Alberta Election

[Hydraboss]

Such policies as that are supported by a great many citizens. Save the ideological crap for when it is relevant. The people don't give a left or a right about the concerns of spin doctors when it costs them money to do something. They want assistance with child care whether the government was socialistic or capitalistic.

That's right, Jerry, people with kids want everyone else to pay for their kids. "to each according to their needs..." Who exactly are "the people" who don't care about political view as long as they get paid?

[Hydraboss]

Thats right Hydrant Boss there is more and more of us coming in and there is to pee on your parade and there is NOTHING you and your fascist capitalist buddies can do about it, as more easterners come in the more we will reach into your pockets. (Isn't that the stereotype?) Ralph said those eastern bums didn't he) Such a wonderful statement most people like yourself make, "what about me, I am the most important thing on earth" My god I had $32,000 in taxes taken from me last year and I couldn't care less and would gladly pay more if it meant funding a program where god forbid would allow both parents the opportunity to have a career. Oh and hydro those ideas are no longer at the border they are right at your front door and here we come a pounding!!!

Everyone can see that you "easterners" are bringing your liberal/ndp views to this province. Does it make you happy to invade a province and try to change it to make it just like your old home? As for Ralph...he was dead on. So you paid a whole $32k in taxes, huh? Was that it? I'm sure you wouldn't mind paying more to fund your buddies. "to each according to their need..."

Sincerely,

Hydrant Boss

p.s. - I have no doubt that you're pounding.

[Hydraboss]

The province needs to fund a multi-billion dollar pension liability. Once that is taken care of then in fact the province is debt free. That is where money needs to go right now.

As far as the government being either left or right winged, only a fool would question which side of the equation the PC Party of Alberta will sit upon. They are not left, but they are not far enough right for many rednecks in my province. Those folks are about to find out that they are being reduced in their numbers. The WRAP folks just broke the 10% level, at the expense of the right wing PC's. The Liberals now hold 31% and that means trouble for the PC Party. The undecided voter will determine the outcome of this election if they choose to participate. Even if they don't, the PC government will likely be reduced to a minority due to the vote splitting effect from the right wingers. It is even possible that the Liberals could from a minority government if the current sink in Tory fortunes continues at the current rate.

Are you referring to the multi-billion dollar pension liability that Pierre Elliot Stelmach is paying to part-time teachers? Yes, beautiful move. People who work 180.5 FDE are about to get money to cover the pension dues they never paid, based on time they never worked. The overpaid ATA members get another bonus. Yep, great move.

With any luck, the PC's will get a majority. Preferably about one seat shy of a majority. Ideal. PES would get his ass booted out of caucus, and a true conservative could take over.

Dreams, dreams.

[geoffrey]

So instead of creating hundreds of jobs and making the profits here in Alberta we ship it in its rawest form down to the states s they can make the money and jobs off our oil!!!!! Amazing that people here are letting this happen and that the Tories are rubber stamping this!!!!

When the Easterns get off there lazy welfare asses and come fill our jobs, then you can bitch about where the bitumen goes.

We can't find anyone else to work. They are all busy fishing 2 months of the year for EI. You want us to send you money to fix your manufacturing... how about you send some of those mindless overpaid autoworkers out here to work on our oil projects.

If there isn't any labour, we have to send it south.

Edited February 26, 2008 by geoffrey

[Bayman35]

When the Easterns get off there lazy welfare asses and come fill our jobs, then you can bitch about where the bitumen goes.

We can't find anyone else to work. They are all busy fishing 2 months of the year for EI. You want us to send you money to fix your manufacturing... how about you send some of those mindless overpaid autoworkers out here to work on our oil projects.

If there isn't any labour, we have to send it south.

Do you even know whats going on in Canada? Or for that matter Fort McMurray? Newfounflanders are in large part not allowed to fish anymore and the population of Fort Mac is about 40-60% Newfoundlanders. We did get off our asses and go to work jackass!!!! As a CANADIAN I have a right to bitch about anything I damn well please, the rate of development is what is creating a shortage here, even a consortium of big oil is asking the Alberta government to slow down and they won't listen. Instead of having ten projects going at once how about finishing one at a time like your St.Lougheed suggested a short while ago. Then we might not be faced with this labour crunch.

[Bayman35]

Are you referring to the multi-billion dollar pension liability that Pierre Elliot Stelmach is paying to part-time teachers? Yes, beautiful move. People who work 180.5 FDE are about to get money to cover the pension dues they never paid, based on time they never worked. The overpaid ATA members get another bonus. Yep, great move.

