Alberta Politics Thread

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Shazam

The Liberals don't want it.

They just don't want to say so. Dunno why, they don't need our votes.

Ah, but they do love our money. And even with Alberta in a recession we're still going to dole out way more transfer money than we get back.

Albertans should simply refuse to file taxes next year.

The problem is that the federal government can only do so much. We saw this play out earlier this year with the Trans Mountain expansion that was approved and quickly challenged in court only to have that approval overturned. The issue there was improper consultation.

So for the federal government its a sticky situation. If they come out and try to ram something through it likely suffers that same fate. If they cheerlead for an option, they potentially compromise the independence and process.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by Slava

The problem is that the federal government can only do so much. We saw this play out earlier this year with the Trans Mountain expansion that was approved and quickly challenged in court only to have that approval overturned. The issue there was improper consultation.

So for the federal government its a sticky situation. If they come out and try to ram something through it likely suffers that same fate. If they cheerlead for an option, they potentially compromise the independence and process.

That's right and that's why they were doing what they were doing. I think they believe it is in the nation's best interest but were trying to create a front for an open and "fair" process.

Too bad they compromised the process by having a corrupt NEB (or, the appearance of one).

[Shazam]

Pipelines are a political issue now. Best just to scrap the NEB and just have the current gov't kibosh Energy East and whatever other pipelines.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Shazam

Pipelines are a political issue now. Best just to scrap the NEB and just have the current gov't kibosh Energy East and whatever other pipelines.

Yeah that would be awesome if the feds just outright kibosh ed all the pipeline projects. You'd see a massive rise of a separatist Alberta movement.

[Shazam]

At some point they're going to have to say something about it.

If not, then TransCanada, Enbridge etc will just quietly drop it eventually.

[Mr.Coffee]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Yeah that would be awesome if the feds just outright kibosh ed all the pipeline projects. You'd see a massive rise of a separatist Alberta movement.

I'm not sure the purpose of separation. We'd still need a pipeline.

[Shazam]

Canada needs Alberta more than Alberta needs Canada.

Yeah people don't like to hear that but take a look at this lovely picture:

http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/visual...all/show/2014/

So in fact making ####ty computer games in Vancouver and smoked salmon in Nova Scotia isn't what keeps Canada afloat after all.

[Mr.Coffee]

Ok it's a silly notion. Just off the top of my head

a) Exports aren't representative of an entire economy.
b) Alberta produces more than just oil and gas, if we're going down the economic argument, why not use the macro picture and apples to apples to really see who needs who (we need Canada).
c) Our debt is projected to be crippling, paying for major infrastructure expenses like roads or bailouts during emergency situations (Fort Mac?) require federal help
d) We don't have an army, and couldn't form a good one
e) The pipeline issue still remains a problem, but now a harder one because it's different countries we're negotiating with and we've just supremely pissed off the country that surrounds 3/4 directional borders
f) The vote would never pass
g) It's not only about 'who needs who' more from an economic perspective, and the childish application is laughable
h) we would need to establish major trade benefits we see through Canada and we'd probably get brutal deals in the process because we have no leverage

I'm sure there's like 40 more reasons it's a horrible idea that I'm missing, but it's late. Do we set up our own currency? I assume it'd be a terrible, brutal dollar and we'd be in some kind of horrendous trade deficit...

[Shazam]

Works for Quebec - the threat of separation.

Alberta's transfer money basically keeps Canada together. While Ontario and Quebec bleats about our so-called dirty oil they gladly take the money that it generates.

[Locke]

I've never been a separatist, but if it got oil moving and jobs going I'd at least consider it.

Granted...if they allowed us to set Notley and her band of Merry Morons adrift on an ice floe that might make it a deal.

Still though...

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Quebec separating makes no practical sense at all and would be disastrous for that province... yet it still makes more sense than AB leaving, because at least QC accesses the Atlantic. That's an obviously silly suggestion.

Now, Cascadia on the other hand...

[Shazam]

This is how I know you guys never negotiate, or you simply don't know how to.

Of course it's disastrous for the province.

But it's also disastrous for Canada.

And that's what matters.

Because federal politics especially is all about image. We have a gov't that really, really, really cares about its image.

Alberta can use this to its advantage. Right now it's working against us because we have a provincial gov't that thinks getting the undercoating on a car is a great deal.

Remember the 1995 Quebec referendum? Before the vote, Chretien freaked out that the whole process went that far, because it never should have. But yeah, we were 55K votes from Quebec separating.

[Minnie]

What a lovely man.

Link

A 45-year-old Calgary man, who resigned as an Alberta Party candidate in 2015 ,#faces a number of charges after allegedly luring a teenage girl through social media.

