Alberta Politics Thread v2

[Manhattanboy]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

I think Notley is doing the best she can. In fact I think she's doing a good job. What should she do?

Start working on her resume?

[Dion]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

I think Notley is doing the best she can. In fact I think she's doing a good job. What should she do?

Prepare for the fact that her party will most likely win somewhere around 20 or more seats in the next election.

[White Out 403]

It'll be pretty amusing to watch posters here go to full on Fox News mode defending the new UCP Administration as they fail to deliver on anything. I expect to hear blame about markets, Trudeau, and gosh darn rotten luck
And so on.

[puckedoff]

I think the NDP will do better in the next election than people think. Notley has been very charismatic, and I think has earned respect from the average voter.

The biggest knock against the NDP are their budgets, and the UCP have not presented any better solutions, or ideas on how they would fix or the budgets. In fact, I'm not sure what the UCP has proposed at all besides "scrap the Carbon Tax" rabble rabble.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by White Out 403

It'll be pretty amusing to watch posters here go to full on Fox News mode defending the new UCP Administration as they fail to deliver on anything. I expect to hear blame about markets, Trudeau, and gosh darn rotten luck
And so on.

It will also be funny to see Notley supporters quit believing that the Market is the problem and that the UCP should be able to fix it.

[monkeyman]

It's pretty amazing how quickly Notley went from Oil and gas is evil, we're not getting our fair share and we'll make those evil companies pay to yeah, you know what, we were totally wrong about everything.

For the record, the biggest knocks on the NDP were them causing uncertainty with a royalty review from day one, pre-maturely cancelling coal contracts instead of phasing them out, pre-maturely implementing a carbon tax, increasing the burden on farmers by requiring them to pay WCB insurance, unilaterally increasing the cost of everything by increasing the minimum wage, not based on need or industry.

At this point, why would anyone vote NDP when they're just a lesser version of the UCP?

[CaptainCrunch]

Don't forget the balancing pool and utilities contracts mess.


Even with her talking more positively and her tough talk on the pipelines, she really hasn't gotten a lot of traction with that, and also she's stopped short of execution of what she was talking about.



The wine ban that she surrendered on and got nothing from BC. The threat to reduce shipments to BC, Dropping out of the Federal Climate Plan, then promptly trying to bury that threat.



The whole social license promotion alone and the way that fell apart makes her look massively naive, and blew up in her face. She basically got played on that front and because of that implemented a Carbon Tax that was not part of her election campaign, chances are if she would have campaigned on that, she might not a formed a government.



I respect that she's done a lot of talking and a lot of tough talking, but frankly her strategy has really gotten her no traction with the Federal Government or our unfriendly neighbours to the West..


I would think that 20 seats might be a little bit generous given the current mood in this province. I think that the big surprise is that she might lose some of her fortress seats in Edmonton.



The only thing that will save her is that the Alberta party has really disappeared and hasn't gotten any traction, and the Liberal Party is pretty much dead.

[crazy_eoj]

I think the biggest issue with the NDP is that although they have spent Alberta into a huge deficit and massive debt position, they have done very little to improve the lives of everyday Albertans. They've basically stolen from private industry to create a small amount of high paying public jobs in an economy that was already unsustainable.

[Muta]

I found this on Reddit, but just out of curiosity, what do CP'ers think of this Elon Musk tweet regarding oil?

https://twitter.com/user/status/1061367825724522497

[Weitz]

There really isn’t anything to comment on there in his tweet...?

What are Oil companies saying that is opposite of science?

[Muta]

Originally Posted by Weitz

There really isn’t anything to comment on there in his tweet...?

What are Oil companies saying that is opposite of science?

They aren't. It's more about his suggestion to go renewable now, in a time when Alberta could use a boost in the oil and gas sector.

[CaptainCrunch]

They make it sounds so freaking easy. Nope just go now. Then reality called. What's he expecting, what are these other people expecting, to reach into the bag of glowy perpetually available public funds? To have the Energy Companies magically spend billions in transitioning?


Fact is that we need a viable strong energy sector based around oil and gas thats making the money that allows for renewable energy development and creates tax revenue for the government to support it.


I mean unless he's willing to write us a multibillion dollar check . . .

