Thank you Markham. I agree with your analysis. I would add a few other points because the media has not covered this either.
Firstly, I strongly believe Danielle Smith is a separatist, and gone back to her Wild Rose roots. But in order to further her objective she could not just "separate" as that has no real-world likelihood of success - an independent Alberta is not viable, never was. But, a former Alberta, now American state, absorbed into the USA does have a chance. I believe Smith has taken some sort of advance deposit/payment for delivering Alberta to Trump as a real-estate deal. She cares nothing for Canada, or Canadians, or even Albertans. This is her money ticket. Every move she's made for two years is to undermine, and weaken the country. Every move she's made in the past 16 months furthers this agenda, despite having the most PRO Prime Minister to Alberta's interests in power and willing to work with Alberta. She still calls a referendum. David Parker and the separatists are bought and paid for by the USA MAGA. Period.
Secondly, the hard right in the USA as far as the Christian nationalists are heavily at play here as well. There are churches in Alberta and elsewhere which espouse separatist leanings. For these people there is also an ideology at play here and they are working hard to enact this and separate. Pastor Doug Wilson who is close with Trump and Hegseth has openly talked about Alberta separatism, and pushing for this. He's also stated publicly that if the referendum does not work they will have to use stronger acts on Canadian soil to liberate Alberta. Read that again, this is outright threats of war against Canada. And this must be investigated, and punished.
When my dad passed away several years ago, I inherited some of his books, including 'The Blue-Eyed Sheiks' and 'Arctic Dreams', Barry Lopez. They were topical books in their time and commemorative to me: he was directly involved in the Arctic Drilling Project in the Bearing Sea led by Dome Petroleum. I was first employed in the Alberta oil patch in 1975, so I knew something about what those books discussed and the history they reflected.
I believe the term 'blue-eyed sheiks' has been corrupted from its original meaning: It was originally an epithet cast by negotiators in Ottawa, Bay Street and NY to refer to the Lougheed government, representing the Province of Alberta, fiercely guarding the interests of the resource owners (the people of Alberta) from predatory practices of both the Canadian and US governments and world financial markets. The Lougheed government had some pretty sharp negotiators and their adversaries discovered that Albertans weren't the unsophisticated redneck hillbillies they expected to meet. They expressed their resentment and new-found respect by calling Alberta 'blue-eyed sheiks' because of their exceptional bargaining skills.
I mourn the days when Alberta was represented by educated, responsible stewards of our vast potential for the good of ALL THE PEOPLE OF ALBERTA.
I look with horror on the decline of that highly principled leadership into the stinking sewer of our the current Unfortunate Christian Party provincial government led by a jumped-up Tik-Tok influencer and a cohort of sycophants and grifters. They are pursuing nothing more than personal enrichment and attention-seeking in pursuit of their next gig. Danielle Smith is an airhead whose only significant accomplishment is self-promotion. She is famous-for-being-famous. There's no substance underneath that shallow, superficial performance. Some days, I despair.
So Danielle Smith is a Kardashian? That would explain allot.
And yes Peter Lougheed and the Conservative Party back then had the skills and tough nosed negotiating skills. But successive ‘conservative’ politicians like Ralph Klein and Jason Kenny blew through the Alberta Heritage Fund like drunken sailors on shore leave. They set a fine pattern of running the government into the ground.
And the missing element that has not been addressed is that in the 1980’s, large numbers of managers, executives, engineers and specialists were imported from Texas to build up the oil and gas industry, most of whom settled in Calgary. And they brought their ‘unique’ brands of politics and fundamentalist Christian theology, and all the trappings that those come with. Now we have a few select Albertans who have a dream of making Alberta into ‘Texas North’.
The majority of the farming and ranching operations hate the way the oil industry has been given unrestricted access to wells on their land, and have left tens of thousands of orphaned wells behind, with no schedule to even begin to start the clean up.
Follow the money. It leads from wealthy US speculators who see Alberta as another territory they can buy and strip of everything. And the Alberta separatists are just their useful idiots.
Now PM Carney has begun the first step, and taken away the separatist’s loudest whine about pipelines, and Danielle Smith is trying to keep up. She’s playing checkers and he’s playing Go. I wonder how that will end?
It is a shame we couldn’t just sit down with as many Albertans as possible, toss some steaks on the grill, crack a few beers and just talk. The UCP probably has that ruled out in some omnibus bill.
Oil superpowers extract a high grade liquid product from the ground and transport it to a refinery. Alberta digs up the oil sand, steams it, separates the low grade bitumen from the “sand”, stores the polluted water in tailings ponds, and transports the low value bitumen to a refinery. This is not a process that supports becoming an oil superpower.
While I agree with the blue eyed sheik theory, I don’t believe it tells the whole story. Equally influential in the movement are the white Christian nationalists who year and for a country made up of only Christians and only white skinned people. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an appetite in the media to really dig into this angle.
