Angry Roughneck responds to Ed Stelmach;
First off, drilling levels will be fine through this winter. Companies have already bought their land rights, so they are already committed to winter drilling projects. This will be great for Ed and the Progressive Communist party of Alberta. Ed will be able to sit back on his throne, sometime in mid February and point triumphantly to the record drilling levels and say “see, helping Albertans did not deter drilling. We must not be afraid of the big oil companies”. Most people will cheer and then once summer comes, and the election is over, and pink Eddie is re-elected, the industry will come to a grinding halt, but the pubic won’t be interested in the debate anymore. The lack of drilling will be attributed to a downturn in the industry, a bust cycle, possibly blamed on a high dollar or more access to middle east oil.
The big energy companies like Encana, Talisman, Conoco, CNRL… etc will spend their dollars elsewhere (see Saskatchewan) out of principle. They will make a stand because they know who’s next in line (see looting feds) for their profits. People think it is hard to move a giant corporation like Encana. Well its not, Encana is just a bunch of engineers. Pipelines, compressors and pipelines can be rebuilt (cost can be spread out amonst competitors) or in a lot of circumstance already exist on other parts. All the equipment associated with oil production is owned by Albertans— the rigs, wellheads, pipe, welding units, trucks, trailers, tools, and heavy equipment are all owned by Albertans who rent their capital to energy producers. The energy companies have no stake in any of this capital expenditure.
A different type of discussion here.
The royalties will cause the oil patch to slow down in Alberta? This means I won’t have some yahoo driving a Jesus Big Truck trying to run me off the highway three times a day like I’m putting up with now? That property prices might come back down to a level where those of us NOT working in the oil patch can afford to buy something?
Oh, darn. I’m all choked up. No seriously, I think I just produced a tear.
I see where the TSX energy index finished up 0.23 per cent today.
Only a moron would choose to have money given to a government who is already overtaxing its citizens, overspending, and providing no benefits …
This $1.4 Billion will not be seen by you Sean, it will either enter into the pockets of a politician’s friend or into the pockets of an overpayed and underworked government employee who is doing an unnecessary job …
This whole story has been quite refreshing for myself. It shows me just what a small minority most SDA readers represent. I’ve never seen such a cohort of angry partisan ideologues to be honest. After awhile of reading the crap posted here, I really started to feel like Canadian society was hitting a new low. But with polls showing the most right wing province in the country supporting this move in the 80 – 90% range, it becomes rather apparent that this site doesn’t echo the values of all that many. Thank you! Good luck with this trash bin!
I, too, don’t really see the downside to this. Macro-economically, Alberta needs to cool off, and there are not many levers a provincial government can pull.
**angry howls: but he did it for the money!***
So what? The effect is the same.
If it was me, I’d be charging infrastructure levys and decommisioning costs (negative externality offsets). But, hey…it’s your province.
Federally, I’d slap a CO2 offset tax on every barrel shipped to the states (to drive the Dems nuts) and a “security of supply” surcharge (to drive the Repubs nuts)
Just substitute the phrase ‘global warming’ for ‘royalty review’ and you’ll have an exaggeration and embellishment of future outcomes worthy of Algore.
The National Energy Program established the fact the resource was owned by the people of Alberta.
This battle is between Big Oil and the people of Alberta.
My money’s on the people of Alberta.
You can be sure the Golden Goose is making other plans right at this minute. Stelmach is a fool. Albertans will pay for this.
Instead of stating that Albertans want a bigger share of the booty because someday it will be gone is crazy. It would make more sense to start planning now for an economy in Alberta that is not based on the oil sands.
I don’t care how much money you put in the bank today, once you stop putting it in, it will start going away. You must find a way to continue finding new ways to get money.
The standard advise for investors and savers it to diversify your portfolio. I give that advise to the Stelmach idiot.
And I might add that diversity is only a good idea when we are talking investments. In that case it is as strength. When applied to the Canadian Society, It amounts to this …. divided we fall!
Sorry to mix metaphors here, but there is so much stupidity around that it is necessary to package some of it up so that it all gets covered.
