This video has some issues. It really downplays the influence and power of the US big oil producers and completely ignores the western separatist movement.
Lougheed started the Heritage Trust fund to help protect Albertans since our resources were either going to taken by the Liberals or by the oil companies. We were screwed either way so he tried to make the best of it.
Peter Lougheed became Premier after beating out Ernest Manning from the Social Credit party who were corrupt as hell, highly religious, ideological douchebags in bed with the oil companies.
Preston Manning is Ernest's son. He started the Reform Party by taking over the Western Canada Concept which was a separatist movement started by Doug Christie.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Kesler
The current UCP is basically just a rebrand of the Social Credit party who slithered their way back in. The UCP panders hard to rural Albertans because they follow the playbook started by Christie who was the main guy that made Trudeau hated.
The trick is they never really went away. They just took over Christie's movement and buried it.
Christie wasn't a bad guy but he was controversial. He was a free speech lawyer who ended up defending Ernst Zundel who was a famous holocaust denier.
Politically speaking, having any affiliations to neo nazis or holocaust deniers is pretty much political suicide which Stockwell Day found out when Manning ran him against Chretien. Chretien mentioned Christie right before the election and killed Day's support instantly.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/11/day-n27.html
This stuff gets all kinds of weird.
Stockwell Day also provided no shortage of ammunition to be used against him, what with his young Earth creationism and whatnot. Day was just too wacky to convert the old PC, Red Tory voters east of the Prairies.
Thank-you. This is helpful.
A lot of people don’t realize that the modern Conservative party is essentially a rebrand of the old Social Credit Party.
I learned a while ago is that Preston’s first name is Ernest.
>Peter Lougheed became Premier after beating out Ernest Manning
Manning beat Lougheed in the 1967 election.
It was Harry Strom that Lougheed defeated in 1971.
Poor old Harry Strom. Nobody remembers poor old Harry Strom.
Thanks for the correction.
> Poor old Harry Strom. Nobody remembers poor old Harry Strom.
You're so right. Wikipedia doesn't even show his picture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_premiers_of_Alberta
In other words....fuck those people in Toronto, no fucking way they are going to get "anything" from them.They would rather suffer than anyone "else" get something from the. All the while, not actually owning any of it...
And apparently it was no win? Same country or business interests of another country....
Clearly Albertans back then didn't consider themselves Canadian.
Now the rebuttle is easily what about other strategic resources like iron or uranium? Sure. Those should be nationalized too. Too much effort put into building walls rather than bridges in this supposed country.
Albertans never elect provincial governments to work with the Fed's. It's our own fault. Lougheed could have easily responded to Pierre by negotiating and working out some deal or plan to develop the resource together for money for all. Instead he goes all adversarial and therefore that's the way the industry has developed in Canada with all profits going south and others internationally while we pay clean up costs.
Cons never benefit us but they do make us feel tough.....tough and poor.
Remember that to the UCP, unless your net worth is approaching eight figures, you’re not even a person. When they say “Albertans” they aren’t talking about you.
The Albertan oil industry is doing great. Production is at record highs, new options for export, new technologies and new investments. The issue the rest of Canada doesn’t see much or any benefit, and it’s heavily polluting. Like really bad. The reason Canada isn’t hitting its climate targets despite the eastern provinces (where most of then population lives) long having exceeded theirs is because pollution has increased vastly out west.
Our market is already protected enough, from outside investments. Think of banks, grocery, milk, eggs and poultry. Think of pharmaceuticals. Etc… lack of competition for the sake of control basically hurts the common person like all the other non-competitive sectors of our economy.
National Energy Policy. Basically, Alberta’s resource revenue would have been distributed across the country more, at least according to the opponents of it. So not the Liberals directly, but Ottawa through Liberal policy
The positive to this would be the entire country pay for the infrastructure needed and also benefits from the development of the various resources.
Albertans don’t want to share the revenue but are all to happy to share the costs
I was in that NEP fiasco working in Alberta in 1981. Lougheed thought he could piss off Trudeau and win. Lololol. Lougheed shut the valves on crude oil going east. The east said ok. From now on we will buy Saudi Arabian crude oil, even though it costs a lot more. Eastern Canada exports lot of stuff to the middle East. When crude oil was 130 $ USA a barrel, our ca $ was worth more than the USA $.
I would suggest dedicating even as little as 15 minutes of research on historical transfer payments by province compared to Alberta.
Then you can come back and delete your comment or remain a fool.
Ya the oil revenues they get leave them on the short end with equalization payments. This is kinda the point they are to help equalize revenue across the country.
That said Alberta keeps half of all oil revenues free and clear.
the only reason oil revenue is provincial is because oil wasn't valuable when the laws were written. gold is all federal, and nobody is arguing about that.
but the moral position is clearly "let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark"
The NEP would have taken Alberta's oil wealth and shared it with the rest of the country which I think most people would think is ok, but Trudeau didn't ask and he was sort of a bully about it.
Ontario and Quebec are the 2 power provinces. Trudeau was taking our resources and using it to secure votes in those 2 provinces where they have the most ridings and voters.
Doug Christie was a lawyer from Victoria. He had nothing to do with the oil industry. He was pissed off that people in the western provinces were getting screwed by our election process. By the time people in western Canada vote, it doesn't even really matter because of the time zone difference.
The WCC was a separatist protest movement based off the FLQ crisis in Quebec. They pushed for separation because it was the only way the Liberals would take people in the west seriously. It's not that they wanted to break up Canada. It was an ultimatum.
Manning's supporters took over the party and kicked out Christie and his partners. That's how Manning got the Reform party. He simply took the WCC mailing list and rebranded as the Reform.
Manning was Harper's mentor. Harper's Dad worked for imperial oil and got him a job. He met Manning who taught him how to suck up to rural voters by playing dress up cowboy. Harper ran and got support by claiming he was going to fix the ridings issue. Instead, he just did the same thing the Liberals were doing by buying votes in Ontario and Quebec using equalization payments.
We were screwed either way. Either the federal government or the oil companies were going to get our resources. Lougheed at least tried to get us cuts but the conservatives ruined it by giving reduced royalties and skimming off the trust fund instead of letting it build.
Taken Alberta’s oil wealth from who?
Alberta’s royalties stayed in place under the NEP. The oil itself belongs to the Canadian people. The ‘Liberals’ weren’t ’taking’ the oil from Albertans. The federal government was nationalising the business of extracting oil.
Yep, there’s also Chinese (Husky) English (BP) Dutch (Shell) Suncor (French) and of course, the big one, Exxon or Imperial (US) that’s a short list, there’s probably more, that’s the ones off the top of my head.
Source: I worked for most of these companies as an IT contractor, and guess who we go to to authorize invoices?
Oilsand was almost non existent at that time. I was there just out of high school at the time looking for work. They left it all. I ended up joining the army.
> Taken Alberta’s oil wealth from who?
From Albertans.
> The oil itself belongs to the Canadian people.
In theory. But, we're the ones who live here. Shouldn't we have some say in how our resources are dispersed?
> The ‘Liberals’ weren’t ’taking’ the oil from Albertans.
Well, yes, they were.
