Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Barrie McKenna looks to Norway as an example of how an oil-rich country can both ensure long-term benefits from its non-renewable resources, and be far more environmentally responsible than Canada has been to date. – Michal Rozworski discusses how the devaluing of work
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9 ways Alberta should manage resources better
Sometime toward the end of November, the Alberta government will release their 2nd quarter fiscal update. Finance Minister Robin Campbell will likely tell us that the second quarter was another good quarter but that the good news is coming to an end and the 1st quarter projection of a $3 Billion bonus will be
Continue reading9 WAYS ALBERTA SHOULD MANAGE RESOURCES BETTER
Sometime toward the end of November, the Alberta government will release their 2nd quarter fiscal update. Finance Minister Robin Campbell will likely tell us that the second quarter was another good quarter but that the good news is coming to an end and the 1st quarter projection of a $3 Billion bonus will be revised. The reason of course … Continue reading 9 WAYS ALBERTA SHOULD MANAGE RESOURCES BETTER →
Continue readingThings Are Good: Norway Pays to Protect Liberia’s Forests
Deforestation is killing the planet and has been linked to the current ebola outbreak. Still, many places (Canada included) cut down hectares of land as if it’s nothing. Norway is apparently sick of tho attitude and has made a deal with Liberia to protect their woodlands. “We have funded efforts
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – thwap nicely summarizes how we’ve allowed our economy to rely on (and feed into) the whims of a small group of insiders, rather than being harnessed for any sense of public good: (W)hat’s changed today is that the wealthy clearly have more
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – James Meek writes about the UK’s privatization scam, and how it’s resulted in citizens paying far more for the basic services which are better provided by a government which actually has the public interest within its mandate: Privatisation failed to demonstrate the case
Continue readingAlberta Diary: You could drive one of those tar sands heavy haulers through the gaping holes in the latest Fraser Institute ‘study’ of Alberta’s finances
A worker in Fort McMurray prepares to drive this truck through the holes in the Fraser Institute’s “report,” which claims Alberta’s finances are in worse shape than those of places like Texas, North Dakota and Louisiana. Below: The Norwegian oil port of Stavanger, which, according to the Fraser Institute, doesn’t
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Opposition hoping for a sequel to Air Redford… Air Prentice
TweetThe long-summer of 2014 has begun in Alberta politics. With little substantial policy ideas to dispute or debate, Alberta’s opposition parties have set their sights on Progressive Conservative leadership front-runner Jim Prentice (if this continues, Thomas Lukaszuk and Ric McIver are going to start feeling left out). Hoping to tie Mr. Prentice
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Hey Alberta, Look What Norway Did. WTF?
It sucks when your government is an entity so devoid of anything resembling a spine. The Alberta government is so deeply in bed with big oil its shite and piss are black. So, rather than looking at an example of how to fuck your citizens over, take a look
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Mitchell Anderson discusses Canada’s woeful excuse for negotiations with the oil sector – particularly compared to the lasting social benefits secured by Norway in making the best of similar reserves: Digging through the numbers, it seems Norway is considerably more skilled at negotiation.
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Norwegian voting patterns are a warning to leftwing parties elsewhere
Henning Finseraas and Kåre Vernby Low levels of citizen participation in politics have long been seen as a serious democratic problem, and a possible relationship between turnout and election outcomes is a prominent topic of discussion in political science. The most frequent claim is that left-of-centre parties benefit from higher levels of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – In keeping with the theme of this week’s column, the Star-Phoenix questions the Wall government’s choice to neglect existing school infrastructure. And Lana Payne’s message about how leaders react in a crisis also looks to be closely intertwined with the need to plan
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your day. – Bloomberg reminds us of the nest egg Norway has built up by taking ownership of its own natural resources (and the consensus among conservative parties and business groups in favour of social spending is also worth highlighting). And Canadians for Tax Fairness point
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Norway’s disturbing lurch to the right | Alf Gunvald Nilsen | Comment is free | theguardian.com
Norway’s disturbing lurch to the right | Alf Gunvald Nilsen | Comment is free | theguardian.com. The results from today’s Norwegian elections are more or less clear: with some 26.8% of the vote, the Conservative party (Høyre) is poised to head Norway’s next coalition government. The first thing to note
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Even Norway Gets the Dutch Disease
We sometimes think of Norway as the country where fossil fuel riches are handled responsibly, not like the Alberta and Canadian governments that just piss it all away. Yes, Norway has amassed an impressive sovereign wealth fund from its Statoil royalties but, beyond that, it has many of the same
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: The Norwegian National Election: Europe’s Most Leftist Government Defeated by Right-Wing Coalition | The Bullet No. 883
The Norwegian National Election: Europe’s Most Leftist Government Defeated by Right-Wing Coalition | The Bullet No. 883. The red-green coalition government in Norway, whose political platform when it took power in 2005 was called the most progressive in Europe, experienced a bitter defeat in the country’s parliamentary election on 9
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Not surprisingly, plenty of commentators have weighed in on the latest set of Senate scandals engulfing Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, Nigel Wright and Stephen Harper among others. Diane Francis takes the opportunity to point out that the Senate is an institutional anachronism (a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Paul Krugman draws a much-needed connection between austerity politics and Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine: What Smith didn’t note, somewhat surprisingly, is that his argument is very close to Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine, with its argument that elites systematically exploit disasters to push through
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 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
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