Claresholm NDP

05/14/2026

We’re in the midst of the last oil boom. Alberta is already pi***ng it away
Max Fawcett, May 12/ National Observer (Excerpts)
Canada’s oil and gas industry has dropped the veil. Any attempt to regulate or restrict their carbon emissions, no matter how small they might be or how much money they happen to be making, are apparently intolerable. Just ask Murray Edwards, the chairman of Canadian Natural Resources and one of the longest-standing and most influential leaders in the oilpatch. “We’re saying, if we invest in Pathways, we think that should be sufficient investment in decarbonization of the sector. And then putting an additional carbon tax on it will make the sector uncompetitive and burdened with costs that are going to reduce the ability to make further investment.” In other words, they’d like to have their cake and eat it too.
It’s worth remembering that Canadian taxpayers would be footing most of the bill for that project in the form of tax credits worth an estimated $19 billion. That is, of course, on top of the more than $30 billion Canadians have already spent on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. You can be sure that industry will also be demanding some amount of federal taxpayer participation in any new pipeline to the West Coast..
Rather than being on the verge of a “massive energy and economic boom not seen since the early 2000s,” as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s chief of staff wrote on social media, the industry is in the midst of the last oil boom any of us will ever see. The Trump administration’s decision to disrupt global oil markets with its trademark combination of hubris and incompetence is raising prices in the near term, and they may yet reach levels we have never seen before (the prices, that is). But while that might be good news for the near-term income statements of oil and gas companies, it’s also an existential threat to their long-term prospects — one that makes their endless complaining about a 50-cent-per-barrel carbon price look downright comical.
A competent provincial government would be spending its time trying to save as much resource revenue as possible for this leaner future, along with ensuring that oil and gas companies can’t leave an environmental mess behind for not-so-distant future Albertans to clean up. That would mean strengthening the regulatory system around unreclaimed oil and gas wells and forcing oilsands companies to make much, much larger down payments against the cost of cleaning up their ever-expanding tailings ponds. Instead, the Alberta government is apparently more focused on preventing environmental waste from (long sigh) solar panels

05/14/2026

The evidence couldn't be more clear.

And history offers sobering lessons.

A separate Alberta would be a poorer Alberta.

05/14/2026

05/14/2026

You are not above the law, Premier.

05/12/2026

Alberta’s Circus Is Now Costing Real Money Prairies Exposed May 12
According to the Calgary Herald, Nancy Southern, CEO of ATCO, says Alberta separation talk is already “impacting investments now,” as Canada pushes to position itself as an energy superpower.

The warning is blunt: investors are asking fundamental questions about political stability and whether Alberta is becoming too risky for long-term capital.

This was not hard to predict.
Because capital hates one thing more than taxes: uncertainty.
And Premier Danielle Smith and the UCP have spent months manufacturing exactly that.

While businesses look for stability, the province has been drowning in scandal—persistent privacy concerns, fallout from data breach controversies, questions around how personal information is handled, spending and a government increasingly consumed by ideological performance art instead of governance.

At the same time, Alberta’s separatist movement—fueled by the same political ecosystem Smith refuses to fully shut down—has moved from fringe grievance to mainstream economic liability.
Even critics have been warning that separatist rhetoric discourages investment, weakens trade confidence, and creates the same kind of economic instability that drove corporate flight during Quebec’s sovereignty fights.

Economist Trevor Tombe has argued a separate Alberta would be significantly poorer, with billions in foregone economic activity and higher per-capita costs for services currently handled federally.

And the business community agrees.

A March 2026 Calgary Chamber of Commerce poll found 83% believed separatist discourse increases recession risk and reduces business investment, while 74% believed businesses were considering relocation or expansion outside Alberta. More than half said the separation conversation is already affecting the provincial economy.

05/11/2026

David Parker has publicly denied personally receiving or distributing unauthorized voter data, stating that allegations against him are false and that active court proceedings are underway. Fair enough—legal processes should unfold where facts are tested.