Thanks for the info. I don't know any separatists so I wasn't aware of this.
I have the following question: Do the separatists not know about looming climate chaos or do they not care or do they not believe the science?
All of these three scenarios suggest that we not allow them to proceed. Democracy depends, in part, on a certain amount of concern for the common good. It does not depend on naked greed.
What I don't hear any comments about is how much the Canadian taxpayers have contributed towards the existing pipeline. With that in mind, how can Alberta claim that the federal government hasn't given them any support? If another pipeline is viable, who is going to subsidize it ? If Alberta separates, I very much doubt that BC. will be any easier to deal with.
Not just the existing pipeline, but we should also talk about how much federal funding when into the oil sands. That would never have got to this level of production without federal funding from the 1990s on, if not earlier. Make no mistake the oil sands wouldn’t exist without federal funding from Canada. Alberta politicians love to leave those little details out of the picture of false prosecution they pain for the angry and gullible.
Well said! Danielle Smith and the stupid oil Ceo's are to stupid to seek a Pipeline of lest resistance first! Churchhill is the path to lest resistance! Even tough fossil fuels is dying molecule!
Bang on Markham. There is nothing redeeming about the well-heeled Petroleum Club establishment’s drive to hold tight to power and wealth with no regard for environmental costs of abandoned wells and polluted groundwater, or the social harms that come with mega-salaries. Somewhere along the way to becoming an economic powerhouse, Alberta became an ethically soulless community.
It is jumping out now...trump takes Venezuela for the OIL....he supports and perhaps organizes the Alberta Separatists to cripple Canada and take their OIL..he starts a war he would have been well warned against with blocking the straight of Hormuz which Constricts OIL for the Globe and he tells MSB he should 'kiss his ass' and he had better be 'nice to him ' is that because he is INTENTIONALLY MANIPULATING the entire Global Oil supply and Saudi will get very rich too ???? Something is UP I can smell it....there is a reason trump started and continues the war...he 'talks ' peace talks ' and then bombs too.......and Jarid Kushner is the financial rapist in charge of the 'Peace (financial rape) negotiations' ......something very nefarious is going on I can feel it . And will it become obvious too late ???
Thank you Markham. I agree with your analysis. I would add a few other points because the media has not covered this either.
Firstly, I strongly believe Danielle Smith is a separatist, and gone back to her Wild Rose roots. But in order to further her objective she could not just "separate" as that has no real-world likelihood of success - an independent Alberta is not viable, never was. But, a former Alberta, now American state, absorbed into the USA does have a chance. I believe Smith has taken some sort of advance deposit/payment for delivering Alberta to Trump as a real-estate deal. She cares nothing for Canada, or Canadians, or even Albertans. This is her money ticket. Every move she's made for two years is to undermine, and weaken the country. Every move she's made in the past 16 months furthers this agenda, despite having the most PRO Prime Minister to Alberta's interests in power and willing to work with Alberta. She still calls a referendum. David Parker and the separatists are bought and paid for by the USA MAGA. Period.
Secondly, the hard right in the USA as far as the Christian nationalists are heavily at play here as well. There are churches in Alberta and elsewhere which espouse separatist leanings. For these people there is also an ideology at play here and they are working hard to enact this and separate. Pastor Doug Wilson who is close with Trump and Hegseth has openly talked about Alberta separatism, and pushing for this. He's also stated publicly that if the referendum does not work they will have to use stronger acts on Canadian soil to liberate Alberta. Read that again, this is outright threats of war against Canada. And this must be investigated, and punished.
When my dad passed away several years ago, I inherited some of his books, including 'The Blue-Eyed Sheiks' and 'Arctic Dreams', Barry Lopez. They were topical books in their time and commemorative to me: he was directly involved in the Arctic Drilling Project in the Bearing Sea led by Dome Petroleum. I was first employed in the Alberta oil patch in 1975, so I knew something about what those books discussed and the history they reflected.
I believe the term 'blue-eyed sheiks' has been corrupted from its original meaning: It was originally an epithet cast by negotiators in Ottawa, Bay Street and NY to refer to the Lougheed government, representing the Province of Alberta, fiercely guarding the interests of the resource owners (the people of Alberta) from predatory practices of both the Canadian and US governments and world financial markets. The Lougheed government had some pretty sharp negotiators and their adversaries discovered that Albertans weren't the unsophisticated redneck hillbillies they expected to meet. They expressed their resentment and new-found respect by calling Alberta 'blue-eyed sheiks' because of their exceptional bargaining skills.
I mourn the days when Alberta was represented by educated, responsible stewards of our vast potential for the good of ALL THE PEOPLE OF ALBERTA.
