Didn't the Harper government propose legislation requiring greater financial disclosure by non-profits? Too bad the First Nations Bands, environmental NGOs and unions lost their shit. If passed, that legislation might have provided some transparency from APP.
Thank you for your work on this, Jen. A fine piece of investigative journalism. Albertans and Canadians deserve to know who is working behind the scenes (and with whom they are working) to steal this province out from under the rest of us.
It looks like we will have our say at the ballot box, but transparency matters. The political and economic operators working behind the scenes to further the Alberta separatist agenda need to be brought out into the open.
Appreciate your work and look forward to seeing what your investigation uncovers.
I appreciate your article and agree that Albertan and Saskatchewan alienation was in large part caused by central Canada’s fixation upon itself. For many decades. As an Ontarian, I have absolutely no animosity towards differing Alberta attitudes regarding our village of 40 million souls. And I recognize the damage done by Trudeau governments. Even the perception of same is disturbing.
What I don’t fully understand is the hatred aimed at most Canadians who don’t live in Alberta by extreme substack authors. I don’t know what the solutions are other than national dialogue free as possible from political interference.
Rest assured fellow Albertans in Canada. Most of us out east don’t wake up to ideate hatred against you. We share many more common issues in our federal system than one might think.
Then why do you keep voting in "Liberals" and continue tolerating their endless grifting and waste of tax money ?? And their focused continued destruction of AB's and thus Canada's economy ??
Why do Albertans keep voting for an increasingly corrupt and incompetent right wing party? Let's start with the corruption and conflicts of interest exposed when the Smith government restructured Alberta Health Services. Then maybe explain how a supposedly "conservative" government has increased spending to record levels and is experiencing significant deficits even with historically high levels of resource revenue.
Monopolies rarely deliver high quality and efficient service. Outsourcing and reducing the influence of public sector unions is a step towards competition in healthcare and education. I can't see the provincial NDP or any federal party doing anything to improve services beyond the already tried and failed increases in funding, more staff and better working conditions.
There's a much more basic and fundamental problem with the Alberta health care system that outsourcing and privatization can't fix: there's really no *management* of the system; it's run by *administrators* at best. Remember the push for outsourcing of services like cleaning to private sector companies? It didn't actually end up saving a significant amount of money, and resulted in a decrease in cleanliness in health care facilities. The reason for that was that nobody was actually managing the system: setting requirements, monitoring performance, and taking corrective action.
My dad was involved in this at the Capital Health Authority. Before outsourcing cleaning services at a long-term care home, he took the step of hiring a housekeeping consultant from a major hotel chain. The consultant helped create a checklist of items that had to be done, how often, and how long they should take. That was implemented. Monitoring systems were put in place. Staff who exceeded those metrics received bonus pay. Staff who didn't meet those metrics were faced with corrective action. They didn't need to outsource cleaning; they reduced costs AND increased cleanliness. That sort of work is why Capital Health Authority won a Deloitte & Touche award for best-managed public organization.
Just outsource and privatize this stuff without solving the management problem, and you're going to have a government that spends ever more money on services and gets declining results because the private sector companies have a profit motive and will run circles around them.
The Alberta government's incompetence directly affects health care, education, and other government services for Albertans. The dysfunctions with AHS go WAY back, and part of it was the Klein government amalgamating all of the regional health authorities so they could avoid having to take direct action against the incompetence of the Calgary authority. So they didn't fix the problem, then put some of the same people in charge to spread the mess around the province. And separatists think that giving this kakistocracy MORE power will somehow make things better.
If your response is in the affirmative then you have a legitimate cause to have an opinion. As it happens, I don't agree with that opinion but that is simply democracy: we are all entitled to your opinion.
If your answer is in the negative, that is, you don't live in Alberta, then butt out! We have the responsibility to deal with our governments and re-elect them or to de-elect them as we choose but it is not any of your damned business.
I'm a Canadian. I used to live in Alberta. I've got family in Alberta. I don't care if you don't like my opinion, and you can ignore it if you want, but when separatists are trying to dismember my country, it's my business.
Can you put some specifics on your outrage? Can you point to liberal grifting and what they have done to destroy the Alberta economy. I'm Albertian and I have no idea what your talking about. Please share.
Friend, it is entirely up to you to keep current with federal politics and with the effects their policies have on AB economy. I will not be doing it for you. As an "Albertian" you ought to know the correct spelling.
