03.21.2012 06:46 PM

My guy at the Heritage Dinner

…which is being attended by a kabillion people, by the way.

21 Comments

  1. Paul Griffin says:

    he should hold one of these in Fort Erie….lol

  2. Neil says:

    Yeah cause noooooo Alberta politicians slag Ontario, never

    • Jason King says:

      Sure Gord. Im sure that explains why you brought it up. Other than a perceived lack of hot air on a comment thread why are you so butthurt then?

    • Tim Sullivan says:

      Yes, those Albertans do have a real case. After all, it was they who put that oil in the ground inf the first place. It is not like Ontarians and Quebecers BUILD cars and planes or design and make medicine. Easterners obviously FIND these things laying around and sell them for a dollar inflated by the HARD WORK of builing oil.

      • Ted B says:

        Well… not to come to Gord’s defence, but in fact there is a ton of work and a ton of hard work and a ton of risk involved in resources.

        No need to defend central Canada by mocking Alberta. That’s Gord’s approach.

        • Tim Sullivan says:

          Let’s not pretend that the Albertans earned the resources they have, is all I mean. Oil is solar power from 65 million + years ago. Ontario and Quebec have built up manugacturing and other industrial resources. Consequently, a strong dollar is not really a great boon for their economies.

          I recognise resource extraction is a lot of hard, and dangerous work. Every province and territory has resource extraction, but oil in Alberta (and maybe Sask.) are the primary economy in those provinces, and they benefit from a high dollar.

          Alberta was a beneficiary of equalization payments, once. We are all in this together, if we can keep Que from leaving and Alberta from erecting a firewall.

          All that said, there remains a bit of a “can’t forget that feeling” in Albertans who still hate and complain about the Liberals for the NEP. It is about time they got over it. They did not PUT THE OIL in the ground, but they benefit from it disproprtionately as a natrual resource on their land than does NFLD because its oil is off-shore, and by the constititional amendment it received regarding non-renewable resources.

          Fishing is the most dangerous job, BTW. I’m from Northern Ontario and we had yearly losses of miners. I know it is hard work. But I will admit I didn’t put the gold, zink and nickel into the ground and hold westerners in contempt for sharing Ontario’s wealth.

      • Conservative Socialist says:

        I live in Alberta, and because of the NEP, the word Liberal is a dirty word. If it weren’t for the NEP, the urban centers of Calgary and Edmonton would have eventually become fertile ground for left-leaning parties. 41 years of continued PC incumbency has created a political culture of graft and corruption.

        Here’s hoping that those crazy rednecks in the Wildrose Alliance throws these bums out–yes I know they are significantly right to the conservatives but there needs to be competition in democracy instead of this one-party state. The aftermath can be the PCs to represent the left of the Alberta political spectrum, and Wildrose can be the right.

        Stop being so self-righteous that Alberta benefits disproportionately from their natural resources and that Ontarians somehow “earned” the right to have all those nice gold-plated auto-worker union jobs because well, they work so damn hard unlike those lazy Westerners.

        Ontario has benefited disproportionately from being in close proximity to Detroit. Where are the auto jobs for Alberta?

      • Conservative Socialist says:

        “”Maritimers are paying the world price of oil because they do not have access to lower-price Canadian crude,” Duffy said. “Most Maritimers are unaware that the oil we burn in our cars and our heating oil comes from offshore, it’s not Canadian oil, some coming all the way from the Middle East.

        Read more: http://new.canada.com/business/Atlantic+Canadians+should+burning+Alta+Senator+Mike+Duffy/6338868/story.html#ixzz1pw9LYKyI

        Well, he’s speaking from his geographical point of view. Nobody likes to pay high gas prices, but ever since I started to drive regularly five years ago I’ve noticed that the cost of gasoline is a small pittance compared to the other costs of driving: insurance, car payments and maintenance. I had a blow-out on the Deerfoot and it cost me a few hundred dollars to buy new tires, for example.

        I drive a tiny car that gets me 40 MPG. An electric car wouldn’t get me much greater dividends, and is far more expensive than my modest beater.

        The reason why the Martimes have to import their oil offshore is because it’s less expensive than to have it transported from the West. And even if it was sent by pipeline there, they would still be subject to world market forces.

  3. AmandaM says:

    How’d he do? I mean, I’m sure extraordinarily well, but what did he talk about? I had to pass my ticket on to a colleague – boo hiss!