Remember that line from that Kevin Costner movie “If you build it, they will come”?
There’s another line that fits better here: If you tax it, they will leave. And when they leave, they will take your economic boom with them.
The ONLY reason any of that tar sands stuff got built was the Alberta government giving Suncor et al a smoking hot deal on royalties. Fast Eddie thinks that now these big plants are built, he can soak the hell out of these companies. That’s because Fast Eddie is a socialist imbecile. Yes, I used the “S” word. Socialist!
You guys want to know how much of an impact Fast Eddie’s little stunt made in the USA? None. Not a ripple. I think Bloomberg news mentioned it once. Why? Because the Americans don’t care. This is small change to the likes of Exxon. They spill more than Canada uses. They will take their money and walk away to greener pastures.
Alberta tar sands are not the only game in town my friends. The only reason anybody bothered with them was a high oil price and low tax. Half of that equation is gone. New wells will be getting sunk in Saskatchewan, where rumor has it that there may be more oil that Alberta.
Might be time to start turning the screws on your Alberta PC party. Get a screw gun, socialists can be dense.
The funny thing about ths whole thing is that people are saying that the oil companys will move to Sask.They were here but the govt of the day decided that the royalties werent high enough so they all moved to Alberta.The head offices were in Regina,the service companys were in Estevan etc but high royalties sent them to Alberta.Some day look at the map where the oil activity is.It used to stop at the SAsk-Alberta border
The Alberta auditor general has been reporting for seven years (7 years) that the previous government under Ralphie was undercharging royalties, even under the old regime.
There was something fishy going on as Ralphie was able to joke about how the oil companies have not followed the terms of the previous regime.
It’s not Stelmach who’s the problem … fact of the matter is Ralphie was in the pocket of Big Oil and was asleep at the switch as a representative of the people of Alberta.
I’m not sure of all the exact detalis yet, but I guarantee you all this stuff about how Ralphie ran interference for Big Oil will come out eventually.
In the meanwhile, what harm could it do if there were more exploration in Saskatchewan and, for that matter, in B.C.?
There’s no downside to the western Canadian economy getting stronger outside the Alberta borders.
I have spoken to three colleagues about this, the four of us have been in the patch for decades each, we all tend to vote conservative, we were all born and live in Alberta, and none of us have our shorts in a knot over this.
As Tenebris notes, we are talking about the Government of the Province of Alberta here. It’s all well and good to stomp one’s feet in heated debate, as both sides in this one have been doing (based on all the reading I’ve done on it over the last 48 hours), yet it is not good to demand the impossible in the name of the desired.
I think Premier Stelmach has scored about a 3 out of 5 on policy and a 4 out of 5 on politics (or a bit better), ergo (considering his job), I think he did ok. My opinion won’t stop CAPP from pulling in one direction, and the Pembina Institute the other, and that’s a good thing.
But it’s a separate thing from whether or not Mr. Stelmach did a reasonable government deal under the circumstances. Wanting it to be otherwise does not make it so. Sometimes I think the reason some people spend so much time getting their shorts in a knot is because they get a thrill out of it 😉
Tim, I read your post a second time: all generalities and no documentation. Not one concrete example of what you posit.
Your little screed is similar to the vagaries written by the elementary school students I teach. Along with discussion, I provide templates, with headings and specific language, in order to inhibit the propensity of my students to be both shallow minded and to use general words—“angry partisan ideologues”—which, without concrete examples, mean very little: far too much TV and computer use, I’m afraid.
Your style is also seriously problematic. E.g., It’s “me”, not “myself”; it’s “some time” not “awhile”.
You would have more credibility, Tim, if you made a more comprehensive case. Mere put-downs don’t cut it. As I’d say to my students, “Proofread and edit your work. Then resubmit.”
Danm it Lookout, the topic is the Stelmach Decision, not Tim.
vit:
I think you’ve hit it on the head.
Stelmach is acting on behalf of the people of Alberta.
Ralphie was running interference for Big Oil.
