If Rachel Notley uses the Alberta Government’s power to put a cap on oil production tonight, as she hinted she would do in a newspaper op-ed Friday, how long will it take Opposition Leader Jason Kenney to change his tune? Not long, one imagines. Of course, if Mr. Kenney does
Continue readingTag: Bitumen Bubble
Alberta Politics: Professors protest Moe Government plan to shutter archives in four locations, including University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon
SASKATOON, Sask. No sooner did the government of Saskatchewan oh-so-discreetly announce it is about to close four branches of the provincial archives and consolidate it all in one location in Regina than more than 30 Canadian scholars had an open letter of protest circulating on the Internet. When the branch
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Notley searches for her Lougheed moment by demanding oil pipelines for Trudeau’s carbon tax
Demanding the federal government help “break the landlock” and support the construction of oil pipelines from Alberta, Premier Rachel Notley and Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips drew a line for Alberta’s support of the Justin Trudeau government’s proposed national carbon… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Hard truth from the Parkland Institute: New pipelines won’t much improve the price fetched by Alberta oil from Bitumen
PHOTOS: An oil tanker, floating in “tidewater” – in this case the balmy Persian Gulf. Below: Earth scientist David Hughes, and a caribou strolling along a pipeline, this one in Alaska. That’s tonight’s harvest of royalty-free photographs. My …
Continue readingdaveberta.ca – Alberta Politics: Oil Pipeline still King in Notley’s Interprovincial Agenda
Three years ago this week, Conservative Premier Alison Redford took to the airwaves to warn Albertans about the ominous “bitumen bubble.” Ms. Redford warned that a pipeline bottleneck and a dramatic drop in the price of oil would rob the… Continu…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thomas Lukaszuk, once the Gorgeous George of Alberta politics, ponders an unlikely political resurrection
PHOTOS: Thomas Lukaszuk, at what was arguably the summit of his political career, launching his bid in May 2014 to lead the Progressive Conservative Party and become premier of Alberta. Below: Mr. Lukaszuk showing his flowing locks to advantage, 1950s wrestling star Gorgeous George, and Edmonton-Castle Down MLA Nicole Goehring.
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Sharpen Your Pencils, Alberta. Slash-and-burn is back.
Living in the land of the lowest taxation rates in Canada allows many personal benefits but long-term government stability has not been one of them. Relying heavily on natural resource revenues, our political leaders continue to stumble from embarrassment of riches to poverty and never… Continue Reading →
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Prentice Government takes Alberta from boom to bust in one weekend, breaking all records
Premier Jim Prentice points the way for public spending in Alberta now that our boom has gone bust again. Oil prices, ya know… But read the Reaper’s grim lips: “No new taxes!” Actual Alberta premiers may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Finance Minister Robin Campbell, Infrastructure Minister Manmeet Bhullar
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta is always in Tough Economic Times
Tweet“They don’t know what to do with tough economic times. It was easy enough to govern when the money was flowing in, when things were going well. They took all the credit for it at that time. It’s much harder to govern, and the mark of a good government is
Continue readingAlberta Diary: The Santa Clause: A holiday gift of biting humour from Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley
NDP Leader Rachel Notley, helping to improve the New Democrats’ game in Alberta. Below: Education Minister Gordon Dirks, restored Tory MLA Peter Sandhu and former PC cabinet minister Evan Berger; Alberta Premier Jim Prentice. No one can say Rachel Notley hasn’t upped the Alberta NDP’s game since she was elected
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Thomas Lukaszuk’s campaign jumps the shark! Did Alberta’s PC government just do the same thing?
Thomas Lukaszuk looks cool as always, despite having just jumped the shark. Actual PC leadership candidates may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below, the real Mr. Lukaszuk. Yesterday was the day we were all supposed to be in agog at how Alberta is awash in cash again – a long-predicted
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Maybe it’s time to state the obvious: promises aren’t enough for Alberta Tories to win back any progressive votes
Tory leadership front-runner Jim Prentice on the campaign trail. Below: Former premier Alison Redford; Education Minister, though presumably not for long, Jeff Johnson; leadership candidate Thomas Lukaszuk. Perhaps it’s time to just come right out and state the obvious: If Tory leadership front-runner Jim Prentice wants even a few of Alberta’s
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Conservative former Edmonton mayor endorses conservative future Alberta premier: Yawn
Former Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel and PC leadership candidate Jim Prentice, obviously pleased to be in one another’s company, at a news conference yesterday in Edmonton at which Mr. Mandel endorsed Mr. Prentice. Below: The other Tory leadership candidates, Ric McIver and Thomas Lukaszuk, and New Democrat MLA Rachel Notley,
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Fred Horne’s flu-jab count: thoughtful response to a health problem or quick fix to a political crisis?
Albertans line up for flu shots at Bonnie Doon Mall in Edmonton yesterday. Actual vaccination lines may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Heath Minister and de facto Alberta health Services chief executive Fred Horne. Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne, who nowadays doubles as the unofficial chief executive officer of
Continue readingAlberta Diary: U of A counters Redford Government whims by skimming institutes’ donations
Why send guys like these when you can just skim the cash right off the top? Actual employees of the University of Alberta Accounting department may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: U of A President Indira Samarasekera. Well, I don’t suppose you can accuse the University of Alberta of
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Alberta Tories respond to protests by disabled citizens with instinctive diversionary attack
An Albertan protests the Redford Government’s cuts to “persons with developmental disabilities” at the Legislature in Edmonton on Friday. Below: Associate Minister of Services for Persons with Disabilities Frank Oberle. The optics of a government like Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives cutting $42 million from programs designed to help the province’s most
Continue readingSusan on the Soapbox: Will Platts Pop Alberta’s “Bitumen Bubble”?
Platts, a global company with a remarkably flaccid name, finds itself smack in the middle of an international price fixing scandal and I really hope the Alberta government is paying attention! Last week the European Commission storm troopers, sorry, inspectors, raided the offices of BP, Shell and Statoil, three of
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Fixing Athabasca U: a chance for tough-guy Tom Lukaszuk to do something constructive
Athabasca University’s isolated headquarters in winter. Below: Athabasca U President Frits Pannekoek and Alberta Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk. Athabasca University’s Faculty Association called yesterday for the institution’s president to be replaced by an interim president chosen from among senior staff. On the face of it, this idea makes a
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Ironies abound in Alberta’s agitated politics as Alison Redford cranks up the postage meter
How Albertans should see Progressive Conservative and Wildrose policies and procedures. Below: The clever Wildrose Facebook attack on PC Premier Alison Redford’s faintly unsavoury taxpayer-funded mail out, which makes it look a little worse than it really is. Am I the only one who sees irony in the leader of
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Are Alberta’s cannily incompetent Conservatives quietly awaiting a ‘Bitumen Gusher’?
Everybody should be as happy about Alberta’s “Bitumen Gusher” as these two guys, your blogger and former Finance Minister Ron Liepert. Below: AUPE’s chart of the price differential between Alberta bitumen and West Texas Intermediate crude. Below that: The Alberta government’s chart showing its natural resource revenue projections to 2022,
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