping their own ass without help, yea Frank it was in the past, almost broke me, caused untold hardship to myself and countless others and we, you stupid asshole, will never forget! So go stick your tongue on a frozen fire escape again you lieberal pissboy.
Yes, but vitruvius, since everyone else works as hard under conditions every bit as difficult, every bit as much for the greater good, why would it enter your head that you should be singled out for gratitude? If there is misperception, it’s at your end.
Post #1 on this thread from frank: “Good thing Italian and Japanese Canadians don’t carry a grudge like many Albertans.
“Hell, they forgave the federal government for slapping them in concentration camps faster than Albertans stopped carping about a failed three-decade old program.”
There have been lots of fine, well deserved darts at this mental midget so far, but no one’s mentioned what I thought the second I saw his post: there’s only a very qualified equivalency between the internees and the PROVINCE OF ALBERTA. It’s called injustice. Yes, both were the victims of this. However, 1) war time conditions sometimes require unsavoury actions and 2) did Japanese and Italian Canadians hold the socialist province of Quebec and the rest of soft-headed Canada on their shoulders? I don’t think so, frank. Your comparison is one dimensional and totally inadequate.
maryjane, so is yours. Mean-spirited too.
You two sound like the reality challenged, entitled students I teach: lots of shallow, bigoted opinions masquerading–in your own minds only–as intelligent analysis. Smarten up.
I’m a person living in Ontario who has a very high regard for Alberta. Dave from Markham wrote, “For my two cents….I’ll take my brothers and sisters in Alberta over Quebec anyday! Not because you’re rich. I just happen to like you a lot more.” Ditto!
I thank God every day for our fine PM and the CPC. And, if Alberta were to separate, my husband and I would very seriously consider jumping ship: think of the insufferable conditions in socialist, moonbat Canada if the moderating influence of the West were removed. (We do think and we shudder.)
Let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark. They can hope to get an energy handout from Venezuela.
We’re not interested in being singled out for gratitude, MaryJane, we’re interested in not being ridiculed and insulted. When you come marching in here in violation of clauses 92A(1) & (2) of the constitution of Canada, we feel like you are taking us for rubes. You are making a mistake.
And I should note, to Lookout and to Dave in Markham, I apologize for any ways in which my writing above may have inadvertently caught you and my other friends and colleagues in eastern Canada in my rhetorical net. As I did try to say (sorry if I wasn’t more clear), my fire of hope for Canada is still burning, but there’s a chill wind threatening to extinguish the flame.
errr…maryjane, if you think for one minute that I’m working for “the greater good” you’re sadly mistaken. I risked my capital and my effort in my companies to benefit me and my family. Period.
If what I do happens do benefit the greater good…well fine. But I save my altruism for things like charitable donations and pro-bono work (which I do a lot of).
But let’s quit with the collectivist bullsh!t about why people work, okay?
Another side note about the 1970s Petrocan. When it was getting started, Bill Hopper was looking to acquire some more oil companies.
Hey, buying oil companies who already have oil in the ground is a lot easier than looking for it yourself.
It was soon announced that Petrocan had made a deal to buy another company for a better than market price, as all the federal govt acquisitions were at that time.
It later came to light that a middle man in the deal was paid a cool $1 million dollars for his hard work.
After all picking up a phone to ask the president of an oil company if he wanted to sell his company for more than it was worth probably required some real convincing on his part, eh?
But the real irony of this useless middle man was that in the oil business of the day, more than a just a little serious business was done over lunch and handshake. Serious capitalism cuts costs, not adds to them.
And there was no need at all for a middle man in this case.
But when you are MAURICE STRONG, and the sleazy Liberals are in power, doing some heavy duty phone calling is easily worth a million dollars.
Crooked Mo and the Crooked Liberal Party of Central Canada had struck the taxpayers again.
Vitruvius, no apologies needed. But thanks. I’m a Westerner at heart, even though my family’s been in eastern Canada for over 200 years.
The thing is, my family’s CENTURIES old ethic–hard work and personal responsibility–is consonant with the Western ethos these days. Ontario’s a sell-out.
