Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[AFireInside]

Even with an absolute piece of garbage nutcase like Smith in charge the UCP will win pretty easily. Albertans talk a huge game about disliking corrupt governments, and transparency etc, but the truth is they don't care any of that at all.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by AFireInside

Even with an absolute piece of garbage nutcase like Smith in charge the UCP will win pretty easily. Albertans talk a huge game about disliking corrupt governments, and transparency etc, but the truth is they don't care any of that at all.

100%. Many Albertans could get absolutely pummeled by the UCP in a back alley, but if the UCP does so much as smile and wink at them again, they'll get up and come running back with puppy eyes for more.

Most Albertans don't do their political research, and can't be bothered to, which is tragic. Blue forever, even it means chopping off their own face to ensure blue stays.

[belsarius]

Originally Posted by GGG

You appear to be unable to read a chart

At best you can argue that June 19th BC gas prices reduced faster than Alberta. But over this period the gap closed by greater than 13 cents Why?

Why did Tsu Tina lower gas prices prior to Kenny’s check on the free market?

Did you consider Ethanol pricing?
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/why-is-ga...h-in-1.5976939

Did you look at gas prices in Kamloops?
https://www.gaspricesbc.ca/

And finally why is Diesel dropping and Toombes saying the pass through works
https://mobile.twitter.com/trevortom...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Full thread from Toombes

https://mobile.twitter.com/trevortom...50564995760128


Do in summary your assertion is not based on evidence.

Tombe's explanation of ethanol isn't "based on evidence" either. He straight out says it is speculation and just another possible reason, but not the definitive one.

What makes the ethanol explanation suspect for me is that as soon as this was reported on, prices started dropping. If it was truely an input cost issue then we shouldn't have immediately started seeing the price reductions that we did. Secondly, the price of Ethanol dropped pretty significantly on July 1st, so if that was a driving factor, I would expect to see some relief in the prices there. If it is an import of ethanol issue, then why did we only start to see this issue starting mid June when the price of fuel dropped across the country, I find it hard to believe that this was an issue that only occurred for a month causing a 13 cent increase in fuels.

And Tombe asked the questions 1) why is greed higher in Alberta and 2) why doesn't it exist for diesel. He makes it sound like that is a high bar but really,
1) Greed isn't higher, but with the UCP in charge, the opportunity to take advantage has never been higher with the most corporate friendly government in the country
2) Diesel is required to fuel the tanker trucks that supply gasoline to the stations. If you want to keep your costs down and profits up, you reduce the costs of diesel and keep the price of gasoline high.

I'm still going to stick with occam's raxor on this. The simplest explanation is that Alberta retail fuel companies got caught with their hand in the cookie jar and are now scrambling to do damage control.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Or there's also the third option: she could have gone completely crazy over the last decade. Surely all of us know someone (family, friends, coworkers, etc.) who we once that was more-or-less reasonable but then in the last 5-6 years we saw them become totally unglued.

I'm thinking it's a combo of all three: she was always a bit of a kook, but kept it in check enough for the political climate of the day. But she's also now gone off the deep end of kookiness like so many others.

[Torture]

Jason Copping dragging feet on opening up booking for <5 covid vaccinations...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1552308732461080577

https://twitter.com/user/status/1552313920928436224

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Torture

Jason Copping dragging feet on opening up booking for <5 covid vaccinations...

https://twitter.com/user/status/1552308732461080577

https://twitter.com/user/status/1552313920928436224

FFS I'd really like to get my 3 yo a jab well in advance of pre-school. And hopefully jab 2 before his sibling arrives in the fall.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by GGG

Yep sure am.

Just before Smoth crossed the floor she failed to pass a resolution affirming non descimination against lgbtq people.

She argued in favour of GSAs. The loonie she is now doesn’t mesh with wear she was.

So there is two options: She was always crazy and it’s less politically costly to be crazy now or she blows with the wind and will do what ever it takes to win.

Political discourse and organization these days takes place in increasingly extreme online communities. Cultivating a reputation in those spaces has become essential to gaining popular support among political activists. Whether Smith really is bonkers or not, she has thrown in with the nutjobs. This is going to be a problem for politics going forward.

