Ricki Bobbi

Functionally? The costs of trucking oil, from the west as far as Ottawa and shipping/trucking from Hibernia for the eastern part of the country does make us functionally self-sufficent. Trucking such distances would still be cheaper than building a pipeline. Yes, not all the oil consumed in Canada is produced in Canada. But that is for cost savings. In a time of war, the only real situation in which functional self-sufficiency comes into play, Canada could meet all of our oil needs.

Of course you would vote for the alternative. But you wouldn't do anything to make that alternative come about. I thought you said the Income Trust decision was going to make Albertans turn against him? Didn't happen, because Albertans aren't as self-centred as you think they are. They can see the big picture and recognize when the Prime Minister is acting in the best interest of the country as a whole. Maybe an extra $1.5 billion of *our* money might make some people upset. What is the cost of the hardline? Tell Quebec to piss off? how quickly do we see a PQ win in the next provincial election and another referendum? How much would that hurt the economy? You've got a strong background in finance. I don't judge it on fairness, but simply as an investment. A shrewd one at that. Analyze the problem. Don't let your emotions carry you away. If only Quebeckers could look at the economic advantage of staying in Canada...

If managed right Alberta could save enough in the Heritage Trust Fund to permanently free Albertans from provincial income tax.

Which is exactly what will happen...

I move to another country or start working towards seperation? That'd just show that no one represents Alberta if the CPC and Liberals were both against us. Well seems like your anger at the Conservatives is representative of Albertans who voted Conservative last election. The Conservatives are at 63% in Alberta in the last Decima poll. You would start working towards separation? but only if you could do it at a *high level*. You wouldn't be interested in door knocking, or letter stuff. At least that's what you said about becoming involved with the Conservatives...

Canada is self-sufficient in oil. You really should supply some context for your ramblings...

No they won't. Where do you come up with such fallacies???

The Conservatives are at 63% in Alberta. So much for certain people believing Albertans are going to turn on the Party.

Oil is a pretty risky investment. Six months ago you couldn't find anybody in the oil patch who would think the price of oil would ever fall before $50. Sure enough some markets are forecasting it to fall to $47 by summer. That means for tough times in the Alberta oil patch. There isn't enough capital in Canada that is willing to take the risks related to oil

Yes, they did give it rather favourable coverage. There are a number of MPs I can't see sticking around for the next election. Coderre, Volpe, Dryden ....

Let's say Quebec gets more cash and the Liberals promise to re-enter Kyoto?

Yes. A mixed bag on that one. Not the cleanest MP out there, but I guess there are dirtier .... in every caucus.

That was a good site. Came up within hours of the story breaking IIRC... I thought whoever put it up was forced to take it down under threat of a lawsuit.

Is there any way the Liberals abandon Kyoto? So I guess that means you are going to hold your nose and vote Conservative...

If you think it doesn't matter why present the information falsely? Two days is a long time in politics? Maybe... In Government? Absolutely not. No way representatives from the Ministry of Natural Resources could have gotten new marching orders and presented them at a meeting that quickly. There couldn't have been political staff from the Minister's office representing the Conservative Government, because there was no Minister yet. Hence no political staff. Time to put the conspiracty theories away...

And for a repeat...

MD00 You forgot the following. - Homer J. Simpson

Why call names? It's not superficial at all. The OP made it seem like the Conservatives are so tied to OIL (I would say that is a witty way of presenting big oil, but I may be giving too much credit.) that they had a secret meeting in Houston only two days after winning election. That *fact* may seem obvious to you, but it is an outright fabrication. It was the first part of his post. If he didn't want to get called on it he shouldn't have posted it. Is it really superficial that the OP lied and tried to misrepresent the actions of the Government? Who is the square peg? What is the round hole?

Completely agreed. Don't know how anyone else sees it any other way. Hockey, Baseball and Football all have great endings... The Chargers also played that last possession stupidly. They had time to move down the field. Should have spiked the ball after the first successful pass and ran some sideline patterns after that. Somehow I had faith that the Patriots could come back. Just proves that you should never bet against a healthy Tom Brady. Absolutely nothing. My questions is: "What is the point of your stunningly obvious question?" Some of us have interests other than politics. The next two weeks and a bit those of us who like the NFL will be following it very closely. If you don't like the thread ignore it or report it.

There are some people who do care about outright fabrications posted to make the Government look bad with no foundation. People who believe in fairness and honesty. Yeah, I can see why no Liberals would worry about that...

I cannot believe he gave something to Mark Holland. I think that guy fancies himself as a modern day Rat Packer. He tops my list of Liberals I would most like to see lose.

Catchme could you explain this part of your OP please? To me it seems like you are trying to say that the Harper Government took part in this *secret* meeting in Houston, TX, and presumably took part in the planning and organizing of the meeting. (It being so difficult to organize secret meetings on a short schedule and all.) But this is the quote from the story. Seems to me that a new Government elected only two days earlier wouldn't have had the time to organize a meeting on this scale. Could it be that this meeting was planned and organized while Paul Martin was Prime Minister? Or did Martin really see the writing on the wall and plan this meeting before even calling the election just so Harper and the crew could start on their conspiracy with OIL as soon as they took office???

I didn't see the first episode but did catch the second. Completely agreed with this comment from CBC's *blog* Anybody who saw both have an opinion?

Apparently about 660,000 viewed it and they showed the wrong episode. I'm interested in taking a look at where you saw that. By wrong episode do you mean 660,000 viewers actually watched the premiere again or was this a different, previously unbroadcasted episode that they hadn't meant to show?

I'm curious to see what the ratings are as well. Supposedly they topped two million for the premiere. If they held on to more than a million of those viewers for week two I'll be shocked...