My blood boils.
I have not been a Canadian since the NEP. I am a Western Canadian, first and foremost. As cretien said, you people our West are different, he was right, the only time he was right. Different morals different values and different ethics than the ELB’s, [eastern liberal bastards/bitches]. I go even further back in my dislike of the east, all the way to the flag and it’s aborted entry. Who in the hell ever saw a maple leaf out West in those days other than along the coast, and then to say there won’t be any blue in the flag because they are Tory colours. To this day I fly the Ensign off the stern. I guess pricks in the east do start with p as in pearson and pierre.
To visit tredeau’s final resting place to relieve myself would be nice.
I would certainly support separating from the rest of Canada if the Liberals got back into power, and started this crap again.
We can have all the philosophical discussions about who loves whom and who supports whom. Doesn’t mean a thing; the people of Alberta will not tolerate an ethnocentric Liberal government that chastises “easy money” and expects Alberta to carry the can for Kyoto fantasies. Pure and simple, whether or not Ted or Iberia, or anyone else agrees, Alberta detects this lack of context and fairness, where Quebec hydroelectric producers or Ontario autoplants churn away, but Alberta is the bad guy. The Liberals are playing a high-stakes game of power – don’t let them get away with with.
Dion and his ilk have the potential, by pitting regions against another, to finally break up the country. If Central Canadian voters allow this, we are in for serious consequences. Don’t kid yourselves. This is not the 1970s anymore.
Western Canadian: Me too, and that is why I voted no in the poll, should flag day be a stat holiday.
I hate the “Canada Packer’s” version of our flag too. I fly the Red Ensign–we actually have a moth eaten original–on important occasions.
I think that there are many in Sask that will be Albertans if the next NEP comes to fruitian.We wont move there but will be in the front lines to defend Albertas and Sask’s economy if the feds try their horse crap again.Viva la Ouest,viva la Ouest libre!
I think our PM started to make a point to get the message out, that all cdns and provinces will have to make changes to meet kyoto. He mentioned industries in the east. He will soon have to come out, when he makes his emmission stmts, and tell them what suggestions he has for reducing emmission, but he will make it very plain that everything we do, from showering, eating, working, driving to the cottage, uses energy.
If dion makes any more stmts re consequenses, easy money, sustainable development etc, I would like our Premier to call and say, enough, one more stmt from you and we will bring in the Not withstanding clause, and undo every law you liberals and you leftist courts have forced on us, starting with bilingualism and ending with ssm. You want a fight, you got one.
I really think that many liberals who voted for him were drunk and are slowly getting over the hangover, and saying What have we done. When he gets no seats other than que and GTA, and maybe a few in the maritimes, he will be gone. I pray every night he will do worse than Kim Campbell did. Just might be Layton using that exercise room.
And the Liberals and Easterners are just going to let us walk off with our bag of money!! HA ha ha
reminds me of a line from gone with the wind, about there not being even one cannon factory in the south, sorry to point out we have no today’s equivalents of cannon factories in the west.
I agree with what most are saying but, I won’t believe it till the proverbial rubber hits the road
to paraphrase….
Son, we live in a world that requires oil. Oil comes from wells and those wells have to be run by men with balls. Who’s gonna do it? You, Frank? You, Ted? I work harder in worse conditions than you can fathom.
You weep for Trudeau and you curse the roughnecks. You have that luxury of not knowing what I know: That Trudeau’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, SAVES LIVES.
You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at liberal fund raisers, you want me on that well. You NEED me on that well. We use words like hard word, family, God…. We use these words as the backbone to a life spent building something. You use ’em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who travels and sleeps under the blanket of the very energy I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it. I’d prefer you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I’d suggest you grab some steel-toed boots and board the bus to Fort MacMurray. Either way, I don’t give a dam
what you think you’re entitled to.
Sorry, Jack
More environmental fallout: We can envisage a new Al Gore like video with the voice-over saying the Albertan iceberg is calving from the glacier that is Canada with this http://tinyurl.com/2qb8qv running in the background.
