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The Alberta NDP Thread

185K views 4K replies 27 participants last post by  FeXL 
#1 ·
Thought I'd put up a thread to keep track of the pinko commie bastards. ;) (For easy access & future referral...)

Oh, look who Rachel hired to be Chief of Staff for our Energy Minister!

Ezra Levant: Meet Alberta’s new colonial chiefs

A Toronto anti-oilsands activist – still registered as an anti-oil lobbyist – is now running Alberta’s energy department.
What could possibly go wrong?

Not only that, but:

There are twelve ministers in the Alberta cabinet, including Notley herself, each with a chief of staff. And ten of those chiefs are, like Mitchell, NDP activists from other provinces, many of whom will commute each week to Alberta from Vancouver, Toronto, or elsewhere.
M'bold.

Nice. First off, any guesses who foots the travel bill?

Second:

There is something weirdly colonial about non-residents being sent in to run a province to which they have few or no ties. It feels as if the NDP believes Alberta lacks people with talent and judgment to govern themselves. It feels nepotistic – highly paid consolation prizes for failed NDP activists from other campaigns.

Like Nathan Rotman. He worked on Olivia Chow’s unsuccessful campaign for Toronto mayor. Now he’s the chief of staff to Alberta’s Finance Minister.

Was there no-one in Alberta with any financial background? No socially conscious businessman, or even an NDP-friendly professor or think tank economist? Four million Albertans, but not one who understands Alberta’s fiscal situation better than an Olivia Chow door-knocker?
M'bold.

Yep...

Further:

Wildrose charges NDP energy minister's top staffer was anti-pipeline lobbyist

The Wildrose Party says it’s a troubling sign that the NDP energy minister’s top staffer was registered as a federal lobbyist for an organization opposed to pipeline projects proposed to ship Alberta oilsands crude.
 
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#540 ·
Because the previous plan worked SO well. Please, Lord, send me another oil boom and I PROMISE I won't squander it like the PC's did last time.


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#545 ·
#546 ·
#547 ·
#548 ·
Did you notice, like I did, that the author of that piece wrote it in the first person but didn't have the courage to sign his or her name to the opinion. And that is all it is, one person's opinion. Further when it is published in The Journal by an unidentified person, it is the lowest form of journalism and without credibility.
 
#549 ·
I believe the term "Yellow Journalism" defines it quite well.

The whole story is typical progressive bull$h!t. Blame preceding governments for today's issues, even though they haven't been in power for years. Ralph hasn't been Premier since 2006 yet the current state of the economy is somehow all his fault? Sounds like the same rallying cry one hears from the States: "But, but, but... BUSH!!!", despite the fact that no Bush has been in power for more than 8 years now.

What a crock.

The paragraph that stuck out for me was this little gem:

Remember those heady days when Ralph Klein was crowing about slaying the debt? At what cost, fellow Albertans? Did amnesia arrive along with the flu this fall? It was at the cost of schools, health care, infrastructure maintenance and construction, and services to the most vulnerable — children, the sick, the elderly, the disabled and the poor.
M'bold & the part I'm going to address.

On Alberta education ("schools"):

British Columbia, Ontario, and Alberta are the top performers among all the provinces
Well, so much for the damage done to Alberta schools.

On health care (from 2014):

With new figures that show Alberta still spending nearly 20 per cent more than the national average on health care...
Contrary to what the anonymous author noted, health care spending was not the issue. Efficiency? Absolutely! Shortage of money? Not a chance. And, if Rachel figgers that throwing more money at the same problem without making any changes will make the problem go away, she's just as clueless as her 3 priors...

So much for the shortage of health care spending myth.

On infrastructure. When I hear the word infrastructure, I think of things like roads & highways, schools, hospitals.

I drive & ride a lot, all over southern BC, southern & central Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, northern Washington, northern Idaho & all over Montana. None of those areas has roads as nice as Alberta's. Period. I don't know about the respective spending, I don't care. The proof is in the pudding.

As to construction & maintenance of schools, I'll go by what I see locally. Photographing sporting events & chasing my littluns all over southern Alberta, there are few schools which have not received massive recent (< 12 years old) upgrades. Any who have not yet received upgrades have been scheduled to do so or are in the middle of them. There have also been a number of new schools built in the area.