I’d say Stelmach is doing his job and he was well aware that Ralphie was a puppet of the oil companies. That’s why he called the royalty review so quickly.
I know I’ve been clearing more and more exec jets and turbo props to Manitoba’s mini-version of the oil patch. I can’t exactly say what it means, but I’d bet a lot of companies are looking elsewhere before starting new projects.
Vitruvius, good point.
The royalty will not matter as much now, but when oil prices start falling again, that is when Alberta will feel the pinch.
The Premier needs to focus on diversifying Alberta economically anyway.
lookout
hope U don’t do a grammar and spel cheque on one of us’n dislexics:-)))))
I agree SYF, that the Premier of Alberta is, or should be, acting in the interest of many (what is the trendy term, oh yes) stakeholders, including the citizens and residents of Alberta, the Government of Alberta, the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta, and, yes indeed, the businesses (local and global) that operate within and serve Alberta and the world.
I agree that’s what Premier Stelmach is trying to do, indeed, I don’t know of any premier who wasn’t. Your gratuitous slur of Premier Klein is not only unnecessary, it is not relevant, because Mr. Stelmach is making decisions under different circumstances than Mr. Klein was.
Vit:
I have always voted for Ralphie but the truth about what the auditor general has been saying for the past seven years will come out at some point.
“This $1.4 Billion will not be seen by you Sean”
Don’t care if I ever see a dime of it. I’ll just be happy if the amount of traffic on the highway next to my yard drops by 75%. (It’s not pleasant when some under qualified 18 year old driving a tanker truck tries to wipe out your family at least twice a week.) And if I’m not having to dust daily because of all the crap that the constant rig moves have been kicking up into the air. Or if I don’t have to breathe in the fumes from those miserable @#$%ing flare stacks.
(It’s the content, GYM 😉 )
Here’s what the auditor general said this year:
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2007/10/01/4541369.html
Let’s not go there, SYF, the topic here is the Stelmach Decision.
“The Oil Companies will just go somewhere else”. On Principle.
A. Where ?
B. For how long ?
C. Do they plan to somehow create more Oil by wish fulfillment in some place they can boss around and exploit unmercifully ?
D. What if the new areas to be developed are even more expensive to exploit than the Oil Sands ?
E. Since what date did Big Oil have any principles whatsoever. Except of course — ‘Show us the MONEY’
Alberta has evidently been screwing itself over for decades. Now the multis are whining that it is unfair for Alberta to ask for what others have been getting for all those years.
I feel a tear coming on.
I really do.
set you free pontificates “Just substitute the phrase ‘global warming’ for ‘royalty review’ and you’ll have an exaggeration and embellishment of future outcomes worthy of Algore.
The National Energy Program established the fact the resource was owned by the people of Alberta.
This battle is between Big Oil and the people of Alberta.
My money’s on the people of Alberta.”
Except it isn’t between Big Oil and the people of Alberta. The battle is between private enterprise and government. “Big Oil”, as you call it has interests all around the world and can (and do) easily move their focus. It is mid and small oil that is taking the fall…..as the fall in the stock market today in that part of the industry shows.
Those who cry about “Big Oil” are nothing more than socialist morons. “Big Oil” has done infinitely more for Alberta than big government ever has or ever will.
I think that all the people who badmouth Premier Ed’s attempt at updating the oil and gas industry’s tax regime should go back to their writings, and take out Ed Stelmach, and substitute it with Peter Lougheed.
Would you say the same angry things about Lougheed who bravely increased the original industry taxes and royalties 30 yrs ago?
He heard all the same bluster, bluffs and threats from the oil companies when he made his changes, and yet most of us have done really well because of his gamble.
Nice roads, hospitals, universities, etc.
And what if oil goes to $150/bbl?
Should only the lottery-winning oil companies and their shareholders continue to get all the benefits and profits?
The question is, at what point, ie dollars per bbl, would Premier YOU finally decide to increase the govts take?
And how long would the voters keep Premier YOU in office if oil went to $150/bbl and you didn’t take more in taxes?
