• Thanks for stopping by. Logging in to a registered account will remove all generic ads. Please reach out with any questions or concerns.

Western Alienation - Split from General Election 2019

This from Colby Cash in the National Post:

... But what would probably be most useful to him strategically is for Western voters to start sending non-electoral signals that their paramount loyalty to Canada really has been compromised. Sure, go ahead and print bumper stickers, but they won’t get it done. Separatism from Canada may not be practical for Greater Alberta any more than leaving the Union is for black citizens in the United States: does this stop black Americans or other American minorities from resisting the ruling power?

They do it by subverting and challenging symbols of national unity: the flag, the anthem, holidays and public statuary, even the military if it comes to that. When it comes to “Wexit” I am not even so much scornful of the practicalities as I am skeptical of the underlying mentality: until I see an Alberta hockey crowd boo “O Canada” I think we will go on pleading futilely for more “conversation” in the national agora ...

https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/election-2019/colby-cosh-the-first-step-western-brethren-is-to-wexit-in-your-heart
 
>All this wexit talk is what it is "talk".

+++.  It manifests differently, but it manifests everywhere and often among the disappointed people after elections.  Talk of regional separation is one variant; the more commonly expressed one is "If XXX, I'm going to emigrate to YYY" (self-separation).
 
Saw #rednexit trending.

Some post election gentle good humour, "The year is 2025. Alberta has successfully separated from Canada: 'Next year we start building a wall. Canada is paying for it!"  :)
 
mariomike said:
Saw #rednexit trending.

Some post election gentle good humour, "The year is 2025. Alberta has successfully separated from Canada: 'Next year we start building a wall. Canada is paying for it!"  :)

That’s funny! Canadian irregular migrants sneaking over the Red River into Praireland, with the NWMP carrying their luggage for them.
 
This is so ridiculous.  The richest province in Canada by household income (even in a recession Albertans have more money than any other province by a long amount) and a very low unemployment rate is going to leave and become a landlocked petro state? Please someone name a rich landlocked petro state not beholden to a neighbouring power.  Does that even begin to solve the perceived problems of the province? But let's have a hissy fit because we didn't get our way for the last four years (even though the previous 10 was all about Alberta in power) and probably won't for the next 2.

Now I'm off to another thread to complain about Quebec...
 
Underway said:
This is so ridiculous.  The richest province in Canada by household income (even in a recession Albertans have more money than any other province by a long amount) and a very low unemployment rate is going to leave and become a landlocked petro state? Please someone name a rich landlocked petro state not beholden to a neighbouring power.  Does that even begin to solve the perceived problems of the province? But let's have a hissy fit because we didn't get our way for the last four years (even though the previous 10 was all about Alberta in power) and probably won't for the next 2.

Now I'm off to another thread to complain about Quebec...

1) "the west"'s oil will sell, either within Canada or to the USA and beyond.

2) Canada can embrace the sale and use of "the west"'s oil, or it can bet on Alberta thinking only BC or  Quebec can export it's oil.

Option two leads to nasty western separation politics, regional politics that will make Quebec "nationalism" seem like a quaint memory.

In simple terms, by the time Quebec decided it was done with Canada it was no longer an actual player in the world of manufacturing. On the opposite end of the spectrum Alberta/Saskatchewan are sitting on some of the worlds richest oil deposits...
 
Just remember the US Civil War was started over basically the same thing. Feeling alienated from the political process and having economic decisions forced upon them whether they liked it or not.

Not saying it will go that route, but there is some legitimacy to the complaints. For example the East Coast has 32 seats vs 34 for Alberta, despite having a population basically half the size. Quebec has roughly double the population but more than double the seats. You can easily argue the Canadian seat break down is Gerrymandering at its finest.

If you vote in Alberta they are basically saying your vote is worthless than other parts of the country.
 
Actually, Eagleford, in Canada, right now, Quebec is pretty well benchmark: Both the number of seats it has in the Commons and in the Senate are within + or - 1% of the actual population. If that was followed for all other provinces, it would be balanced.

