It’s called schadenfreude, the satisfaction you get from someone else’s misfortune. Some Albertans may be feeling it this week after the referendum in Maine that rejected a Hydro-Québec transmission line through their state. Projected to generate $10 billion US for Hydro-Québec over 20 years, the project, known as the New
Continue readingAuthor: Bill Longstaff
Views from the Beltline: Minister Freeland and the global tax
I first took particular notice of federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland when I read her book Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else. The book, a national bestseller, describes in detail how the very, very rich, the infamous 0.1 percent, have become the
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Compared to Americans, Canadians are happy campers
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center revealed striking differences in Americans’ and Canadians’ attitudes toward their political, economic and health systems. The Pew survey of 17 advanced countries showed the U.S. consistently among the most dissatisfied and Canada among the least. For instance, a full 85 percent of
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: World’s top movie not what you might think
It may come as a surprise to Canadian film fans, but the top box office movie in 2021 is not James Bond’s No Time to Die or the legendary sci-fi Dune. It’s the Chinese blockbuster The Battle at Lake Changjin. It has some Hollywood elements, for instance heroic soldiers overcoming
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Climate shirkers gear up for COP26
The 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) is scheduled for 31 October to 12 November in Glasgow. This is the 26th of the annual conferences and is special in that parties will be expected to ratchet up their climate goals over their pledges made when the Paris Agreement was signed
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The problem of Councillor Chu
Sean Chu is the councillor for Calgary’s Ward 4. He was re-elected for his third term in the recent civic election. It now appears that Councillor Chu has a skeleton in his closet. In 1997, when he was a 34-year-old police officer, he faced allegations involving a 16-year-old girl. He
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Why can’t conservatives win the mayoralties of Alberta’s major cities?
Alberta’s reputation as a bastion of conservatism has been belied once again by the recent municipal elections. Both Calgary and Edmonton, which together make up over half the province’s population, elected progressive mayors. And in both cases they replace progressive mayors. Not only did they win, they won big. In
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Calgary remains in good hands
If there was a natural successor to retiring mayor Naheed Nenshi it would be Jyoti Gondek. Like Nenshi she is well educated (Ph.D. in urban sociology) with a thorough grasp of urban issues. Yesterday Calgarians, in their wisdom, chose her as their next mayor out of 26 aspiring candidates. Mayor-elect
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Refunding the police
How quickly the tide turns. Hardly a year has passed since the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer triggered protests that pressured cities across the U.S. to reduce their police budgets. “Defund the police” became a mantra. That was then. Now, with crime rates rising across the
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Kudos to David Card and the minimum wage
Good news from the world of the dismal science. A Canadian boy, David Card, has won a share of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics. Nice to see one of our own win the big prize, and particularly nice when one considers why he won it. Pioneering research by Card
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The death graph
A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. It’s true for me anyway. Maybe it’s my engineering background, but charts, graphs, etc. often make a point much more effectively for me than words. Such is the case with the death rates from COVID-19 in Canada. The number of deaths
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Vote Kinney for Senator
Now that the federal election is out of the way, I turn my attention to the upcoming Calgary municipal election. Both the mayor and the councillor for my ward have retired, so I am confronted by a sea of eager faces seeking to fill the vacancy. I have decided to
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Big climate promises at the UN … but
The United States and China, rivals on the world stage and also the two biggest economies and the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases made some big climate promises at the UN this week. Chinese president Xi Jinping promised China will stop building coal-fired power plants abroad, a big deal
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Are the new Conservatives the old Conservatives?
Erin O’Toole’s Conservatives showed a new face during the recent campaign. A surprisingly progressive one. The leader said the party has let Canadians down, citing climate policies and engaging with working Canadian and union leaders. Not only the electorate was surprised. Many Conservatives were as well. When did we start
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: “Help”
“Effective September 15, 2021, the Government of Alberta has declared a State of Public Health Emergency. … We have identified two areas where the federal government could assist with our response.” With these words, in a letter to federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, Alberta Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: A fine result
Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. Over $600 million to change absolutely nothing. Over $100 million more than the 2019 election, primarily because of the cost of COVID protocols. All quite unnecessary with a parliament that was working rather well and an election scheduled for 2023. Ah well, I suppose we
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Alberta needs a new Lougheed for a new era
Fifty years ago, Alberta entered the modern era. With the provincial election of August, 1971, Albertans dismissed Social Credit, their governing party for 36 years, and elected the Progressive Conservatives. A rural, Bible Belt regime had been replaced by a modern, urban political dynasty. A decent but bland Harry Strom
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: A Vote Compass surprise
Being a sucker for surveys, I couldn’t resist the Vote Compass survey on the CBC News website. The survey purports to locate your position on the political landscape relative to the various parties. The landscape refers to the issues foremost in the current election. Vote Compass was developed for the
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Alberta’s debt to the Maldives
As humanity continues to heat the planet, there are winners and losers. Let me rephrase that. Ultimately nobody wins; in the long term if global warming isn’t halted it will bring down global civilization and we will all lose. But in the shorter term there are net winners. Alberta for
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Voting strategically in an election we don’t need
So we are to have an unnecessary election. Didn’t we make our views clear enough in 2019? We didn’t give one of the parties a majority because we didn’t buy into any of their platforms sufficiently. So we elected a minority government. And it seems to be working well enough.
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