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Muta

They aren't. It's more about his suggestion to go renewable now, in a time when Alberta could use a boost in the oil and gas sector.

If it was as easy as is suggested it would be done already.

[flylock shox]

Curious to know what those in the oil industry think of the oil pellets that CN has come up with. Reads like a very cool solution to a long-standing problem, but I don't know enough about the logistics to really understand the barriers to it.

Amid an oil glut and pipeline shortage to U.S. refiners, Canadian National Railway Co. hopes to be sending pellets of solidified oil sands bitumen to overseas markets within three years.


Montreal-based CN says its plan to package oil sands bitumen in soap-bar-sized pellets could help alleviate some of the transportation bottleneck in Alberta and move the oil to more lucrative markets in Asia.


CN said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with an Asian partner to build a full-scale production facility converting 50,000 barrels a day into pellets, which are formed by mixing and sealing bitumen balls with polymer, a plastic made from recycled grocery bags.



The pellets are robust enough to be handled like pieces of coal, put through a conveyor system and dumped into the hold of a bulk carrier. They are designed to float, alleviating concerns of a tanker spill. The polymer is extracted and recycled at the destination through a shredding and heating process.

[crazy_eoj]

Originally Posted by Weitz

If it was as easy as is suggested it would be done already.

Germany has spent over a quarter of trillion dollars, including a doubling of electricity costs, with almost zero effect on greenhouse gas emissions.

On a large scale, renewable power is still simply a dream.

[Mr.Coffee]

Why doesn’t Musk, with a net worth of $22B, detail for all of us his personal total energy use and carbon impact?

Why doesn’t Musk, with a net worth of $22B, reduce the price on his Tesla’s to be competitive with the cheapest cars on the market?

Oh yeah, something about economics. And that something is precisely the reason we haven’t transitioned yet- even though he may be right.

If using dead dinosaurs is the stupidest move in history, then the greatest evidence in history that economics drive human behaviour in capitalist systems is this.

[4X4]

Yeah, no s###, Elon. Thanks for the update. Oil is non-renewable. In the meantime, your cars are expensive and limited in quantity, and they require oil to manufacture. And most electricity comes from fossil fuels as well. So take your bags of money and invent something that can actually wean us off oil, instead of tweeting Leonardo Di Caprio type crap.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Originally Posted by flylock shox

Curious to know what those in the oil industry think of the oil pellets that CN has come up with. Reads like a very cool solution to a long-standing problem, but I don't know enough about the logistics to really understand the barriers to it.

The startup company led by Ian Gates at the U of C (see Ecomomist article) do the same thing...you partially upgrade bitumen and it looks like a juju ball.

The trick is now whether transportation regulations will view the jujubes as less hazardous than regular bitumen and how that will affect the economics

[Mr.Coffee]

Has anyone noticed that it’s always fabulously-multi-generationally wealthy people telling others to reduce their carbon footprint? And it’s always crickets as soon as somebody asks them, “well what about you?”.

It’s the ultimate hypocrisy. It’s pretty disgusting actually. Hey dip####s the reason people aren’t entirely focused on climate change and the environment 24/7 is because it doesn’t matter to their lives today as much as paying the bills and getting by. If you all are such the altruistic superheroes you propose you are then spread your mega wealth around a little or take the hit to transition to alternative easier. But you won’t........ why?

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

They make it sounds so freaking easy. Nope just go now. Then reality called. What's he expecting, what are these other people expecting, to reach into the bag of glowy perpetually available public funds? To have the Energy Companies magically spend billions in transitioning?


Fact is that we need a viable strong energy sector based around oil and gas thats making the money that allows for renewable energy development and creates tax revenue for the government to support it.


I mean unless he's willing to write us a multibillion dollar check . . .

‘Just go now’?

The writing has been on the wall for years...too many people are in denial that it’s necessary to build new business models and are just worried about getting the current business model back on track.

This election is as much about whether you want to double down on oil and gas...or support oil and gas with a plan (albeit a risky plan) to build the next generation of Albertan wealth creators.

And f*** the politicians who flatlined the Heritage fund contributions (eg Don Getty) and the voters who don’t understand that funding public services off of resource royalties (instead of direct taxes) has helped paint us into a corner.