With any luck, the PC's will get a majority. Preferably about one seat shy of a majority. Ideal. PES would get his ass booted out of caucus, and a true conservative could take over.

Dreams, dreams.

God I would love to see the Liberals in a minority government with the NDP as the swing vote LOL then your red neck ass would be searching the shelves for a noose to hang yourself.

[Hydraboss]

I can be reasoned with the vast majority of the time.

With you however, I'm forced to take a different approach. There are a lot of easterners that I work with that I would give the shirt off my back. Not people like you. I hope you make a pile of money while you're a guest in Alberta. I hope you earn every penny by working hard.

I hope you leave Alberta and go home when we've used you up. And take some of your like-minded buddies with you.

[Bayman35]

I can be reasoned with the vast majority of the time.

With you however, I'm forced to take a different approach. There are a lot of easterners that I work with that I would give the shirt off my back. Not people like you. I hope you make a pile of money while you're a guest in Alberta. I hope you earn every penny by working hard.

I hope you leave Alberta and go home when we've used you up. And take some of your like-minded buddies with you.

Guest? I have been here since 1980 I would say that I am more then just a "guest" in Alberta. As for leaving why? as a socialist Alberta is where the fight is. This is ground zero, instead of leaving a fight this is where we on the left need to dig in our heels and fight like hell. I do work hard very hard, I volunteer at the mens shelter downtown, I volunteer at a home for battered women and am very active in my children's sports and community leagues. I'm not just an ideological socialist I actually believe an individual needs to practice what they believe. There are a lot of people from Alberta I would also give the shirt off my back to but don't take some variety of highground with me because from my perspective you and others like you are just as impossible to deal with. I am not just a guest here I contribute to the community I live in and the people in it, not because they are Albertans but because they are people that need help. I'm not just here "panning for gold" I am also here to give back to the community in which I live, the fact that I am a socialist and very proud of it is no different then how you are a capitalist/libertarian/conservative and are proud of it. So I hope also that you also make your money and move on but as long as I sit on my ideological south pole and you on the north then NOTHING gets accomplished accept more years of useless polarization from two groups who claim to have a corner on the market when it comes to the truth. I am not trying to tell you you are wrong, I'm saying I don't agree with you which are two very different things. 37 years of ANY government is unhealthy change in government is a good thing, I think the residents of Saskatchewan made a great choice to elect someone else after 16 years of NDP governments because the government needs to feel like they are accountable to the people. Right now the Tories in Alberta believe they are "above the law" and need to lose badly if only to prove to them it can happen and that winning is not a given in a democracy, at least it shouldn't be. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Danny Williams and what he is doing in Newfoundland even though he is a Conservative (who by the way even refers to himself as a "RED TORY") It doesn't matter what political stripe you are all governments need to realize that there isn't just a financial deficit in Alberta, there is a social deficit that needs to be paid. When I hear people talk about "lazy overpaid unionized teachers" it makes me want to vomit because I have witnessed first hand how hard the vast majority of our teachers work. During the school year the classroom isn't the only place they work, they work on lesson plans at home for hours, they coach our children's sports, teach them music and earn every sent they get. I am not a teacher myself but know several educators who are wonderful hardworking people. In the end you can sit back and say I am impossible but in the end you are no different, the difference is you say that "you can be reasoned with" well so can I but we think differently and always will about a governments role in society. That doesn't make you or me wrong, just different.

[Hydraboss]

Before you spout off about teachers (the useless twits that they are), do some informed reading:

Teachers pay

As long as you plan on retiring in your own province, you are a visitor. Your politics make you an outsider whether or not you want to believe it. Those of us that have been here since the beginning know what eastern Canada did to our province, and that will never be forgotten. If you want to do something truly good for the people of Alberta...abstain from voting. Your style of government will only serve to turn this province into what you "ran from" when you moved here. You are very similar to the immigrant that leaves their homeland for (insert reason here) and flees to Canada only to attempt to recreate the problem in the new country.

We need Kwebek-style provincial immigration laws in this province.

[Bayman35]

Before you spout off about teachers (the useless twits that they are), do some informed reading:

Teachers pay

As long as you plan on retiring in your own province, you are a visitor. Your politics make you an outsider whether or not you want to believe it. Those of us that have been here since the beginning know what eastern Canada did to our province, and that will never be forgotten. If you want to do something truly good for the people of Alberta...abstain from voting. Your style of government will only serve to turn this province into what you "ran from" when you moved here. You are very similar to the immigrant that leaves their homeland for (insert reason here) and flees to Canada only to attempt to recreate the problem in the new country.