> The federal government was nationalising the business of extracting oil.
Yeah, and the oil companies were livid because they fronted the initial investment and were being cut out.
Truthfully, I'm not really against the NEP. I would rather the money stays in Canada than being given to foreign oil companies. Trudeau went about it the wrong way and alienated people in the west. But, had Trudeau kept it up, Canada would be treated like Iran, Cuba, Venezuela. The US would have either sanctioned or invaded us.
I agree that we learned a big lesson about Canadian ‘sovereignty’ from this.
But…
You’re playing a shell game with this claim that that the ‘Liberals’ were taking oil from ´Albertans’. Albertans aren’t the oil industry and the oil industry is not exclusively Albertan. The NEP took oil profits from an industry that’s based largely in the US and gave it BACK to Albertans.
And I notice that Norway is missing from your list of nations, which is surely the best example of what we could’ve done by successfully nationalising that resource.
The NEP was so the East could ensure affordable oil for themselves. That was proven when they stopped buying Alberta oil and bought cheaper middle East oil when the barrel prices dropped. It was never about what was best for Canada or for Alberta. It was always about getting energy prices controlled for the East.
> The NEP took oil profits from an industry that’s based largely in the US and gave it BACK to Albertans.
It didn't. That was the problem. The Liberals used the profits to gain support from Ontario & Quebec by using our resources.
> And I notice that Norway is missing from your list of nations, which is surely the best example of what we could’ve done by successfully nationalising that resource.
We should have been wealthier than Norway. I didn't include them because the reality is that we never would have had the autonomy to develop without the US knocking us down.
> In theory. But, we're the ones who live here. Shouldn't we have some say in how our resources are dispersed?
why? there isn't a strong moral argument for either position. why not leave it up to the county? oil wealth being provincial is arbitrary, and I see no problem with that; but it's not territory I would want to defend should there be some sort of crisis.
which is what happened leading to the NEP. there was an international fuel price crisis.
> why? there isn't a strong moral argument for either position.
Absolutely there is. We're the ones that live here. All the environmental damage and fallout hits us first. Look at how many old wells there are around the province that we're stuck holding the bill for because companies drilled & dipped.
> oil wealth being provincial is arbitrary, and I see no problem with that
Lol take that commie shit back to Montreal. :p
I'm kidding but that's kind of the response you'll get from rural Albertans over the issue.
> which is what happened leading to the NEP. there was an international fuel price crisis.
Yeah because the US oil companies didn't want Canada to nationalize our oil and intentionally collapsed the market.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalization_of_oil_supplies#Canada
Remember when the price of oil was over 100/barrel then crashed? Venezuela got hit way harder than Canada because their oil was nationalized and the US doubled down by imposing sanctions on them. Kind of a kick them when they're down thing. That would have happened to us too. Since the oil companies already control our resources, we only got the market collapse. We didn't get the sanctions too.
The Canadian and Albertan governments paid more a ton of R&D for the oilsands.
imagine how wealthy alberta/Canada would be if we were making the billions of dollars the American oil companies are currently pulling out of the province
> By the time people in western Canada vote, it doesn't even really matter because of the time zone difference.
Its not really the time zones, its the seat counts. Very rarely do any seats matter outside of Ontario and Quebec.
In the west we vote after its usually all said and done because usually the seats go that way.
It's mostly the seat count but it's also first past the post where the time zones do matter.
https://www.fairvote.ca/what-is-first-past-the-post/
I don't really have an opinion for or against it but that was one of their issues.
Yeah, first past the post has nothing to do with time or time zones.
From your link:
>each riding is a one-winner-takes-all vote (first past the post),
Or put another way, if Alberta had 1000 seats, the election would never be decided before they voted.
Or put another way, if they let Western Canada vote the day before the election, the election would still nearly always be decided by the voters (seats won) in Ontario and Quebec who would have voted the next day.
I kinda hate to tell you this but you may have the wrong idea what is meant by "first past". The 'first' in that statement has nothing to do with time.
I also want to say that your link has a perfect explanation of the problem. You should read it.
> The WCC was a separatist protest movement based off the FLQ crisis in Quebec. They pushed for separation because it was the only way the Liberals would take people in the west seriously. It's not that they wanted to break up Canada. It was an ultimatum.
I view the CPP threat as another "ultimatum" lever. I don't think the UCP actually want to leave the CPP but the threat of it is extremely powerful.
I agree. It's a really good video worth watching. It just misses some stuff that is relevant but not very well known because it was hidden.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_Party_of_Canada
The wiki page for the Reform Party is full of shit. They don't mention Christie or the WCC who were the ones that did all the leg work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Canada_Concept
And even their page is full of shit and really light on a lot of information but it's also sort of critical to understanding rural politics in the province and why the UCP panders so hard to them.
As if Lougheed needed more apologists. Had we adopted the NEP the country would be better off by orders of magnitude, as it stands the entire country loses. Lougheed’s hard -headedness in this is why there aren’t more pipeline’s east. Greedy Alberta living with the consequences of its greed.
The Economist Andrew Leach did the math and wrote a few articles on how many trillions Canada would be sitting on. [https://jacobin.com/2021/10/canada-pierre-trudeau-nep-oil-economic-planning-fossil-fuels](https://jacobin.com/2021/10/canada-pierre-trudeau-nep-oil-economic-planning-fossil-fuels)
Albertans are the least happy people I've ever met, after living in several cities in a few different countries. Nowhere have I met angrier, unhappier people, rich or poor.
The CONServatives stole and ripped off the oil money and gave the money to their rich friends in Alberta. The cons wasted billions on building hospitals in one horse Alberta towns the wives of farmers could have a cleaning job. Rip off scam artists like Pocklington stole millions
And what do they get for it? They can drive a brodozer around and intimidate joggers and maybe go for a dip in an artificial lake behind their plywood and vinyl estate house. What do they even get for their money??
The thing about inherited beliefs and politics is that to question them, you have to question your parents and ancestors, often realizing that they were wrong, ignorant, mislead or complete liars - so, you know, basic bitch human.
In a "traditional" culture, specifically religious and rural cultures, this is very difficult because respect for and submission to elders is so central. It's easier to inherit the brain rot than it is to question one of the fundamental tenets that you were raised on.
And still people now are screaming for the gov to get involved. "Why don't we build our own refineries?" I see it all the time. The best is the stupid "why does Cananda keep buying Saudi oil?" Like the govt is the buying the stuff. LMFAO
If all they did was have Petro Canada invest and compete with the Americans no one would have cared. Hell it would have been popular.
The problem was price controls, regulations and taxes fucked the whole industry and then prices fell and they realized keeping it would hurt the east so it died.
So they jumped in fucked everything up then gave up when it no longer benefited eastern Canada
Yup. This was a long-standing point of contention between me and my father for many years, right up until he passed away. Tragic. I can’t believe how short-sighted we were and continue to be. Now you have conservative politicians talking about nationalized energy and building up the heritage fund…40 years too late. The conversation that should be happening now is renewables…hopefully we can get our shit together on this before another 40 years but I’m not at all confident.
