From Andrew Nikiforuk in today’s Tyee. The full article, called ‘Why can’t Alberta break even?‘, is worth a read. How do you know when you live in petro state? Here are some key signs: When your government pays 30 per cent of its road, education, and hospital bills with finite
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The Canadian Progressive: Alberta Tar Sands Dependence Could Hurt Canadian Economy: Report
By Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (Press Release) | Feb. 21, 2013: OTTAWA — A failure to carefully regulate the Canadian bitumen industry is putting Canada on a dangerous economic and environmental trajectory, says a new report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) and the Polaris Institute.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: A Tale of Two Provinces: B.C. NDP and Wild Rosehip Tea Party show why opposition matters
Razzle-dazzle, sis-boom-bah, balanced budgets, rah-rah-rah! Danielle Smith and the Wild Rosehip Tea Party yell squad cheers for Alison Redford’s Tory team’s worst plays on the field. The actual Alberta opposition may not be quite as illustrated. Below: Ms. Redford and B.C. Premier Christie Clark. Why are these two premiers smiling?
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: #ForwardOnClimate Support in Regina: Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline
Stephen McDavid interviewed by CBC/SRC about climate change action: Stephen explains that the pipeline is a line in the sand. Using it, is crossing that line. I’ll explain why there is a line, further on in this post. I was also interviewed. The CBC reporter was pleased to learn from
Continue readingdrive-by planet: NRDC video: Keystone XL tar sands climate threat
This new video by NRDC and 350.org takes a cool, fact-based look at a hot topic – with current information on tar sands oil/Keystone XL. The video discusses current research from Oil Change International that shows that tar sands oil will produce even more carbon pollution than previously estimated. Link
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: The Power of the Carbon Bubble
The Carbon Bubble has arrived. It has finally emerged as a subject for consideration and debate. Hardly a day goes by that there isn’t some discussion of the Carbon Bubble. In case you’re not familiar with it, the Carbon Bubble arises out of the calculation, based on pure physics, of
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Council of Canadians opposes west-to-east oil pipeline plan
By Council of Canadians | Feb. 11, 2013: OTTAWA – The Council of Canadians is opposed to a west-to-east oil pipeline plan being proposed by TransCanada Corp., which is supported in principle by the Harper government, and enthusiastically backed by the Alberta and New Brunswick provincial governments. The pipeline – which could move upwards
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada Politics News Watch on Monday, February 11, 2013: Morning Picks
By Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Feb. 11, 2013: Senator Patrick Brazeau: Brazeau symbolic of Harper’s indifference to First Nations – Winnipeg Free Press Brazeau, Harper and Idle No More – The Tyee Let’s talk about punishing mentally ill – Winnipeg Free Press Brazeau Just Latest Thrown Under Bus by Harper – The Tyee Editorial: Unreformed
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: RoboCall Boundary Edition #RoboCon 650 days and counting
Last week I got a robocall from “Chase Research” and listened to it all, taking notes when I realized it was a Conservative push-poll and would cause a scandal. I waited for the number to push to repeat the message or options, but pressing 9 just erroneously thanked me for
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Why Liberals Should Fear Gerrymandering
Recently Saskatchewan MP Ralph Goodale wrote a post echoing a sentiment surprisingly popular among what’s left of the Liberal Party membership, and that is, this Conservative government is going to use its influence to gerrymander ridings to maximize support to guarantee future victories. But Liberals shouldn’t be worried that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jeffrey Simpson rightly notes that Alberta (like other resource-heavy jurisdictions) should be trying to diversify its revenue sources and economic development instead of relying on the one-time sale of publicly-owned resources to pay the bills. And Robyn Allan points out why we
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The 10% Delusion: Fraser Institute gins up fake facts about Alberta public sector pay
Women clerical workers, as the Fraser Institute would like to see them. The Fraser Institute didn’t write the book “How to Lie With Statistics,” a guy named Darrell Huff did, but they might as well have! You’ve got to have a little respect for the tireless political lobbyists at the
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Encana and Alberta Facing A Multi Million Dollar Lawsuit Over Fracking Damages
Richard Hughes PoliticalBlogger Energy Giant Encana met a woman who was not about to be pushed around by industry or compliant government regulators. Landowner Jessica Ernst has launched a Multi-million dollar lawsuit against the EnCana and Alberta government regulators over water contamination. Jessica Ernst is also telling her story to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Susan Delacourt comments on the role of robocalls in turning citizens away from politics – though it’s worth pointing out that the Cons may well see that as a desirable result to capitalize on a modest base of support: What may need more
Continue reading350 or bust: Oil & Gas Consultant: “No Healthy Community On the Planet Would Allow Hydraulic Fracking”
“No healthy community on this planet would allow hydraulic fracturing.” – Jessica Ernst Jessica Ernst is a scientist who has worked in the oil and gas industry. She discovered first hand the consequences of hydraulic fracturing in her town of Rosebud, Alberta, Canada. This interview was conducted while Ms. Ernst
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Norway’s experience with Big Oil offers lessons for Idle No More
by Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Jan 21, 2013: Norway’s experience with Big Oil offers lessons for Idle No More and other progressive movements determined to stop Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives from turning Canada into a petro-state. Earlier, I blogged about a new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Alberta oil selling at 50% discount to world price…
…which explains why the Canadian government is Hell-and-High-Water-bent on building a pipeline, any pipeline, anywhere. First, the stats Over the past few months, new stories have noted that Canada’s oil sector isn’t getting full price for its heavy oil — in large part because American pipelines are well-supplied with newly-flowing
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Con Assault on the Dutch Disease
Nothing Tom Mulcair has ever said scares Stephen Harper more than his claim that the Dutch Disease is killing jobs all over Canada. Especially in vote-rich Ontario where the next election will be decided.Because if the people in that province ever realize how much Harper's Alberta First economic policies are hurting
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada can learn from Norway’s management of oil wealth: Study
by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives | Jan 17, 2013: OTTAWA—A new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives compares the Canada and Alberta experience to that of Norway, another major petroleum producing and exporting country, and finds they have taken very different paths and with very different outcomes.
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Misleading with statistics: the Fraser Institute on health care and ‘value for money’
This just in! The latest mainstream media news straight from the Vancouver studios of the Fraser Institute, complete with no fact checking! No sooner noted than illuminated – yesterday morning mainstream media was credulously reporting another “Fraser Factoid,” this one a report by the far-right political lobby group purporting to
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