But I agree that it is a legitimate grievance of the Western provinces that, where the Atlantic provinces are way, way over represented (especially the Town of P.E.I.,  ;) ), they on the other hand are quite under-represented because the numbers where never really adjusted to account for the population expansion that started in the 1970's.

This said, I believe that some of the current anger is actually stoked by oil lobby of those provinces to try and create pressure on the rest of the country. I don't think it will help. The current problems are not related to lack of transport as much as they are related to the price of oil and how it is viewed in the USA as dirty oil (regardless of reality - which, as we all know doesn't count). If we doubled the transport capacity  (which BTW has steadily been going up for the last 40 years and has never been as high as it is right now), no more development of the oil fields would occur at the current price: it wouldn't cover the cost.

On the other hand, I note that Alberta just brought down an "austerity' budget that has an increased deficit with more than $2b increase, while stubbornly remaining the only place in Canada that refuses to introduce one of the best economic stabilizing type of tax: a consumption tax (wether you call it Provincial sales or Harmonized, etc.). Similarly, regardless of the voices in the desert of the last 50 years that told Albertan to diversify their economy using the oil revenue, it's only been very recently that this process has actually started, and at a slow pace at that.

Some of the 'West's" problems are self inflicted - they don't all come out of the grievances - some valid, some not, that they have against the "East".
 
Furniture said:
1) "the west"'s oil will sell, either within Canada or to the USA and beyond.

2) Canada can embrace the sale and use of "the west"'s oil, or it can bet on Alberta thinking only BC or  Quebec can export it's oil.

Option two leads to nasty western separation politics, regional politics that will make Quebec "nationalism" seem like a quaint memory.

In simple terms, by the time Quebec decided it was done with Canada it was no longer an actual player in the world of manufacturing. On the opposite end of the spectrum Alberta/Saskatchewan are sitting on some of the worlds richest oil deposits...
Albertans don't understand that the very same arguments used against Quebec seperation apply to them as well.

Their share of the national debt.

Being on the outside of NAFTA.

Not being a part of the UN and WTO.

Having to work around the clarity act.

Not piggybacking off of Canadas interest rate.

Having their own currency or using the Canadian dollar with no say in monetary policy. (Even worst because Alberta would be a petro state and Canada very much not)

Taking their share of the national debt.

Having to create around 200 government agencies.

Having to create a military.

Tarriffs with Canada.

Then added challenges.

Access to the ocean. Sure,  they can get it because the UN says so,  but access could just be rail. Or truck. No country needs to approve a pipeline running through their territory. Look at the USA and Keystone XL

Being completely landlocked.

Oil not trading anywhere need its records highs. (50 dollars a barrel? Most petro states aren't doing so hot,  and they have access to the sea)

The USA being energy independent. This is huge. If Alberta oil was in such high demand in the states,  they wouldn't be buying it at such a steep discount. Looking back at the US civil war for some reference,  the south though they could go it alone because everyone needed cotton. Turns out europe did just fine because they had alternatives.

And just like Quebec Seperatists, Alberta Seperatists have the same answer to all of these challenges. We'll be fine,  everything will work out.

Its a very impressive level of delusion to not have any realistic answers to these challenges and have blind faith that everything will be fine.

 
Oldgateboatdriver said:
This said, I believe that some of the current anger is actually stoked by oil lobby of those provinces to try and create pressure on the rest of the country.

Nailed it.

Alberta and Saskatchewan are our 'populist provinces', hence it's easier to get the majority of people to agree on single issues like energy. Especially if you have lots of money (oil companies) and skin in the game.....

'Alberta is, in other words, populist, in the textbook meaning of the term—its politics is rooted in a kind of weird and wild bottom-up people-powered energy that brooks no arrogance from an ­established political class. This ­habit is far older, and is far more ingrained, than one government or even one generation’s worth of conservative governments. There is one common trait that yokes the founding of the province to politics to this day, and it’s not a commitment to low taxes or small government—it’s grievance. A sense that this province has been dealt a winning hand by nature but a raw one by Confederation.'

https://thewalrus.ca/the-great-myth-of-alberta-conservatism/

 
Furniture said:
1) "the west"'s oil will sell, either within Canada or to the USA and beyond.