We need Kwebek-style provincial immigration laws in this province.

Sounds to me like the only useless twit around here is you, how I've had it explained to me by someone other then Global News or looking at a Collective Agreement (because one learns when working with collective agreements that there is the letter of the law and then what actually happens) You call your reading informed thats like me saying I just looked at some statistics from the Pembina and Parkland Institutes and now I know everything I need to about a certain topic. When they say reduced to 25 hours they mean "in class" time. There are several tasks an educator performs throughout the course of the day that don't involve being directly in a classroom.

What exactly do you think the rising Canadian dollar is doing to the manufacturing basin in southern Ontario? Its evaporating because oil prices are driving our dollar up to the point where its no longer beneficial for U.S. based multi-nationals to do business here unless they are hauling oil out of the ground. You are not a citizen of Alberta you are a CANADIAN citizen the end. Wherever I choose to retire it will be in CANADA and I am not a guest in my own country. I don't tend to think as provincially as most of you red necks out here do. I didn't run from Newfoundland I was brought here by my parents when I was eight. Its not like there is some atrocity going on out on the east coast that I had to seek asylum from or my parents for that matter. You make it sound like it was the Conservatives that planted the oil here and are harvesting it themselves and that being Conservative is what made this province rich, give your head a shake Alberta's economy rises and falls with the price of oil the end, what the Conservatives implement in policy has (frank) all to do with it. That's right I am here to recreate Newfoundland in Alberta, do you actually listen to yourself? Newfoundland's books are finally balanced do to the fact that we are taking royalties from Hibernia not because of some miracle on high from Danny Billions. No matter how much you want this political wasteland known as Alberta to be a country it ISN"T. It is in a country called Canada whether you like it or not because Saint Lougheed signed the 82' constitution or was that Dumb Getty the football player now there was a brilliant man. You can't have an immigration policy because you are JUST A PROVINCE the end.

Oh and don't count on me leaving anytime soon, my work will be finished when we get rid of these Conservatives once and for all by outnumbering them through attrition and then you can move where you should really be THE UNITED STATES, the vast majority of Canadians don't agree with you or your cohorts and thank god for that. We are making headway in Alberta and it won't stop, we will keep coming in wave after wave until these traditional Conservative/Libertarian notions have been quelled. The best part is all of you know, and deep down inside it lights a fire in my heart to know that you all feel helpless to prevent it. Don't worry because as much as you hate my politics and ideology you can look in a mirror and see those same feelings coming right back at you from our side. You wanna break out the ideological axe and start swinging then have at it Hydrant because people like you don't make me feel intimidated, bad or worse, you inspire me to double my efforts until you and your libertarian ideology is swept away under a tide of social democracy!!!

[Hydraboss]

Sounds to me like the only useless twit around here is you

I see that insults are the last vestige of the truly stupid.

So you're still having problems reading, eh? Couldn't make it through the thread? Sorry about all the big words like "CBA". If you actually read the thread you would see the extent of my knowledge concerning the ATA CBA's (especially the part's I learned from Global!) My facts are indisputable and provable. Are yours?

What exactly do you think the rising Canadian dollar is doing to the manufacturing basin in southern Ontario?

What gave you the idea that anyone out here cares?

You are not a citizen of Alberta you are a CANADIAN citizen the end.

Wrong. I'm an Albertan.

I didn't run from Newfoundland I was brought here by my parents when I was eight.

My mistake. Your parents were the refugees.

Newfoundland's books are finally balanced do to the fact that we are taking royalties from Hibernia

Newfoundland's books have been balanced for years because of transfer theft from hard working Albertans and Ontarians.

You can't have an immigration policy because you are JUST A PROVINCE the end.

Is that so, Oh Mighty Smart One? Would you like to explain to Kwebek that their immigration policy doesn't exist?

and then you can move where you should really be THE UNITED STATES

That's already in the works.

then have at it Hydrant

Hey Posit! Been a while!

you inspire me to double my efforts until you and your libertarian ideology is swept away under a tide of social democracy communism!!!

If I inspire you, you're not the first, but you're welcome.

Bayman35 (are you going to change your screen name to Bayman36 next year?),

It is weak-minded individuals like you that the provincial Tories are counting on. The more you speak, the more people like me (and there are a lot of them in Alberta) become willing to vote PC just to prevent the socialists from taking power. Listen Little Trudeau, finish what you're doing in my province and then GO HOME. In case you haven't noticed, people of this province don't want you here. Not Newfoundlanders (they're fine), just socialists like you; our province has been doing fine without your politics for a very long time.