Yes indeed, I'm current, but you described specific affects and I invited you to be specific and you do grade school huff and puff. Youre blowing smoke for pay.
- the moratorium on shipping from the northwest BC coast but allowing the US to ship oil 12.1 miles off that coast and not preventing oil being shipped in or out anywhere else in Canada;
- requiring the closing of natural gas fired electricity plants by 2035 when, on a practical basis, that is the only base load generator that is possible in Alberta;
- requiring that projects that are entirely within Alberta boundaries be subject to federal oversight in violation of the constitution;
- oh, yeah, the Face Painter's stated desire to "phase out" the oil industry ......
Shall I go on?
Destruction of Alberta economy:
- just to make it simple, I will offer only one item - there are others, including all of the above outrages ...
- Taking about $26 billion more - each and every damned year - out of Alberta than we receive in value from the feds and then giving it to various other governments who decry our "dirty oil" but are quite happy to take our resulting "dirty money" and to require that in their particular province they do not endeavor to improve their economy by drilling into known accumulations of hydrocarbons and have favorable definitions included in the equalization formula to ensure that we keep paying and they keep receiving.
OMG you're laughable. Dint Alberta squander their heritage fund. The BC coast, you can't get a pipeline to the coast and that's BC not the feds. I feel for you
Actually, I am a centrist in outlook and have voted both Liberal and Conservative in the past. I did vote for Carney as his platform was somewhat better articulated than the Conservatives. I live in rural Ontario with provincial Conservative MPP, same federal MP and our one and only Conservative Premiere.
Yes, I had enough of Justin and his aspirational chatter and assault on oil production with and without negative results. And I am mindful that Alberta sits on that resource which currently plays an outsized role in Canada’s wealth. But please also consider the hundreds of thousands of jobs in manufacturing be it in Alberta and everywhere else in Canada. And the oil industry is generally not labour intensive.
Prime ministers of both parties have done good and not so good policy matters. I gave my hats off to Stephen Harper when he sole sourced military equipment for the Forces for Afghanistan. But he was also the same PM who let defence expenditures slip to the lowest post war level at 0.9%.
Since the federal government has marshalled infinite resources, provided by Canadian taxpayers, plus a heavily subsidized and censored media, to oppose Alberta secession, I wouldn't be too worried if the secessionists find a fairy godmother to help them compete.
It's reasonable if they have some resources other than the contempt of Central Canada for Alberta to help them in their struggle.
There's nothing wrong with soliciting donations for a cause. Nor is there anything wrong with reporting on the public filings of a registered non profit.
Those who have chosen to donate their money to this organization may have legitimate questions about the "professional fees" being extracted here but that is for them to weigh
Some charities seem to shake out 80% internal "expenses", 20% for the cause, lol. (Business class tix, an expensive hotel, lots and lots of meals and drinks, limos, "conferences".)
An old, old grift, lol.
Not saying this is the case here, of course. Couldn't be.
I'd be interested, and hope the Line would share widely, if any fairy turned out to be an ammerikan interfering in Canadian politics. If so, we should register and sanction them along with Chinese, Russian, Iranian actors as the septic scum they are.
I'm sure, like all things MAGA and trump, that information, if true, would further sewer the idiotic idea of AB becoming a vassal of the US.
DT's "transforming" the U.S. just like he transformed the successful co his daddy gave him, for all to see. Trump/Maga is kryptonite even faster than I expected. Talk about a cautionary tale, lol.
It’s not about “what we don’t have that we couldn’t get if we wanted it”, it’s about the multi-billion dollar deficit we’re incurring to keep the lights on, a deficit which OUR tax base would be sufficient to eradicate if not for the wonky formula which has our money flowing eastward.
Any concerns about Chinese interference in Canadas internal affairs? Seems that may be a story much more in need of exposure. And while we’re at it how about Indias interference in Canadas internal affairs.
My question as well. The hysteria of the Elbozoes over supposed American interference while we've had close to 4 years of silence from them over Chinese and Indian interference at the Federal level is also a thing. Maybe we could trade info....
I think the Line has covered some of that as well. All of a piece, as you say?
All the septic scumbags who interfere should be listed, published and sanctioned, especially the "siege heil" group in the US, who pretend about democracy.