Premier Ed didn’t write the British North America Act but he has to abide by it, and it is his job to look after Alberta’s resources.
Think long term, and beyond your backyard…
Alberta’s oil patch is overheated. This will do little to those projects already in motion. It will however re-direct some investment funds into Saskatchewan especially if there is a change of government on the 7th.
No, Doug, Alberta has not been screwing itself over for decades, we’re doing quite fine thank you, adjusting to the changes in circumstances that come year after year, just like you are.
Albertans are sitting on 300 years worth of petroleum resources and 800 years worth of coal resources. About 40 % of harvested hydrocarbon resources go into chemical, plastics, &c feed stocks, so even if we stopped all use of hydrocarbon resources for heating, cooling, power, and transportation, a mere 150 % increase in consumption in India and China would leave the global demand for Alberta’s resources unchanged.
The problem at this point is that Alberta is a bit stressed out from the pressures of the exercise we have been called upon to perform in the name of the good of humanity, so if Premier Stelmach does not address those conditions, it will improve the odds for the communists in the next election.
And, John, we have what, 15 to 20 years of projects in the queue, and a shortage of skilled workers. We shall see of course, but at this point it doesn’t look to me like these changes are going to flush that queue. If an exodus does happen, then I will have been wrong.
I agree that “big oil” is not the problem, and agree that “government” is a problem, but that doesn’t not change the matter of whether or not Premier Stelmach made a good decision under the circumstances.
“Think long term, and beyond your backyard…”
I am. I’m assuming that the bastards litter in your back yard, too. (Is anyone else sick of picking up the garbage that these @$$holes keep throwing out their truck windows?)
If you’re so interested in others not littering your back yard, Sean, you might also consider not swearing in other people’s blogs. May we return to the topic please?
All this would just go away if you just had a gov’t run crown oil industry…….
Sorry for that.
Just LOL and move on, please don’t hijack the thread.
“I am. I’m assuming that the bastards litter in your back yard, too. (Is anyone else sick of picking up the garbage that these @$$holes keep throwing out their truck windows?)”
Sean, I get that too – but there are no oil trucks hauling around here.
I know – it’s hard to explain.
Eddie the Goof just lost my vote. The Pickpocket Communists have been running surplus after surplus for I can’t remember how many years and what have the average Albertan got to show for it? Does Eddie the Goof really think the govenrment needs more money to squander? The people of Alberta get their share of the Oil money by working for it. Welders, Pipefitters, and all the other trades, Truckers, Cooks, and all the other services, large and small supply and specialty supply companies all receive their share by working in and for the “patch”. 1.4 Billion can keep a lot of people working. What will Eddie do with it?
Not to put too fine a point on it, Joe, but the average Albertan has quite a lot to show for our province’s natural resource wealth. I agree though, that one of the big questions is what the Government of the Province of Alberta is going to do with the riches of ours that it holds in proxy.
If we can keep a reasonable centrist party like the Progressive Conservatives in government, then there’s hope we can continue to grow our communities, hospitals, universities, &c (and maybe even a high-speed train from Calgary through Edmonton to Fort McMurray).
But if Mr. Stelmach’s party does not receive sufficient votes, then the real communists will get in. I could do without that. The game afoot here is politics, not engineering.
How much of a royalty is fair?
Ellis Wyatt might have an idea.
“The head of Wyatt Oil. He has almost single-handedly revived the economy of Colorado by discovering oil there. He is quick-tempered, more bound to violent outbursts than other characters. When first introduced, he is aggressive towards Dagny, whom he does not yet know and whom he blames for what are in fact her brother’s policies which directly threaten his business. Of all the disappearances of industrialists in the novel, Wyatt’s is surely the most dramatic: when the government passes laws and decrees which make it impossible for him to continue, he does not just go quietly away but sets all his oil wells on fire, leaving a jeering note: “I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It’s yours.” Without his expertise, the State Science Institute is unable to bring those wells back into production.”