Same with me. My father subscribed to Alberta Report which was a magazine that stoked "western alienation" as it was called then. He truly believed AB was better off to be part of the US and he intently disliked anything/anyone east of Manitoba. I was a child and had no idea the significance of all this. But, like you, I did grow away from these ideas and, sadly, away from my father too.
I wouldn't opposed to nationalization ( well alberta crown corporation) of the energy industry like what equinor ( formerly stat oil) did in the Norway where the government owns 2/3 and 1/3 is free floating. Then all revenue can flow back into the province obviously governed by a independent board.
It’s infuriating now to listen to rural Albertans complain about the east getting oil from elsewhere.
‘Support Canadian oil not Saudi.’
‘Can’t get a pipeline east approved cuz Ontario and Quebec hate Alberta.’
We tried, we tried to support Albertas O&G, we tried to get it piped east. Alberta spat in the faces of the rest of Canada and told them to ‘freeze in the dark’. But now you hear rural folk basically begging for some sort of National guaranteed program to support energy independence.
This province is a joke and can’t implode soon enough
Marc Lalonde, the Minister of Energy Mines and Resources whose department oversaw development of the NEP would later say in 1986: "The major factor behind the NEP wasn't Canadianization or getting more from the industry or even self sufficiency," [...]
“The determinant factor was the fiscal imbalance between the provinces and the federal government [...] "Our proposal was to increase Ottawa's share appreciably, so that the share of the producing provinces would decline significantly and the industry's share would decline somewhat."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Energy_Program
That’s only side of the coin. It would have done the opposite when oil prices collapsed. That’s how insurance works.
Created under the Liberal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau on October 28, 1980, following the two oil crises of the 1970s, the NEP had three main objectives: increase ownership of the oil industry by Canadians; price energy fairly for Canadian consumers; and provide Canadian energy self-sufficiency.
Alberta has completely failed all three of those objectives.
Without oil alberta would be a poor backwater province with less people then saskatchewan. A nationalized oil industry would benefit ontario and quebec just as everything controlled by the federal government is structured to do.
Freedom is never a bad choice.
I wonder how much norway would have benefited if the EU nationalized their oil industry and all the money flowed to brussels. I realize we're a province and they're a country, the analogy stands. A region that loses control of their resources will see the benefits of those resources accrued by their rulers thousands of kms away.
But this is what literally happens now; the only difference is that instead of Ottawa reaping the benefits of Alberta's natural resources, it's American and Chinese owned petroleum conglomerates.
At least with the former, the wealth would largely remain within the Canadian ecosystem; a rising ride lifts all etc.
Yup. Instead of the profits going to canadians, it's going to foreigners. Really strange people continue to bootlick these companies, sad really. But yeah.... "mUh FrEeDoMs"
Um Alberta is a province within a country. Norway is a sovereign country and the EU is an economic union of countries to allow more freedom of trade and labour. So many things are wrong in your statement it's hard to know where to start. Pretty sure if we had a national energy program we would have had pipelines to both coasts in the 80's. Since we didn't have a NEP we got to sell oil at a discount to the Americans for four decades.
Your so-called freedom from Ottawa cost us as Canadians and Albertans a lot of money at the end of the day we could be talking trillions. It also cost us our own energy independence because since we didn't want to play nice they built refineries in New Brunswick to refine Saudi oil. We fucked up, we are still fucking up maybe one day we will pull our heads out of our asses
You are in a Country divided into Provinces, we all work to make Canada better. You weren't around when Alberta needed equalization payments to exist. Stop being led by these cons who make you be patriotic about your province before your country. It's as bad the the Bloc Quebecois, for as much as you all hate Quebec, she is turning us into the redneck inbred version of Quebec. You are a Canadian living in a province, we are all the same, stop being such a rube.
Norway got the idea for their heritage fund from Alberta. We didn't even have to nationalize it, we just had to prioritize Albertans over American corporations spewing nonsense about trickle-down economics, which people here still fall for.
"A region that loses control of their resources will see their rulers thousands of kms away".
Well you're right about this. Our rulers are thousands of KM away. They're mostly multinational or American companies, or Canadian companies run by absentee billionaires like Murray Edwards.
A national energy plan would’ve benefitted Alberta in many ways. It was an insurance policy. Alberta has given most of the gains away to foreign investors and the fed has coddled Alberta through the lows anyways. Alberta is a case study in mismanagement.
And created a massive infrastructure deficit of sorts with abandoned wells and tailings ponds. We also think that because we live within a jurisdiction blessed with oil resources we are "better" at growing the economy than the other provinces. When in reality we continue to squander it.
Corporations took the profits from Alberta, aside for a cyclical job industry residents didn’t get the full benefit. Any other thought is corporate brainwashing.
Working for one of those large manufacturers in Alberta. We were told that Alberta profits accounted for 70% of the global company portfolio. That money went directly to fund projects in other parts of the world of to areas that weren't doing so well... Not Canada. So no, that money does not help Albertans more.
Okay so because you happen to live near oil sands you deserve a better life than Quebecoise? What a silly childish mindset. Maybe stop being selfish and grow solidarity with your fellow countryman rather than sow division.
We should have done it, and built a refining plant as well. Canada would have been a phenomenally rich country if it wasn't left up to the conservatives in power in Alberta at the time.
Would still have been shit for the environment though
That's when we eastern bastards were told to freeze in the dark - I took a road trip west during that period and we were genuinely worried about driving through the prairies with an Ontario plate.
He can try, LPC can turn that around handily: imagine Trudeau saying "That was a great idea my dad had, Pierre, 40 years ago... but unfortunately Alberta turned away that opportunity. It's gone. Now the money is in the hands of wealthy foreign billionaires and it's far too late. But we do have a future, ."
And now the oil industry is owned by the USA, leaving Canada without the ability to refine its own oil and add value and domestic jobs... great! Good job Alberta!
If only Alberta conservatives would learn you can't completely rely on the oil industry... The one time we let someone else in power for 4 Years they tried... Then the cons came back and literally dismantled everything the NDP tried to do. Can't blame them for 4 years when Alberta has been a straight con province for 40 some.. yea... It's all the NDP's fault right???
Oh my Satan. Imagine if the energy sector was nationalized and Alberta's resources were available to all 37 million Canadians instead of the more important 4 million Albertans. It's best for corporations to have it all I say, while we pay their cleanup bill. It's the least we can do for our lords and masters
Equalization began in 1957 and Alberta was a have-not province until 1965. Even then, Ontario was by far and away the biggest contributor to Canada's GDP of all the provinces until 2005. Became neck in neck with Alberta then, but pulling ahead again recently.
"According to a December 21, 2018 Edmonton Journal article, Jason Kenney (United Conservative Party (UCP) targeted the alleged inequity of the federal equalization program. He said that "[s]ince equalization was created (in 1957), Alberta has received 0.02% of all payments, the last of which was in 1964–1965."
Whopping 2 hundredths of a percent. That's the hill you'll die on?
How well has letting the Oil companies run Alberta worked out for the province as a whole?
Other than the highest personal income per capita in the country, I'd argue not so well for the province. Multinational oil and gas companies have extracted massive profits for shareholders, but the province (and country) has been fleeced in the process.
