Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[boogerz]

Personally, my wife and I have already agreed that we will move to Toronto (where we have extended family) to remain in Canada if Alberta decides to separate. That's two "high income" earning people with graduate degrees leaving. A sizeable chunk of our liberal-leaning and well-educated friend circle are seriously considering the same thing. Two of friends that are doctors have already decided on moving to Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by boogerz

Personally, my wife and I have already agreed that we will move to Toronto (where we have extended family) to remain in Canada if Alberta decides to separate. That's two "high income" earning people with graduate degrees leaving. A sizeable chunk of our liberal-leaning and well-educated friend circle are seriously considering the same thing. Two of friends that are doctors have already decided on moving to Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

I’m sure Marlaina would be happy to have a landlocked right-wing utopia of bigotry, non-progressive values and coal mining, and devoid of scientific credence, higher education, corporate investment and innovation. Of course, she doesn’t have the cranial capacity to understand the criticality of those last two concepts.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by boogerz

It's incredible that people can look at Brexit and the Quebec referendums and still think that publicly entertaining the thought of Alberta separation, or being complicit in the separation discourse, is a good idea.

Another overlooked aspect of the separation talks that separatists and media seem to be ignoring is brain drain. Quebec's net five-year population growth dropped by double digits between the early '60s to mid '80s. The 1-2% net five-year population growth they experienced in the early to mid 80s and late 90s was solely due to immigration. There was also a significant brain drain from the UK caused by Brexit. It's an irrefutable fact that people with the education, skills, and economic means needed to establish a new country will leave to safer, more stable jurisdictions with higher potential.

In a situation like Alberta, where the economy isn't as strong as Montreal's was back in the 80s and it being a landlocked territory with a single industry, a 5-10% drop (i.e. hundreds of thousands of people) in net migration is a huge blow to the economic prospects of this place.

Between this and all of the other crap from the UCP, it's so frustrating being an Albertan right now.

Exactly, it's not just the amount of people that would leave, it's who those people are. I'm an idiot, Alberta won't miss me, but my wife is a medical professional, as is my sister who left to Halifax My doctor left, as well as a good friend of mine who is a psychologist. Mom's a Pharmacist, she took an early retirement and bailed to the Canary Islands. My dad, he moved to Mexico. and those are all people who were born here, the list goes on if you count friends from out East who just went home.

Personal anecdotes aside, brain drain is absolutely a real thing, and the numbers show separatist narratives are a good way to cause it.

Do we really want Alberta to turn into a place where education has taken such a nosedive that we start doing stuff like banning chemtrails like Florida and Louisiana? Because we're already well down that road.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by boogerz

It's incredible that people can look at Brexit and the Quebec referendums and still think that publicly entertaining the thought of Alberta separation, or being complicit in the separation discourse, is a good idea.

Because they don't. They only listen to each other and don't think critically about anything. Or think at all really...

[puffnstuff]

https://crowsnestheadwaters.substack...dRedirect=true

A few of us have been debating on when to publish what we have recently learned from Lorne Fitch regarding the findings by the Government of Alberta. Reluctantly, the government has released a report on findings of high and unsafe selenium concentrations in fish flesh from Crowsnest Lake. This is a direct result of the ongoing leaching of effluent from the Tent Mountain mine which extirpated all signs of fish in Crowsnest Creek, an upper tributary of Crowsnest Lake.

Alberta has an interim fish tissue selenium guideline of 4 μg/g to protect fish populations from reproductive failures. Apparently every single fish analyzed from Crowsnest Lake exceeded this value. In addition to the toxicity risks to fish, there are also health concerns for people who consume fish high in selenium. The researchers recommend “consumption advisories for the Crowsnest Lake and Crowsnest River system.”

[iggy_oi]

All this separatist crap is just a distraction so people aren’t focusing on all of the other things the UCP are doing or not doing.

[troutman]

Northback Dundee disses Alberta government science; has none of his own
CEO Mike Young tells Fort Macleod Council that science critical of his scheme to disinter Grassy Mountain coal project should be ignored.

https://crowsnestheadwaters.substack...rta-government

High River mayor targets coal-lickin' premier in eviscerating response to Northback's selenium sleight-of-hand
Craig Snodgrass emerges as sanest voice in Alberta as he commits his political career to saving landscape and waters from crazed coal-licker Danielle Smith

https://crowsnestheadwaters.substack...ts-coal-lickin

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I just got fed a youtube ad for something called "Alberta Republicans".

WTF is this ####?

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

All this separatist crap is just a distraction so people aren’t focusing on all of the other things the UCP are doing or not doing.

No, it’s about keeping the populist right in the party tent. As we’ve seen from the election results and approval ratings since, as long as the UCP keep the right onside, they hold a clear majority in this province. Contaminated water in the Crowsnest from mining isn’t a big enough story with most voters to drive a political distraction campaign.