Should Alberta separate, with a $500billion loan from, probably the US, in US dollars, the trade off would be, for the US: oil and water. Of course and pipelines.
I feel that anyone who thinks Alberta can go it alone, with US backing, is dreaming. At best we would be a US protectorate, which is certainly not independence.
The thing is, this will take years to work itself out and orange man is only here for another 3 years. What will you be saying if the next guy is a Carter, Clinton, Biden, etc?
The US is currently a GOP dictatorship. I'd say it's about 50/50 that it stays that way. Trump is the cancer that made it possible. I have seen no reason to believe there is a cure. The GOP are what is enabling this. They aren't popular. I don't see them giving it up without a fight. The damage Trump has done will take generations to reverse. So no, I will not trust anyone running the US in what is left of my life without massive changes to its Constitution...which I don't see happening. Their actions matter more than their words.
3 years? Pfft. The most Trump-phobic among us believe he will seize power, appoint himself God-King, and rule until his natural life ends at the age of 118. After which he will be kept partially alive through a city-sized network of machines which require the sacrifice of a thousand human souls per day to maintain his bodily functions, still capable of sending orders by way of cryptic and increasingly misspelled Truth Social posts.
I'm not convinced he's alive now. Looks like a non-sensical, erratic, Max Headroom with a sm feed and unlimited weapons of mass destruction, artificially propped up to further the US transition to 2nd world theocracy.
That's the question I keep asking that no one seems to be willing to answer. Supposedly we can build unlimited pipelines and unlock all of our energy with Washington instead of Ottawa. Except we couldn't just 2 and 10 years ago when the President was not Trump.
And further - what will they be saying if the next person up is not a Carter, Clinton, or Biden, but an Ocasio-Cortez or similar? One that adopts a "no pipelines, ever, anywhere" stance?
If Jason Kenny hadn't cancelled Notley's deal, you'd be shipping almost unlimited amounts by train for the last decade...to the destination of your choice. Jason preferred to pay billions in cancellation costs for pipelines that didn't exist.
Victor, the usual suspects - governments, media, ever so many of the chattering classes - argue that there is no proponent for a Canadian pipeline to the northwest BC coast so - they stupidly argue - there is no case for such a pipeline.
The ignore that under current law it is illegal for a pipeline proponent to earn even one dollar in revenue by transporting it to the northwest BC coast. Illegal. So, why would there be a proponent.
There are two main pipeline companies in Canada, Enbridge Inc. and TC Energy Corporation (formerly TransCanada). Enbridge was the proponent of Northern Gateway which had been approved until the Face Painter pulled the plug. Enbridge went on to build and buy pipelines in the US and is now considered the largest pipeline company in North America - but still headquartered in Calgary.
TC Energy was the proponent of Keystone XL and Energy East, both of which pipelines were approved until the Face Painter's claque forced the cancellation of Energy East and Obama forced the cancellation of KXL - but only on the narrow ground that it crossed the border. Since that time, TC Energy has built and bought pipelines in the US and in Mexico and continues to be a major force.
The point is that both of these companies are able to build and buy domestic US pipelines and pipelines in Mexico. Therefore, a Democratic president is highly unlikely to be a problem. As for AOC, well, the chances of her becoming President are incredibly slim, I expect. Put differently, our pipeline companies have already proven they are able to operate within the US environment.
David, thank you for the compliment (I think it is. Kinda, possibly, maybe.) The problem is that I see far more reason to doubt what our worsers (damned well not our betters) in Canada tell us than a whole lot of folks.
I used to be quite amenable to the idea of the honesty and rectitude of our government. Oh, in my job before I retired I did occasionally see corruption but it was frequently associated with a particular province (far from we in AB) and I could convince myself that it was an aberration. Then I started seeing patterns and, well, I came to uncomfortable conclusions. Not patterns of actual corruption as one typically thinks of it but corruption in the sense of who get government contracts, how policies are developed and so forth.
Most Canadians are conditioned to be anti-American. I, on the other hand, grew up in Southern Alberta where we have a lot of US expats so I found them to be a more complex animal than the typical caricature of Americans. And doggoned fine people too, were most of the folks that I met.