Born (1960) and raised in Calgary I remember the Liberal NEP. Walked into work one morning in 1982, the bankers were there and said I was out of a job. People left their homes because they couldn’t give them away and couldn’t stay ’cause there’s no work.
Everybody hear that sucking noise??? It’s the sound of the new improved kyoto approved liberal party o’canada.
It forty below and I got a heater in my truck
but I dont give a fu ck cuz Im going to the rodeo.
Its aleman left and aleman right and the izzy money will do me alright.
I see Borat Dion is uneasily quite these past few days. I demand an apology from Marky Mark Holland and Borat Dion for the izzy money statement.
FREE THE WEST
NEPII?
I grew up in Alberta and I will tell you that every word of that article rang true. I remember standing in unemployment lines and competing with men twice my age for scut jobs.
I am willing to give Canada a second chance under Harper, but if we get another french swine in the PMO, I want out and to hell with Canada and their socialist francophone fu**tards.
Pardon my fwench.
I have posted “The Management of Alberta Resources” as a possible topic for TVOntario’s program the Agenda with Steve Paikin. I thought it might be a way to alert Ontarians to the devastation of the NEP and also get someone to tackle the Liberal plans to curb oil production. So far, not much interest seems to have been expressed. If you think this is a good topic and are in Ontario (or otherwise get TVO), you might want to register to comment on the topic and recommend it be picked up for a program feature. Unfortunately, you do have to register to comment on the site. Click on Submit your show ideas, then scroll down to “Managing Alberta’s Resources” post on Feb. 5th.
Damn Rob R. That was some great paraphrasing. I would dearly love to see that French weasel on the floor of a rig throwing chain and soaked in invert with a 30mph wind blowing on him when its 20 below.
You said it all Rob R. Us people with balls and our women who work alongside us are carrying the load for this country. Those lazy money sucking white towel waving worthless in Quebec and the new lieberal voting immigrants in TO. who tell us how we should live, make me want to puke as much as a picture of Turdeau would. This country would be in a fine mess without the Alberta work ethic, yea run the oil out you f..king moronic mark holland liberals, see how many new trucks you sell out of Ontario, see how many maritimers have to go back home and live on pogey, see how long the free day care and 4000 to 12000 dollar per baby, cheques keep floating to those useless french diddlers to pay for their beloved social programs they have on Albertas dollars. With that worthless province being 130 billion in debt it wouldn’ be long. Go ahead vote that embarrassing university, clean soft handed fairy in and see what happens.
”We’re not interested in being singled out for gratitude, MaryJane, we’re interested in not being ridiculed and insulted.”
”But for fifty years Canada has never said, Thank you Alberta, for all the hard work you do under difficult conditions to better us all”
Sounds like you want to be singled out to me.
As for ridicule and insults,
”but if we get another french swine in the PMO,”
”Different morals different values and different ethics than the ELB’s, [eastern liberal bastards/bitches].”etc, etc….it cuts both ways.
I also remember the NEP. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I was in the Canadian Forces (we weren’t even officially ‘Armed’ at the time) so I was relatively insulated from the worst of its direct effects, however, many of my brother’s co-workers in the oil industry were not. I just had to experience Trudeau’s “just society” with soldiers on welfare and the UIC ski team. I think easterners would do well to drop their arrogance and condescension before pooh-poohing Alberta separatism. My first serious discussion of it was in the doctor’s lounge at a tertiary care hospital, and there was only one physician present who insisted on dismissing the idea out of hand, the rest being quite serious about it albeit reluctantly. So it’s not simply an idea being considered by grease-stained rubes, it’s gaining increasing currency amongst well-educated professionals. The big question being asked is “What the hell do we actually get for this confederation thing anyway?” Countries can split quite precipitously, and almost by accident (Slovakia and Czech Republic). The precipitants can often be emotional, not necessarily coldly practical. A “son of NEP” such as the libs are toying with may be turn out to be a political/national suicide bomb; and Dion doesn’t exactly strike me as being terribly astute as it comes to handling explosives.
It’s not just about keeping the “colonial” regions on a short reign, the Lie-beral’s like to take other people’s money for nothing to use for themselves, the lazy ass slackers that they are. Do Quebecer’s really believe that the Lie-beral’s don’t have their eyes on hydroelectric production as a target for nationalization along with oil and gas production?