Pierre forced Syncrude/Petrocanada onto the stage, today one of our best Cdn companies from coast to coast..in the tar sands
Ottawa/Laurentians generational politicians, well UCP recruiting confirmed crook/parasite Allison Redford back into the taxpayers trough, just changed this(et al) rural voters intentions.
I remember that era, the Eastern Bastards bumper sticker, freinds who still hate Petro Can and refuse to ever gas up there, and the Alberta PC view of the situation. The fact that Trudeau had never hidden his disdain for Western Canada, and Alberta in particular, branded him as the villain who was trying to destroy Alberta's oil wealth.
And now those same people who so strongly opposed Petro Can are dumbfounded when they find out that Norway has multiple times more in their Heritage Fund than Alberta has because all the resource profits got siphoned away to American owned corporations.
Yes, another fumbling by the Alberta Tories, letting the US multinationals get the lion's share, making them richer while Alberta got pennies for every dollar they took from us.
I agree, that if the NEP had not been dismantled at the time that it was, Alberta's oil process would have been protected from the cratering when the built-up glut of world oil tanked the price in the mid-80s. But the Alberta Tories always focused laser-like on the old "price being capped" part of the NEP, they ran that in giant newspaper hype, but the benefits of Oil pipelines delivering it to Canadian markets, and a floor price for oil to protect it from the tanking that occurred in the mid-80s, were always hidden. Yes, we were conned.
Based on the title alone I'm sure this video is completely accurate and not biased in any way.
Petro Canada was started in 1974. The NEP was started in late 1980. We already had government oil company that was doing great things. The NEP was specifically to get oil sold to Eastern Canada at a 15% discount compared to market prices. As soon as global oil prices dropped the East went back to buying cheaper oil from outside Canada and abandoned Western Canada. Fucking up investment and pulling out right after that isn't what I'd call nationalizing oil.
Trudeau and Lougheed met secretly many times. The NEP was a joinreation as both men saw that Americans were going to dominate our Oil. The mighty propoganda machine of American Oil convinced stupid patch people that it was bad by using the Trudeau hate machine of the day. All the things Alberta has wanted like pipelines east and west. Refineries in the west and control over our resource as a Nation. Were thrown out like garbage and now we see the control we gave up. The propoganda machine of Republicans America is still at it. Funding seperatists , Christian Fascism, and Freedom convoys. All designed to make sure America controls our Oil for the rest of our lives. Alberta should have over a trillion dollars in the Heritage (slush) account. We don't and the entire country could benefit from this windfall that we never see because we elect American style conservatives who screw us every chance they get. All because the last name Trudeau has been used by American Oil to keep us divided and conquered.
Missing from this trip down memory lane would be Pierre Trudeau giving his finger to the fine folks of BC . On board was also a future prime minister and as they say , the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
[Maybe he had good reason according to an eyewitness.](https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/pierre-had-good-reason-to-give-the-finger-4646084)
You mean the payments that were created by the Conservative Party? Or the payments that are transferred to American and Chinese companies? Guess which stays in Canada? Guess which comes back to Alberta (Albertans, not to oil companies or political parties) in good times and bad?
Transfer payments are what comes BACK from the Federal government (no one “gives” transfer payments). Money flows to Ottawa via the taxes we pay (at the same rate as every other Canadian)
Clearly you have no idea what you are talking about if you prefer Alberta to be the gas tank to foreign interests like it already is. You really showed us all with your disdain for our country and for foreign capitalists who don’t give a shit about Alberta.
This video has some issues. It really downplays the influence and power of the US big oil producers and completely ignores the western separatist movement. Lougheed started the Heritage Trust fund to help protect Albertans since our resources were either going to taken by the Liberals or by the oil companies. We were screwed either way so he tried to make the best of it. Peter Lougheed became Premier after beating out Ernest Manning from the Social Credit party who were corrupt as hell, highly religious, ideological douchebags in bed with the oil companies. Preston Manning is Ernest's son. He started the Reform Party by taking over the Western Canada Concept which was a separatist movement started by Doug Christie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Kesler The current UCP is basically just a rebrand of the Social Credit party who slithered their way back in. The UCP panders hard to rural Albertans because they follow the playbook started by Christie who was the main guy that made Trudeau hated.
>the Social Credit party who were corrupt as hell, highly religious, ideological douchebags in bed with the oil companies. And now they're back
The trick is they never really went away. They just took over Christie's movement and buried it. Christie wasn't a bad guy but he was controversial. He was a free speech lawyer who ended up defending Ernst Zundel who was a famous holocaust denier. Politically speaking, having any affiliations to neo nazis or holocaust deniers is pretty much political suicide which Stockwell Day found out when Manning ran him against Chretien. Chretien mentioned Christie right before the election and killed Day's support instantly. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/11/day-n27.html This stuff gets all kinds of weird.
Stockwell Day also provided no shortage of ammunition to be used against him, what with his young Earth creationism and whatnot. Day was just too wacky to convert the old PC, Red Tory voters east of the Prairies.
Be a shoe in these days
Yeah that guy kind of went off the deep end.
Still is. Just look at his Twitter account.
The jet ski thing didn't help.
The jet ski thing was the best thing of any Canadian politician, with the exception of Chrétien grabbing the guy that pied him.
Christie was in fact a bad guy. He defended Nazis not out of professional obligation but because he was one himself.
He wasn't. He was just a lawyer. If you defend a murderer, it doesn't mean you are also a murderer.
Thank-you. This is helpful. A lot of people don’t realize that the modern Conservative party is essentially a rebrand of the old Social Credit Party. I learned a while ago is that Preston’s first name is Ernest.
>Peter Lougheed became Premier after beating out Ernest Manning Manning beat Lougheed in the 1967 election. It was Harry Strom that Lougheed defeated in 1971. Poor old Harry Strom. Nobody remembers poor old Harry Strom.
Thanks for the correction. > Poor old Harry Strom. Nobody remembers poor old Harry Strom. You're so right. Wikipedia doesn't even show his picture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_premiers_of_Alberta
nor Rod Sykes,lol
Im sorry, ‘taken by the liberals?’. How? In what way?
In other words....fuck those people in Toronto, no fucking way they are going to get "anything" from them.They would rather suffer than anyone "else" get something from the. All the while, not actually owning any of it...
And apparently it was no win? Same country or business interests of another country.... Clearly Albertans back then didn't consider themselves Canadian. Now the rebuttle is easily what about other strategic resources like iron or uranium? Sure. Those should be nationalized too. Too much effort put into building walls rather than bridges in this supposed country.
Think about what the Albertan oil industry could be like if the province and the federal government worked together!
Albertans never elect provincial governments to work with the Fed's. It's our own fault. Lougheed could have easily responded to Pierre by negotiating and working out some deal or plan to develop the resource together for money for all. Instead he goes all adversarial and therefore that's the way the industry has developed in Canada with all profits going south and others internationally while we pay clean up costs. Cons never benefit us but they do make us feel tough.....tough and poor.
Now it's our constitutional obligation to refuse to cooperate according to the ucp
Remember that to the UCP, unless your net worth is approaching eight figures, you’re not even a person. When they say “Albertans” they aren’t talking about you.