[puffnstuff]

We could start serving that fish to UCP MLAs at the legislature dining room

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

No, it’s about keeping the populist right in the party tent. As we’ve seen from the election results and approval ratings since, as long as the UCP keep the right onside, they hold a clear majority in this province. Contaminated water in the Crowsnest from mining isn’t a big enough story with most voters to drive a political distraction campaign.

The healthcare scandal would be big enough...in most other jurisdictons that aren't so ####ing stupid

[Monahammer]

The AB Republicans website has a list of sitting MLAs who "support" them. Highly recommend a gander.

https://albertarepublicans.com/actio...nce-scorecard/

I can't stress this enough. DO NOT DISMISS THIS AS PURE MISDIRECTION.

Yes, I think part of what is happening is misdirection to occupy news and media away from the pending economic disaster ($10 bil deficit), negligence, and ultimately gross corruption (Mraiche Scandal). But, whether intentional or not, when you open the door to this type of beast, the beast comes through. Look at Brexit. Look at Trump's first run. A lot of speculation that the original architects of these were using them to distract, and both paid out instead. No doubt there is substantial american (and likely more sinister) foreign interest backing the #### out of these positions.

It should be lost on no one that polling on separatism went from 20% in February to a 37% mixed bag in May. If you spice this up with some voter suppression and let it ride for a year, it's going to be a disaster.

Well, its already a disaster, it will just be a worse disaster.

[Monahammer]

Speaking of Mraiche, looking forward to it coming out that not only did Marshall Smith live in his house, but Marshall was also pressuring staff to come sublet from him and live together.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

No, it’s about keeping the populist right in the party tent. As we’ve seen from the election results and approval ratings since, as long as the UCP keep the right onside, they hold a clear majority in this province.

Yes and no. That’s certainly a concern for them but I think this along with a number of other nothing burger issues they try to keep people focused on are just a means to draw attention away from their other shenanigans and failures.

Contaminated water in the Crowsnest from mining isn’t a big enough story with most voters to drive a political distraction campaign.

It’s one of many examples. Definitely not the sole issue they’re trying to distract people from.

[Makarov]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

I just got fed a youtube ad for something called "Alberta Republicans".

WTF is this ####?

Its stupidity. Just staggering, breathtaking stupidity.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Speaking of Mraiche, looking forward to it coming out that not only did Marshall Smith live in his house, but Marshall was also pressuring staff to come sublet from him and live together.

That's already been out... didn't get the play it deserves.

I mean come on, he was paying $1138.00 rent on a $1.7M home... $1138.00... my old 1 bedroom apartment from where I had to dodge junkies on my way to work costs more then that now. That would be a ludicrous enough of a discount on it's own to warrant a bribery investigation... but then he also subbed rooms out to two of his underlings? He was basically being paid to live in a swanky house by the Mriache family who he then pressured folk to award multi-million dollar contracts to... Quid meet Pro Quo.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Parallex

That's already been out... didn't get the play it deserves.

I mean come on, he was paying $1138.00 rent on a $1.7M home... $1138.00... my old 1 bedroom apartment from where I had to dodge junkies on my way to work costs more then that now. That would be a ludicrous enough of a discount on it's own to warrant a bribery investigation... but then he also subbed rooms out to two of his underlings? He was basically being paid to live in a swanky house by the Mriache family who he then pressured folk to award multi-million dollar contracts to... Quid meet Pro Quo.

Lol, we are so ####ed.

[troutman]

CSL Statement on Alberta’s Announcement Regarding Possible Book Bannings

https://www.canadianschoollibraries....book-bannings/

Not every book in a school library is meant for every student. Schools need to have a wide range of age and developmentally appropriate resources that cover the needs of the student population.

School library collections, with a richness and diversity that allows students to see themselves and experience lives other than their own, are developed within the lens of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the rights and freedoms it affords to all Canadians, including children.There is no one size fits all model that can easily be applied to every school. Without trained specialists to make these decisions, it is not surprising that issues would arise.

Books are burning in the main square
And I saw there, the fire eating the text
Books are burning in the still air
And you know where they burn books, people are next
- XTC

[Fuzz]

Massachusetts-based Boston Metal is on the verge of earning its first revenue for a novel steelmaking process so clean it can vent emissions into a parking lot the company shares with a day care center.

“It just proves how different the future of steel can be,” said the firm’s senior vice president for business development, Adam Rauwerdink.

The technique, which was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is now being scaled up for commercialization, uses electricity to remove contaminants from iron ore, producing a small fraction of the emissions generated by traditional fossil fuel–fired blast furnaces. Indeed, the technology releases no carbon dioxide — just oxygen — and the only greenhouse gas emissions are those associated with the electricity used to power the system.

https://www.canarymedia.com/articles...ion-technology


So beyond the environmental devastation, are we just building a dead end pit? Quebec has super cheap hydro, maybe they should get into steel making now.

[puffnstuff]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/arti...e-immediately/

On Friday, the#AGLC announced#it will “resume accepting liquor products from the United States, effective immediately,” at the direction of the provincial government.