  4. Neil says:

    Warren I think you need to look at this and perhaps advertise it. It seems Mike Duffy said that maritimers should be using Alberta oil because it is cheaper then other oil. Umm…it all comes out at world prices…so is Duffy arguing for a return to the hated NEP?
    http://www.canada.com/technology/Atlantic%2BCanadians%2Bshould%2Bburning%2BAlta%2BSenator%2BMike%2BDuffy/6338853/story.html

  5. GuyC says:

    Is Dalton dueling with a Wah-Wah pedal?

  6. Jason King says:

    Um… Insecurity Issues?

  7. Ted B says:

    How did he “slag” Alberta, Gord?

    Saying that keeping the dollar high is helping Alberta and hurting Ontario is called looking out for your province’s interests, not “slagging”.

    • Paul says:

      Implementing policies that contribute to Ontario’s prosperity is looking out for you’re province’s interest.

      McGuinty has done the opposite, and is now trying to blame others for the loss of manufacturing in Ontario. Hint: when energy prices are artificially and dramatically inflated in the name of “green” nonsense industry tends to go somewhere else. I understand that McGuinty is attempting to create a “green” manufacturing industry but it’s just not going to happen. Other countries are decades ahead of us down that path and have realized that it is a failure: as soon as the government subsidies stop, so does the green economy.

      • Ted B says:

        You obviously have no idea what you are talking about.

        Where has McGuinty blamed anyone for the loss of manufacturing in Ontario? Please provide some source for that because the only thing that I’ve heard that even comes close is his noting that our inflated dollar hurts manufacturing and helps Alberta. The manufacturing industry has been in decline everywhere in Europe and North America for longer than the dollar has been at par with the US dollar. But he is correct.

        And how are “energy prices artificially and dramatically inflated in the name of “green””???

        Like the renewable energy job machine McGuinty is creating or don’t like it, but it has nothing to do with the price we pay for energy in our homes and businesses. Renewable energy – like hydroelectricity – actually reduces our energy prices enormously. Solar and wind don’t really affect the price at all because so very little energy comes from these sources and because it is so subsidized. The subsidy comes out of general revenues and not passed along to the consumers. In fact, the subisidy is there to keep energy prices down.

        And do please tell me what country is “decades” ahead of us.

        You can argue that subsidizing an industry is bad, inefficient, ineffective, etc. and I get that. Good arguments to be made against interfering with the market (mind you, I don’t hear too many of those critics clamouring for us to end any of the subsidies to Big Oil even though that is a profitable industry!). I think on balance, the arguments in favour are better and proving themselves more every year as renewable costs plummet because of programs like McGuinty’s.

        But since there are good arguments to be made against it, why not use those instead of just making stuff up?

        • Bruce M says:

          “The subsidy comes out of general revenues and not passed along to the consumers. In fact, the subisidy is there to keep energy prices down.”

          This comment is too dumb for words. The subsidy is there because solar and wind is wildly expensive and requires government life support. And telling me my provincially-owned monopoly is selling me energy at higher rates that are still susidized by my provincial tax dollars and claiming this keeps the rates down demonstrates just why this Green Shift is so assinine. It’s so convoluted, it must have been devised by the same crew that brought us Ornge.

        • Ted B says:

          Do you know how to read?

          Yes, of course, renewable energy is way more expensive than other forms of energy. But to you and me, it costs the same because the government pays the difference with subsidized costs. They don’t then take that subsidy and tack it onto your bill, because the money for the subsidy comes out of general revenues. It’s like saying the cost of gas is more expensive because the government subsidizes road construction.

          And it also costs the same because, even if the cost of the subsidy was passed along to us on our bills, such a tiny fraction of the electricity we use in this province comes from renewable energy, you’d never notice the difference.

          Again, there are reasonable and good grounds to oppose the FIT program. Why not use those arguments instead of making stuff up or definitively demonstrating you have no idea what you are talking about.

      • Michael says:

        For too long Ontario residents have been use to paying artificially low electricity rates. What the Liberal government has done is allow it rise closer to the true cost, and let the market dictate. Hence things like time of use billing.

        As for the loss of manufacturing jobs, that has more to do with the federal government favouring the commodity economies of Western Canada over the industrial economies of Ontario and Quebec. Unless you want to argue that Dalton McGuinty is responsible for the high Canadian dollar, and low wages in China and the far east.

  8. Tim Sullivan says:

    He should say something unique like “I hope they burn in the light”.

  9. Shaun says:

    Like suggesting building a firewall around the province or saying something like “Let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark”?

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