Anyway, you gave me a compliment (I think) but I ask you to consider a possibility. That is, if I think uncomfortable thoughts about Canada and our worsers, why would that be? Assuming, of course, that you don't simply dismiss me as a conspiracy nut. Oh, I don't particularly believe in conspiracies and maybe I am a nut on some things but I really do believe that our worsers simply don't give a damn. Or, perhaps they simply are working on the greater fool theory, i.e. things are not good, really not good, but, they will get out with "theirs" [no definition offered - pension; relatively high salary; contacts; other? no one definition offered] before the collapse. Perhaps "they" are incredibly honest and believing that all will be peachy and wonderful. Perhaps. And, perhaps none of the floor crossers also had their palms crossed in some way. Perhaps.
"nobody has secrets"? Chinese and Indian election interference and sealed records for 99 years.... Lots of secrets. Who is funding the anti Jewish demonstrations? Secrets. First Nations Financial Accountability Act jettisoned by Trudeau? Secrets. Katherine McKenna's 1 billion dollar slush fund recipients? Secrets. No shortage of secrets. In fact, I would argue not much has changed in Canada since Westminster had concerns around the time of Confederation over the corruption in Upper and Lower Canada.
The Fathers of Confederation didn't meet our modern ideal of clean government, but at least they cared about Canada and viewed Canadians as their countrymen. The Liberals are no less corrupt, but look on Canadians as an alien species - or as nothing but a piece of paper.
Opponents of AB separatists seem without fail to describe them in derogatory terms, so AB separatists always seem to be painted as lesser quality human beings for being fed up with the shyte perpetually dealt to AB by the feds and a good part of the ROC.
If I could spare a million dollars I would donate them towards AB independence. Anonymously.
Yeah we've had such a hard time here, constantly earning enough income to be able to help other provinces that aren't so fortunate. We should go out on our own! Everyone knows oil will last forever and we'll never need help of any kind.
Just like when your kids leave home and never need you again. They're so smart!
>> Alberta isn’t really an inherently Conservative place
There's something to this, though a distinction could be made here between upper- and lower-case "c". Alberta certainly tends to be upper-case Conservative, but that Alberta isn’t really inherently lower-case conservative is truer than many online Albertans purport to believe (and truer than many online eastern "Laurentians" purport to believe). The fellow conservatives I knew when I lived in Calgary were the product of an interesting evolution of populism from the 1920s (United Farmers/Social Credit/CCF influences) to the present. As an example, my neighbour always voted for whatever conservative was on the ballot, whatever the level of government, but described himself as a "free-enterprise socialist" and thought little of Trump.
In fact, some of the most MAGA-inclined Albertans I know actually live in greater Vancouver.
My neighbour and I both tended toward pro-Conservative/anti-Liberal opinions, but when we talked about actual policies, things got more complicated.
Great piece, Jen. They say sunshine is a good disinfectant, and we need to shine lots of it on these guys.
The fact that they're playing footsie with the malevolent bozos running the show to the south of us speaks volumes about the quality of the people heading up the APP. They should be run out of town on a rail.
Which is too bad, because when they're the ones making the most noise about Alberta's grievances, it's all too easy for the rest of the country to dismiss those grievances as the whining of extremist nutbars.
Not exactly the best way to promote a civilized conversation about those grievances.
Your use, Jen of the phrases--"the spirit of the MAGA movement" and "Trump-ism" apparently has widespread meaning to your readership. Unfortunately, I don't understand them.
Could you please define "the spirit of the MAGA movement" and "Trump-ism".
Didn't the Harper government propose legislation requiring greater financial disclosure by non-profits? Too bad the First Nations Bands, environmental NGOs and unions lost their shit. If passed, that legislation might have provided some transparency from APP.
Ah, so the Face Painter's stupid ideas come home to roost yet again.
Thank you for your work on this, Jen. A fine piece of investigative journalism. Albertans and Canadians deserve to know who is working behind the scenes (and with whom they are working) to steal this province out from under the rest of us.
It looks like we will have our say at the ballot box, but transparency matters. The political and economic operators working behind the scenes to further the Alberta separatist agenda need to be brought out into the open.
Appreciate your work and look forward to seeing what your investigation uncovers.
I appreciate your article and agree that Albertan and Saskatchewan alienation was in large part caused by central Canada’s fixation upon itself. For many decades. As an Ontarian, I have absolutely no animosity towards differing Alberta attitudes regarding our village of 40 million souls. And I recognize the damage done by Trudeau governments. Even the perception of same is disturbing.
