
Feature, Musings —03.01.2020 09:56 AM
—Team Alberta update
NOTICE TO PRO-ALBERTA FOLKS: Back from Calgary. Met with many smart Albertans. Got ideas for our non-partisan, citizen-led group. Next steps: a name. Membership. And a launch party at @DaisyGrp. Stay tuned! https://t.co/M20OlCMMep
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) March 1, 2020
Great idea. I presume the main goals will be to educate the ROC about:
(1) the number of jobs that rely on Alberta’s energy industry, and the tax revenue they generate for the benefit of all Canadians;
(2) the number of Indigenous groups that stand to benefit from resource development in Western Canada, and the dollar amounts involved;
(3) the true GHG profile of Alberta’s energy industry, both on an absolute basis, and in comparison to other industries in Canada (eg: automotive; logging);
(4) the sources of funding for the anti-pipeline crowd. I think this would be a real eye-opener to a lot of people, who believe all these protests are altruistic and domestic.
In other words, focusing not on Wexit, but on the important and beneficial role of the energy industry in Alberta (and Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) to the country overall.
As for the name, how about something like Energy Progress Canada (EPC)? Steal the much-abused “progressive” label from the anti-pipeline crowd.
“Steal the much-abused “progressive” label from the anti-pipeline crowd.”
I love it.
Oil and Gas aren’t “the” energy industry. 65% of our electricity comes from renewables now and it is increasing. The problem is the tar sands are uneconomic at prices the rest of the economy can afford. Frankly I like not having Dutch Disease. Our economy is stronger and unemployment is lower for it.
If the tar sands are so uneconomic, then why are protests required to shut them down? Won’t they just collapse from all their un-economic-ness?
The reality is that what Canadians are able to use for energy is not necessarily what the rest of the world can use. This is typical Canadian myopia, and quite frankly a bit of a first-world mindset. “Sorry, you backwards nations who don’t have the luxury of the world’s largest watershed. Guess you’ll just have to freeze in the dark, and ride your bicycles to work!”
Canada’s economy depends on exports – and that includes resource exports. The much-fabled “knowledge economy” is a fantasy, and suggests that somehow we are smarter than everyone else in the world, or will work for less. Neither is true.
” 65% of our electricity comes from renewables now ”
I was just about to call bullshit when I realized that hydroelectricity (which the ‘progressives’ are surprisingly opposed to) is confusingly included when you mention ‘renewables’.
Hydroelectricity is by far the favored mass-generation option if you have the opportunity; here in BC, we’re blessed by favorable terrain (so much so that we could theoretically power most, if not all, of North America if necessary). As Steve says, though, not all jurisdictions have the option…
Alberta Strong
Alberta United
Alberta Proud
Alberta Forward
Alberta Is Back
Alberta Rennaissance
Alberta Dynamo
Future Alberta
Prosperity Alberta
Economic Justice Alberta
Fair Deal Alberta
What about the Alberta Project? Too academic?
Maybe too tentative sounding? What do you think?
But I’m no marketing expert, that’s for sure. Still better than Alberta Certainty. LOL.
“projects” scare the hell out of voters / Joe and Jane FP…
Alberta Awake
Canada Truth Project
Alberta On Your Side
“What about the Alberta Project? Too academic?”
Actually that one’s pretty good. Non-threatening, not whiny.
Alberta Project seems too close to Manhattan Project IMHO.
I do like cold war era cars though.
RW
I personally wouldn’t use “Proud” after anything (has negative connotations now, rightly or wrongly). Rennaissance is too egg-heady, and Economic Justice too needy. The rest are pretty good, though.
Fred,
You’re a kind fellow.
“Fred,
You’re a kind fellow.”
Not compared to you, I’m not…but thanks for saying so.
(you’re like Gandhi, Buddha and Santa all rolled into one.. 🙂
The first line of that Western Standard headline just jumped right out at me: “Kinsella to start Alberta war”.
WFT???
“room – in Ontario.” Ahhh…okay, then…
(kinda anti-climactic, really…;)
This sounds like a great initiative, but I would not limit it to Alberta. But I also would not make it about “the West” either.
I currently live in Alberta, grew up in Manitoba, lived in BC for a long time. I increasingly feel less and less in common with BC – socially, culturally and particularly economically – witness the ongoing death spiral of most of its resource industries (forestry and mining in particular). I think it’s time we stopped looking at everything west of the Lakehead as an amorphous “West” and started recognizing that the Prairie provinces have precious little in common with BC these days, at least so long as the Lower Mainland is driving the political and economic agenda in that province.
I’d like to see this War Room advocate on behalf of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Not only are their interests closely aligned, it inoculates against charges of “Alberta whining” or “just a front oilpatch rednecks”. Just my $0.02
Alberta Matters
One Alberta
Alberta for Biden!
Since you are a “progressive”, but I’m not sure that will fly with Albertans since most are Trumpers!
While Trump is more popular in Alberta then other provinces, he still had a 69% disapproval rating.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Colettod/status/1153379464535007232
“69% disapproval rating” = fake news!
Let’s see an Alberta poll for Trump versus Biden approval ratings?
But, if you like polls Ipsos is hair raising!
Six in 10 respondents (59 per cent) from across Canada agreed with the statement that the country is “more divided than ever”
This sentiment was particularly strong in Alberta (79 per cent) and Saskatchewan (77 per cent). In Atlantic Canada, close to seven in 10 (66 per cent) felt this way, while responses from Manitoba (58 per cent) and B.C. (54 per cent) lined up with Ontario (56 per cent) and Quebec (54 per cent) as opposed to the other western provinces.
https://globalnews.ca/news/6127133/alberta-saskatechewan-ipsos-poll-separatism/