As to construction of hospitals, there is currently a massive addition to the Lethbridge Regional underway & a new hospital was recently built in SE Calgary. Now, while I don't like the fact that most local municipalities lost their hospitals, in the face of that, newer, bigger, better centralized facilities is the next best thing & obviously it is happening.

So much for Alberta's infrastructure collapsing.

That debunks the first 3 of the 4 points the author utilizes as examples. As to the last, the author does not detail what "services" they are specifically talking about but merely use the phrase as a talking point (Oh, think of the children...). As such, I'll leave the point lost in it's ambiguity.

The author is all over the map with blame, as well. It's all Klein's fault, yet they talk about:

We, the Albertans of today, are the future generations for the folks who lived here in, say, the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. When was the last time anyone grumbled about the fiscal state the Albertans of those times left us? Who’s even aware of what those long-ago governments presented in their budgets?
Funny, if memory serves, those were the years of Social Credit domination in Alberta. Is that somehow Klein's fault, too?

A final point: Curious thing about Klein, he was able to balance the budget on $35/barrel oil, too...
 
#551 ·
I believe the term "Yellow Journalism" defines it quite well.



The whole story is typical progressive bull$h!t. Blame preceding governments for today's issues, even though they haven't been in power for years. Ralph hasn't been Premier since 2006 yet the current state of the economy is somehow all his fault? Sounds like the same rallying cry one hears from the States: "But, but, but... BUSH!!!", despite the fact that no Bush has been in power for more than 8 years now.



What a crock.



The paragraph that stuck out for me was this little gem:







M'bold & the part I'm going to address.



On Alberta education ("schools"):







Well, so much for the damage done to Alberta schools.



On health care (from 2014):







Contrary to what the anonymous author noted, health care spending was not the issue. Efficiency? Absolutely! Shortage of money? Not a chance. And, if Rachel figgers that throwing more money at the same problem without making any changes will make the problem go away, she's just as clueless as her 3 priors...



So much for the shortage of health care spending myth.



On infrastructure. When I hear the word infrastructure, I think of things like roads & highways, schools, hospitals.



I drive & ride a lot, all over southern BC, southern & central Alberta, southern Saskatchewan, northern Washington, northern Idaho & all over Montana. None of those areas has roads as nice as Alberta's. Period. I don't know about the respective spending, I don't care. The proof is in the pudding.



As to construction & maintenance of schools, I'll go by what I see locally. Photographing sporting events & chasing my littluns all over southern Alberta, there are few schools which have not received massive recent (< 12 years old) upgrades. Any who have not yet received upgrades have been scheduled to do so or are in the middle of them. There have also been a number of new schools built in the area.



As to construction of hospitals, there is currently a massive addition to the Lethbridge Regional underway & a new hospital was recently built in SE Calgary. Now, while I don't like the fact that most local municipalities lost their hospitals, in the face of that, newer, bigger, better centralized facilities is the next best thing & obviously it is happening.



So much for Alberta's infrastructure collapsing.



That debunks the first 3 of the 4 points the author utilizes as examples. As to the last, the author does not detail what "services" they are specifically talking about but merely use the phrase as a talking point (Oh, think of the children...). As such, I'll leave the point lost in it's ambiguity.



The author is all over the map with blame, as well. It's all Klein's fault, yet they talk about:







Funny, if memory serves, those were the years of Social Credit domination in Alberta. Is that somehow Klein's fault, too?



A final point: Curious thing about Klein, he was able to balance the budget on $35/barrel oil, too...

Well, I'll give you credit for being thorough, even if I don't agree with some of your premises.


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#562 ·
An interesting article on the challenge of nailing down job numbers in Alberta:

StatsCans job numbers a puzzle to sort out

Today is Jobs Friday, usually a pretty good day for economists and financial reporters alike.

The monthly release of the Labour Force Survey from Statistics Canada probably gets more attention than any other of the agency's reports.

It sets the unemployment rate nationally and for each province and city, something that can then affect public policy, like employment insurance payments. It also tells us how many jobs were created across the country.

But over the past 10 months, something odd has been happening with the numbers in Alberta. The monthly survey showed the market holding up pretty well, with virtually no net job losses.

On the ground in Alberta, that seemed impossible. The province is in recession and job cuts are regularly announced in the oilpatch. Everyone seems to know someone who has lost a job. The energy sector estimates that 35,000 positions have been cut.

There's been a lot of head scratching. Are people losing energy jobs and going to retail? Are they moving to another province? Pivoting to self-employment?

