Alberta Politics & Government Thread 3.0

[belsarius]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Do you think governments will be able to get popular support in democracies for substantial, widespread, enduring reductions in our standards of living?

Take food. Given their essential role in everything from fertilizers to production to distribution, a rapid shift away from fossil fuels will increase food prices across the board. Substantially.

Given the public uproar over the food inflation of the last couple years, how readily do you think voters will accommodate themselves to more severe and enduring increases in grocery bills downstream of carbon pricing measures?

My honest answer, they won't. As a world I think we are ####ed because of it.

It keeps me up at night.

[Yoho]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1718023571824640442

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Yoho

https://twitter.com/user/status/1718023571824640442

Lol, so the APP is basically dead. Smith says that they won't have a referendum without a firm number, and that number is years away from ever being solidified. It's probably for the best that she doesn't hang her hat on this anyway though.

[Geraldsh]

Originally Posted by Slava

Lol, so the APP is basically dead. Smith says that they won't have a referendum without a firm number, and that number is years away from ever being solidified. It's probably for the best that she doesn't hang her hat on this anyway though.

So what’s the point of this pension protection act? Looks like she is trying to put the cart before the horse.

[Fuzz]

You can tell how happy they are to announce by the timing and day of week. The ol' Friday afternoon dump.

[Major Major]

Takes another L.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Slava

Lol, so the APP is basically dead. Smith says that they won't have a referendum without a firm number, and that number is years away from ever being solidified. It's probably for the best that she doesn't hang her hat on this anyway though.

This is perfect for her.
She can continue to have a grievance with Ottawa without any plan to do anything about it.

This is the Canadian Conservative politician M.O. right now.
They don't want to fix problems, they want to have problems to complain about, campaign on, and grift off of.

[Yoho]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1718067349335552217

Great news for Alberta couldn’t find the oil and gas thread to put this in.

[Cappy]

It’s amazing.

It seems like every major move the UCP has tried to do since JK they have had to walk it back due to public disapproval.

And then we turn around and vote them back in

[Major Major]

Originally Posted by Yoho

https://twitter.com/user/status/1718067349335552217

Great news for Alberta couldn’t find the oil and gas thread to put this in.

Yes, good for Notley and Trudeau for making this happen. A lot of people said it would never be built. Interesting that the celebration for pulling it off can never meet the outrage over its potential demise.

[Looch City]

Wait wait wait wait wait wait.


....I thought this pipeline was going to be overbudget and we'd never get our money back, how could Trudeau do this, wtf Notley, wtf NDP, total waste, failure.


But NOW all of a sudden it's good??

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

This is perfect for her.
She can continue to have a grievance with Ottawa without any plan to do anything about it.

This is the Canadian Conservative politician M.O. right now.
They don't want to fix problems, they want to have problems to complain about, campaign on, and grift off of.

Yeah, probably. But by committing to not hold the referendum until they get the value, they’ve actually quashed this. In section 113 of the CPP act it specifies how the value would be arrived at, and the federal finance minister gets to choose the formula. The act sets out parameters for this, but not a specific formula.

But this is where they’ve either knowingly (or unknowingly, depending on whether they’ve read this or not), killed this. The act says that the calculation is done after a province has given notice and enacted legislation for a comparable plan. No new plan enacted, no calculation. No calculation, no referendum…so there’s really no discussion to be had.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

Further to this, there is so much about our current 'standard of living' that is actually counterproductive and mostly serves to make us unhappy.

I'd love to "own nothing very little and be happy" - ideally within a 15 minute city! Of course you need more than a few brain cells to rub together to really unpack this notion.

Tell me more about how I’d actually be happier living in a 300 sq foot apartment eating cricket protein rather than actual meat, and be unable to afford to travel frequently more than 100 miles from home. You can try to make the argument that that’s what’s necessary, but you sure as $**t can’t tell me that’s actually what someone should actually want.

[MoneyGuy]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1718308828763082999

This guy makes an interesting case in favour of the proposed APP. A couple of CP members have entered the conversation.

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Originally Posted by Looch City

Wait wait wait wait wait wait.


....I thought this pipeline was going to be overbudget and we'd never get our money back, how could Trudeau do this, wtf Notley, wtf NDP, total waste, failure.


But NOW all of a sudden it's good??

To be fair, it is totally over budget and I can’t see anyway the feds will be able to sell it without taking a massive loss.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

https://twitter.com/user/status/1718308828763082999

This guy makes an interesting case in favour of the proposed APP. A couple of CP members have entered the conversation.

Here's a link to the thread that works for non-twitter users.

https://nitter.net/chrislabossiere/s...08828763082999

[Fuzz]

That's basically the argument for having the funds spent in Alberta, which is dumb for obvious reasons already pointed out. Would it bring more jobs to Alberta? Sure, but we'd be paying for them out of the APP, and they would mostly be duplicating the work of the CPP. It's an inefficiency. Which also makes the argument of "we'd be in the 25 biggest on the planet" kind of silly, because we'd be pulling out from the biggest. If economies of scale matter, well, you can't argue both ways.



It seems he's come up with a flimsy justification for something he's already decided.

[Harry Lime]

What the heck does this dude think is the Progressive Class? In Canada, progressive has always been used in relation to the PCs. So is this guy so right wing that he is baiting traditional conservatives, now?

[Spurs]

Him using “Progressive Class” is a pre-emotive way for him to dismiss any argument he can’t refute with facts.

“See I told you the Progressive Class would be against this” rather than actually saying why they are wrong.

[bizaro86]

Having a bunch more finance jobs in Alberta is clearly a benefit to having an APP.

There are 2 downsides that I think are almost entirely offsetting.

1) those jobs would be at AIMCO, and they are (imo) terrible. We've had this discussion before, but they sold volatility going into Covid, and instead of admitting the error and correcting they were like "nothing we could have done, all asset classes went down". Except, you know, volatility, the one asset class where they had a huge short.

2) Albertans wouldn't get to share the cost of those highly paid finance professionals with the rest of Canada any more.

I think Smith is an idiot, but if we could get the CPP's private investment division moved to Calgary as part of a deal to stay that'd be a big win, imo.