What I don’t fully understand is the hatred aimed at most Canadians who don’t live in Alberta by extreme substack authors. I don’t know what the solutions are other than national dialogue free as possible from political interference.
Rest assured fellow Albertans in Canada. Most of us out east don’t wake up to ideate hatred against you. We share many more common issues in our federal system than one might think.
Then why do you keep voting in "Liberals" and continue tolerating their endless grifting and waste of tax money ?? And their focused continued destruction of AB's and thus Canada's economy ??
Why do Albertans keep voting for an increasingly corrupt and incompetent right wing party? Let's start with the corruption and conflicts of interest exposed when the Smith government restructured Alberta Health Services. Then maybe explain how a supposedly "conservative" government has increased spending to record levels and is experiencing significant deficits even with historically high levels of resource revenue.
Monopolies rarely deliver high quality and efficient service. Outsourcing and reducing the influence of public sector unions is a step towards competition in healthcare and education. I can't see the provincial NDP or any federal party doing anything to improve services beyond the already tried and failed increases in funding, more staff and better working conditions.
There's a much more basic and fundamental problem with the Alberta health care system that outsourcing and privatization can't fix: there's really no *management* of the system; it's run by *administrators* at best. Remember the push for outsourcing of services like cleaning to private sector companies? It didn't actually end up saving a significant amount of money, and resulted in a decrease in cleanliness in health care facilities. The reason for that was that nobody was actually managing the system: setting requirements, monitoring performance, and taking corrective action.
My dad was involved in this at the Capital Health Authority. Before outsourcing cleaning services at a long-term care home, he took the step of hiring a housekeeping consultant from a major hotel chain. The consultant helped create a checklist of items that had to be done, how often, and how long they should take. That was implemented. Monitoring systems were put in place. Staff who exceeded those metrics received bonus pay. Staff who didn't meet those metrics were faced with corrective action. They didn't need to outsource cleaning; they reduced costs AND increased cleanliness. That sort of work is why Capital Health Authority won a Deloitte & Touche award for best-managed public organization.
Just outsource and privatize this stuff without solving the management problem, and you're going to have a government that spends ever more money on services and gets declining results because the private sector companies have a profit motive and will run circles around them.
UCP is costing Albertans orders of magnitude less than Ottawa is. The most important issue is pushing back against Liberals.
And the NDP didn't exactly make AHS good.
The Alberta government's incompetence directly affects health care, education, and other government services for Albertans. The dysfunctions with AHS go WAY back, and part of it was the Klein government amalgamating all of the regional health authorities so they could avoid having to take direct action against the incompetence of the Calgary authority. So they didn't fix the problem, then put some of the same people in charge to spread the mess around the province. And separatists think that giving this kakistocracy MORE power will somehow make things better.
A question, George.
Are you a resident of Alberta?
If your response is in the affirmative then you have a legitimate cause to have an opinion. As it happens, I don't agree with that opinion but that is simply democracy: we are all entitled to your opinion.
If your answer is in the negative, that is, you don't live in Alberta, then butt out! We have the responsibility to deal with our governments and re-elect them or to de-elect them as we choose but it is not any of your damned business.
I'm a Canadian. I used to live in Alberta. I've got family in Alberta. I don't care if you don't like my opinion, and you can ignore it if you want, but when separatists are trying to dismember my country, it's my business.
Can you put some specifics on your outrage? Can you point to liberal grifting and what they have done to destroy the Alberta economy. I'm Albertian and I have no idea what your talking about. Please share.
Friend, it is entirely up to you to keep current with federal politics and with the effects their policies have on AB economy. I will not be doing it for you. As an "Albertian" you ought to know the correct spelling.
Yes indeed, I'm current, but you described specific affects and I invited you to be specific and you do grade school huff and puff. Youre blowing smoke for pay.
Outrage:
- the no more pipelines bill;
- the moratorium on shipping from the northwest BC coast but allowing the US to ship oil 12.1 miles off that coast and not preventing oil being shipped in or out anywhere else in Canada;
- requiring the closing of natural gas fired electricity plants by 2035 when, on a practical basis, that is the only base load generator that is possible in Alberta;
- requiring that projects that are entirely within Alberta boundaries be subject to federal oversight in violation of the constitution;
- oh, yeah, the Face Painter's stated desire to "phase out" the oil industry ......
