Alberta Politics Thread v2

[Red Slinger]

I'm no fan of Kenney's but what he said wasn't that bad nor necessarily wrong. More and more women are getting into politics. I think that's a good thing. People who are new to politics will usually, but not always, be less adept at political maneuvering than seasoned vets and therefore be at a disadvantage.

And yes, a Twitter account called "Handmaids for Kenney" is stupid. Extreme political rhetoric and theatre like this does nothing to raise awareness of issues or policy. It is painting their political adversary in a very negative light without addressing any actual substance. And then they twist his words to somehow make it seem much worse than what he said. This is GOP style politics. And I say this as someone who will likely not vote UCP as long as Kenney is the leader of the party.

[GordonBlue]

Originally Posted by Dion

I got a phone call from my local UCP candidate asking if he could put a sign on my front lawn. In the past I've said no to such things as they often get vandalised or in the worse case stolen, so I politely said no. I say it to all parties.

Now i'm having second thoughts. My neighbour is as huge a Notley fan as you will ever find and will brag to anyone who will listen about what a great job she's done. We like to rib each other so I was thinking I should call back tomorrow and say yes. Just to get under his skin a bit and maybe stick it on his lawn for a weekend when he's gone skiing

I refuse all of them too. I don't want my neighbors or the neighborhood knowing my political leanings. prefer to keep it to myself.

[Fuzz]

The only lawn sign I ever took was for Greg Miller to try to beat Sean Chu. Sadly it didn't work.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

The only lawn sign I ever took was for Greg Miller to try to beat Sean Chu. Sadly it didn't work.

I'd be more happy to do it for municipal politics since it's not along party lines. I was also rooting for Greg.

[PsYcNeT]

Yeah I only put up Municipal signs, but even then I had like a 4 doors down neighbor give me #### for my Gondek sign the year before.

[CaptainCrunch]

https://twitter.com/user/status/04112716761882624

[transplant99]

Notley and the NDP showing their true stripes once again.

Many bought into the facade that this government was all about doing things the right way to get oil to tidewater from Alberta.

Nope. They only wanted that perception to allow them to try and get re-elected. And now that is crystal clear that will not happen, they are doing what they can to make sure their anti-Alberta oil agenda is still present long after they have been long ousted and made irrelevant in provincial politics again.

The circumstances surrounding the appointment of anti-Alberta oil activist Ed Whittingham to the Alberta Energy Regulator are even more troubling than initially believed.

As a board member, Whittingham is one of the bosses of the AER’s interim president and CEO, Gordon Lambert. The problem with that is Whittingham and Lambert are co-founders and business partners of Academy for Sustainable Innovation (ASI).

They also, apparently determine the remuneration of the president and CEO.

One AER employee, who has asked to remain anonymous, wondered what would happen if Whittingham convinces the rest of the board to increase the salary of Lambert, his business partner, at a time when their company is struggling financially in an effort to shore up their business interests?

“It’s a hypothetical, but it’s possible,” said the employee, who did hope that Whittingham might have some input into improving what he called the “toxic” work culture at the AER.

“Of all the people who qualify to be a director here, they pick someone who has opposed absolutely every pipeline, every oil and gas project, even LNG, and to top it all off he is responsible for assessing and evaluating his buddy and business partner? Honestly, I don’t get it.”

Here we have a provincial government trying desperately of late to prove that it is pro-pipeline and it appoints a highly effective, foreign-funded, anti-Alberta pipeline activist to the AER who has at least a perceived conflict of interest.

Whittingham did not agree to numerous interview requests over many days.

How pointing out the facts — that during Whittingham’s time working at the Pembina Institute it accepted $8 million of U.S. foundation money earmarked to “landlock” Alberta oil and gas through the highly successful Tar Sands Campaign — can be called “character assassination” is a mystery. If anyone or anything has suffered character assassination, it’s Alberta’s energy industry and the men and women who work in it.

“What Pembina has done is they’re opposed to Keystone XL but they’re not talking about other heavy oil imports coming into the U.S.,” said Battershill.

“They’re opposed to the Energy East pipeline, but they’re not opposing all of the oil that Canada imports from countries that don’t have carbon regulations. They’re opposed to Northern Gateway pipeline but they’re not talking about Alaskan oil tankers on the West Coast. I have not seen anything where they mention that Canada is the only top-10 oil exporter with carbon pricing,” said Battershill.

“Mr. Whittingham is not balanced or fair in his views toward Alberta, so his appointment doesn’t balance the AER board, it skews it.”

And to top it all off, the normal appointment time frame to the AER board is 3 years. For some reason this one is 5 years...weird eh?

So obvious what is happening and Notley showing she is just as sleazy as the rest of them, gender aside.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...ct-of-interest

[transplant99]

If some of the actions of the Alberta NDP — such as filling quasi-judicial boards with controversial anti-oil activists just weeks before the provincial election — has you wondering how this can possibly be a wise election strategy, wonder no more.

The NDP can read polls just as well as the rest of us, and party members know they are headed for an electoral bloodbath if poll numbers hold steady in the election, which must be held before the end of May.

A poll released recently by Lethbridge College shows that provincewide, the United Conservative Party is expected to garner 57.8 per cent of the vote — a majority government — while the Alberta New Democratic Party lags far behind at 23.2 per cent, the Alberta Party is at seven per cent, the Alberta Liberal Party is at 5.1 per cent and the Freedom Conservative Party has 2.8 per cent support. Other parties or candidates have 4.1 per cent of intended voter support.

The numbers are even more striking when you consider that the UCP leads the NDP in every region of the province — including Edmonton, where NDP support is the highest.