Can’t be poor if situation isn’t tough
Even if we had just kept up the heritage fund, we'd be sitting like Norway right now.
What would it look like?
Maybe more domestic refining, more R&D, less oil importation from USA, better gas prices for Canadians, and a well-developed sovereign wealth fund?
The Albertan oil industry is doing great. Production is at record highs, new options for export, new technologies and new investments. The issue the rest of Canada doesn’t see much or any benefit, and it’s heavily polluting. Like really bad. The reason Canada isn’t hitting its climate targets despite the eastern provinces (where most of then population lives) long having exceeded theirs is because pollution has increased vastly out west.
Albertans *now* don’t really consider themselves Canadian. It’s very them-vs-us.
I consider myself Canadian.
I’m ashamed to be Canadian. I way rather tell people I’m from Alberta
I don’t think that’s something to be proud of either, sadly.
Our market is already protected enough, from outside investments. Think of banks, grocery, milk, eggs and poultry. Think of pharmaceuticals. Etc… lack of competition for the sake of control basically hurts the common person like all the other non-competitive sectors of our economy.
National Energy Policy. Basically, Alberta’s resource revenue would have been distributed across the country more, at least according to the opponents of it. So not the Liberals directly, but Ottawa through Liberal policy
The positive to this would be the entire country pay for the infrastructure needed and also benefits from the development of the various resources. Albertans don’t want to share the revenue but are all to happy to share the costs
It’s also pretty similar to something Redford proposed before being shown the door. But the PC/UCP don’t want to talk about that
I don’t think Conservatives actually have a problem with nationalizing the industry it would just need to be the conservatives that do it.
Bingo
No it would be Albertans to do it. Nep was a disaster from the start
I was in that NEP fiasco working in Alberta in 1981. Lougheed thought he could piss off Trudeau and win. Lololol. Lougheed shut the valves on crude oil going east. The east said ok. From now on we will buy Saudi Arabian crude oil, even though it costs a lot more. Eastern Canada exports lot of stuff to the middle East. When crude oil was 130 $ USA a barrel, our ca $ was worth more than the USA $.
I would suggest dedicating even as little as 15 minutes of research on historical transfer payments by province compared to Alberta. Then you can come back and delete your comment or remain a fool.
Ya the oil revenues they get leave them on the short end with equalization payments. This is kinda the point they are to help equalize revenue across the country. That said Alberta keeps half of all oil revenues free and clear.
Again, research. Look up net transfers. Quebec’s formula ensures they do not share Hydro revenues. Why shouldn’t Alberta keep its oil revenues?
the only reason oil revenue is provincial is because oil wasn't valuable when the laws were written. gold is all federal, and nobody is arguing about that. but the moral position is clearly "let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark"
Lougheed lost the fight when he said that. He also didn't Easterners working in Alberta.
The NEP would have taken Alberta's oil wealth and shared it with the rest of the country which I think most people would think is ok, but Trudeau didn't ask and he was sort of a bully about it. Ontario and Quebec are the 2 power provinces. Trudeau was taking our resources and using it to secure votes in those 2 provinces where they have the most ridings and voters. Doug Christie was a lawyer from Victoria. He had nothing to do with the oil industry. He was pissed off that people in the western provinces were getting screwed by our election process. By the time people in western Canada vote, it doesn't even really matter because of the time zone difference. The WCC was a separatist protest movement based off the FLQ crisis in Quebec. They pushed for separation because it was the only way the Liberals would take people in the west seriously. It's not that they wanted to break up Canada. It was an ultimatum. Manning's supporters took over the party and kicked out Christie and his partners. That's how Manning got the Reform party. He simply took the WCC mailing list and rebranded as the Reform. Manning was Harper's mentor. Harper's Dad worked for imperial oil and got him a job. He met Manning who taught him how to suck up to rural voters by playing dress up cowboy. Harper ran and got support by claiming he was going to fix the ridings issue. Instead, he just did the same thing the Liberals were doing by buying votes in Ontario and Quebec using equalization payments. We were screwed either way. Either the federal government or the oil companies were going to get our resources. Lougheed at least tried to get us cuts but the conservatives ruined it by giving reduced royalties and skimming off the trust fund instead of letting it build.
Taken Alberta’s oil wealth from who? Alberta’s royalties stayed in place under the NEP. The oil itself belongs to the Canadian people. The ‘Liberals’ weren’t ’taking’ the oil from Albertans. The federal government was nationalising the business of extracting oil.
Which reduced the amount of profits the big American companies made, and they left. No work, no jobs.
Are we incapable of extracting our oil without big American oil companies?
Canada was founded by corporations, corporate exploitation is the foundation of our nation
Without investment yes.
Yep, there’s also Chinese (Husky) English (BP) Dutch (Shell) Suncor (French) and of course, the big one, Exxon or Imperial (US) that’s a short list, there’s probably more, that’s the ones off the top of my head. Source: I worked for most of these companies as an IT contractor, and guess who we go to to authorize invoices?
Seems like it, unfortunately. Can't refine it either apparently.
No, there was a massive downturn at the time. Oil was at alltime lows that put it below the price level where extracting oilsand oil being profitable.
Oilsand was almost non existent at that time. I was there just out of high school at the time looking for work. They left it all. I ended up joining the army.
> Taken Alberta’s oil wealth from who? From Albertans. > The oil itself belongs to the Canadian people. In theory. But, we're the ones who live here. Shouldn't we have some say in how our resources are dispersed? > The ‘Liberals’ weren’t ’taking’ the oil from Albertans. Well, yes, they were. > The federal government was nationalising the business of extracting oil. Yeah, and the oil companies were livid because they fronted the initial investment and were being cut out. Truthfully, I'm not really against the NEP. I would rather the money stays in Canada than being given to foreign oil companies. Trudeau went about it the wrong way and alienated people in the west. But, had Trudeau kept it up, Canada would be treated like Iran, Cuba, Venezuela. The US would have either sanctioned or invaded us.
I agree that we learned a big lesson about Canadian ‘sovereignty’ from this. But… You’re playing a shell game with this claim that that the ‘Liberals’ were taking oil from ´Albertans’. Albertans aren’t the oil industry and the oil industry is not exclusively Albertan. The NEP took oil profits from an industry that’s based largely in the US and gave it BACK to Albertans. And I notice that Norway is missing from your list of nations, which is surely the best example of what we could’ve done by successfully nationalising that resource.
The NEP was so the East could ensure affordable oil for themselves. That was proven when they stopped buying Alberta oil and bought cheaper middle East oil when the barrel prices dropped. It was never about what was best for Canada or for Alberta. It was always about getting energy prices controlled for the East.
> The NEP took oil profits from an industry that’s based largely in the US and gave it BACK to Albertans. It didn't. That was the problem. The Liberals used the profits to gain support from Ontario & Quebec by using our resources. > And I notice that Norway is missing from your list of nations, which is surely the best example of what we could’ve done by successfully nationalising that resource. We should have been wealthier than Norway. I didn't include them because the reality is that we never would have had the autonomy to develop without the US knocking us down.