MaryJane you twit
“Albertans don’t work any harder under conditions any more difficult that anyone else.”
Better have another hit off the bong.
Its dropped all the way down to -15 in the centre of the universe. I have 7 guys working for me who would think they had died and gone to heaven if it was the warm out here.
somebody needs to learn about biting the hand that feeds you
Something for all the naysayers to consider. Harper knows the Clarity Act inside out. He helped write it. It is just another thing that the liberals stole and gave credit to dion for writing. I wonder who translated it for him. He probably didn’t understand the english version. Would love to hear him read it, in his third language.
it’s time to split!!!
we need passports anyway
I say let them eat cake.
Once a people become mired in socialism it is almost impossible to drag them out of it. If you look at Russia today there are still people that miss communism. The same will be true of Toronto. There are always going to be people like MaryJane who have no idea what it is like to be self supporting, who are and always will be waiting at the government table for the next scrap of food to be thrown at them.
The more I think about the cultural differences between western and eastern urban Canada the more I think we should start our own republic. One with a constitution that is decidely non-socialistic and entirely libertarian. I am sure that a free country without any socialistic tendencies would attract the best and brightest from the world and would chase away all those who had aspirations of living off the avails of those who contribute.
“The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits.” – Plutarch as borrowed from Vitruvius’s site. Thks.
The MaryJanes and Dions of the world would be forced to produce something of value or perish. I think it would be a fun experiment.
Food for thought. I just read a (really poorly written) novel called “America’s Last Days” that could have been titled “Alberta’s Last Days.”
Interesting idea, needed more ghost-writing.
Ted: Here’s a post I wrote (from an Alberta perspective) last year, (and I suggest you also click on “Dear Mr. Cheney” which I won’t link so as to not get tossed into mediation pergatory) with lots of links to CBC videos and other archives. I suggest you review it and ask again why we all still remember.
Firstly, hats off to Rob R great work. Secondly as an easterner who worked in the oil industry in Alberta in the 70’s I saw what the NEP did and it caused unemployment right across this country, far worse than the Arrow fiasco of Dief’s time. I moved west in the mid eighties and have and will never look back, if Dion and the liberals ever get back into power then this country is doomed and I’ll be with the other rednecks at the barricades, preferably along the Ont/Man border. Keep up the good work Kate.
Vituvious,
Here’s a quote from a slightly tipsy U.S. Senator – a Republican from a state that shall remain nameless: “When they divided up the continent, instead of going for that 49th parallel bullshit, they should have run the line from the Gulf, up the Mississippi to Hudson Bay.”
When asked how California would fit into that scenario he said, “With any luck, they’ll have the ‘big one’ and slide into the Pacific. Japan can have ’em.”
Years ago, I read Tom Peters’ “In Search of Excellence”. In one company profile, the concept of “it either matters, or it doesn’t” was examined. A broad swath of westerners are forced to look at Canada through that very lens. For more than a generation, we have borne a tremendous burden of equalization and its’ attendant Quebec mollycoddling. What we have asked for in return is a proportionate say in the nations’ affairs. Basically, a fair shake, is all we ask. Look long and hard at the birth and transformation of the Reform Party. Unlike in Quebec, Reform was born and grew from a disparate ethnology. Catholics, Mormons, Jews; Ukrainians, Scots, Germans, it was all of us with a common belief in making Confederation stronger for all Canadians. But what was going on just below the surface was the flip side- Does making our government better really matter, or not? You see, if it doesn’t really matter, then the whole exercise was moot because it didn’t really matter if you brought about change. But if it does matter, and your efforts at bringing about reform- electoral reform, judicial reform, constitutional reform, are consistently rebuffed, then at some point you are compelled to turn your back on Canada only because it has turned its’ back on you. I’ll only say this once- those of you who insist on clinging to that old, elitist Canadian model that the Libs and NDP so fervently believe in, should consider yourselves warned.
