Alberta Politics Thread

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Locke

Heres a quick tip: think things through before you do them. Ask experts for opinions and advice. If you do things properly the first time, or even sometimes dont do things at all because they're so stupid that they're borderline illegal, you'll spend less time and money trying not to look foolish.

Their handling of the royalty review is a perfect example. Their initial election platform displayed a fundamental misunderstanding of how royalties work in our province.

But, to their credit, they put together a panel of experts and actually listened to them. End result? They didn't look like complete buffoons at the end of the process, even though the uncertainty injected into the market because of it was completely avoidable and unnecessary.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Their handling of the royalty review is a perfect example. Their initial election platform displayed a fundamental misunderstanding of how royalties work in our province.

But, to their credit, they put together a panel of experts and actually listened to them. End result? They didn't look like complete buffoons at the end of the process, even though the uncertainty injected into the market because of it was completely avoidable and unnecessary.

Except that they dragged it on for so long, and created so much uncertainty that every Oil company slashed their investment and capital budgets because they were sure of the results or didn't trust the NDP to do the right thing.

So I can't say that overall it was well handled, but at least they listened to reason.

[CaptainCrunch]

sooo this grant is based on sales volume it sounds like. So how is that not a bit crazy

1) It forces the smaller lower volume brewers to increase their prices even more then larger high volume brewers on a per can basis

2) It squeezes out the smaller brewers or new brewers who won't sell as much or sell as much initially and probably won't get the grant, so they have to jack up their prices and become less competitive against more well known brewers who can sell it cheaper on a per can basis.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Their handling of the royalty review is a perfect example. Their initial election platform displayed a fundamental misunderstanding of how royalties work in our province.

But, to their credit, they put together a panel of experts and actually listened to them. End result? They didn't look like complete buffoons at the end of the process, even though the uncertainty injected into the market because of it was completely avoidable and unnecessary.

I more or less agree with the exception of the length of that review lost Capital investment and even further, as to the point I made in another thread, we still have some of the highest oil royalty rates in the world, perhaps they should have lowered the royalties to encourage investment.

Get that profitability break-even number as low as possible and get people back to work.

[VladtheImpaler]

See, if we lived in a civilized place like Thailand, the army would just step in at this point and coup Notley out of there... Whoever is in charge of the Patricias couldn't be much worse than the last few premiers we've had.

[CaptainCrunch]

I promise if you vote for me and the authoritarian Friendship party in the next election, you'll never have to vote again.

Plus we're giving away cable.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

See, if we lived in a civilized place like Thailand, the army would just step in at this point and coup Notley out of there... Whoever is in charge of the Patricias couldn't be much worse than the last few premiers we've had.

I literally laughed way too hard at this. And then gave it serious consideration.

Unfortunately most of the Army is stationed in Edmonton which is No Good and they're Unionized so....

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I promise if you vote for me and the authoritarian Friendship party in the next election, you'll never have to vote again.

Plus we're giving away cable.

I vaguely recall once being elected 'President of the Internet' and during my tenure the Internet was, and continues to be, pretty freaking awesome.

[PaperBagger'14]

Originally Posted by Locke

I literally laughed way too hard at this. And then gave it serious consideration.

Unfortunately most of the Army is stationed in Edmonton which is No Good and they're Unionized so....



I vaguely recall once being elected 'President of the Internet' and during my tenure the Internet was, and continues to be, pretty freaking awesome.

In authoritarian friendship Canada, Internet watches you!

[Resolute 14]

http://calgaryherald.com/news/politi...ctrical-system

But it’s even worse for Calgarians if Enmax loses the case launched by the province.

That would force the utility to hang on to a liability running to hundreds of millions. Enmax would then have to approach city council for a major capital injection.

Council could only do that by borrowing, and repaying through higher taxes or reduced services, or both.

The annual Enmax dividend to the city treasury — $56 million last year — could also vanish. That benefit knocks nearly two percentage points off property tax bills.

In total, the whole mess could easily raise property taxes five per cent or more.

And to top all this, it’s almost certain that Enmax would countersue the province for misrepresenting the power purchase deals in the first place.

The lawsuit is only the start.

The government’s goals go far beyond blocking the termination of power purchase agreements. The NDP intends to gain much more control over prices, and perhaps over ownership of assets as wel

...

How far the NDP would tilt toward a more public system, like those in the other provinces, isn’t yet clear.

Our system has always been essentially private, or city-owned, with varying degrees of provincial regulation. A shift even to partial provincial ownership would be massively expensive.

The late Premier Ralph Klein’s policy change in 2000 — the one behind today’s bizarre legal case — was essentially a loosening of regulation to bring in more competitors.

The NDP always hated this, and makes its distaste clear now by taking to court virtually every player in that system.

[CaptainCrunch]

Frankly the NDP isn't capable of running a lemonade stand let alone utilities.

I really hope they lose this lawsuit and lose it badly, because frankly the alternative of them winning is worse in terms of taking more control over the utilities and in terms of the end of meaningful outside investment into the province.

As it stands when these bid requests go out for building powerplants or anything else, I would hardly be surprised if any company that responds sneaks in a "Because its the NDP and they can't be trusted cost bump"

I can see this stupidity going for years and costing the taxpayers millions upon millions of dollars in court costs.