2) Canada can embrace the sale and use of "the west"'s oil, or it can bet on Alberta thinking only BC or  Quebec can export it's oil.

Option two leads to nasty western separation politics, regional politics that will make Quebec "nationalism" seem like a quaint memory.

In simple terms, by the time Quebec decided it was done with Canada it was no longer an actual player in the world of manufacturing. On the opposite end of the spectrum Alberta/Saskatchewan are sitting on some of the worlds richest oil deposits...

Alberta isn't going anywhere and the only way Quebec nationalism will be a quaint memory is if there is massive violence. But Albertans have to much money to risk violence ruining the whole thing. This current situation is way less crazy than the Trudeau Snr's hobbling of Alberta's economy.  That was real pain and unemployment, and Alberta had much less political power to fight back with.

Like the separation movement in Quebec, Alberta's is embedded in emotion and tribalism and not in anything resembling logic. Oil prices go back up and suddenly everything is good again.  It's the US fracking revolution that is to blame for Alberta's woes currently, not a lack of pipeline capacity. It's completely overturned the politics and prices of oil (ie: Saudi Arabia... ).

Current problems on oil sales and market access will not be solved by separation.  They will be amplified.  The US will still take their oil at a discount (probably a greater one because Alberta will be over a barrel) and BC will be able to easily block a pipeline. They need the sea. If the US oil economy finishes its transition to fully fracked oil products it won't matter either way.  Only places outside of NA will want Alberta's oil as the US oil industry will no longer be able to process it. This is because they will have spent the money to fully convert manufacturing of all of the oil based products to the super cheap fracking byproducts as feed stock.  This is why Keystone is so critical as it has the effect of ensure heavier crude will be in the mix for years to come.

Alberta's other major exports will can/will be blocked/trapped as well (wheat and beef).  The US will happily block out their exports from their own markets for domestic political reasons once they are outside of the free trade agreement.  Canada has little or no incentive to help them out get their product to market and can replace their oil with foreign (see US) natural gas easily.  This falls right into the US environmental lobby's (read US oil interests lobby's) plans to freeze out Alberta oil.  Quebec at least has access to the sea and could make a go of it.  Alberta is in a tight spot.

Alberta's only option to avoid disaster should they separate is to join the US.  This solves all of their problems.  Access to the US oil pipeline network is now an internal US problem and will go through easily.  Alberta beef, wheat and oil will be sold at US dollars the currency they would use.  All their resources would become US ones with the attendant pork barreling and support for US economic interests included. Alberta would keep all their "state money" though would have to convert away from provincial resource ownership to private land ownership of resources as per US property rights.  But those transfer payments would stop.
 
I agree that demand/price for Alberta oil is largely set outside of Canada. But.

Why then, if Alberta oil is going to die a natural death anyway, does a federal government go to the trouble enacting a Tanker ban on the North BC coast that only really impacts the export of Alberta oil? Is that just not unnecessarily vexatious? If there is no demand for that oil on the world market, who would bother to build a pipeline and export terminal? If the federal government was so concerned about the dangers of tankers carrying oil, would not a tanker ban in both the Bay of Fundy and the St Lawrence River also make even more ecological sense? I wonder, then, why those bans were never proposed or enacted?

How is it that both Quebec and BC can basically get away with violating the Constitution by opposing pipelines that then impede to flow of goods across Canada?

I agree that Alberta could have a much better job of managing its economy and money over the past two decades. However, it doesn't take much detective work to see the federal Liberals making short sighted and glib policy decisions to curry favour with voters outside Alberta and Saskatchewan. If oil is dying as an industry like everyone seems willing to predict, why does the Federal government risk the blowback by choking off pipeline access east/west?

I think Alberta separation is a dumb idea for all the reasons posted above. That doesn't mean it still isn't a problem made worse by meddlesome polticians and pundits from outside Alberta.
 
Eaglelord17 said:
Just remember the US Civil War was started over basically the same thing. Feeling alienated from the political process and having economic decisions forced upon them whether they liked it or not.