Shall I go on?
Destruction of Alberta economy:
- just to make it simple, I will offer only one item - there are others, including all of the above outrages ...
- Taking about $26 billion more - each and every damned year - out of Alberta than we receive in value from the feds and then giving it to various other governments who decry our "dirty oil" but are quite happy to take our resulting "dirty money" and to require that in their particular province they do not endeavor to improve their economy by drilling into known accumulations of hydrocarbons and have favorable definitions included in the equalization formula to ensure that we keep paying and they keep receiving.
There, just a few things.
OMG you're laughable. Dint Alberta squander their heritage fund. The BC coast, you can't get a pipeline to the coast and that's BC not the feds. I feel for you
Thank you.
Actually, I am a centrist in outlook and have voted both Liberal and Conservative in the past. I did vote for Carney as his platform was somewhat better articulated than the Conservatives. I live in rural Ontario with provincial Conservative MPP, same federal MP and our one and only Conservative Premiere.
Yes, I had enough of Justin and his aspirational chatter and assault on oil production with and without negative results. And I am mindful that Alberta sits on that resource which currently plays an outsized role in Canada’s wealth. But please also consider the hundreds of thousands of jobs in manufacturing be it in Alberta and everywhere else in Canada. And the oil industry is generally not labour intensive.
Prime ministers of both parties have done good and not so good policy matters. I gave my hats off to Stephen Harper when he sole sourced military equipment for the Forces for Afghanistan. But he was also the same PM who let defence expenditures slip to the lowest post war level at 0.9%.
This is the kind of thing I'm paying for.
Since the federal government has marshalled infinite resources, provided by Canadian taxpayers, plus a heavily subsidized and censored media, to oppose Alberta secession, I wouldn't be too worried if the secessionists find a fairy godmother to help them compete.
It's reasonable if they have some resources other than the contempt of Central Canada for Alberta to help them in their struggle.
There's nothing wrong with soliciting donations for a cause. Nor is there anything wrong with reporting on the public filings of a registered non profit.
Those who have chosen to donate their money to this organization may have legitimate questions about the "professional fees" being extracted here but that is for them to weigh
Also, The Line receives no government funding.
Some charities seem to shake out 80% internal "expenses", 20% for the cause, lol. (Business class tix, an expensive hotel, lots and lots of meals and drinks, limos, "conferences".)
An old, old grift, lol.
Not saying this is the case here, of course. Couldn't be.
I'd be interested, and hope the Line would share widely, if any fairy turned out to be an ammerikan interfering in Canadian politics. If so, we should register and sanction them along with Chinese, Russian, Iranian actors as the septic scum they are.
I'm sure, like all things MAGA and trump, that information, if true, would further sewer the idiotic idea of AB becoming a vassal of the US.
DT's "transforming" the U.S. just like he transformed the successful co his daddy gave him, for all to see. Trump/Maga is kryptonite even faster than I expected. Talk about a cautionary tale, lol.
You play the victim card pretty hard for a province without taxes.
Every single dollar we would theoretically collect in a PST (if we had one) is currently being siphoned to the ROC in equalization payments.
That’s because the current Equalization formula is based on “potential” provincial revenues, and NOT on actuals.
The irony being that IF we chose to have a PST, Alberta could keep 100% of the resulting revenue.
So… you’re welcome.
Right so what don't you have that you couldn't get if you wanted it. Like better sportsplex in Red deer? You know only lasts so long.
You have it precisely backwards.
It’s not about “what we don’t have that we couldn’t get if we wanted it”, it’s about the multi-billion dollar deficit we’re incurring to keep the lights on, a deficit which OUR tax base would be sufficient to eradicate if not for the wonky formula which has our money flowing eastward.
Any concerns about Chinese interference in Canadas internal affairs? Seems that may be a story much more in need of exposure. And while we’re at it how about Indias interference in Canadas internal affairs.
My question as well. The hysteria of the Elbozoes over supposed American interference while we've had close to 4 years of silence from them over Chinese and Indian interference at the Federal level is also a thing. Maybe we could trade info....
I think the Line has covered some of that as well. All of a piece, as you say?
All the septic scumbags who interfere should be listed, published and sanctioned, especially the "siege heil" group in the US, who pretend about democracy.
Sounds like tax evasion/grifting.
