The "Piss Away" Province
The key to understanding the dilemma is to realize that Tar Sand, bitumen, is just a part of Alberta’s oil history. The province has also produced a vast amount of…
Norway
Alberta woes—It ain’t the economy, stupid
Here in Alberta, energy superpower, we are going through the bust part of one of our infamous boom and bust cycles. The premier is weighing the government’s options. Cutting MLA…
Norway Dumps High Carbon Fossil Fuels. Adios, Athabasca.
It’s the largest sovereign wealth fund on the planet; Norway’s pride and Canada’s shame; and it’s divesting, getting out of coal, bitumen, concrete and gold mining. If Steve Harper and…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Stephen Burgen reports on Thomas Piketty’s view that it’s long past time for voters to have anti-austerity options where none existed in the…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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%…
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…
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…