Here’s a diddy some of ya might remember:
PETRO Canada = Pierre Elliot Trudeau Rips Off Canada
So will we have NEP II?
– Not likely.
Alberta separating?
– Not Likely
Liberals winning Ont/PQ/Atlantic votes with NEP threats…
– Likely.
Albertans threatening to separate again…
– Likely.
Albertans actually doing something about it?
– Not Likely.
Voter turnout?
Less than 35%.
Who runs the country?
Less than 35%. Ontario & Quebec.
Roll me over and let me go back to sleep.
There you have it folks, the vicious circle of being a ME Generation Canadian.
Yes, I went through NEP, humbled enough to do bag boy grocery work to pay bills, fiance’ left me, and I lived in rented old houses for a lot of years.
So yeah, I also have a long memory, but I also remember as Albertans we are full of hot air when it comes to doing something.
Remember Gainers? Western Lotto HQ? Ok, how about recent $400 billion BSE bailout, to whom? Remember Highway 63 deaths? The Pigeon Lake oil spill? Calgary Hospitals being blown up? Corruption within Edmonton’s cop brass? A rudderless Calgary top cop?
has anyone been to an Alberta Alliance or Alberta Separate Party meeting lately? These poor folks couldn’t beat themselves out of a wet paper bag let agree on a vision for Alberta.
Ah, but yapping here on blogs make us tough.
Yep.
tomax7,
Whatever. But if you truly believe nothing will change forever … I suspect it is you that is yapping.
I, too, lived in Alta when the NEP kicked in – the above postings by Albertans brought back those sad and desperate days. It was tragic, evil, and it made Turdo’s mouth twist into a mockery of a smile/sneer. I hated that evil little pip squeak so much that I stopped watching all TV news just in case his mug would appear – it threw me into a rage and every person I knew felt the same way. I lost my job, as did most of the people I knew; most lost their cars and their houses and their machinery. The Americans I knew were sad to leave because we had all become friends; however I remember one girl from Kentucky saying to me “if I were you I would be afraid to stay here, a man who will treat women and children the way your Prime Minister does is evil, cruel and far from God. His ilk spreads the evil and fools will idolize him rather than hate him – he is the Devil’s work”. She said “He reminds me of General Sherman” – the South has never forgotten what that man ruthlessly destroyed during the time of OPEN Civil War in the USA- I have never forgotten her words. I have lived with a latent fear for myself, my family and my country all of these years as I saw her warning manifest itself in the PMs and the politicians all Canadians – with the exception of Alberta – elected on and off. Cretian, Trudeau, Malrony(who betrayed us), the Dippers in provinces(like B.C. and Sask.)..even Getty in Alberta.
For the first time in 27 years I have felt safe in my own country because a good and just Prime Minister with honorable men and women in his caucus is making the calls and standing up for the Citizens of Canada – not just those in Eastern Canada.
French citizen Dion might be the worst of the batch that Liberanos could have elected but he is just a Liberano to me. They are all the same to me; revolting.
The memories of blacked out windows in sky rises and depressed, devastated, heart broken people in the province of Alberta people during that time, come back to haunt me when I hear the words of stupid fools like Holland, Goodale and French citizen Dion. We were betrayed by our own public servants (PET was paid by us, never forget – and the rest of the country just sat on their hands!).
I have no idea why the province of Alberta would want to help the rest of Canada; as for me, I am, and will always be, on the side of the province I love best – Alberta.
Tomax7, you missed the point altogether!
People have a right to gripe about annoyances along the way, don’t they?
But, and it is a huge but, they could gripe and still be secure in having their income!
With Holland spilling the beans on what the Liberals have in mind, people really had to come to grips with realizing what is at stake.
Their income, man. Their income.
Not some nattering about government rules or fairness…..their income, and way of life.
One heck of a difference!
maryjane wrote, “Albertans don’t work any harder under conditions any more difficult that anyone else.”
Well, ma’am, you may just be correct. So, what do you think of Dion’s and the Liberals’ slander of Alberta by suggesting that work in the oil patch and in construction jobs there are “easy money”?
I live in Ontario and am incensed by this calumny.
Looking forward to your response.