Not saying it will go that route, but there is some legitimacy to the complaints. For example the East Coast has 32 seats vs 34 for Alberta, despite having a population basically half the size. Quebec has roughly double the population but more than double the seats. You can easily argue the Canadian seat break down is Gerrymandering at its finest.

If you vote in Alberta they are basically saying your vote is worth less than other parts of the country.
So you are saying that electoral reform is the path to making Alberta happy?
 
To all those saying "Alberta didn't diversify so frig them, it's their own fault", isn't this one country?  Alberta is the O&G energy sector for a diverse Canadian economy, and that O&G represents only about 25% of Alberta's GDP today.  Do we, as a country, want to collapse that industry and be more energy dependent on foreign countries?         

Shutting down pipes going East and West is the self inflicted wound on this country, perpetrated for political reasons.  The environmental claims for shutting down the pipes are not in good faith when raw sewage and tankers from the Middle East are populating the St Lawrence, and there are no equivalent tanker bans in the East.  Shipping coal and buying oil from countries with poor environmental standards while shunning clean Canadian energy from Alberta is hypocrisy.  The unequal representation in parliament aggravates this situation and allows it to continue. Confederation will be challenged if one person's vote in one region continues to be worth more than one person's vote in another.         

 
QV said:
Confederation will be challenged if one person's vote in one region continues to be worth more than one person's vote in another.       

Regarding that,

Oct. 13, 2019

One person, one vote? In Canada, it’s not even close
https://www.thestar.com/politics/2019/10/13/one-person-one-vote-in-canada-its-not-even-close.html


 
QV, the problem as has been mentioned is all the world market and not specifically Canada.  Don't get me wrong as I think a pipeline would help soften the world market effects but f a province hedges its bet on one thing and that things goes bad then there is an issue.  Also, you do realise that the St Lawrence is a shared water way with the US right?  that is the real reason.  Good luck with getting that ban in place there.  It also is not all sunshine and lollypops.  The whole area is infested with invasive species and pollution.  So maybe BC isn't interested in the same issues artound their environmentally sensitive areas. 

Alberta was doing fine when oil prices were good, pipeline or no pipeline.  Look at the fisheries industry on the East Coast.  Remember when cod stocks were depleted? provinces on the coast had to start looking at other ways of doing business.  Same with coal in Cape Breton. 

Boom or bust industries throughout time suffer when times are bad.  Many Gold rush towns don't exists anymore, cola mining stops when you run out of coal or no one wants to buy it.  The fur industry was booming until it didn't.  Etc etc.

Conservatives were in power for ten years.  Election cycles happen and sometimes your team does not win.  That's democracy.  Saying you are going to pick up your toys and leave is akin to tantrum when you don't get what you want. 

Electoral reform or a change in how we select our representatives or senators may be required.  I've always favoured a two tiered system of FPTP and PR.  Keep our legislative format the same but have a more robust executive that could be represented by popular vote for oversight. 
 
SeaKingTacco said:
I agree that demand/price for Alberta oil is largely set outside of Canada. But.

Why then, if Alberta oil is going to die a natural death anyway, does a federal government go to the trouble enacting a Tanker ban on the North BC coast that only really impacts the export of Alberta oil?
I'm not sure people understand what the tanker ban is. Oil will continue to be shipped via BC, just not tankers that carry more than 12500 Metric tons of oil. This being to mitigate any potential spill. Environmentalist and first nations have been pushing for this to protect the BC coast.
Is that just not unnecessarily vexatious?
Depends on what you think  unnecessarily vexatious is. If its anything that goes against Alberta, then yes. IF it's a compromise solution to very real issues, the energy industry development and protecting the environment, then no.
If there is no demand for that oil on the world market, who would bother to build a pipeline and export terminal?
There is a demand, just not in North America. Alberta being landlocked makes this a very bad thing
If the federal government was so concerned about the dangers of tankers carrying oil, would not a tanker ban in both the Bay of Fundy and the St Lawrence River also make even more ecological sense? I wonder, then, why those bans were never proposed or enacted?
From what I can tell, there hasn't been a push on the east coast for this. There also isn't nearly as much tanker traffic on the east coast. With the north America energy scene being taken over by US fracking, a lot more of albertas oil is going to be leaving from BC.