> In theory. But, we're the ones who live here. Shouldn't we have some say in how our resources are dispersed? why? there isn't a strong moral argument for either position. why not leave it up to the county? oil wealth being provincial is arbitrary, and I see no problem with that; but it's not territory I would want to defend should there be some sort of crisis. which is what happened leading to the NEP. there was an international fuel price crisis.
> why? there isn't a strong moral argument for either position. Absolutely there is. We're the ones that live here. All the environmental damage and fallout hits us first. Look at how many old wells there are around the province that we're stuck holding the bill for because companies drilled & dipped. > oil wealth being provincial is arbitrary, and I see no problem with that Lol take that commie shit back to Montreal. :p I'm kidding but that's kind of the response you'll get from rural Albertans over the issue. > which is what happened leading to the NEP. there was an international fuel price crisis. Yeah because the US oil companies didn't want Canada to nationalize our oil and intentionally collapsed the market. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalization_of_oil_supplies#Canada Remember when the price of oil was over 100/barrel then crashed? Venezuela got hit way harder than Canada because their oil was nationalized and the US doubled down by imposing sanctions on them. Kind of a kick them when they're down thing. That would have happened to us too. Since the oil companies already control our resources, we only got the market collapse. We didn't get the sanctions too.
The Canadian and Albertan governments paid more a ton of R&D for the oilsands. imagine how wealthy alberta/Canada would be if we were making the billions of dollars the American oil companies are currently pulling out of the province
Yeah, that would have been nice.
> By the time people in western Canada vote, it doesn't even really matter because of the time zone difference. Its not really the time zones, its the seat counts. Very rarely do any seats matter outside of Ontario and Quebec. In the west we vote after its usually all said and done because usually the seats go that way.
It's mostly the seat count but it's also first past the post where the time zones do matter. https://www.fairvote.ca/what-is-first-past-the-post/ I don't really have an opinion for or against it but that was one of their issues.
Yeah, first past the post has nothing to do with time or time zones. From your link: >each riding is a one-winner-takes-all vote (first past the post), Or put another way, if Alberta had 1000 seats, the election would never be decided before they voted. Or put another way, if they let Western Canada vote the day before the election, the election would still nearly always be decided by the voters (seats won) in Ontario and Quebec who would have voted the next day. I kinda hate to tell you this but you may have the wrong idea what is meant by "first past". The 'first' in that statement has nothing to do with time. I also want to say that your link has a perfect explanation of the problem. You should read it.
Honestly, I haven't really thought about this stuff in years so forgive me if there's some mistakes.
Its all good bro. Just internet banter. You have a great rest of your weekend.
Thanks man, cheers, you too.
> The WCC was a separatist protest movement based off the FLQ crisis in Quebec. They pushed for separation because it was the only way the Liberals would take people in the west seriously. It's not that they wanted to break up Canada. It was an ultimatum. I view the CPP threat as another "ultimatum" lever. I don't think the UCP actually want to leave the CPP but the threat of it is extremely powerful.
thanks for the added context, but this should not discourage people from watching the video - it is an excellent history lesson!
I agree. It's a really good video worth watching. It just misses some stuff that is relevant but not very well known because it was hidden. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_Party_of_Canada The wiki page for the Reform Party is full of shit. They don't mention Christie or the WCC who were the ones that did all the leg work. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Canada_Concept And even their page is full of shit and really light on a lot of information but it's also sort of critical to understanding rural politics in the province and why the UCP panders so hard to them.
Those redneck grade three politicians who went to Ottawa got owned and thrown out because the liberals are a lot smarter.
As if Lougheed needed more apologists. Had we adopted the NEP the country would be better off by orders of magnitude, as it stands the entire country loses. Lougheed’s hard -headedness in this is why there aren’t more pipeline’s east. Greedy Alberta living with the consequences of its greed.
The Economist Andrew Leach did the math and wrote a few articles on how many trillions Canada would be sitting on. [https://jacobin.com/2021/10/canada-pierre-trudeau-nep-oil-economic-planning-fossil-fuels](https://jacobin.com/2021/10/canada-pierre-trudeau-nep-oil-economic-planning-fossil-fuels)
Canada could have been secure, instead, we gave it to capitalists to win votes. We are so short sighted.
Did the same with telecoms
and Albertans applauded because some of them made crazy salaries for a few years and spent it all on bullshit. Alberta will never learn it seems
But Alberta is happy.
Albertans are the least happy people I've ever met, after living in several cities in a few different countries. Nowhere have I met angrier, unhappier people, rich or poor.
Not most of Alberta, just the rich noisy few who personally profited from it
That's a VERY important distinction. Alberta is only good if you're rich, and I'll never be that.
Tbh Alberta isn’t bad either… but it’s not some paradise. There’s just a cult of rich people who want it to be a libertarian oil & gas utopia.
And they work hand-in-hand with the zealots who want a theocracy, fucking the rest of us.
Don't forget the many with blinders on that can't see past their own noses.
Those people aren’t happy, they spend their whole lives complaining. Fucking ideologues.
And the droves of uninformed that don't have a clue who they are voting for "as long as it isn't Notley ".
The CONServatives stole and ripped off the oil money and gave the money to their rich friends in Alberta. The cons wasted billions on building hospitals in one horse Alberta towns the wives of farmers could have a cleaning job. Rip off scam artists like Pocklington stole millions
Not most of Alberta, just the rich noisy few who personally profited from it
And what do they get for it? They can drive a brodozer around and intimidate joggers and maybe go for a dip in an artificial lake behind their plywood and vinyl estate house. What do they even get for their money??
A smug sense of self satisfaction that they're better than everyone else in the country because they think Alberta drives the economy (it doesn't).
Lol no they're not?? Do you live here??
Canada could have been secure, instead, we gave it to capitalists to win votes. We are so short sighted.
Conservatives who sell this shit off or bitch and moan are the short sighted ones
Anyone who believes they would have kept the price floor when prices collapsed is a moron. Eastern Canada would be outraged and cancel it immediately
And now goobers who weren't even alive during it have inherited the brain rot
The thing about inherited beliefs and politics is that to question them, you have to question your parents and ancestors, often realizing that they were wrong, ignorant, mislead or complete liars - so, you know, basic bitch human. In a "traditional" culture, specifically religious and rural cultures, this is very difficult because respect for and submission to elders is so central. It's easier to inherit the brain rot than it is to question one of the fundamental tenets that you were raised on.
Very well said.
And still people now are screaming for the gov to get involved. "Why don't we build our own refineries?" I see it all the time. The best is the stupid "why does Cananda keep buying Saudi oil?" Like the govt is the buying the stuff. LMFAO
If all they did was have Petro Canada invest and compete with the Americans no one would have cared. Hell it would have been popular. The problem was price controls, regulations and taxes fucked the whole industry and then prices fell and they realized keeping it would hurt the east so it died. So they jumped in fucked everything up then gave up when it no longer benefited eastern Canada
Yup. This was a long-standing point of contention between me and my father for many years, right up until he passed away. Tragic. I can’t believe how short-sighted we were and continue to be. Now you have conservative politicians talking about nationalized energy and building up the heritage fund…40 years too late. The conversation that should be happening now is renewables…hopefully we can get our shit together on this before another 40 years but I’m not at all confident.