(Sourced it at Wikipedia… I know, I know, but the synopsis is, I think, rendered accurately)
Big Oil certainly has thrown off a few tens of billions, or more like hundreds of billions, of dollars over the last 6 or 7 years in Alberta. Just my opinion, but the royalty regime as it presently exists would seem to be “gravy”.
Also, it doesn’t really seem ethical for the Stelmach government to terminate a contract, 7 years early, with the 2 largest oilsands investors… for that’s what Suncor and Syncrude represent, do they not?
“Most people will cheer and then once summer comes, and the election is over, and pink Eddie is re-elected, the industry will come to a grinding halt, but the pubic won’t be interested in the debate anymore. The lack of drilling will be attributed to a downturn in the industry, a bust cycle, possibly blamed on a high dollar or more access to middle east oil.”
It behooves me to point out that there’s already a lack of drilling this year compared to last in spite of ever increasing oil prices. Take a look at rig counts…
http://www.caodc.ca/rigcounts.htm
…and you’ll see the amount of idled rigs is way up in 2007 over previous years.
Can’t blame that on Stelmach.
—
In regard to my previous comments, please keep in mind that I live in the thick of oil country here in East Central Alberta. You can’t throw a rock out here without skipping it off three or four pump jacks, it seems.
After a while one gets tired of the noise, the traffic (with the accompanying near death experiences), the nasty smells, the inflated prices for any service where you’re competing with “the patch”, and most of all, the ignorant oil patch employees who act like they’re goddamned royalty and expect to be treated as such. (Many of the aforementioned oil workers are so useless that they’d either be unemployable or marginally employable in any “normal” economy. And they let them drive trucks the size of manufactured homes.)
After two years of this I’m damn near at the point where NEPII is starting to look good. If I have problems with Stelmach, it’s that he didn’t bring in 50% royalties *tomorrow*. Yeah, I’d move if I could, but my daughter having access to her grandparents (who won’t move) trumps any other concerns right now. Once they’re no longer in the picture, we’re out of Alberta’s picture too.
I’ve had it with living in oil country.
Fair enough, Sean, yet don’t expect the Premier of the Province of Alberta to make his decisions solely on the basis of your circumstances. Good point about the contracts, Joe B., I wouldn’t be surprised if we haven’t heard the last of that yet. It will be interesting to follow the details of how that develops.
Sean – are you merely complaining pro forma? I’m an ol’ prairie boy – I wish I could head back to the land of the 2pi sky, but the disparities in the housing market and in living standards make such a choice unpalatable.
You want a perfect world? Grow daisies. Even then, odds are you’ll be covered in tarmac in 50 years. So, you either learn to live with irritations, you figure out how to moderate them, or you get ulcers and die.
In this case, Stelmach may just have (possibly inadvertently) forced (ever so incredibly gently) Albertans to look at the bigger picture. Repeat after me (slowly): It’s not always about oil. (Why do I have the weirdest sense of déjà vu?)
OT, but did you here the old definition of a populist? A short-sighted idealist…
How about a conservative? A stubborn traditionalist…
And people wonder why Harper has to resort to the Caesar approach so often.
It’s late, y’all, and I’ve got to torture students tomorrow. Be good, now, y’hear?
A shame the oil patch snuck up on you like that. Living the pristine country life and watching helplessly as pumpjacks jumped up about you like grasshoppers during a plague….
You were there first …. right?
I’m reminded of the urbanites who buy acreages out of town, only to launch petitions against the pig barn up the road.
Ahh, I love the smell of a pig barn in the morning, it reminds me of — bacon. And take care, Tenebris, I leave you with the words of W. S. Krabill, who said, “Those who are mentally and emotionally healthy are those who have learned when to say yes, when to say no, and when to say whoopee”.
Don’t you angry people do the math? None of the Toronto papers gave exact details, but as best as I can figure it out, Big Oil only pays 55 cents a barrel if the price of oil is under $55. If the price rises over that, the royalty rate goes up to 4.5% in steps. At current oil prices of $90/bbl, Big Oil has to pay $4.05 per barrel. That’s a price rise of $3.50.