[Fuzz]

By recruiting thousands to infiltrate the Party, Bannon is in the throes of executing a hostile takeover of a major democratic institution, for the express purpose of generating political chaos. But there is nothing you can do to stop it.

See, here’s the thing. Folks are watching the January 6th Committee hearings on prime time and thinking that was the insurrection. It wasn’t. It was just the warm-up.

https://theline.substack.com/p/melan...w-steve-bannon

Good peice on how Bannon is working to undermine the Republican party.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by belsarius

Tombe's explanation of ethanol isn't "based on evidence" either. He straight out says it is speculation and just another possible reason, but not the definitive one.

What makes the ethanol explanation suspect for me is that as soon as this was reported on, prices started dropping. If it was truely an input cost issue then we shouldn't have immediately started seeing the price reductions that we did. Secondly, the price of Ethanol dropped pretty significantly on July 1st, so if that was a driving factor, I would expect to see some relief in the prices there. If it is an import of ethanol issue, then why did we only start to see this issue starting mid June when the price of fuel dropped across the country, I find it hard to believe that this was an issue that only occurred for a month causing a 13 cent increase in fuels.

And Tombe asked the questions 1) why is greed higher in Alberta and 2) why doesn't it exist for diesel. He makes it sound like that is a high bar but really,
1) Greed isn't higher, but with the UCP in charge, the opportunity to take advantage has never been higher with the most corporate friendly government in the country
2) Diesel is required to fuel the tanker trucks that supply gasoline to the stations. If you want to keep your costs down and profits up, you reduce the costs of diesel and keep the price of gasoline high.

I'm still going to stick with occam's raxor on this. The simplest explanation is that Alberta retail fuel companies got caught with their hand in the cookie jar and are now scrambling to do damage control.

So doubling down on no evidence then. Your Occam requires a conspiracy usually that’s not the simplest explanation.

Your second argument is that the trucks supplying gasoline to stations burn more diesel then the company sells to the public. Any way to provide any support to the assertion.

Why are the Kamloops gas stations involved in the Alberta retail conspiracy and Vancouver isn’t?

I should clarify though; my main contention is that there is no evidence that the absence of the Gas Tax is in anyway related to the current gas price in Calgary. So even if you can prove the grand price fixing conspiracy that raises prices before long weekends you would still need to show that this is happening because of the gas tax room given by Kenny.

[Fuzz]

Pretty sure fuel delivery is handled by 3rd parties, so #2 doesn't make sense, either.

[aaronck]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

I'm thinking it's a combo of all three: she was always a bit of a kook, but kept it in check enough for the political climate of the day. But she's also now gone off the deep end of kookiness like so many others.

She's always been a kook- this is from 2012

https://www.reddit.com/r/alberta/com...from_2012_btw/

[belsarius]

Originally Posted by GGG

So doubling down on no evidence then. Your Occam requires a conspiracy usually that’s not the simplest explanation.

Your second argument is that the trucks supplying gasoline to stations burn more diesel then the company sells to the public. Any way to provide any support to the assertion.

Why are the Kamloops gas stations involved in the Alberta retail conspiracy and Vancouver isn’t?

I should clarify though; my main contention is that there is no evidence that the absence of the Gas Tax is in anyway related to the current gas price in Calgary. So even if you can prove the grand price fixing conspiracy that raises prices before long weekends you would still need to show that this is happening because of the gas tax room given by Kenny.

Of course I am doubling down on no evidence. So are you. You haven't provided one link with evidence, only speculation. Tombe even admits he actually has no answer for this, he just makes sure to insulate himself from any libel accusing companies of acting illegally.

I didn't breakdown my answers or thoroughly investigate anything, I am just giving plausible explanations. I can't prove any price fixing in this specific situation, but I know it happens and companies get caught doing it, so its not some unfathomable conspiracy to believe it might be happening here.

Do I have any numbers to back up the difference in diesel? nope, but I haven't seen any either. But I do know my delivery fuel surcharges fluctuate with diesel prices so it is safe to assume that a fuel retailer using a 3rd party truck to deliver fuel would also charge based on their costs. Keep them low, delivery costs are low.