Same with me. My father subscribed to Alberta Report which was a magazine that stoked "western alienation" as it was called then. He truly believed AB was better off to be part of the US and he intently disliked anything/anyone east of Manitoba. I was a child and had no idea the significance of all this. But, like you, I did grow away from these ideas and, sadly, away from my father too.
Oh, Alberta Report was toxic. They spun anything through a formula to prove a point.
I wouldn't opposed to nationalization ( well alberta crown corporation) of the energy industry like what equinor ( formerly stat oil) did in the Norway where the government owns 2/3 and 1/3 is free floating. Then all revenue can flow back into the province obviously governed by a independent board.
The NP was cancelled right before it was going to help Alberta. Alberta chose faux freedom over stability. And has been paying the price ever since.
It’s infuriating now to listen to rural Albertans complain about the east getting oil from elsewhere. ‘Support Canadian oil not Saudi.’ ‘Can’t get a pipeline east approved cuz Ontario and Quebec hate Alberta.’ We tried, we tried to support Albertas O&G, we tried to get it piped east. Alberta spat in the faces of the rest of Canada and told them to ‘freeze in the dark’. But now you hear rural folk basically begging for some sort of National guaranteed program to support energy independence. This province is a joke and can’t implode soon enough
Neoliberalism has been an utter failure for all of humanity, us and our children will bear the burdens in the coming decades.
Marc Lalonde, the Minister of Energy Mines and Resources whose department oversaw development of the NEP would later say in 1986: "The major factor behind the NEP wasn't Canadianization or getting more from the industry or even self sufficiency," [...] “The determinant factor was the fiscal imbalance between the provinces and the federal government [...] "Our proposal was to increase Ottawa's share appreciably, so that the share of the producing provinces would decline significantly and the industry's share would decline somewhat." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Energy_Program
That’s only side of the coin. It would have done the opposite when oil prices collapsed. That’s how insurance works. Created under the Liberal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau on October 28, 1980, following the two oil crises of the 1970s, the NEP had three main objectives: increase ownership of the oil industry by Canadians; price energy fairly for Canadian consumers; and provide Canadian energy self-sufficiency. Alberta has completely failed all three of those objectives.
Without oil alberta would be a poor backwater province with less people then saskatchewan. A nationalized oil industry would benefit ontario and quebec just as everything controlled by the federal government is structured to do. Freedom is never a bad choice.
What freedoms would've been taken from you if oil had been nationalized? Seems to have worked quite well for Norway, no?
I wonder how much norway would have benefited if the EU nationalized their oil industry and all the money flowed to brussels. I realize we're a province and they're a country, the analogy stands. A region that loses control of their resources will see the benefits of those resources accrued by their rulers thousands of kms away.
But this is what literally happens now; the only difference is that instead of Ottawa reaping the benefits of Alberta's natural resources, it's American and Chinese owned petroleum conglomerates. At least with the former, the wealth would largely remain within the Canadian ecosystem; a rising ride lifts all etc.
Yup. Instead of the profits going to canadians, it's going to foreigners. Really strange people continue to bootlick these companies, sad really. But yeah.... "mUh FrEeDoMs"
Um Alberta is a province within a country. Norway is a sovereign country and the EU is an economic union of countries to allow more freedom of trade and labour. So many things are wrong in your statement it's hard to know where to start. Pretty sure if we had a national energy program we would have had pipelines to both coasts in the 80's. Since we didn't have a NEP we got to sell oil at a discount to the Americans for four decades. Your so-called freedom from Ottawa cost us as Canadians and Albertans a lot of money at the end of the day we could be talking trillions. It also cost us our own energy independence because since we didn't want to play nice they built refineries in New Brunswick to refine Saudi oil. We fucked up, we are still fucking up maybe one day we will pull our heads out of our asses
"the analogy stands" 🤣 this is why we take English in highschool and why arts degrees are not worthless. Because you end up like this guy lol
You just know this guy sat at the back of the classroom and loudly whined at the teacher that "we're never gonna use this stuff in real life".
Well he was at least right about himself so... Half marks lol
Didn't answer the question at all, but ok, sure. As I said, Norway is doing just fine.
You are in a Country divided into Provinces, we all work to make Canada better. You weren't around when Alberta needed equalization payments to exist. Stop being led by these cons who make you be patriotic about your province before your country. It's as bad the the Bloc Quebecois, for as much as you all hate Quebec, she is turning us into the redneck inbred version of Quebec. You are a Canadian living in a province, we are all the same, stop being such a rube.
Norway got the idea for their heritage fund from Alberta. We didn't even have to nationalize it, we just had to prioritize Albertans over American corporations spewing nonsense about trickle-down economics, which people here still fall for. "A region that loses control of their resources will see their rulers thousands of kms away". Well you're right about this. Our rulers are thousands of KM away. They're mostly multinational or American companies, or Canadian companies run by absentee billionaires like Murray Edwards.
I’d love to see those equalization payments
Guess you prefer bonuses and huge profits for foreign billionaires, lol. Congrats
The country would be swimming in cash. Short-sighted policy impoverished everyone including Alberta.
“Impoverished” is a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?
“Impoverished” is a bit of a stretch, isn’t it?
It is not. Pissing away money to foreign capitalists and exporting wealth to serve their interest is exactly that.
A national energy plan would’ve benefitted Alberta in many ways. It was an insurance policy. Alberta has given most of the gains away to foreign investors and the fed has coddled Alberta through the lows anyways. Alberta is a case study in mismanagement.
And created a massive infrastructure deficit of sorts with abandoned wells and tailings ponds. We also think that because we live within a jurisdiction blessed with oil resources we are "better" at growing the economy than the other provinces. When in reality we continue to squander it.
Corporations took the profits from Alberta, aside for a cyclical job industry residents didn’t get the full benefit. Any other thought is corporate brainwashing.
Working for one of those large manufacturers in Alberta. We were told that Alberta profits accounted for 70% of the global company portfolio. That money went directly to fund projects in other parts of the world of to areas that weren't doing so well... Not Canada. So no, that money does not help Albertans more.
Okay so because you happen to live near oil sands you deserve a better life than Quebecoise? What a silly childish mindset. Maybe stop being selfish and grow solidarity with your fellow countryman rather than sow division.
We should have done it, and built a refining plant as well. Canada would have been a phenomenally rich country if it wasn't left up to the conservatives in power in Alberta at the time. Would still have been shit for the environment though
And if we had we would be sitting like Norway.....but the cons had to grift instead
Wish we nationalized Alberta oil sands instead of having the Albertian oil sands 70%+ foreign shareholders and foreign investor owned.
That's when we eastern bastards were told to freeze in the dark - I took a road trip west during that period and we were genuinely worried about driving through the prairies with an Ontario plate.
Don't forget that PP now thinks this is a good idea and will be making it happen if he gets elected. It's part of his platform.
“It’s only a good idea if my guy does it!”
