Erin O'Toole Under Fire
- Thread starter Nick Danger
- Start date
That is not where Canada’s problems lie . Quebec’s control of the bureaucracy and their disproportionate vote share is the bigger issue . We have Alberta and Saskatchewan feeling , not without good reason , they are left out .
I have to admit I'm largely uninformed about the political situation in Quebec. My first instinct is that they get coddled by the feds just because of the potential they have to make a big mess of things at a time when we have more important stuff on our plate. The Alberta/Saskatchewan situation is interesting though. It's no coincidence that both of those provinces are at the heart of Canada's petro-resource picture, and that sector is in the midst of a shit storm of politics right now, and a lot of that is bad politics. Bad politics in the form of politicians who see a path to power by stirring up anger and resentment among the voters, because they know better than anyone that an angry voter is not a thinking voter. Also interesting that the CPC is losing ground to separatist parties in those provinces, which in the end isn't going to accomplish much more than splitting the vote and giving the Libs a shot at a majority government. That would not be a good thing in my mind.
Agree to a point. The current state of things has been fifty or sixty years in the making, it's not going to be an overnight thing to correct.
The politicians stirring up anger and resentment in Alberta and Saskatchewan are all based east of Manitoba. The Laurentian elete, that includes members of both parties are deathly afraid of an independent west because that is the golden egg that they are busy trying to break.
You won't see a Lib lead in the first place in the West or gain ground. Protest votes in sure Con ridings speaks volumes not to Libs but to the Cons.
I doubt a separatist movement would ever succeed in breaking up the country, but like Quebec they have the potential to waste a lot of important time. The oil & gas sector is an easy target for those trying to stir up drama and tension because there's a lot of uncertainty in that industry right now. Jobs are disappearing and wages are dropping and what once was cash cow for many is now filed under "precarious employment". Voters love to have someone to blame, and there is no shortage of politicians willing to give then that in exchange for their vote. Truth isn't part of that equation.
That is cause for concern though. Fringe conservative parties are ticking up in Alberta and Saskatchewan, as are the NDP, but the seat projection for the coming election still shows pretty much solid blue in both provinces at present. I shudder at the thought of a Liberal majority, there really needs to be the threat of a non-confidence vote to keep them in line.
Started out good but lost it with by identifying the Conservatives as an alternative.
The west needs independent representation similar to how Quebec has chosen to have their own independent representation. It doesn't have to be a separatist movement but could be if needed to be.
There is no trust left to support the current direction of Canadian politics, Cue the revolution sooner or later.
No, I don't see a threat of separation as a legitimate concern, other than its potential as a waste of important time. I'm just going by what I have seen while working in the sector. I started there before the price crash in 2014/15 and it was a different world, everybody thought it would go on forever. Now it all "keep your head down" and hope the axe misses when it swings again. Smaller satellite business the revolve around the oil patch have been dropping like flies, and union contracts are being systematically replaced with non-union operators,something that wouldn't have happened ten years ago. Ten years ago people had nothing to worry about, now it's nothing but worry. And snake-oil salesmen politicians are the first ones to take advantage of that.
It has already started. The owners of Canada aren't happy with the handful of empty promises they were forced to sign on to.
Any insight into BHP making a move on Noront and their Ring of Fire properties?
Add that to the Jansen properties and they are significant land holders in Canada. Sad to see and not very different from the days of the fur trade.
It sure is looking that way. Lumping the Libs and the CPC together as varying degrees of center, it does look like support is shifting further away from there in both directions.
They aren't land holders. 5 Chiefs are allowing BHP to build and extract the resources at Jansen that belong to those 5 tribes.
This is happening at sites that passed out of the construction phase years ago. I've watched things progress through the oilsands starting with the richest contracts and working from there. Sure, it's just business, but the whole "Alberta Advantage" thing was founded on a promise of plentiful good jobs and tax revenue, both of which have been in decline for a decade while people like Kenney keep pouring money into a dying dream. The producers and their shareholders are doing fine, rank-and-file Albertans not so much.