Crude oil was trading north of US$50 a barrel for about 30 seconds this week.What with the government’s cash deficit being $3.0 billion and all, CBC had someone write up a little story about what that would mean for government finances.You will see a l…
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Alberta Politics: Notley Government navigates a profound crisis with grace and empathy, as even some conservatives begin to recognize
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, who has risen to the challenge of a difficult moment in Alberta’s history. Below: Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee and a scene from the Fort McMurray fire catastrophe, which continues to burn. The lat…
Continue readingEnvironmental Law Alert Blog: Dilbit Dogma: On Pipelines to Tidewater
Friday, April 15, 2016
According to pipeline supporters and cheerleaders, one of the primary ratio…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: What’s behind ‘Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation’ campaigns like its stunt calling for rollbacks in Alberta teachers’ pay?
PHOTOS: A typical Canadian Taxpayers Federation stunt, moved from place to place across Canada with the goal of undermining public services and speeding the race to the bottom. The picture at bottom right shows Alberta Wildrose Opposition Finance Criti…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Go figure! Jim Prentice, failed former politician, resurfaces with sweet gig at Washington think tank
PHOTOS: Those were the days! This time last year, Jim Prentice was everyone else’s favourite Albertan, or so it seemed. Now look at him, already the last Conservative premier of Alberta. Below: Woodrow Wilson, the only American president with a PhD a…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Poll puts NDP in third place among Albertans – a plausible result despite a pollster’s debatable analysis
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. Below: Pollster Quito Maggi of Mainstreet Research, grabbed from his Twitter account, and former PC premier Ed Stelmach, whose personal popularity held through the economic downturn of 2007 and 2008. Late last wee…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan assails Notley Government’s royalty ‘mistake’
PHOTOS: Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan. Below: Mr. McGowan with federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair; Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell. Many progressive Albertans who were shocked and troubled by the Notley Government’s dramatic rever…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Meditations on booms, busts, oil prices, sales taxes, Albertans and their governments
PHOTOS: Alberta in the spring of 2014. Actual Alberta drilling operations may not have appeared exactly as illustrated. Below: Conservative premiers Peter Lougheed and Ralph Klein. If God gives us another oil boom like the one us Albertans are all pray…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Year in review: from plunging oil to rising hope, the Top Ten news stories of 2015
PHOTOS: Cameras try to follow a nearly invisible Rachel Notley through the crowd at an Edmonton hotel on May 5, 2015, moments after she had been declared the winner of the Alberta election. No one could quite believe that the NDP had just won a majorit…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Baked Alaska and the Fraser Institute: what changes, and what doesn’t, when oil prices fall and the money melts
PHOTOS: Alaska Governor Bill Walker illustrates about how much is left in the northern state’s budget now that oil prices have gone south. (Alaska Dispatch News photo.) Below: The wild rose, official flower of both Alaska and Alberta; baked Alaska, g…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: When propaganda becomes memory: Pierre Trudeau and the National Energy Program
PHOTOS: Pierre and Justin Trudeau back in the day, with possibly quite a few Liberal supporters in the background. Below: Prime Minister Steve and Defence Minister Jason Kenney. Everybody in Alberta knows Pierre Trudeau and his National Energy Program laid waste to Alberta in the 1980s, and that would include
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: On Recession Economies
So, today the Bank of Canada lowered its prime lending rate to 0.5%. Supposedly, this signals that Canada is sliding into a recession. Those of us who have been watching have long ago figured out that the minute the bubble burst on oil prices, Canada was going to slide into
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: On Recession Economies
So, today the Bank of Canada lowered its prime lending rate to 0.5%. Supposedly, this signals that Canada is sliding into a recession. Those of us who have been watching have long ago figured out that the minute the bubble burst on oil prices, Canada was going to slide into
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: On Recession Economies
So, today the Bank of Canada lowered its prime lending rate to 0.5%. Supposedly, this signals that Canada is sliding into a recession. Those of us who have been watching have long ago figured out that the minute the bubble burst on oil prices, Ca…
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Oil and polls #nlpoli
Two things for Tuesday after a monster snow storm. Oil: Brent crude hit a low of $52.50 before rebounding to finish Monday at just below US$55 a barrel. Newfoundland light, sweet crude trades at Brent prices. West Texas Intermediate was even lower. It settled at $43.88 with global production staying
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: The International Game Of Chicken
The current low oil prices have been characterized as a high stakes game of “chicken” between OPEC countries and “non-conventional” producing countries like Canada and more recently the US. I don’t pretend to know the state of the books for OPEC’s countries, but I imagine they have a significant chunk
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Day Stephen Harper Collided With Crude Reality
You could can see the strain in his face, he can't hide it anymore, even under all that pancake makeup.He's still trying to pretend that those tanking oil prices won't affect his plans to try to buy the next election, or balance the budget.Even though he recklessly blew the surplus
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 readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper’s Sinister Plan to Jail Pipeline Protesters
You think Stephen Harper might have learned his lesson. You think a tiny sliver of light might have penetrated even into his dark world.You think he might have finally realized that his oily obsession is leading us to economic disaster. Declining crude oil prices are taking a brutal toll on the
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