[CaptainCrunch]

Notley's approval with Alberta falls down a well

http://thinkhq.ca/wp-content/uploads...ugust-2016.pdf

Plunging from a 60% high at the election to about 37%

Two things that stand out, there aren't a lot of unsures, the unsures sit at about 8%.

This poll shows a massive split starting to happen in Alberta as Edmonton still has a strong approval rating for Notley, while they are still strongly down though from her high point. I would expect that if Notley tries to win political points by fighting the Unions that she will screw herself into the ground.

[PaperBagger'14]

How in the hell is she still seeing 51% approval in Edmonton? Seriously? What did she do to still have a >50%, put truck nuts on her Prius?

[Locke]

The Union/Government/No Good town is the only thing propping up this regime's foul corpse and dragging it around Weekend at Bernie's style.

Notley seriously wants to Nationalize utilities? Why?

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

How in the hell is she still seeing 51% approval in Edmonton? Seriously? What did she do to still have a >50%, put truck nuts on her Prius?

Hey man, teachers work really really hard and it's a good time for a raise.

Contrary to the hopes of some in this thread, a second NDP government isn't overly far fetched as we might like to think.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by chemgear

Hey man, teachers work really really hard and it's a good time for a raise.

Contrary to the hopes of some in this thread, a second NDP government isn't overly far fetched as we might like to think.

Lets see what happens with the union contract negotiations. Notley is trapped by the Unions right now. If she gives in and gives a soft fight, the Union vote won't matter because her and her parties approval rate will plunge hard into the single digits among the rest of Albertans.

If she fights hard against the Union, she might get a minor bump with the rest of Albertan's but her party and her have screwed things up so bad that they will still be massively un popular.

Plus, if Kenney wins the PC leadership he could be the guy that steals a lot of vote from the soft Wildrose supporters who are supporting the Wildrose because the Conservatives are literally leaderless right now.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Locke

The Union/Government/No Good town is the only thing propping up this regime's foul corpse and dragging it around Weekend at Bernie's style.

Notley seriously wants to Nationalize utilities? Why?

Because leftists like her believe that the government is competent and qualified to run everything. If they could nationalize the oil companies and all the other larger companies they would. People like the ones who run for the NDP believe that all decisions for everything should come from a powerful centralized government. The message is that we will look after the people because the people are too stupid to look after themselves, and because the evil capitalists spend all their waking hours coming up with plans to screw the little guy and chain people to drill presses and table saws 24 hours a day, they need to control them too.

The irony of the whole thing is that Notley's carbon tax, the minimum wage boosts, the increases in tax rates, the royalty review and a lot of other things that they are enacting or trying to enact are actively screwing the little guy.




For the people!!!

[Locke]

We keep making jokes about 'Totalitarian Alberta' without seemingly realizing that we're already living in it.

Its odd to see how little recourse or oversight is involved in Government with unilateral decisions regarding taxation, tariffs, energy policy, etc.

And now, potential Nationalization of Power Distribution?

That would be, without hyperbole, Chavez level stuff.

And another NDP term? Its possible, but I dont think we'd be able to survive it. Economically it would be a disaster, I already shudder to think how we're going to survive this term, the long-term debt and degraded lending status alone is going to haunt this Province for years.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by Locke

We keep making jokes about 'Totalitarian Alberta' without seemingly realizing that we're already living in it.

Its odd to see how little recourse or oversight is involved in Government with unilateral decisions regarding taxation, tariffs, energy policy, etc.

And now, potential Nationalization of Power Distribution?

That would be, without hyperbole, Chavez level stuff.

And another NDP term? Its possible, but I dont think we'd be able to survive it. Economically it would be a disaster, I already shudder to think how we're going to survive this term, the long-term debt and degraded lending status alone is going to haunt this Province for years.

Honest opinion here but I think there's about a 1% chance the NDP gets re-elected. Truth is at the time the NDP got voted in, people were voting against the perceived corruption of the PC legacy, not for the NDP. Social media played a part as young people came out to vote- but you watch next election the NDP are going to get smoked.

The majority of people of Alberta do not share the ideology the NDP governs from.

[CliffFletcher]

The majority of Albertans do not share the social conservatism and rural concerns of the Wildrose either. I suppose that leaves the door open for the Conservatives. But will Albertans feel they've been sufficiently chastened? And will the Conservatives put forward a candidate who appeals to soccer moms, of will they try to appeal to red-meat conservatives? This isn't a province of farmers, ranchers, and oil executives anymore.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

The majority of Albertans do not share the social conservatism and rural concerns of the Wildrose either. I suppose that leaves the door open for the Conservatives. But will Albertans feel they've been sufficiently chastened? And will the Conservatives put forward a candidate who appeals to soccer moms, of will they try to appeal to red-meat conservatives? This isn't a province of farmers, ranchers, and oil executives anymore.

I tend to think that the soccer moms will either look at stories about people losing their jobs or worse yet, looking across the table at her unemployed husband or reviewing her own unemployed status, and the whole concepts of any social platform will go out the windows.

The next election will be fought purely on the economy and the NDP's record with the cheque book.

The next disaster coming for the NDP, is the release of the budget update where they show that the budgeted figure of a$10.4 billion dollar deficit will be surpassed.