I look with horror on the decline of that highly principled leadership into the stinking sewer of our the current Unfortunate Christian Party provincial government led by a jumped-up Tik-Tok influencer and a cohort of sycophants and grifters. They are pursuing nothing more than personal enrichment and attention-seeking in pursuit of their next gig. Danielle Smith is an airhead whose only significant accomplishment is self-promotion. She is famous-for-being-famous. There's no substance underneath that shallow, superficial performance. Some days, I despair.
So Danielle Smith is a Kardashian? That would explain allot.
And yes Peter Lougheed and the Conservative Party back then had the skills and tough nosed negotiating skills. But successive ‘conservative’ politicians like Ralph Klein and Jason Kenny blew through the Alberta Heritage Fund like drunken sailors on shore leave. They set a fine pattern of running the government into the ground.
And the missing element that has not been addressed is that in the 1980’s, large numbers of managers, executives, engineers and specialists were imported from Texas to build up the oil and gas industry, most of whom settled in Calgary. And they brought their ‘unique’ brands of politics and fundamentalist Christian theology, and all the trappings that those come with. Now we have a few select Albertans who have a dream of making Alberta into ‘Texas North’.
The majority of the farming and ranching operations hate the way the oil industry has been given unrestricted access to wells on their land, and have left tens of thousands of orphaned wells behind, with no schedule to even begin to start the clean up.
Follow the money. It leads from wealthy US speculators who see Alberta as another territory they can buy and strip of everything. And the Alberta separatists are just their useful idiots.
Now PM Carney has begun the first step, and taken away the separatist’s loudest whine about pipelines, and Danielle Smith is trying to keep up. She’s playing checkers and he’s playing Go. I wonder how that will end?
It is a shame we couldn’t just sit down with as many Albertans as possible, toss some steaks on the grill, crack a few beers and just talk. The UCP probably has that ruled out in some omnibus bill.
Oil superpowers extract a high grade liquid product from the ground and transport it to a refinery. Alberta digs up the oil sand, steams it, separates the low grade bitumen from the “sand”, stores the polluted water in tailings ponds, and transports the low value bitumen to a refinery. This is not a process that supports becoming an oil superpower.
While I agree with the blue eyed sheik theory, I don’t believe it tells the whole story. Equally influential in the movement are the white Christian nationalists who year and for a country made up of only Christians and only white skinned people. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an appetite in the media to really dig into this angle.
Agreed. The UCP is just the Reform Party on steroids.
Thanks for the info. I don't know any separatists so I wasn't aware of this.
I have the following question: Do the separatists not know about looming climate chaos or do they not care or do they not believe the science?
All of these three scenarios suggest that we not allow them to proceed. Democracy depends, in part, on a certain amount of concern for the common good. It does not depend on naked greed.
All of the above. It’s a stupid premise led by stupid people 🤷♀️
Thanks. I suspected as much.
They also don’t pay attention to the rise of electrification and how that will affect oil demand.
As a man said. "Oil and gas is not a culture. "
Greed, profits and Neoliberalism.
What I don't hear any comments about is how much the Canadian taxpayers have contributed towards the existing pipeline. With that in mind, how can Alberta claim that the federal government hasn't given them any support? If another pipeline is viable, who is going to subsidize it ? If Alberta separates, I very much doubt that BC. will be any easier to deal with.
Not just the existing pipeline, but we should also talk about how much federal funding when into the oil sands. That would never have got to this level of production without federal funding from the 1990s on, if not earlier. Make no mistake the oil sands wouldn’t exist without federal funding from Canada. Alberta politicians love to leave those little details out of the picture of false prosecution they pain for the angry and gullible.
Well said! Danielle Smith and the stupid oil Ceo's are to stupid to seek a Pipeline of lest resistance first! Churchhill is the path to lest resistance! Even tough fossil fuels is dying molecule!
Bang on Markham. There is nothing redeeming about the well-heeled Petroleum Club establishment’s drive to hold tight to power and wealth with no regard for environmental costs of abandoned wells and polluted groundwater, or the social harms that come with mega-salaries. Somewhere along the way to becoming an economic powerhouse, Alberta became an ethically soulless community.
Or this risks of making the wrong bet on oil demand. What are the risks if oil demand falls?
It is jumping out now...trump takes Venezuela for the OIL....he supports and perhaps organizes the Alberta Separatists to cripple Canada and take their OIL..he starts a war he would have been well warned against with blocking the straight of Hormuz which Constricts OIL for the Globe and he tells MSB he should 'kiss his ass' and he had better be 'nice to him ' is that because he is INTENTIONALLY MANIPULATING the entire Global Oil supply and Saudi will get very rich too ???? Something is UP I can smell it....there is a reason trump started and continues the war...he 'talks ' peace talks ' and then bombs too.......and Jarid Kushner is the financial rapist in charge of the 'Peace (financial rape) negotiations' ......something very nefarious is going on I can feel it . And will it become obvious too late ???
Yup.
Pipelines...but if the subject is bitumen oil, is there enough refining capacity?!