Here's where it gets interesting, though. There's the other employment report, called the SEPH, the Survey of Payroll Employment and Hours. It also comes out monthly, but to little fanfare because of the time lag, two months behind the Labour Force Survey.

However, in August, the SEPH showed that there had been 53,000 jobs lost in Alberta in the past year. The August Labour Force Survey showed that 41,000 jobs had been created over the same period.

That's a difference of 94,000 jobs. So what's going on? Which report is right?​

(CBC)
 
#563 ·
The jobs primarily disappear from exploration, but are maintained in production. Petrochemical jobs actually expand during a low price phase, simply because feedstock is cheap. Not enough detail to say, though.
 
#564 ·
Of couse they are...

Alberta NDP 'sorry' for pay hikes and junkets gaffe

Once again, nothing focuses the mind like a hanging.

The Notley NDPers voted last week for big pay hikes to legislature bigshots and a trip to Boston for some of themselves.

On Tuesday they beat a hasty retreat.

A statement goes out from committee number one Denise Woollard, an NDP MLA representing an Edmonton riding.

It’s released a couple hours before a meeting where politicians are set to come back and jaw over last week’s vote.

The statement says “a mistake was made” echoing the words of former premier Alison Redford when she exited.

The NDP members “sincerely apologize.”

They no longer support the pay hike and none of them want to go to Boston.
They'll be even sorrier in about 3-1/2 years...
 
#565 ·
And, again, they're sorry...

Don Braid: Alberta NDP learns to backtrack faster than a failing fundraiser

There’s nothing in politics like a good free-for-all over party fundraising.

The one that hit the Alberta legislature Thursday was a classic of its kind, the first case anybody can recall of a cabinet minister defending a dubious fundraising event, and apologizing for it abjectly only seconds later.

That what Health Minister Sarah Hoffman did, after being handed a panicked note from the premier’s office.
Can't help myself, gotta do it: What a Sorry Bunch!

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
 
#566 ·
And, again, they're sorry...



Don Braid: Alberta NDP learns to backtrack faster than a failing fundraiser







Can't help myself, gotta do it: What a Sorry Bunch!



BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Gloat away. It's not like no politician before the Alberta NDP has ever F-ed up. It just depends what they F up about.

Speaking of which, how did that $500 a plate PC fundraiser with former Premier Jim Prentice go that was scheduled shortly after the election May 5? Now I'll bet THAT was a sorry bunch.


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#570 ·
But only if you attend the fundraiser. They changed the wording, and all clear. The optics may be bad, but the concept of lobbying for special access is as old as Canada itself.


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#572 ·
It's like closing washrooms in pubic parks, the moment you cut their budget by a nickel. Pretending this is all about "front-line services" is just a diversion from the thick layers of fat and pork in management.
 
#580 ·
So, there's a few things wrong with this concept, I'm going to address at least a couple of them.

First off, the problem. Rachel & Co are spending $750,000 on a marketing plan to sell their budget to the public.

Wait, wha...?

Yep. That brings us to the first problem. If a government budget is so crappy that you need an ad campaign to sell it, maybe the problem isn't the people's lack of understanding.

Second, couldn't that 3/4 of a million dollars be used for something more pressing? Like, maybe, the budget?

Third, I didn't approve of Redford's efforts to do the self-same thing two years ago. Neither did Brian Mason, leader of the Alberta NDP at the time. Where is his disapproval now?

No surprise: Notley's NDP spent big bucks to sell job-killing budget

Rachel Notley and her NDP are under fire for spending taxpayer money to promote their attack budget.

...

They have a new television and online advertising campaign worth over $750,000 to try to sell their massive deficit to regular Albertans who know that deficit and debt can only harm our economy.
M'bold.
 
#581 ·
First off, the problem. Rachel & Co are spending $750,000 on a marketing plan to sell their budget to the public.

Wait, wha...?

Yep. That brings us to the first problem. If a government budget is so crappy that you need an ad campaign to sell it, maybe the problem isn't the people's lack of understanding.

Oh, hypocrisy, thy burden is great....

Tory Family Tax Cuts: Public Pays For Ads For Measures Not Yet Approved

After the ad industry watchdog received a number of complaints from the public about the $2.5-million Canada Jobs Grant campaign, the government promised not to repeat the ads.

Critics say they're back to their old tricks.

Dennis Howlett of the advocacy group Canadians for Tax Fairness says public funds should not be used to push an agenda that's still a matter of debate in Parliament.