Now, the price of oil has risen from $60 to $90/bbl in the last few months alone. Big Oil is getting an extra $30/bbl, and they’re whining about having to pay $3.50 of that to the province? Why should the oil companies be the only ones to benefit from this tremendous increase in price? Please, cry me a river.
Today’s Post showed the quarterly profits for Encana and Petro-Can; both were over $1 billion. A couple of analysts thought that this might knock a couple of percentage points off profits; hardly earth-shaking.
I think Stelmach did the right thing. It’s obvious to outsiders that your economy is overheated. I was at Calgary airport last week, with a 6-hour layover before me flight home to Toronto. I visited two restaurants during that time, and received the worst service I’ve ever had (with the possible exception of one Chinese place in Toronto where the serving staff spoke little or no English). When I asked about this on another board, I was told there were so many other, better paying jobs that restaurants were forced to accept less than perfect serving staff. Doesn’t sound too healthy to me. So, he cools things down a tiny bit, puts some money away (well, maybe; maybe he’ll just blow it – we’ll have to wait and see), and there’s just no chance that the oil companies are going to leave, BECAUSE ALBERTA IS WHERE THE OIL IS.
lookout: “Your style is also seriously problematic. E.g., It’s “me”, not “myself”
I tried pointing that out to lancelot once. But what’s sauce for the goose around here is not sauce for the gander.
But if Mr. Stelmach’s party does not receive sufficient votes, then the real communists will get in. I could do without that. The game afoot here is politics, not engineering.
Absolutely right and in the discussions I’ve had with a number of solid conservative voters that are asking what happened to the party they supported for all these years. they are not rich oil tycoons. Some live in small towns some live in large cities and almost every one of them would rather stay home and clean the oven than vote for someone as out of touch as Eddie. I listened to a bit of Rutherford this AM and was surprised that Kevin Taft made more sense than Eddie. If the conservatives want to win the next election they have to find a better leader. Eddie Dion is a dog that won’t hunt.
Joe:
Stelmach did what Klein should have done a long time ago.
Just read the auditor general’s report.
I’ve always voted for Klein and I”ll vote for Stelmach.
I am not an Albertan right now but I was an Albertan when the Turdo NEP beat Alberta and Albertans. Premier Loughead ‘lead us down that garden path’. The day Eddie slithered in as Premier I had a sick “Turdo daja vu”. In 1979 the air of optimism vanished almost overnight. Alberta had many true blue Albertans, some not born in Alberta, in 1979. We went there for the jobs but we liked what we saw and had the Premier not caved to the craven Turdo we would have kept Alberta free and prosperous to this day. Many of us found ourselves jobless and moved elsewhere and Alberta lost it’s young, enthusiastic, ambitious Alberta loving workforce. It also lost a sound middle class that would have helped build a solid infrastucture, based on capitalism not communism.
Alberta has been invaded by a great cross section of people – far too many from lefto Tranna for my comfort; but LOTS who want to be the backbone of the least government impaired province in the country.
Did any Albertan even wonder who the ‘pipple of Alberta’ are? Are they the ‘pipple’ of Mcsqinty land? I fear they are – Alberta needs a “palace revolt”; you may think that the young ‘new Albertans’ would never support a Wild Rose Party. I think they would because lucky Alberta got all the ambitious young people who wanted to ESCAPE from ambitious governments. Start squawking-as The Phantom says “build that Party and they will come”. There is something wrong with a Premier like this who is willing to cave so easily to government greed and/or social restructuring in Canada. Alberta has most of the young people in Canada – old people are moving to the Yukon for the free medicare the Yukon offered when the Puffins and Dippers were changing our youthful population of working people to a park populated by imported Dippers/Puffins and their parents. The Yukon does not have an economy -it is a welfare territory – we have a RED ‘conservative’ government leader here too – he has been in power for 6 years….we have 30,000 people, gold, silver, gas, copper, zinc..no mining here. Most of the young people here have moved to Alberta where they are a part of an exciting economy that offers them a lot more than working for the gument shuffling paper across a desk.