I have a hard time thinking that some ethanol pricing issue affected only Alberta (and Kamloops) at the exact same time as every other province was seeing gasoline prices go down. It continued to the exact point where there was 0 tax rebate flow through, and then, suddenly a few days after the differential is identified prices drop and the tax flow-through is back to 10 cents today. How very convenient.

Could there be other reasons? Sure, but I haven't seen any actual evidence of those either.

If you don't think occam applies, then I can use "if there's smoke, there's fire" or "if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck.. its a duck".

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Political discourse and organization these days takes place in increasingly extreme online communities. Cultivating a reputation in those spaces has become essential to gaining popular support among political activists. Whether Smith really is bonkers or not, she has thrown in with the nutjobs. This is going to be a problem for politics going forward.

I didn’t follow her radio show at all but could that have led her to a certain audience?

[Dion]

Smith seems to forget that actions have consequences. I wonder what she would say to downtown Ottawa residents who had their peace disrupted by the constant blaring of horns from the trucks and the smell of diesel fumes in the air.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1552318407013322752

[timun]

Smith couldn't care less about Ottawans other than making them out to be boogeymen. She's actively courting the Freedumbasses, she knows precisely what she's doing and has been doing it for years now, and she's entirely out of ####s to give about anyone who doesn't like it.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by belsarius

Of course I am doubling down on no evidence. So are you. You haven't provided one link with evidence, only speculation. Tombe even admits he actually has no answer for this, he just makes sure to insulate himself from any libel accusing companies of acting illegally.

I didn't breakdown my answers or thoroughly investigate anything, I am just giving plausible explanations. I can't prove any price fixing in this specific situation, but I know it happens and companies get caught doing it, so its not some unfathomable conspiracy to believe it might be happening here.

Do I have any numbers to back up the difference in diesel? nope, but I haven't seen any either. But I do know my delivery fuel surcharges fluctuate with diesel prices so it is safe to assume that a fuel retailer using a 3rd party truck to deliver fuel would also charge based on their costs. Keep them low, delivery costs are low.

I have a hard time thinking that some ethanol pricing issue affected only Alberta (and Kamloops) at the exact same time as every other province was seeing gasoline prices go down. It continued to the exact point where there was 0 tax rebate flow through, and then, suddenly a few days after the differential is identified prices drop and the tax flow-through is back to 10 cents today. How very convenient.

Could there be other reasons? Sure, but I haven't seen any actual evidence of those either.

If you don't think occam applies, then I can use "if there's smoke, there's fire" or "if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck.. its a duck".

Are you alleging price fixing or that companies are using the tax room created by Kenny to charge more?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by GGG

Yep sure am.

Just before Smoth crossed the floor she failed to pass a resolution affirming non descimination against lgbtq people.

She argued in favour of GSAs. The loonie she is now doesn’t mesh with wear she was.

So there is two options: She was always crazy and it’s less politically costly to be crazy now or she blows with the wind and will do what ever it takes to win.

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Or there's also the third option: she could have gone completely crazy over the last decade. Surely all of us know someone (family, friends, coworkers, etc.) who we once that was more-or-less reasonable but then in the last 5-6 years we saw them become totally unglued.

Both I think. Being more moderate and crossing the floor got her what? A lost nomination and basically kicked out of the party. I'm sure there is alot of bitterness and revenge.

Then she saw how Trump did it and is taking that model. Gives no ####s anymore.

What do the other candidates do? Attack her during the debate making her the favorite. All the news is about her today.

[Monahammer]

Solid. 1 and 3 year old have covid just before vaccines become available. Permanent #### you to our inept government and regulatory bodies from me. A

[timun]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

What do the other candidates do? Attack her during the debate making her the favorite. All the news is about her today.

BOOM.

She says a bunch of inane, heinous crap because it goads the media and her opponents into making it all about her. Works right into her favour.

[Torture]

We're officially the last province to open up vaccinations for under 5s. Congratulations UCP, we did it!

https://twitter.com/user/status/1552704973296771073