Alberta Economy

Image: Wikimedia Commons/Jeffery J. Nichols

Leduc No. 1 and Alberta's unluckiest lucky day

| February 14, 2017

February 13 is the 70th anniversary of the day Alberta simultaneously won the lottery and started to watch everything go to hell in a handcart. February 13...Alberta's unluckiest lucky day.

In other words, 70 years ago, with memories of the Great Depression and the Second World War still very fresh in the minds of the province's population of about 800,000 souls, Leduc No. 1, a few miles south of Edmonton, struck oil and the whole world changed.

Cars didn't have seat belts back in 1947, so no one thought to say: "Fasten your seat belts!" But by gosh, they should've!

Support by Rachel Notley for Donald Trump's Keystone XL Pipeline decision may be unnerving, but it's politics

David J. Climenhaga

| January 25, 2017

Premier Notley just pledged to work with Trump administration on Keystone XL. WTF?
-- Environmentalist Mike Hudema, Tuesday afternoon on Facebook

It's hard not to feel Mike Hudema's pain.

Hudema is a Greenpeace Canada campaigner, well known for his anti-tar sands activism in Alberta. I suppose some people in the oilpatch don't like him very much, but he's generally viewed with respect. God knows, he's consistent.

Hudema ran for the Alberta NDP in the Edmonton-Meadowlark riding back in 2001. He was 25 at the time.

Others sure to suffer as Sudden Apocalyptic Deficit Syndrome strikes affluent, older, white males from Saskatchewan

David J. Climenhaga

| January 24, 2017

Saskatchewan appears to be suffering from a serious economic malady.

Nobel Prize-winning economist and journalist Paul Krugman calls it "Austerity Fever."

Canadian economist and journalist Toby Sanger calls it Sudden Apocalyptic Deficit Syndrome (SADS).

Call it what you will, a new case has now been diagnosed in Manitoba, and conservatives here in Alberta appear to have been afflicted as well -- although, thankfully, not our social democratic NDP government.

As a result, for the time being at least, we will likely be spared the worst symptoms of this tragic condition, which Sanger noted in correspondence with your blogger is "mainly a disease of affluent older white males, in which the 'cure' is inflicted on others, and is far worse than the disease."

Past PC taxes disappear down conservative memory hole amid apocalyptic claims about similar NDP policies

David J. Climenhaga

| January 4, 2017

It's worth remembering as unite-the-right conservatives of all stripes completely melt down over the supposedly job-destroying, economy-destroying, soul-destroying 4.5-cent-per-litre increase in the price of gasoline introduced as part of the Alberta NDP Government's climate strategy, that if Jim Prentice's Progressive Conservatives had won re-election in May 2015 his government would have raised the gasoline tax roughly the same amount.

Alberta's carbon tax: Science is political when it doesn't suit Wildrose agenda; politics is scientific when it does

David J. Climenhaga

| January 3, 2017

Alberta has had a carbon tax for two days now and as Environment Minister Shannon Phillips observed at a news conference yesterday, notwithstanding the predictions of the two principal right-wing parties, the province remains standing.

In this regard, I suppose you could say, Alberta is like British Columbia, which is similarly still standing after having had a carbon tax for 3,108 days.

Albertans hear same old same old as fast-food restaurant owners grow hysterical over minimum wage

David J.Climenhaga

| July 4, 2016

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Fast-food restaurant owners in Alberta continue to screech that a $15-per-hour minimum wage will put them out of business or, failing that, force them to lay off workers.

Brace for it: Alberta is about to endure weeks of vicious climate-change-induced political weather!

David J. Climenhaga

| May 25, 2016

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The Notley government officially introduced its package of climate-change strategy in the Legislature yesterday and as a result Alberta is now sure to face weeks of nasty, even vicious, political weather.

Ten things to know about the 2016 Alberta budget

Nick Falvo

| May 4, 2016

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On April 14, the Alberta government tabled its 2016-17 budget: Alberta Jobs Plan. Here are 10 things to know about it:

1. A new carbon tax (known as a "carbon levy") was announced.

Columnists

Rachel Notley asks Justin Trudeau to show leadership

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Justin Trudeau is holding a three-day cabinet retreat in the mountain resort of Kananaskis, an hour west of Calgary. Alberta premier Rachel Notley made a presentation to Liberal ministers on Sunday, and held a private meeting with the Canadian prime minister as well.

Tags:

green energy Alberta tar sands canadian natural resources federal-provincial relations Justin Trudeau Alberta Economy Notley Government Trudeau government

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Postmedia's symbiotic relationship with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation fails to offer much illumination

David J. Climenhaga

| March 29, 2016

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The Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Postmedia Network Canada Corp. enjoy a cozy symbiotic relationship nowadays.

The CTF supplies Postmedia's newspapers and their online editions, including Alberta's four-headed Frankendaily, with reams of free editorial copy produced by the secretive organization, most of it in this province attacking the Liberal government in Ottawa and the NDP government in Edmonton.

Alberta Economy

Rachel Notley asks Justin Trudeau to show leadership

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