Looking closer at the Irving refinery that energy east would have been pumping oil to.They do about 320,000 barrels a day with their facility just not set up to do much more than 100K of heavier crude. Would take huge investment to change the math very much. Even if they did that...320K more barrels going for something closer to market rate isn't changing much there for Alberta.
How is it that both Quebec and BC can basically get away with violating the Constitution by opposing pipelines that then impede to flow of goods across Canada?
That part of the constitution has always been very weak. Every province sets up barriers to each others goods. From oil, to dairy, to alcohol, everything has a provincial board that balks at allowing other provinces to enter. There is a reason why many people say it's easier to trade with the USA due to Nafta than with other provinces.
I agree that Alberta could have a much better job of managing its economy and money over the past two decades. However, it doesn't take much detective work to see the federal Liberals making short sighted and glib policy decisions to curry favour with voters outside Alberta and Saskatchewan. If oil is dying as an industry like everyone seems willing to predict, why does the Federal government risk the blowback by choking off pipeline access east/west?
It's about where oil is dying. Alberta oil, the heavy, labour and cost extensive to extract oil that it is largely being phased out of North America. And a lot of refineries aren't even built to process it. So Alberta is facing a lot of issues, a lot of it out of the hands of Alberta and Canada. Again, oil is trading at 50 dollars today. That's 50-70 dollars less than at its peak. The reason for that is, again, the glut of oil on the global markets. America moving from oil importer to oil exporter has been a huge game changer, and Alberta and Canada can do very little to change that. People want someone to blame, and the federal government is a easy target, but most of the issues facing Alberta aren't originating in Ottawa
I think Alberta separation is a dumb idea for all the reasons posted above. That doesn't mean it still isn't a problem made worse by meddlesome polticians and pundits from outside Alberta.
It's the perfect storm for Alberta. The same time America has a oil revolution, Saudis counter by flooding the market with cheap oil just as climate scientists are coming out with the effects of climate change which results in people wanting to reduce emissions while Alberta is one of Canadas highest emission jurisdictions. Toss in the supreme court and first nations wanting a say about what projects go through their traditional land and what they get out of it, Alberta is facing challenges on all fronts. But to leave Canada does nothing to solve ANY of them. Sure, they can get rid of the carbon tax. But they still need to face 98 percent of everything else facing them, all with the added challenges of a Canada that doesn't owe them anything.

The balance between the climate/environment and the energy sector was always going to be a hard one to juggle, because doing anything for one means working against the other. Alberta should count its lucky stars that Canadians didn't vote on mass for a party like the green party, because that would be the instant death of the energy sector, not just managing the decline.
 
That said, not everything is gloom and doom.

I'm no expert, but I do keep my eye on the experts. (Little bit of money in the markets)

Oil companies aren't bullish on their market going forward, look at the exit of a couple of the foreign players from the sands over the last few years (Shell sold most of their holding and lease rights to CNRL, Total cancelled a big project, Conoco is out, Marathon is out). Heading to the exits started well before the troubles with transmountain, and quite a bit of it pre dated the Trudeau years.

A number of oil companies (specifically Shell) are in the process of pivoting to renewables. That's not a Canadian issue, that's an international oil market issue. The key is to be ahead of the curve and not fighting against the flow.

The greens, the liberals, the ndp aren't wrong, oil is not the way of the future. Too much supply, the margins are too small, and the big players can produce it for much cheaper than Alberta can. But the big energy companies are moving towards renewables. Alberta needs to as well. And they have a well educated, young, entrepreneurial workforce, and if there is any place in Canada that can handle what is a transitional shift it's Alberta. It's not, it cannot happen overnight, which is why pipelines are needed now, but the shift needs to happen, because the signs are there that the oil industry is going to be facing ever more challenges going forward, not less.
 
Altair said:
That said, not everything is gloom and doom.