On Wednesday, September 14, a complaint was filed with the Airdrie RCMP detachment after a teenager was allegedly sexually assaulted.
The unnamed girl stated she had met a man online who identified himself as a 34-year-old named George. The teenager and the man met at an undisclosed location in Airdrie where the man allegedly assaulted the girl.

Following an investigation involving RCMP and members of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) division, 45-year-old Terrence Lo of Calgary was identified as the suspect.
On Tuesday, Lo was apprehended by RCMP outside of a restaurant in Airdrie.
"The undercover operation brought him to Airdrie," explained RCMP Inspector Gordon Sage.


Lo faces eight charges including:
Child luring (two counts)
Sexual assault
Sexual interference
Obtaining sexual services for consideration
Invitation to sexual touching
Abduction
Resist arrest

Lo has been released from police custody with strict conditions. The accused is prohibited from communicating with anyone under the age of 18.

[worth]

wow...

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Ok it's a silly notion. Just off the top of my head

a) Exports aren't representative of an entire economy.
b) Alberta produces more than just oil and gas, if we're going down the economic argument, why not use the macro picture and apples to apples to really see who needs who (we need Canada).
c) Our debt is projected to be crippling, paying for major infrastructure expenses like roads or bailouts during emergency situations (Fort Mac?) require federal help
d) We don't have an army, and couldn't form a good one
e) The pipeline issue still remains a problem, but now a harder one because it's different countries we're negotiating with and we've just supremely pissed off the country that surrounds 3/4 directional borders
f) The vote would never pass
g) It's not only about 'who needs who' more from an economic perspective, and the childish application is laughable
h) we would need to establish major trade benefits we see through Canada and we'd probably get brutal deals in the process because we have no leverage

I'm sure there's like 40 more reasons it's a horrible idea that I'm missing, but it's late. Do we set up our own currency? I assume it'd be a terrible, brutal dollar and we'd be in some kind of horrendous trade deficit...

Funny because that sounds exactly like Quebec in the 90's. They said they were going to leave confederation, dissolve (walk away from) their debt, keep the military they had and continue to use CDN currency and hold some kind of dual citizenship. It was ridiculous and borderline treason, but it still gave way to all kinds of concessions from the government. This was all for a province that really contributes a whole lot of f-all economically to Canada, yet still gets treated with kid gloves because of their voting blocks.

People can scoff all they want at Alberta separating, but if the threat got real and was strong enough to go to a vote you can bet the rest of Canada would start crapping their pants. We're the province everyone loves to hate; high incomes, beautiful landscapes, hard working people that all get paid by "dirty oil" that pay a sh*t ton into confederation.

Maybe one day we will be a have not and Quebec can support us with maple syrup exports, but that's not going to be in my lifetime.

[Flash Walken]

lol, the rest of Canada doesn't give a #### about Alberta, have you not been watching the news for the last 40 years?

Most Canadians don't have the foggiest idea of the importance of Alberta to confederation and I would hazard to say after growing up in Alberta that most Albertan's don't have the foggiest idea of how important confederation is to the province.

Alberta separating is just too funny.

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

lol, the rest of Canada doesn't give a #### about Alberta, have you not been watching the news for the last 40 years?

Most Canadians don't have the foggiest idea of the importance of Alberta to confederation and I would hazard to say after growing up in Alberta that most Albertan's don't have the foggiest idea of how important confederation is to the province.

Alberta separating is just too funny.

You're not giving people very much credit here, and I'm not sure I agree with that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a separatist by any stretch and I agree it's not practical. But if the threat of an economic driver leaving confederation pops up, it's going to turn a lot of heads. If it doesn't people are dumber than I think.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

You're not giving people very much credit here, and I'm not sure I agree with that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a separatist by any stretch and I agree it's not practical. But if the threat of an economic driver leaving confederation pops up, it's going to turn a lot of heads. If it doesn't people are dumber than I think.

The threat of the only economic driver in this country taking a pass would be enough, I think.

Reform was on the right track.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Tron_fdc

You're not giving people very much credit here, and I'm not sure I agree with that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a separatist by any stretch and I agree it's not practical. But if the threat of an economic driver leaving confederation pops up, it's going to turn a lot of heads. If it doesn't people are dumber than I think.

So let me ask the obvious question. Let's say that we get past a lot of issues and everyone votes and we separate. We can't get a pipeline approved to get our main resource to a coast today. How do we do that any easier if we are a separate nation?

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Slava

So let me ask the obvious question. Let's say that we get past a lot of issues and everyone votes and we separate. We can't get a pipeline approved to get our main resource to a coast today. How do we do that any easier if we are a separate nation?

We invade BC. They'll be too high to resist.