[Bayman35]

I see that insults are the last vestige of the truly stupid.

So you're still having problems reading, eh? Couldn't make it through the thread? Sorry about all the big words like "CBA". If you actually read the thread you would see the extent of my knowledge concerning the ATA CBA's (especially the part's I learned from Global!) My facts are indisputable and provable. Are yours?

What gave you the idea that anyone out here cares?

Wrong. I'm an Albertan.

My mistake. Your parents were the refugees.

Newfoundland's books have been balanced for years because of transfer theft from hard working Albertans and Ontarians.

Is that so, Oh Mighty Smart One? Would you like to explain to Kwebek that their immigration policy doesn't exist?

That's already in the works.

Hey Posit! Been a while!

If I inspire you, you're not the first, but you're welcome.

Bayman35 (are you going to change your screen name to Bayman36 next year?),

It is weak-minded individuals like you that the provincial Tories are counting on. The more you speak, the more people like me (and there are a lot of them in Alberta) become willing to vote PC just to prevent the socialists from taking power. Listen Little Trudeau, finish what you're doing in my province and then GO HOME. In case you haven't noticed, people of this province don't want you here. Not Newfoundlanders (they're fine), just socialists like you; our province has been doing fine without your politics for a very long time.

Insults are the last vestige of the truly stupid? Your are the one that called teachers lazy twits not me you threw the first stone so I hurled back and you call me stupid? Wow take look at yourself because you seem to be a walking contradiction. To sit here and say you are only an "Albertan" is just as week minded fool. Your facts are indisputable? I would say there are many a teacher who would dispute your facts all day.Quebecs policy of immigration exists because they didn't sign the constitution in 82, your separatist buddy Renee Levesque didn't sign it so they don't have to abide by it oh smart one, or are you capable of reading and analyzing such as hard read as the constitution of Canada? You might not make it through some of the big words and clauses. Alberta signed that constitution knowing full well that there were equalization payments right in the document and you still signed on the dotted line so Newfoundlands apparent balancing of the boks off your back was something Alberta signed up for because they realize they are CANADIANS. It is weak minded simply provincial thinkers like yourself that are like dinosaurs finding a nice pasture to die in. Can I prove that a teacher does more in a day then inclass work? That is just as stupid a question. Oh and sorry about using the word immigration I'll stay clear away from pontificated it they might be difficult to comprehend. Whoops there I go again. Oh and I am out here and I care about the southern manufacturing basin in southern Ontario because I am a Canadian not a Newfoundlander or an Albertan. Oh and you are right about the good old days, back in the earnest manning era someone like yourself would have been a great candidate for sterilization! Oh and your parties agenda is already being hijacked by us socialists and we won't stop there, do to immigration eventually we will outnumber native Albertans and gone by the wayside will your Conservative ideology be along with your current way of life. It's too late for the truly conservative out here your ways will be gone like I said through attrition oh you understand that right? Then we socialists will have our way and life will be just like that pinko CBC network like it always should have been LOL Oh and thanks for the transfer payments, get ready to shell out more and pay for my cousins healthcare, already feel like the power in your group is slipping through your finger, thats because it is and I love being a part of it, every socialist ounce of me. How does that make you feel?

[Bayman35]

I see that insults are the last vestige of the truly stupid.

So you're still having problems reading, eh? Couldn't make it through the thread? Sorry about all the big words like "CBA". If you actually read the thread you would see the extent of my knowledge concerning the ATA CBA's (especially the part's I learned from Global!) My facts are indisputable and provable. Are yours?

What gave you the idea that anyone out here cares?

Wrong. I'm an Albertan.

My mistake. Your parents were the refugees.

Newfoundland's books have been balanced for years because of transfer theft from hard working Albertans and Ontarians.

Is that so, Oh Mighty Smart One? Would you like to explain to Kwebek that their immigration policy doesn't exist?

That's already in the works.

Hey Posit! Been a while!

If I inspire you, you're not the first, but you're welcome.

Bayman35 (are you going to change your screen name to Bayman36 next year?),

It is weak-minded individuals like you that the provincial Tories are counting on. The more you speak, the more people like me (and there are a lot of them in Alberta) become willing to vote PC just to prevent the socialists from taking power. Listen Little Trudeau, finish what you're doing in my province and then GO HOME. In case you haven't noticed, people of this province don't want you here. Not Newfoundlanders (they're fine), just socialists like you; our province has been doing fine without your politics for a very long time.

