Previous  1  2  3  Next

Perhaps Sca[e can dog you up that YouTube of why Canada and the US import so much Saudi oil.
Basically: it's cheaper to get tankerloads of than any possible means of delivering our own oil to the East Coast.

   

Well, that sounds too much like a National Energy Policy. Bad herbie, Bad!

   

I don't think I'll bother to talk about this issue here anymore. Just because there's always got to be one of you, I suppose.

BTW, please post the photos of you getting arrested at the eventual(?) environmental protest to have the thermal coal shipping facility in Vancouver permanently shut down. You'll be there for that one, right?

   

I don’t remember ever posting anything about that. If I’m mistaken, please point out the offending posts.
I went to an environmental protest once, I believe it was in 1968 or 1969, can’t remember. It was in Louisville Ky. The coal companies responded with Operation Green Earth.
Take it away John
[video] https://youtu.be/DEy6EuZp9IY[/video]

   

*hisses*

   

That NEP was never about helping the oil industry, it was about ensuring that central Canada - Ontario and Quebec basically, got oil at a price lower than the global market price.

Let's also remember that the NEP was brought in when 99% of Alberta's oil production was light sweet crude (LSC), not the 80/20 bitumen/LSC mix that we have now, nor did it have any plans to build additional east-west pipelines or subsidize cokers down east so refineries could refine bitumen.

The NEP cost Alberta an estimated $50 to $100 BILLION, back in the 80s, which would be worth somewhere between $150 and $300 billion today if you adjust it for inflation. That cost tens of thousands of Albertans (and thousands of other Canadians working in Alberta) their jobs in the early 80s, which set off a cascade of bankruptcies and misery in Alberta.

I generally agree with most of what PET did, but the NEP had a lot of negative consequences for Albertans, which is why Liberals have been persona non grata in Alberta for so long.

   

Oh FFS they would've just pissed that away too. Conservatives not Norwegians.

   

While I don't doubt that a fair amount of it would have gone to keeping taxes lower than the rest of Canada - our BS 'Alberta Advantage' - most of it would have been invested into hospitals, schools, parks, roads and other infrastructure projects that are definitely not 'pissing it away'.

   

It's a no-win scenario with other Canadians. If AB spent it then it means we were just spendthrifts. If we'd saved it we'd be cheapskates that didn't care about building a social & physical infrastructure. They nail us with these smears either way. It'll be a hundred years after the last oil well gets closed down and they'll still be treating us with total contempt.

Said it before, gonna say it again - if this province ever separates then other Canadians don't need to look any farther than their own miserable and mean-spirited comments and attitudes as to the main reason why it happened.

   

https://westernstandardonline.com/2021/ ... -campaign/

   

So we can't criticize alberta for making shitty decisions for the last 40 years?

   

Of course not Ontarians. Every nickel wisely spent.
BC'ers are faultless. Never once dropped billions on Southeast coal or LNG exports decades too late. Or on freeways to the Premier's home riding or sporting events. Or on ferries they trash talked so much and the 'told ya so' got nickels on the dollar when they found a buyer. Or doubled taxes on private car sales to be fair to cat dealerships, never milked ICBC into oblivion hiked rates insanely and bawled how it must be privatized every time they're in Opposition.
But of course it's the citizens to hate, not the Conservative (or Liberals as they call themselves here) that keep taxes low by letting roads go to shit, spending ever waking moment pissing off nurses, teachers and doctors and quashng minimum wage increases.

   

It's not even historically accurate, given the large interest-free loans Peter Lougheed gave to other provinces. The whole shit-show of the NEP could probably have been avoided if Trudeau had actually spoken to Lougheed first.

As for the spending of the 1990s and 2000s, the problem was that Ralph Klein openly admitted he didn't have a plan for the oil boom money that came pouring in after he paid off the debt. He used it to keep taxes artificially low compared to what we were spending and wasted it on one-time "Ralphbucks" payments. He and his successors also mismanaged the Heritage Trust Fund.

Compare that to Lougheed using the oil money to invest in a lot of long-term sustainable assets like roads and schools, and set up the Heritage Trust Fund in the first place. I'd have to look up the details, but I also seem to recall the Trust Fund starting to diversify the economy and helping new oilsands assets grow.

But like you I really hate the depictions of us as all as greedy Saudi sheiks who don't give a damn about anyone but ourselves and aren't truly Canadian because we don't agree with everything the federal Liberals do and haven't elected the provincial ones in over a century.

It's one thing to criticize from a point of wanting better for the place, like you, me and the other Albertans on this forum have done. It's another to treat us like refugees from Deliverance. I think it's less the content of the criticism than it is the tone for a lot of it.



It's more like the last 30 years, but we certainly can. Thanos, DrCaleb, Bootlegga and I have repeatedly done so on these very forums. Albertans one and all.

   

He wasn't taking a shot at Albertans.

   

Double post

   

Previous  1  2  3  Next