[Mr.Coffee]

This is a person that became a billionaire from acquiring, developing and producing what’s ultimately a public resource. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and he absolutely took risks, is extremely business savv, and overall has employed thousands of Albertans, transferred a #### ton of wealth to many people and (I think / assume) donated an enormous amount of money to charities, schools, and various other institutions.

However for the amount of good this guy has done, it’s not a squeaky clean record, and there are other oil and gas giants with (seemingly) much better public records. He made his money off public resource and then refuses to pay tax on his wealth- flies away to live remotely to avoid his tax obligation then comes back to the public and asks them to build him a new hockey arena so that he can become even more enormously wealthy. To increase Flames franchise value from a few hundred million (he’s already made a few hundred million in equity) to billions. He rarely shows his face, and then he controls every aspect.

In the oil and gas world, his competitive streak has led to the bankruptcy of countless junior companies. Extremely cutthroat. Acquires facilities and will never sell anything and never give an inch. Charges crazy fees to process at CNQ facilities. Acquires liabilities and kicks them down the road. Reluctant to lay people off. Some would say this is good, but there’s a huge negative to this model as well- breeds low morale and likely depression, arguably a case of just not wanting to pay severance, etc. on this one I find it harder to criticize. Maybe he’s trying to just hold onto jobs for people.


But to me asking for the money for his rink? That one is unforgivable to me. I’d love if someone had the balls to ask him how much money is enough? I think personally once you breach 1B in wealth- you’re entering into a pretty disgusting world when I look around at how other people are doing and how many other people you’ve put out of business- ultimately either ruining their lives or making them hugely complicated.

I don’t think I’ve ever talked to anyone who’s a huge Murray Edwards fan, and that should tell you something.

One day I chatted to some kid, he was making minimum wage as a person who delivered furniture. Edward’s house was the destination for said furniture, and for all intents and purposes the interaction was… not good. I won’t post the whole story, but if this is how he treats people, there’s a reason he has the reputation he does.

I just think that, you show up in Alberta and sell its resources and make yourself a billionaire. And then when Alberta comes and says hey can you pay taxes on the gigantic life changing multigenerational wealth and you say nah I’m moving to ####ing London then Switzerland so nobody else has anything and by the way build me an arena? Like, seriously. It’s…