Oh and I am home its called CANADA!!!

[fellowtraveller]

God I would love to see the Liberals in a minority government with the NDP as the swing vote LOL then your red neck ass would be searching the shelves for a noose to hang yourself.

Sorry to bring you the bad news, but todays polls have the Liberals at 18% and the NDP at 5%.

[Bayman35]

Sorry to bring you the bad news, but todays polls have the Liberals at 18% and the NDP at 5%.

That is because the opposition parties here are bereft. That and ever since I started watching the democratic primaries I have began to realize how polling is not all its cracked up to be

[oreodontist]

A Liberal Minority and NDP balance?

Ha! Ha!

It will be a big Conservative sweep. Bigger than last time.

[kimmy]

The Liberals will not have a chance of unseating the PC party until they get rid of Kevin Taft as leader. The guy is a dud the size of the Colossus of Rhodes.

-k

[oreodontist]

The Liberals will not have a chance of unseating the PC party until they get rid of Kevin Taft as leader. The guy is a dud the size of the Colossus of Rhodes.

-k

It's not the leader. The Libs have had a dozen leaders. The NDP have had a dozen leaders.

The Libs don't listen to the population. They keep pandering to the same niche constituency. They speak about housing issues, food banks, the homeless, more money for this and more for that. In the meantime the vast majority of Albertans have good wages, good accomodation, etc. and want to know what the Libs are going to do for them....usually not much at all. The Libs are doomed as long as they keep focusing in on what's wrong. There just isn't a big enough pool of malcontents. Life is really good for most Albertans and most Albertans have earned that lifestyle though ingenuity and hard work. You can't appeal to the voters who move here from outside the provice by preaching gloom. What voters see is job opportunities everywhere, a good education system, health care etc. 'compared' to where they came from. That Lib approach won't work now and hasn't worked in the last dozen elections. Won't work in the next dozen.

[Bayman35]

It's not the leader. The Libs have had a dozen leaders. The NDP have had a dozen leaders.

The Libs don't listen to the population. They keep pandering to the same niche constituency. They speak about housing issues, food banks, the homeless, more money for this and more for that. In the meantime the vast majority of Albertans have good wages, good accomodation, etc. and want to know what the Libs are going to do for them....usually not much at all. The Libs are doomed as long as they keep focusing in on what's wrong. There just isn't a big enough pool of malcontents. Life is really good for most Albertans and most Albertans have earned that lifestyle though ingenuity and hard work. You can't appeal to the voters who move here from outside the provice by preaching gloom. What voters see is job opportunities everywhere, a good education system, health care etc. 'compared' to where they came from. That Lib approach won't work now and hasn't worked in the last dozen elections. Won't work in the next dozen.

You are right on that one, I am an ardent NDP member and a socialist for that matter but the rhetoric put out by the Libs/ND's is the same tired rhetoric. That and Alberta traditionally has one of the lowest voter turnouts in Canada come election time. Even I recognize that the focal point for our party needs to change from its current form. The party needs to step more realistically towards the middle ground. However gone are the days of the Peter Lougheeds, and Grant Notleys of Alberta politics, welcome to the era if leaders on all sides as interesting as a headwound

[oreodontist]

I lean to the right on most fiscal issues but am more liberal on social issues. I would like to have a change of government, Liberal or otherwise just to clean house. BUT. Not this Liberal party. They don't represent much else other than 'anti-this and anti-that'.

Most Albertans are from somewhere else. What the Liberals should appeal to is social liberalism Call the bluff of the fundies on the right of the Conservatives. In contrast, going after the economy, when 25 year olds are driving 45 dollar thousand pick ups, just won't wash. Even if the economy was in the dumps, few would expect the Liberals to do a better job managing the province's finanaces.

Also, after generations of getting nowhere under the 'Liberal label, it's time for a middle party to reinvent itelf. Something along the lines of the Saskatchewan Party but more centrist. I know lots of folks who who are 'liberal' in values but, as Albertans, will never put an 'X' beside any large 'L' Liberal on a ballot.

[fellowtraveller]

I lean to the right on most fiscal issues but am more liberal on social issues. I would like to have a change of government, Liberal or otherwise just to clean house. BUT. Not this Liberal party. They don't represent much else other than 'anti-this and anti-that'.

