Quote:
Originally Posted by killer_carlson
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.
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I was here too. Thing is, the global crash in oil prices happened on the heels of the NEP, and in the minds of Albertans the whole economic crash in blamed on the NEP. I'm not suggesting the NEP was good policy - it wasn't. But politicizing the cyclical nature of the energy industry is delusional.
The energy industry, and Albertans in general, have a tough time admitting that our fortunes are tied to a global commodity with massive swings that are out of our control. Instead, we look for villains. The NEP. Ed Stelmach. The federal government. Now it's the Saudis. Whenever the industry is booming we pat ourselves on the back for our industry and hard work, and whenever it crashes we look for villains who ruined everything. I suppose that's human nature.