dbd33

No great surprise there, but who will be the next leader of the Canadian Conservatives?

Almost Canadian

Peter Mackay or Michelle Rempel

dbd33

Oooh, a sensible choice. Perhaps David Orchard could also run.

Scheer's stealing to pay for a Christian school is just wonderful. No good comes of religion.

Oakvillian

Yes. Makes a bunch of sense. Having an Atlantic Canadian at the helm may help to defuse some of the Western Canadian rhetoric, and stop Kenney from whinging quite so loudly about how desperately unfair everything is. Plus, Mackay has an actual personality.

I'd have liked to see Lisa Raitt take a shot, too, but she'd not only have to fight a by-election (as would Mackay, of course), but she is dealing with some serious family crap as her husband was recently diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimers, so it's unlikely she'll be keen to get back into front line politics right now.

Almost Canadian

I agree with this. I stated Rempel simply as a curve ball.

Kenney will not stop whining, as that is his job. It would appear from comments on this site that those east of Alberta simply don't understand how pissed off Albertans feel about the lack of support shown by those in power for the economic situation in Alberta. But, back on topic ...

PMM

Hi

1. Rona Ambrose

Oakvillian

Oh, absolutely. I don't suggest he will (or should, indeed) stop whining. But perhaps he won't get quite so much encouragement from his federal counterparts. His party is not in power at federal level. He, and Alberta, would I suggest be much better served by constructive discussion with the Feds and their neighbours to the west, rather than shouting at everyone about how unfair it all is. Alberta's resource economy is in the toilet - we all understand that. But it won't emerge from the squalid and stinky mess it's in until the provincial government stops trying to pretend the problem can be solved by magically going back to some mythical time in the past.

Edo

How is religion responsible for a bad follower who chooses to go against it?

dbd33

He's not going against Christianity. He embodies Christianity; oppressing people of other genders and orientations, counting his family so much more valuable than other people that it justifies stealing from others. He could be Joel Osteen or Jerry Falwell. Not that I particularly disdain Christianity, the Jihadi acceptance of suicide bombing, for example, is equally bad. One irrational view is as bonkers as the other.

BristolUK

I read a report in our local paper yesteerday that was all about resignation "in the aftermath of the election defeat." But the school fees did get a small mention with a spokesperson saying it was nothing to do with that and that it had all been signed off by relevant people as a relocation expense with school fees being higher following the move. All perfectly normal apparently.

So the fact that he gave a recent speech in which he looked forward to continuing as party leader and then the "abrupt resignation announcement" (as the same report put it) following the revelation was obviously just coincidence.

.

Photoplex

A thousands times this.

dbd33

Isn't the situation in Alberta about the same as in Newfoundland; a resource based economy that booms or busts according to the demand for the resources? In Newfoundland they caught all the fish and cut down all the trees so the population had to move to Alberta to dig holes in the ground. In Alberta they dug in the tar sands and made a huge mess and then electricity came along and the world moved on from dirty oil. People can't expect to be able to live long term in the oil patch any more than they can mining coal in Pennsylvania or Uranium in Colorado. Supporting people living in Alberta is like supporting people living on an Indian Reservation, politically it might be desirable but economically it makes no sense.

Almost Canadian

When the world no longer has a need for oil I imagine that Alberta's economy will be based upon items similar to those in the rest of Canada. In the meantime, rather than importing oil and have it arrive via tankers, Albertans simply proposes that those in Canada that allow the importation of such oil, agree to have such oil delivered from Alberta and other Provinces via pipeline.

dbd33

Little as I know of the issue, isn't it the case that:

- the Alberta oil isn't equivalent in grade to the imported oil, it's cheaper to refine the imported oil. If there's a war in the middle east, or the end of Trump, then Alberta oil might be viable again.
- the Trudeau government supports the contentious pipeline but the public do not.

?

Obviously, if one is not in Alberta, then NIYBY considerations apply; there's little support for environmental destruction anywhere in Canada by people elsewhere in Canada. However, Trudeau is not anti-pipeline and this seems to me to be support for Alberta by the people in power.

magnumpi