Take a deep breath and think about this Alberta – I am still an Albertan in my heart and I wish my adopted province only the best.
Turdo is not PM this time Alberta, Canada has the best and fairest Prime Minister ever elected in Canada – don’t flush it all away on a 3rd choice premier and his greedy government $$ addicted cabinet.
“Sean, you might also consider not swearing in other people’s blogs.”
Swearing? Heh. That’s not swearing. When I cut loose, I can walk into a restaurant and send Gordon Ramsey running out with his hands over his ears. 😉
“the average Albertan has quite a lot to show for our province’s natural resource wealth.”
We must not be average out here. We see all of the resources being shipped out of our community, but not so many being put back in. My wife is teaching Social 30 out of circa 1992 text books. You have to do the “eeny meeny miney moe” thing with the local newspaper to find which town has a doctor in their emergency room on any given weekend. And we need to send equalization $$$ to Newfoundland? Ptooey.
Not that I believe throwing $$$ at public health care will make things better — we’ve mostly established that it won’t.
“Good point about the contracts, Joe B., I wouldn’t be surprised if we haven’t heard the last of that yet. It will be interesting to follow the details of how that develops.”
Contracts that are in place should be honored. I’m no big fan of the oil industry right now, but I’m still a big believer in the value of a handshake and keeping one’s word.
Anyhow, good night folks, and thanks to all for putting up with me. The shop is backed up and I’ve got a long day of fixing computers ahead of me tomorrow. Best to get to bed so I’m up at a decent time in the morning.
I am not an Albertan right now but I was an Albertan when the Turdo NEP beat Alberta and Albertans. Premier Loughead ‘lead us down that garden path’. The day Eddie slithered in as Premier I had a sick “Turdo daja vu”. In 1979 the air of optimism vanished almost overnight. Alberta had many true blue Albertans, some not born in Alberta, in 1979. We went there for the jobs but we liked what we saw and had the Premier not caved to the craven Turdo we would have kept Alberta free and prosperous to this day. Many of us found ourselves jobless and moved elsewhere and Alberta lost it’s young, enthusiastic, ambitious Alberta loving workforce. It also lost a sound middle class that would have helped build a solid infrastucture, based on capitalism not communism.
Alberta has been invaded by a great cross section of people – far too many from lefto Tranna for my comfort; but LOTS who want to be the backbone of the least government impaired province in the country.
Did any Albertan even wonder who the ‘pipple of Alberta’ are? Are they the ‘pipple’ of Mcsqinty land? I fear they are – Alberta needs a “palace revolt”; you may think that the young ‘new Albertans’ would never support a Wild Rose Party. I think they would because lucky Alberta got all the ambitious young people who wanted to ESCAPE from ambitious governments. Start squawking-as The Phantom says “build that Party and they will come”. There is something wrong with a Premier like this who is willing to cave so easily to government greed and/or social restructuring in Canada. Alberta has most of the young people in Canada – old people are moving to the Yukon for the free medicare the Yukon offered when the Puffins and Dippers were changing our youthful population of working people to a park populated by imported Dippers/Puffins and their parents. The Yukon does not have an economy -it is a welfare territory – we have a RED ‘conservative’ government leader here too – he has been in power for 6 years….we have 30,000 people, gold, silver, gas, copper, zinc..no mining here. Most of the young people here have moved to Alberta where they are a part of an exciting economy that offers them a lot more than working for the gument shuffling paper across a desk.
Take a deep breath and think about this Alberta – I am still an Albertan in my heart and I wish my adopted province only the best.
Turdo is not PM this time Alberta, Canada has the best and fairest Prime Minister ever elected in Canada – don’t flush it all away on a 3rd choice premier and his greedy government $$ addicted cabinet.
The local paper tells the story this way. The present oil royalties collected are 47%. Ed’s new royalties will be 65%. Percent of what didn’t seem to be defined.
If Ed can’t run the province with all the taxes he’s collecting now plus the present royalties??
Just like Sean, there are people who don’t want economic progress. They are happy like pigs in s**t. Seen it in the Atlantic Provinces.
What about ED?