Most Albertans are from somewhere else. What the Liberals should appeal to is social liberalism Call the bluff of the fundies on the right of the Conservatives. In contrast, going after the economy, when 25 year olds are driving 45 dollar thousand pick ups, just won't wash. Even if the economy was in the dumps, few would expect the Liberals to do a better job managing the province's finanaces.

Also, after generations of getting nowhere under the 'Liberal label, it's time for a middle party to reinvent itelf. Something along the lines of the Saskatchewan Party but more centrist. I know lots of folks who who are 'liberal' in values but, as Albertans, will never put an 'X' beside any large 'L' Liberal on a ballot.

Your post misses a very major point.

The Tories are a centrist party, that is how they are elected time and time again.

People with little actual knowledge of Alberta like to refer to it as a clump of rednecks, but the middle is as powerful here as anywhere in Canada, the only difference being they vote the center. The Tories.

Proof? The 'fundies' took another savage beating when Stelmach was elected. They are seeking a home, perhaps with the Wild Rose, who will be fortunate to keep their only seat.

There is no reason at all to invent any centrist party, it runs the place now.

[oreodontist]

Your post misses a very major point.

The Tories are a centrist party, that is how they are elected time and time again.

People with little actual knowledge of Alberta like to refer to it as a clump of rednecks, but the middle is as powerful here as anywhere in Canada, the only difference being they vote the center. The Tories.

Proof? The 'fundies' took another savage beating when Stelmach was elected. They are seeking a home, perhaps with the Wild Rose, who will be fortunate to keep their only seat.

There is no reason at all to invent any centrist party, it runs the place now.

That's true.

We have two centrist parties federally. I'm not wanting something a lot different provincially but rather an alternative. Not so much for ideology but rather as a way of housecleaning and keeping the guys in power on their toes. I really don't care what party wins as much as what they stand for and if they have fresh faces. The PCs in Alnerta are stale and smug...the Liberals are a mishmash of negativism and not tuned into the working guy.

The PCs are a shoe-in in my riding. I'd vote PC if the Liberals were close but they aren't. I'll park my vote next week with the Greens (if they are even on the ballot?).

[Bayman35]

I think the current Tories in Alberta would be center right. The thing about this province that bothers me more then anything is why is voter turnout the lowest in the country. I could swallow 45 years of the Conservatives if more then 70% of eligible voters actually showed up to the polls. I still maintain though that change in government is a good thing in regards to holding the government at hand accountable to the people. I would say that 37 years of Liberals, ND's, or Conservatives is not a healthy thing. Saskatchewan lost their NDP government and even though I support the party I will say it was a healthy thing because now the ND's there realize they can't take things for granted. Gary Doer has done something with the NDP party that alot of the party elite don't like but something that has kept him in office. He brought the Manitoba party towards the center. He has been the most realistic NDP leader in Canada. People trust him and he hasn't violated that trust. What I worry about more then anything in Alberta is value-added jobs. We have a tremendous boom going on right now that has generated 140,000 jobs in construction alone. What worries me is when even right wing institutes such as Deloitte and Touche (very conservative accounting firm (forgive spelling not to sure) comes out and says "at Albert's current rate of development we are afraid that the pace might create an environment that is unsustainable). We have a consortium of large oil producers ask our government to slow down just a short while ago and still they won't even tap the brakes. More importantly what happens when the plants are built and the "construction boom" is over? Right now the national energy board has approved the "keystone" and "alberta clipper" pipelines that will have the capacity to ship 3 million barrels of raw bitumen to refineries that are "re-tooling" as we speak in several states in the US. We need to be making more of that money here in Alberta. Husky oil had a chance to be a leader in this and upgrade their refinery in Lloydminster to handle the bitumen from their mega-project in the Fort Mac area but instead abandoned it for shipping to the US instead. When Asked by the NEB how many value added jobs this refining would add in Alberta after the construction boom is over the oil companies admitted it would create 18,000 well-paid jobs in Alberta, when asked how many well-paid jobs would be created if we ship the capacity of these pipelines down to the US the answer was 17! This is what worries me as much as homelessness, Seniors, rent rates or anything else.

[Topaz]

I'm wondering if the 279,000 new people who moved there will be able to vote and if so how will they. I heard on the news that the Conservatives may be done this time around.

[Hydraboss]

The only real debate in this province is whether the PC's get a minority or a majority. Chances are there will be leadership reviews like crazy next month.

The real fun will be watching the NDP get their communist socialist asses beaten by the Wildrose Alliance party. There's actually a pool at work ($5 to get in; I'm in for $10).

Monday will be fun.