I'm no expert, but I do keep my eye on the experts. (Little bit of money in the markets)

Oil companies aren't bullish on their market going forward, look at the exit of a couple of the foreign players from the sands over the last few years (Shell sold most of their holding and lease rights to CNRL, Total cancelled a big project, Conoco is out, Marathon is out). Heading to the exits started well before the troubles with transmountain, and quite a bit of it pre dated the Trudeau years.

A number of oil companies (specifically Shell) are in the process of pivoting to renewables. That's not a Canadian issue, that's an international oil market issue. The key is to be ahead of the curve and not fighting against the flow.

The greens, the liberals, the ndp aren't wrong, oil is not the way of the future. Too much supply, the margins are too small, and the big players can produce it for much cheaper than Alberta can. But the big energy companies are moving towards renewables. Alberta needs to as well. And they have a well educated, young, entrepreneurial workforce, and if there is any place in Canada that can handle what is a transitional shift it's Alberta. It's not, it cannot happen overnight, which is why pipelines are needed now, but the shift needs to happen, because the signs are there that the oil industry is going to be facing ever more challenges going forward, not less.

World oil consumption is not going away for at least a century and now that he’s virtue signalling that he’s now a climate justice warrior to his loony base and fans worldwide by slowly shutting down our oil industry particularly our oil sands by 2050 while Canada and the world will continue to use oil we’re expected to be the noble ones by not selling our oil but the rest of the world will still use well past 2050.
We’re going to keep selling our oil until consumer demand is gone and not anytime sooner we’re not going to give the East a warm and fuzzy feeling so that they can feel that they’re making a difference while hypocrites continue to buy and use oil based products themselves well past 2050
 
VinceW said:
World oil consumption is not going away for at least a century
You're right. Oil will continue to be consumed for the next century. What may change are the players. Saudi oil makes a profit at 10 dollars a barrel. US fracking, at 30. Canada breaks even at 50. And that comes with a caveat. The oil Canada extracts is a heavy crude, harder to refine, and not every refinery can handle it. A lot of the oil Canada is selling to the USA now is sold at a massive discount just to make it worth it for the refinery. So if global oil doesn't rise to the 70-80 dollar range, the Alberta energy industry isn't going to be hugely profitable. And what can Canada, or even a independent Alberta do against the USA and OPEC?
  and now that he’s virtue signalling that he’s now a climate justice warrior to his loony base
A majority of Canadians believe climate change is a very important issue, and 65 percent of Canadians voted for a party that advocates anything from a price on carbon to completely shutting down oil extraction today. That loony base is the majority of Canadians
by slowly shutting down our oil industry particularly our oil sands by 2050 while Canada and the world will continue to use oil we’re expected to be the noble ones by not selling our oil but the rest of the world will still use well past 2050.
The market doesn't lie. There is a reason why oil companies are investing heavily in renewables and things like hydrogen extraction. The Canadian energy sector, pipelines or not, is not hugely profitable. There is too much oil in the global markets. Transmountain isn't being built to make the oil sands more profitable. Its being built to help them break even. The oil sands are selling oil at a loss in a lot of cases. Selling Canadian oil at market prices only means Canadian oil sells at 45-55 dollars a barrel, the break even point. So Canada, Alberta has two choices. Chase the past, or embrace the future. Chasing the past means crisscrossing the country with pipelines, heavily subsidizing the oil industry, trying to keep the oil industry propped up for the coming decades. Embracing the future means looking past oil. Not today, but someday. Alberta isn't going to be able to sell oil forever, same way the south couldn't sell cotton forever, same way the atlantic provinces couldn't sell cod forever, same way Quebec couldn't sell asbestos forever. I, personally, am of the belief Canada is doing a good job of balancing both right now.
We’re going to keep selling our oil until consumer demand is gone and not anytime sooner we’re not going to give the East a warm and fuzzy feeling so that they can feel that they’re making a difference while hypocrites continue to buy and use oil based products themselves well past 2050
To summarize, until Alberta can change the fundamental economic realities, the market will take care of Alberta.
 
Back
Top