Should Alberta separate, with a $500billion loan from, probably the US, in US dollars, the trade off would be, for the US: oil and water. Of course and pipelines.
I feel that anyone who thinks Alberta can go it alone, with US backing, is dreaming. At best we would be a US protectorate, which is certainly not independence.
I'm curious why anyone, anywhere, would trust this US administration to honour its word.
The thing is, this will take years to work itself out and orange man is only here for another 3 years. What will you be saying if the next guy is a Carter, Clinton, Biden, etc?
The US is currently a GOP dictatorship. I'd say it's about 50/50 that it stays that way. Trump is the cancer that made it possible. I have seen no reason to believe there is a cure. The GOP are what is enabling this. They aren't popular. I don't see them giving it up without a fight. The damage Trump has done will take generations to reverse. So no, I will not trust anyone running the US in what is left of my life without massive changes to its Constitution...which I don't see happening. Their actions matter more than their words.
We will know for certain if the White House manufactures a Reichstag fire moment.
You've heard there is a second party in the US, right?
3 years? Pfft. The most Trump-phobic among us believe he will seize power, appoint himself God-King, and rule until his natural life ends at the age of 118. After which he will be kept partially alive through a city-sized network of machines which require the sacrifice of a thousand human souls per day to maintain his bodily functions, still capable of sending orders by way of cryptic and increasingly misspelled Truth Social posts.
I'm not convinced he's alive now. Looks like a non-sensical, erratic, Max Headroom with a sm feed and unlimited weapons of mass destruction, artificially propped up to further the US transition to 2nd world theocracy.
No, I doubt he survives his term. The GOP will. They are the actual problem.
That's the question I keep asking that no one seems to be willing to answer. Supposedly we can build unlimited pipelines and unlock all of our energy with Washington instead of Ottawa. Except we couldn't just 2 and 10 years ago when the President was not Trump.
And further - what will they be saying if the next person up is not a Carter, Clinton, or Biden, but an Ocasio-Cortez or similar? One that adopts a "no pipelines, ever, anywhere" stance?
If Jason Kenny hadn't cancelled Notley's deal, you'd be shipping almost unlimited amounts by train for the last decade...to the destination of your choice. Jason preferred to pay billions in cancellation costs for pipelines that didn't exist.
Victor, the usual suspects - governments, media, ever so many of the chattering classes - argue that there is no proponent for a Canadian pipeline to the northwest BC coast so - they stupidly argue - there is no case for such a pipeline.
The ignore that under current law it is illegal for a pipeline proponent to earn even one dollar in revenue by transporting it to the northwest BC coast. Illegal. So, why would there be a proponent.
There are two main pipeline companies in Canada, Enbridge Inc. and TC Energy Corporation (formerly TransCanada). Enbridge was the proponent of Northern Gateway which had been approved until the Face Painter pulled the plug. Enbridge went on to build and buy pipelines in the US and is now considered the largest pipeline company in North America - but still headquartered in Calgary.
TC Energy was the proponent of Keystone XL and Energy East, both of which pipelines were approved until the Face Painter's claque forced the cancellation of Energy East and Obama forced the cancellation of KXL - but only on the narrow ground that it crossed the border. Since that time, TC Energy has built and bought pipelines in the US and in Mexico and continues to be a major force.
The point is that both of these companies are able to build and buy domestic US pipelines and pipelines in Mexico. Therefore, a Democratic president is highly unlikely to be a problem. As for AOC, well, the chances of her becoming President are incredibly slim, I expect. Put differently, our pipeline companies have already proven they are able to operate within the US environment.
If the orange guy actually leaves
Of course, David, I respond with "I'm curious why anyone, anywhere, would trust this, or any, Canadian administration to honor it's word."
I certainly don't.
You cannot seriously say there is a comparison. Come on, Ken. You're better than that.
David, thank you for the compliment (I think it is. Kinda, possibly, maybe.) The problem is that I see far more reason to doubt what our worsers (damned well not our betters) in Canada tell us than a whole lot of folks.
I used to be quite amenable to the idea of the honesty and rectitude of our government. Oh, in my job before I retired I did occasionally see corruption but it was frequently associated with a particular province (far from we in AB) and I could convince myself that it was an aberration. Then I started seeing patterns and, well, I came to uncomfortable conclusions. Not patterns of actual corruption as one typically thinks of it but corruption in the sense of who get government contracts, how policies are developed and so forth.
