HONG KONG – State-owned CNOOC, which made China’s biggest-ever overseas energy acquisition last year, said Friday that annual profit fell 9.3 per cent because of higher costs for exploration and for operating in Canada’s oil sands. […] Foreign operating expenses, in particular, jumped by a quarter because a higher proportion
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Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Oil The Humanity!
Oww, my sides would be hurting from laughing at the irony of this situation, if it weren’t a deadly serious joke that the Conservatives are playing on Canadians. On a public relations mission to convince the public that the BC coast will be safe from oil spills, the clean-up vessel
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: TransCanada Pipelines Whistleblower Receives National Award
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive A former TransCanada Corporation employee who blew the whistle on the rising pipeline incidents and rule-breaking by Big Oil has been chosen as the recipient of the 2013 Golden Whistle Blower Award. Evan Vokes, a former professional materials engineer at TransCanada Pipelines (TCPL), received the award in Ottawa on Monday.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Free Speech and the Privatization of Public Space
Donald Smith was protesting a sign at Glenmore Landing in Calgary’s southwest Sunday that bans political demonstrations. [CBC] The privately owned parking lot near the prime minister’s constituency office asserts that protesting is prohibited. On the surface, this looks like the prime minister is impeding the constitutional rights of expression
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Former Aussie PM’s unintended message to Canadian progressives: coalitions work!
Former Australian PM John Howard at the Manning Centre’s Ottawa gabfest Sunday. Below: Tom Flanagan pictured on a button worn by many at Preston Manning’s “big-tent” conservative revival meeting, “Calgary School” professor Rainer Knopff seen in passing sporting his Flanagan button. OTTAWA Was former Australian PM John Howard sending Canadian
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Public Interest Alberta takes a closer look at that province’s rhetoric about taxes, and finds that in fact most Albertans pay more income tax than they would under the more fair and progressive systems applied in other province: “Albertans who believe the myth
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Close enough for government work: Alberta Tories manage to hold their centre-right turf
Finance Minister Doug Horner preps Albertans for yesterday’s budget. Actual Alberta finance ministers may not appear exactly as illustrated – but that’s the trick, isn’t it? Below: The real Doug Horner. All in all, I guess, you could make a good case this was a pretty lousy budget. It’s deeply
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta budget primer: when they say ‘tough decisions,’ they really mean … ‘decisions that will be tough on you’
Typical Albertans await tomorrow’s budget aboard the Good Ship Richest Place on Earth. Alberta may not actually be as damp as illustrated. Below: Premier Alison Redford. Why is this woman smirking? Oh, we’ll squeeze you till the pips squeak, Premier Alison Redford seemed to be promising Albertans yesterday, as we
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Paul Adams highlights how the Cons and their anti-social allies have spent decades trying to convince Canadians that it’s not worth trying to pursue the goals we value – and how the main challenge for progressives is to make the case that a
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Alberta Tar Sands Facilities Pollute Athabasca River: Ecojustice
By: EcoJustice (Press Release) | Mar 5, 2013: EDMONTON — Ecojustice, armed with research that shows how toxic oilsands emissions are contaminating the Athabasca River, has called on the federal government to investigate whether oilsands operators have violated the Fisheries Act. “Canadians have the right to know how oilsands production impacts our air, water and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
This and that to end your Saturday. – Bill Curry breaks the news of the Cons’ next round of public service slashing – with Canada Revenue Agency employees whose work far more than pays for itself once more looming as one of the main targets of a government determined to
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: State Department’s Keystone XL Project Review Upsets Environmentalists
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive | March 2, 2013: Environmentalists have soundly condemned the U.S. State Department’s Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) report on TransCanada Corp’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline. The report, released Friday, concluded that the proposed 875-mile long pipeline, which would ship up to 830,000 barrels of Canada‘s dirty tar sands oil per day from
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – The Star’s editorial board highlights why our elected representatives should be countering the effect of precarious employment (rather than exacerbating them as the Cons have done): Simply put, programs like Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan were created back in the days
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: DISGUSTING! Ex-Harper Adviser Tom Flanagan Okays Viewing Child Porn
“I do have some grave doubts about putting people in jail because of their taste in pictures” – Flanagan By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive | Feb. 28, 2013: Prime Minister Stephen Harper‘s former senior adviser, Tom Flanagan, has questioned the jailing of people who view child pornography. And paid a huge price for
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Looking back in perplexity: where did all of Alberta’s money go again?
First World money and Third World roads. If we’re so rich in Alberta, why do we seem so poor? A motorist negotiates one of Edmonton’s famed potholes. Actual Edmonton drivers may not have snappy uniforms like this fellow. Below: Author, professor and former Alberta Liberal politician Kevin Taft, the cover
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: New report shows path to better oilsands, climate accountability for Alberta and Canada
By Pembina Institute (Press Release) | Feb. 25, 2013: EDMONTON — As Canada faces increasing scrutiny of its weak climate change policy for oilsands development, a new report illustrates how both Alberta and the federal government can better manage emissions and improve the country’s international reputation. The new Pembina Institute report, Carbon
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Andrew Nikiforuk discusses how Alberta and other petro-states have ended up destroying their treasuries and their democratic systems alike by relying excessively on volatile resource prices: Thanks to the volatile nature of the world’s most lucrative commodity, various petro states find themselves short
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Renting seniors’ beds is a formula for failure – and it’s time for Alberta to stop doing it
Fresh air and yogurt might have helped these guys live to be 160, but if they’d lived in Alberta, instead of Russia, where could they afford to sleep? Below, seniors care in Calgary, back in the day, before oldsters all carried tennis racquets, rode bicycles and looked like fashion models,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Chrystia Freeland points out why productivity doesn’t provide an accurate picture of economic development if it merely results in increased inequality rather than shared benefits: Productivity and innovation, the focus of policy makers and business leaders, no longer guarantee widely shared prosperity. “Digital
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ReThink Meat
Meat fraud is taking place all around us. Most people probably can’t tell the difference between similar looking meats sold in stores, were it not for the labeling. Fish fraud is apparently common in the USA. Safeway recalled big and juicy E.coli burgers. “Must be cooked” is right on the
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