Brewmaster is being awfully polite about the NEP. Devastating. Investment pulled out rather than have a the feds steal... er... I mean nationalize the resource. Tens of thousands of families lost their jobs, their homes, their livelihoods.
I remember growing up in Bonavista playing with a kid from my soccer team on his last day while his family packed up and they moved to Ontario because (I now know) dad lost his job and the family lost his house. They weren't affected in the first hit, but with every job lost in oil, 2 or more were lost in the economy. It was 1983 or 1984
A foreclosure lawyer I know described contracting a maintenance company to cut the grass who could literally drive a tractor up and down the block in straight lines because every home in the entire block had been foreclosed on (Grande Prairie). This isn't a developer who went under, it was individual families.
The NEP was a massive wealth transfer from Alberta to the feds under the guise of Nationalism.
I don't think we'll ever see it again because the Province would separate before it was ever that bad again. And I think most realize it. He'll, even
Michael Ignatieff got a standing ovation at a session in Edmonton when he was leader of the Libs. He started the talk off with this opening:
The NEP was a mistake.
The wealth of the nation is shifting west and as a government we need to recognize and respect that.
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"OOOOOOHHHHHHH those Russians" - Boney M
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