Most Canadians are conditioned to be anti-American. I, on the other hand, grew up in Southern Alberta where we have a lot of US expats so I found them to be a more complex animal than the typical caricature of Americans. And doggoned fine people too, were most of the folks that I met.
Anyway, you gave me a compliment (I think) but I ask you to consider a possibility. That is, if I think uncomfortable thoughts about Canada and our worsers, why would that be? Assuming, of course, that you don't simply dismiss me as a conspiracy nut. Oh, I don't particularly believe in conspiracies and maybe I am a nut on some things but I really do believe that our worsers simply don't give a damn. Or, perhaps they simply are working on the greater fool theory, i.e. things are not good, really not good, but, they will get out with "theirs" [no definition offered - pension; relatively high salary; contacts; other? no one definition offered] before the collapse. Perhaps "they" are incredibly honest and believing that all will be peachy and wonderful. Perhaps. And, perhaps none of the floor crossers also had their palms crossed in some way. Perhaps.
"nobody has secrets"? Chinese and Indian election interference and sealed records for 99 years.... Lots of secrets. Who is funding the anti Jewish demonstrations? Secrets. First Nations Financial Accountability Act jettisoned by Trudeau? Secrets. Katherine McKenna's 1 billion dollar slush fund recipients? Secrets. No shortage of secrets. In fact, I would argue not much has changed in Canada since Westminster had concerns around the time of Confederation over the corruption in Upper and Lower Canada.
The Fathers of Confederation didn't meet our modern ideal of clean government, but at least they cared about Canada and viewed Canadians as their countrymen. The Liberals are no less corrupt, but look on Canadians as an alien species - or as nothing but a piece of paper.
You guys are smart, can anyone explain to me why Alberta separatists want to be Puerto Rico North?
Opponents of AB separatists seem without fail to describe them in derogatory terms, so AB separatists always seem to be painted as lesser quality human beings for being fed up with the shyte perpetually dealt to AB by the feds and a good part of the ROC.
If I could spare a million dollars I would donate them towards AB independence. Anonymously.
Persecution is complex.
Patriots have a long history of painting seditionists as sub-human, no?
Yeah we've had such a hard time here, constantly earning enough income to be able to help other provinces that aren't so fortunate. We should go out on our own! Everyone knows oil will last forever and we'll never need help of any kind.
Just like when your kids leave home and never need you again. They're so smart!
A very oversimplified view.
10 downvotes for being generally ill-informed, inobservant and dense.
>> Alberta isn’t really an inherently Conservative place
There's something to this, though a distinction could be made here between upper- and lower-case "c". Alberta certainly tends to be upper-case Conservative, but that Alberta isn’t really inherently lower-case conservative is truer than many online Albertans purport to believe (and truer than many online eastern "Laurentians" purport to believe). The fellow conservatives I knew when I lived in Calgary were the product of an interesting evolution of populism from the 1920s (United Farmers/Social Credit/CCF influences) to the present. As an example, my neighbour always voted for whatever conservative was on the ballot, whatever the level of government, but described himself as a "free-enterprise socialist" and thought little of Trump.
In fact, some of the most MAGA-inclined Albertans I know actually live in greater Vancouver.
My neighbour and I both tended toward pro-Conservative/anti-Liberal opinions, but when we talked about actual policies, things got more complicated.
CBC billions is the biggest election interference
I love that you’re on this, Jen. For all of our sake please stay with it.
Great piece, Jen. They say sunshine is a good disinfectant, and we need to shine lots of it on these guys.
The fact that they're playing footsie with the malevolent bozos running the show to the south of us speaks volumes about the quality of the people heading up the APP. They should be run out of town on a rail.
Which is too bad, because when they're the ones making the most noise about Alberta's grievances, it's all too easy for the rest of the country to dismiss those grievances as the whining of extremist nutbars.
Not exactly the best way to promote a civilized conversation about those grievances.
And what about the malevolent bozos running things in Otterwer?
Your use, Jen of the phrases--"the spirit of the MAGA movement" and "Trump-ism" apparently has widespread meaning to your readership. Unfortunately, I don't understand them.
Could you please define "the spirit of the MAGA movement" and "Trump-ism".
No comment. Then...they speak in tongues.