Alberta Election
- Thread starter Alex
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Last time I was there it looked like a lot of the farms were being paved over and strip malls built. It was sad to see fewer horses running in the fields and cement and bulldozers everywhere. A drive in the country wasn't the same until we really got far out of the city.
ChemGal
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If you don't know what the NEP is - the National Energy Program, you won't understand the concerns of many Albertans. Mass layoffs occurred pretty much overnight. Foreclosures of homes. Towns going bust very quickly.
NSERC - Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. I'm most familiar with that. I suspect similar things happened with other agencies like CIHR and SSHRC if they were around back then too. http://www.rso.ualberta.ca/en/Applying/SponsorsPrograms/TriCouncil.aspx
National Energy Program - affects oil sands and oils sands jobs. I get that. I have a cousin who works in Fort Mac (I think still has a job) and two uncles who worked in oil until they retired. I get it - but the planet needs an alternate energy plan.
ChemGal
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Are other areas all that different for expansion? Look at our population growth, Alberta is young.
ChemGal
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More than just the oil sands.
Coal too.
Yeah, well here you see more building upwards instead of outwards.
Alex
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ChemGal
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Oil & gas - not just the production companies but the rest of the industry too. The oil sands makes up a small portion now. Back then it was way less of a player.
jimkenney12
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My family is ecstatic. Was not sure if I would live long enough to see the NDP in power A few seconds ago PCs were a distant 3rd to the Wild Rose and NDP leading in 54 of 85 seats. Their support is coming from Liberals, Greens, and PCs embarrassed by the actions of their government. It looks like the PCs will soon have their 5th leader in something like 5 years. It looks like a friend of mine from 43 years ago will be retired tomorrow after holding on to her Northern Alberta seat for close to 20 years or more. Lois Hole, a past Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, said to a women's church event that money is like manure: spread out it helps things grow; left in a pile it just makes a big stink. The smell of PC arrogance and greed became too much for Albertans to tolerate any more.
ChemGal
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Like I said, it was in the past, but when it comes to federal politics it's still a big factor of how the generation above me sees things. When something has such a major impact, you can't expect people to ignore that with future decisions.
I realize that. But if people don't compromise to take steps to change even if they have to give up something, nothing changes. And the planet really depends on it.
ChemGal
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If you realize that, why did you point specifically to the oil sands?
It's tied to it - the offices, everything tied to oil and gas - all the things that it pays for. I think the NDP won't just shut down the oil and gas industry overnight if that's what Albertans are afraid of.
Alex
Teddy Bear lookin for lovin and hugin
SUre it is important, but it does not count as much for how Harper has really tried to help Alberta is anyway, except of course by picking a fight with the American governement over Keystone, which backfired and it ensures that the oil sands will not be developed. Meanwhile he has supported no alternatives for Alberta. Their oil industry will never bounce back due to Saudi keeping oil cheap, and cheap new american source oil. After a 40 year oil boom Alberta has nothing to replace it. All that money has left the province to the US and China. And ALberta is not only broke but in debt. The NDP needs to move quickly or Alberta will take Newfoundlands traditional role -- an exporter of untrained and uneducated Labour to other provinves
ChemGal
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Oil & gas is so much bigger than the oil sands.
It's like talking about yogurt when you want to discuss the dairy industry.
ChemGal
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Harper hasn't lead to such major issues to people personally here. If a leader from another party wants to gain support from that population they need to acknowledge what has happened in the past and do things to show that something similar won't occur under their leadership. I don't think that's asking too much when you look at the impact it had on people.
It's the economic driver - or has been - in Alberta for decades. Oil sands is a huge part of Alberta's economy. It's the milk that makes the yogurt and the cheese and the ice cream, and supplies and partners with other food companies across the country and the world, and gets contracts with the ice cream trucks, and sponsors events, and employs people in all those areas plus the administrative jobs tied to it. I get it. It's huge. And I don't think the NDP will screw you over.
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