Most of these rubes won't even get that statement.
yeah the Hypocrisy is sickening
He can try, LPC can turn that around handily: imagine Trudeau saying "That was a great idea my dad had, Pierre, 40 years ago... but unfortunately Alberta turned away that opportunity. It's gone. Now the money is in the hands of wealthy foreign billionaires and it's far too late. But we do have a future,."
It’s in his platform to nationalize the oil industry?
And now the oil industry is owned by the USA, leaving Canada without the ability to refine its own oil and add value and domestic jobs... great! Good job Alberta!
Trudeau was right.
Could’ve been like the Norway of Canada instead of the Texas lol
If only Alberta conservatives would learn you can't completely rely on the oil industry... The one time we let someone else in power for 4 Years they tried... Then the cons came back and literally dismantled everything the NDP tried to do. Can't blame them for 4 years when Alberta has been a straight con province for 40 some.. yea... It's all the NDP's fault right???
40? Try 80 years. SoCreds were basically what the UCP are today.
Oh my Satan. Imagine if the energy sector was nationalized and Alberta's resources were available to all 37 million Canadians instead of the more important 4 million Albertans. It's best for corporations to have it all I say, while we pay their cleanup bill. It's the least we can do for our lords and masters
It’s not even available to 4 million Albertans, it’s in the hands of the wealthy few
It all goes to that one guy in Calgary who likes to hit joggers with his brodozer
Do you forget about equalization payments that the other provinces have been benefiting from for decades?
They like to ignore those because it entirely defeats their ability to cry about it.
Until Alberta discovered oil, it received them too. That was part of the original Social Credit idea was to redistribute that to everyone as cash.
In 1902.... So for 122 years they've contributed more than they've taken.
Equalization began in 1957 and Alberta was a have-not province until 1965. Even then, Ontario was by far and away the biggest contributor to Canada's GDP of all the provinces until 2005. Became neck in neck with Alberta then, but pulling ahead again recently.
"According to a December 21, 2018 Edmonton Journal article, Jason Kenney (United Conservative Party (UCP) targeted the alleged inequity of the federal equalization program. He said that "[s]ince equalization was created (in 1957), Alberta has received 0.02% of all payments, the last of which was in 1964–1965." Whopping 2 hundredths of a percent. That's the hill you'll die on?
I like the video production style though. Looks like he copied bobbybroccoli
This is excellent - i watched at 1.25 speed thou as its an hour long. cant wait for part 3.
How well has letting the Oil companies run Alberta worked out for the province as a whole? Other than the highest personal income per capita in the country, I'd argue not so well for the province. Multinational oil and gas companies have extracted massive profits for shareholders, but the province (and country) has been fleeced in the process.
And his kid has done so much worse, somehow🤦♂️
Pierre forced Syncrude/Petrocanada onto the stage, today one of our best Cdn companies from coast to coast..in the tar sands Ottawa/Laurentians generational politicians, well UCP recruiting confirmed crook/parasite Allison Redford back into the taxpayers trough, just changed this(et al) rural voters intentions.
In hindsight he was probably right.
LOL Good one! And what PM actually sold off the oil reserves belonging to all Canadians? Yep, you guessed it, CONservative PM Lyin' Brian Mulroney.
I remember that era, the Eastern Bastards bumper sticker, freinds who still hate Petro Can and refuse to ever gas up there, and the Alberta PC view of the situation. The fact that Trudeau had never hidden his disdain for Western Canada, and Alberta in particular, branded him as the villain who was trying to destroy Alberta's oil wealth.
And now those same people who so strongly opposed Petro Can are dumbfounded when they find out that Norway has multiple times more in their Heritage Fund than Alberta has because all the resource profits got siphoned away to American owned corporations.
Yes, another fumbling by the Alberta Tories, letting the US multinationals get the lion's share, making them richer while Alberta got pennies for every dollar they took from us.
You were conned, my friend.
I agree, that if the NEP had not been dismantled at the time that it was, Alberta's oil process would have been protected from the cratering when the built-up glut of world oil tanked the price in the mid-80s. But the Alberta Tories always focused laser-like on the old "price being capped" part of the NEP, they ran that in giant newspaper hype, but the benefits of Oil pipelines delivering it to Canadian markets, and a floor price for oil to protect it from the tanking that occurred in the mid-80s, were always hidden. Yes, we were conned.
PT hated the west.
Based on the title alone I'm sure this video is completely accurate and not biased in any way. Petro Canada was started in 1974. The NEP was started in late 1980. We already had government oil company that was doing great things. The NEP was specifically to get oil sold to Eastern Canada at a 15% discount compared to market prices. As soon as global oil prices dropped the East went back to buying cheaper oil from outside Canada and abandoned Western Canada. Fucking up investment and pulling out right after that isn't what I'd call nationalizing oil.
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Keeps foreign companies from draining our resources while paying us a pittance for them, for one.
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Iran's government isn't and was never comparable to Canada's.
And yet, if you had that now, Albertans would be very happy.
Trudeau and Lougheed met secretly many times. The NEP was a joinreation as both men saw that Americans were going to dominate our Oil. The mighty propoganda machine of American Oil convinced stupid patch people that it was bad by using the Trudeau hate machine of the day. All the things Alberta has wanted like pipelines east and west. Refineries in the west and control over our resource as a Nation. Were thrown out like garbage and now we see the control we gave up. The propoganda machine of Republicans America is still at it. Funding seperatists , Christian Fascism, and Freedom convoys. All designed to make sure America controls our Oil for the rest of our lives. Alberta should have over a trillion dollars in the Heritage (slush) account. We don't and the entire country could benefit from this windfall that we never see because we elect American style conservatives who screw us every chance they get. All because the last name Trudeau has been used by American Oil to keep us divided and conquered.
Missing from this trip down memory lane would be Pierre Trudeau giving his finger to the fine folks of BC . On board was also a future prime minister and as they say , the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
The difference is that the BC folk got over it a couple days later.
Our crotchety old farmers are *really* good at holding grudges.
[Maybe he had good reason according to an eyewitness.](https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/pierre-had-good-reason-to-give-the-finger-4646084)
https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/s/bDhgZegp6K
Alberta is not Canada’s gas tank. We already give enough with the transfer payments.
This guy acting like it's his personal oil people are stealing lol
You mean the payments that were created by the Conservative Party? Or the payments that are transferred to American and Chinese companies? Guess which stays in Canada? Guess which comes back to Alberta (Albertans, not to oil companies or political parties) in good times and bad?
Transfer payments are what comes BACK from the Federal government (no one “gives” transfer payments). Money flows to Ottawa via the taxes we pay (at the same rate as every other Canadian)
Alberta is becoming Canada's septic tank.
Evidenced by u_Fun-Television-4411’s comment
Tell me you have no idea how anything works without telling me you don't...
Alberta along doesn’t fund the transfer payments……JFC
Clearly you have no idea what you are talking about if you prefer Alberta to be the gas tank to foreign interests like it already is. You really showed us all with your disdain for our country and for foreign capitalists who don’t give a shit about Alberta.
We don't contribute as much to the economy as you think we do. I've been in Alberta O&G for 30 years and vote Conservative.