What’s most surprising is that young Albertans (60.4 per cent) “are just as likely to be planning to vote UCP as are other age groups, including seniors who, while still much more likely to vote UCP than for any other party (50.9 per cent), are less supportive of the UCP than are other age groups.

“What I find interesting is that the NDP is not the party of the youth that we used to think of in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s,” said Ellis.

“It’s a classic strategy. The NDs know they’re not going to be here in six months’ time so they’re doing everything they can to stack things in their favour for as long as they can, or at least force the new government to fire people that you’ve appointed,” said Ellis.

“Having said that, the New Democrats had no problem doing that. They cleaned house on many boards when they got in.”

Just drop the damn writ already.

Unfathomable to me how Edmonton can still have that much support for the NDP.


https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...berta-election

[Locke]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Just drop the damn writ already.

Unfathomable to me how Edmonton can still have that much support for the NDP.


https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...berta-election

Theres a 'No Good' comment in there somewhere, but I'm going to leave it.

Ultimately though, its because its in their best interest.

[Ozy_Flame]

https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/long...d-the-oilpatch

A good read, regardless of your political preference.

One takeaway is that no matter who was going to be elected in 2015, investments in the Oil Sands started dropping beforehand due to market factors. I think this is getting lost in message as the politics of blame heat up.



Meanwhile, oil prices have only marginally improved since 2014. Pipeline constraints, coupled with increased supply, have led to several price crashes in Alberta as oil backlogs form within the province.

Lacklustre oil and gas prices are difficult to overcome, no matter how much a government spends or what actions it takes.

“There's no convincing analysis I've seen that leads to any kind of credible conclusion that policy over the last four years mattered anywhere near as much as the drop in oil prices," said Trevor Tombe, an economist with the University of Calgary.

[DiracSpike]

That chart is typical for most oil exploration projects around the world but with one huge exception. Every basin suffered a drop in investment starting in 14/15, from offshore Africa to US shale, but you know what happened in 16/17 onwards? It started to go back up, everywhere except for here for the obvious reasons. So it looks like it was purely due to the global price crash in totality when really just the drop, the continued flatlining is due to how ridiculous our country is with building pipelines. Is that the NDPs fault? Maybe a little, most of the blame rests with our benevolent job protecting federal government.

[Ironhorse]

Exactly, the unpredictability of the Liberal government and their forthcoming bills C-69 and C-48 are continuing to drive investment away from Canada, which is all going somewhere more stable.

[Canadianman]

Originally Posted by DiracSpike

That chart is typical for most oil exploration projects around the world but with one huge exception. Every basin suffered a drop in investment starting in 14/15, from offshore Africa to US shale, but you know what happened in 16/17 onwards? It started to go back up, everywhere except for here for the obvious reasons. So it looks like it was purely due to the global price crash in totality when really just the drop, the continued flatlining is due to how ridiculous our country is with building pipelines. Is that the NDPs fault? Maybe a little, most of the blame rests with our benevolent job protecting federal government.

"NOTE: 2017 & 2018 are estimates"

[Dion]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Just drop the damn writ already.

Unfathomable to me how Edmonton can still have that much support for the NDP.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...berta-election

Let's not forget they support a failure of an organization like the Oilers. Maybe that's what they've been trained to do.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Notley and the NDP showing their true stripes once again.

Many bought into the facade that this government was all about doing things the right way to get oil to tidewater from Alberta.

Nope. They only wanted that perception to allow them to try and get re-elected. And now that is crystal clear that will not happen, they are doing what they can to make sure their anti-Alberta oil agenda is still present long after they have been long ousted and made irrelevant in provincial politics again.

And to top it all off, the normal appointment time frame to the AER board is 3 years. For some reason this one is 5 years...weird eh?

So obvious what is happening and Notley showing she is just as sleazy as the rest of them, gender aside.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local...ct-of-interest

Notley's not stupid and knows she's not going to win so she's doing her best to stick the UCP with someone who supports their ideologies. It's the same with the rail car deal. Force Kenney to cancel contracts.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by Dion

Notley's not stupid and knows she's not going to win so she's doing her best to stick the UCP with someone who supports their ideologies. It's the same with the rail car deal. Force Kenney to cancel contracts.

So she’s appointing anti-oil administrators while at the time sticking it to Kenny with a rail deal to improve market access for our oil by underwriting the rail contract risks.

The logic you are assigning to her actions does not make sense.

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by GGG

So she’s appointing anti-oil administrators while at the time sticking it to Kenny with a rail deal to improve market access for our oil by underwriting the rail contract risks.

The logic you are assigning to her actions does not make sense.

Welcome to the world of NDP ideology.

She has no choice to continue down "add rail car" avenue if she has ANY thoughts of getting back to the legislature...maybe even in her own riding.(doubtful)

Self preservation is goal #1 for all of them right now, (which all politicians do come re-election time) and why you are seeing an unprecedented number of them dropping out from running again. They know they are going to get slaughtered in the next election and those that know they can't win their seat, aren't even going to bother trying in many cases. It's quite understandable actually.

I don't know how common it is for a ruling majority party to be less than 3 months away from an election, and not be able to field a full slate of candidates at this point, but i'm guessing its pretty rare. Campaigning has been going on for weeks and they are still a dozen ridings short of a full field last i heard.

[Jacks]

According to Daveberta they have 79/87 nominated, which is second only to the UCP at 83/87. I've heard the election call is coming next Monday so I assume they have most of their nominations under way or completed.

[Muta]

'Mary' from the UCP texted me yesterday, asking who I will vote for. It was satisfying as hell to text back that a) a vote is private so that's none of their business, and b) delete my number and #### off.

[puckedoff]

Hopefully you wrote your response in binary or I'm afraid Mary isn't going to comprehend it.