“Our ultimate aim is to create a net climate positive manufacturing footprint by 2030. ‘Business-wide we have a clear environmental mission and the latest figures – showing an 81% absolute reduction in CO2 emissions per vehicle, even though we have widened the scope of the measure to capture more of
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52 Ideas: Right now, Alberta needs courageous leaders; or why Antigonish is going to present some problems for Jason Kenney and Alberta Politicians.
Antigonish, Nova Scotia is a small rural community in Nova Scotia. If you are driving from Halifax, you will spend more than two hours in the car. You will drive through places like Truro and New Glasgow. If you drive just about 30 minutes more, you will hit Aulds Cove
Continue reading52 Ideas: Calgary Municipal Election Candidates are ignoring the Elephant in the room
If you listen to Jyoti Gondek, Jeromy Farkas or Jeff Davison, you will hear a similar story. In fact, if you listen to most of the mayoral or council candidates, you will hear the same narrative: Calgary’s municipal administration is experiencing a problem of fiscal management and not a revenue
Continue reading52 Ideas: Annamie Paul is not succeeding at the task of leading the Green Party
I have to be honest when Annamie Paul was first elected to be leader of the Green Party of Canada, I was intrigued. I was intrigued for a number of reasons. In my nuclear and extended family, politics has always been a thing. Accordingly, I have talked to relatives in
Continue reading52 Ideas: Alberta’s Dilemma: When do we recognize that the world is changing?
Back in 2015, I started asking a simple question: is Alberta ready? Whenever I talked to politicians or entrepreneurs or thought leaders, I asked that same simple question. I asked that question for one reason: History told me that Alberta’s politicians didn’t understand that the rest of the world was
Continue reading52 Ideas: Nabob shows why Alberta Needs a Plan
History is a passion for me. I love reading about books or watching documentaries on battles, changes in technology and how we as people step up when things get tough. As an example, in World War Two, the Allies radically improved their tank & airplane technology; while simultaneously improving their
Continue reading52 Ideas: Rex Murphy’s poor argument about the Tragedy in Texas made me write this post
“In reality, failures in natural gas, coal and nuclear energy systems were responsible for nearly twice as many outages as frozen wind turbines and solar panels, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid, said in a press conference Tuesday.” No, renewable energy is not primarily
Continue reading52 Ideas: And the World moves on…. (or why Alberta needs to pay attention to the way other people are getting their energy)
When I was a child, I was privileged in that I got to travel to Jamaica and Barbados to see my relatives. The trips were amazing; and, each time I went down, I learned more about the Caribbean. At some point, in the 1980s and 1990s, my education about my
Continue reading52 Ideas: Within the decade, Electrification Technology will quickly impact the Alberta Economy & Athabascan Oil Sands
If I were the Mayor of Calgary, an Alberta MLA who goes to Edmonton or a MP for a riding in Alberta, the thing that would terrify me the most is the decreasing cost and improving efficiency of Electric Vehicle (EV) battery back technology. In reading OilPrice.com – a leading
Continue reading52 Ideas: Germany’s pandemic recovery has a direct effect on Alberta
It is rare for the Province of Alberta to feel the effects of a policy decision made by the German Federal Government. However, it is clear that over the next few years, Alberta’s economy – from Calgary to Edmonton, from Banff to Lloydminster – will begin to see an unprecedented
Continue reading52 Ideas: Tesla’s future and Alberta’s future are intrinsically – though inversely – tied together
Tesla doesn’t make money building cars. They make a little money on energy generation. However, as Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times pointed out during our COVID summer, Tesla makes a lot of money in selling GreenHouse Gas (GHG) Emission Credits to other automobile manufacturers. In fact, Tesla
Continue reading52 Ideas: On Sir John A. MacDonald, Conservatives, Vergangenheitsbewältigung and Working Through Canadian History: the Approach Conservatives should take to Canada’s past
I believe that History matters. History matters because it teaches us how to be better. History provides us with the very best and worst lessons of what people are capable of. Just look at Nelson Mandela. He was one of many people who brought an end to Apartheid in South
Continue reading52 Ideas: I wish Rex Murphy would understand that change is coming…
In 2018, the Toronto Paramedic Service (TPS) introduced 11 hybrid-electric ambulances into their fleet. Like many other North American cities, Toronto has been working on reducing its carbon footprint. The adoption of hybrid-electric ambulances was just one step in changing its consolidated vehicle fleet. In the City of Toronto Consolidated
Continue reading52 Ideas: On the WE Scandal: When Parental Disappointment rears its head
As a parent, I have three modes of anger. The first and most basic level of my parental anger can be described as me just being “mad”. This most basic level of anger surfaces when my child has done something new that is wrong. Maybe she has taken something that
Continue reading52 Ideas: Siding with a former PC Premier: On an Alberta Pension Plan
When it comes to my politics, I am a pragmatist before anything else. While, I disagree with Michael Chong a lot, it is easy for me to say that his conservative approach to Parliamentary Reform (i.e. Reform Act 2015) was simply brilliant. While, the party I tend to back –
Continue reading52 Ideas: Licia Corbella opinion piece “let’s down the side”; it let’s Alberta down.
I come from a family that loves playing sports. So, being of Caribbean Heritage, I always heard one phrase: “don’t let the side down”. Now, to be honest, it is not a Caribbean phrase but one that the British left “us”. So if you played or watched rugby in South
Continue reading52 Ideas: On Alberta’s Budget (or now that we know that $68 USD per barrel is unrealistic, we need to update the Budget)
So, I am stuck in the house, like so many of us and I am starting to see unprecedented events; and only one thing goes through my mind: what does Alberta’s future look like? Anyone who knows me, knows that this is not unusual. For the last few years, I
Continue reading52 Ideas: What happens to Alberta when the 7th largest economy drives Electric Cars?
What would happen to an Oil Exporter when the world’s seventh largest economy decides that over the next fifteen years it will phase out gas powered cars? Any economist would say it is a simple demand and supply issue. If no new users of Oil came into the market, all
Continue reading52 Ideas: Jason Kenney & Alberta’s Oil Industry should fear the policies of the Chinese, European and Indian Governments and not Ottawa
When I started writing my blog, more than five years ago experts said that electric cars would only be competitive with gas cars in 2035 or 2040. At the time, there were valid reasons for that understanding. Science had to move quite a ways to get to parity and so
Continue reading52 Ideas: We need a Government of National Unity: A prescription for Justin Trudeau, Alberta and the 43rd Parliament
In October of 1995, I was a student at York University. There was a buzz in the air because History was being made every day. By this time in my life, the Cold War had ended, the Iron Curtain had fallen and we believed in the diversity of a “Thousand
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