Promoting legislated tax measures is one thing, said Howlett.

"But when it's still a partisan political debate, then its not fair for the government to spend tax dollars. It undermines democracy."

* * *​

After being hammered for closing veterans offices across Canada as part of its austerity measures, Veteran Affairs is spending $5 million touting how well it treats veterans.

There's a $5.5 million anti-drug campaign airing that was rejected by three national medical groups — the Canadian Medical Association, the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada — because they said it had become "political football."

There's also $7.2 million for a campaign that promotes Canada's 150th anniversary in 2017 — ads that end with the tag line "Strong. Proud. Free."​

(HuffPo)
 
#582 ·
I'm sure there's a point to the above post. Unfortunately for the poster grasping at straws, it doesn't apply to me...
 
#585 ·
So, Rachel wants to bring Occupational Health & Safety to the farm. I have very mixed feelings about this.

While I have no issues with making farm life safer, the last thing any farmer needs is some snot-nosed, overpaid, underworked, unionized gov't official breathing down his neck at every turn.

Wildrose Country

Link to google drive document. (I know, I know...)
 
#586 ·
Rachel Notley announces Alberta's climate change plan

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley announced today that she is imposing a limit on oil sands emissions and phasing out all coal power usage in her province by 2030 in a major push to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

In her address at Edmonton’s Science Centre, Notley pledged to invest in green jobs, energy, and infrastructure as well as taking steps to protect the health of future generations.

“This is the day we stop denying there is an issue and this is the day when we start doing our part,” said Notley. “Climate change is real, it is caused by human activity.”

She said that anyone in doubt could see the Columbia Icefield glaciers, which are steadily receding as the atmosphere warms, describing Alberta as being on the “front line,” of climate change, alongside coastlines across the world.

Crucially, Parks and Environment Minister Shannon Phillips announced a 100-megatonne limit on carbon pollution from her provinces oil sands in a bid to curb emissions, which she said would help reduce the global row over use of oil sands energy.

Phillips also announced a shift from high-polluting coal power to renewables by 2030 as a second key plank of Alberta’s climate change strategy.

* * *​

Murray Edwards, the billionaire chairman of Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., also voiced support for Alberta's climate plan's addressing of oil sands emissions and was one of the speakers at Notley's address.

“The framework announced will allow ongoing innovation and technology investment in the oil and natural gas sector. In this way we will do our part to address climate change while protecting jobs and industry competitiveness in Alberta,” Edwards said.​

(NationalObserver)
 
#588 ·
Rachel is a f'ing idiot & so is anybody who believes this crap.

It's commonly held knowledge, even among warmists, that atmospheric CO2 levels prior to 1950 were simply not high enough to have an effect on planetary temperatures.

The Columbia Icefields have been melting for over 150 years. Why? Because the planet has been coming out of the Little Ice Age...

She said that anyone in doubt could see the Columbia Icefield glaciers, which are steadily receding as the atmosphere warms, describing Alberta as being on the “front line,” of climate change, alongside coastlines across the world.
 
#589 ·
Rachel is a f'ing idiot & so is anybody who believes this crap.



It's commonly held knowledge, even among warmists, that atmospheric CO2 levels prior to 1950 were simply not high enough to have an effect on planetary temperatures.



The Columbia Icefields have been melting for over 150 years. Why? Because the planet has been coming out of the Little Ice Age...

And your point is? Face it: she's in charge and you're not. Better learn how to play the game.


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#598 ·
No insults, hey? You boys have a lot to learn.


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#606 ·
Typically, such legislation is supported by industrial sized farms and Monsantos in order to drive family businesses into bankruptcy.

I feel for you my friend. Notley is devastating the Alberta economy in record time. This sort of regime isn't simply incompetent--it's evil. Naturally, the government and its legions of employees make sure they're insulated from the massive punishment they're visiting on Albertans.

Still, Notley's punishment will be a great thing to witness.
 
#611 ·
Thing is those who are on the low end of the income curve do not have the money to buy more fuel efficient vehicles or add a layer of insulation and new windows to their homes.
 
#612 ·
This is what makes the plan a complete failure. Seniors on a fixed income do not have the funds to upgrade their homes to get the rebate. In other words, the Dippers say you will get a refund, BUT, only if you have the financial resources to spend more than you would get back anyway. A fools errand by an inexperienced bunch of bozos.
 
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