The politicians are on break and so are we.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Soapbox family.
Wishing you and yours the very best for 2019!
Oh, and here’s the newest addition to the Soapbox family…meet Rudy the rescue dog!
- A commentary on political, social and cultural issues—what else would you expect from a lawyer with a degree in anthropology?
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Susan on the Soapbox 
Hi Rudy! Merry Christmas (hopefully Santa will be good to you!
Graham, we’ve been told Rudy came from Los Angeles, he’s still trying to figure out snow, let alone Santa 🙂
Merry Christmas to Susan on the Soapbox and all the Wright family! Wishing you all a very happy, successful and especially healthy 2019!
Thank you Delphine. And a Merry Christmas to you and your family as well. Hopefully we’ll be able to make it out your way in 2019 and have a proper visit!
Merry Christmas or God Jul to you too 🙂
Thank you Jesper, and a God Jul to you as well. By the way is that Danish?
Swedish actually, but Danish and Norwegian is really close and might spell the same way. 🙂
Merry Christmas (and wishing you the very best of 30 some other holidays celebrated by some seven Religions :~); and a Happy New Year to you and yours (and especially to Rudy the Rescue Dog)!!!
Terry, 30 plus celebrations, 7 plus religions, what a lovely comment, thank you!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family too! I can’t wait to meet Rudy someday and give him a BIG SQUEEZE! 😍 🐕
Thank you Linda. I think Rudy is smaller than your cats, but you can squeeze him all you want. 🙂
😍
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to the Soapbox family, and their new edition. He’s looking pretty frisky! He will be inspiring, and a good sounding board when you are writing your blogs!
Thanks Elaine, he’s sitting under my chair right now, although at this point I think we’re both brain dead–too many treats yesterday!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you and your family as well.
Oh, my! Rudy is so very cute! Nora is eager to make his aquaintance and organize some mischief together! Merry Christmas to all the Soapboxes and a happy, healthy new year!
Liane, I’m sure he and Nora would be the best of friends (like us!). Happy Hanukkah! Wishing you and your family a wonderful 2019!
Susan: I hope you and your loved ones have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I went to the Alberta Legislature, for some wonderful Christmas music. Cheers!
Dwayne, your trip to the Alberta Legislature sounds wonderful, I’ve seen pictures of the buildings all lit up, absolutely beautiful.
Merry Christmas to you and yours. Rudy is so cute! Looking forward to reading your posts in 2019!
Thanks Carol, Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones as well. I look forward to your comments in 2019!
Merry Christmas to your family and Rudy looks so happy. Look at that tail! Have a Happy New Year.
JCV: Rudy reminds me of Ozzie…small, fast and bright. Have a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
Happy Christmas!
Thank you Erin, best wishes to you and your family!
Merry Christmas to the whole family, Susan! Rudy looks like a darling!
KT
Thank you KT. Merry Christmas to you and your family! Talk to you in the New Year.
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year
2019 is going to be an interesting year I am sure
OMG Rudy is a cutie
Thanks Carlos, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well. Yes, 2019 is going to be an interesting year, thank God I can talk to you and the others on the Soapbox to help me make sense of it. 🙂
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Ms Soapbox to you and your family. Keep the great journalism coming in 2019 — something tells me we will all need to be ever vigilant! All the Best in 2019 too!
Thanks J.E. As you said we’ll need to be ever vigilant as 2019 unfolds. I suspect we’ll go into overdrive once the writ is dropped and the election is officially underway. Won’t that be fun!
Merry Christmas! Please keep up your analysis and observations! very refreshing and very informative.
Thank you Marlow. It’s a struggle sometimes not to fall into despair; comments like yours really help. All the best in 2019.
Season’s Greetings Susan,
Cute little dog!
Thank you GoinFawr, I’m looking forward to continuing our conversation in the new year.
Susan
I am sure GoinFawr, like myself, will be more than happy to continue these conversations.
We are almost in 2019 and it could turn out to be a very interesting and for some of us difficult to digest year.
Pipelines will continue on the agenda. I personally do not believe in any pipeline going to the West Coast or to the Us for reasons that to me are obvious. We do not want to continue damaging that wonderful coast and its natural richness that for some of us is way more important to our future survival than a bunch of overpaid jobs. Alberta is already a very rich province the problem is management. With a good brain and a lot of skill we would not need to be in a crisis at all. As far as pipelines to the US and more dependence on them is what we have now and the results are very clear. They take advantage of all they can and will continue to do so. So why send them more free oil, we have already paid for many of the benefits that they have especially Texas. If instead of keeping up our anger against Pierre Trudeau, we look at some of the NEP ideas, we would be certainly in a much stronger position. By the way it is better to send equalization money to Eastern Canada than billions of free money to Texas and other countries.
I agree with the construction of the pipeline to Eastern Canada. We need to look after ourselves instead of continuing our inferiority complex towards the US and develop our own self sufficiency and security.
In 2007 the smart Stephen Harper and his government including Jason Kenney were excited to control the agenda of the SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership) organized by of course the CCCE ( Canadian Council of Chief Executives) who needles to say are the CEOs of the biggest corporations in Canada and directly controlled by their Bosses in the US. They of course wanted to make sure oil exports to the US from Canada would be guaranteed to assure their security. Of course public hearings were not necessary. Peter Julian (an NDP from Vancouver) won the battle. Here is an excerpt of the introduction to his presentation by Gordon Laxer, a professor emeritus of the University of Alberta and founding director of the Parkland Institute.
‘I do not understand why is discussing helping to ensure American energy security when Canada has no energy policy, and no plans or enough pipelines to get oil to Eastern Canada during an International supply crisis… Canada is the most vulnerable member of the International Energy Agency, yet recklessly exports and higher and higher share of its oil and gas to the US. This locks Canada into a higher export share under NAFTA’s proportionality clause. Instead of guaranteeing US energy security, what about a Canadian SPP – Security Petroleum Plan for Canada ?’
We all know what the conservatives did after this start, no need to repeat the story.
In 2007 Canada imported 40% of its oil and probably still does.
Now one does not have to be a genius to understand what would be the best policy for Canada 11 years later. We could build the pipeline to Eastern Canada, stop imports, creating more jobs in Alberta and in Eastern Canada. It would raise our level of security and it would stop the US milking of our oil which would increase revenue in Alberta.
Instead of the decisions being made by American and Canadian executives dependent of American commissions, these decision would be more in line with our interests.
I doubt this will happen.
Anyway I apologize for a long message during the holidays but I wanted to start 2019 feeling good after venting.
My sincere regards to all of you and wishing a healthy 2019 with hope that we will count after all.
Note – speech taken from book ‘After the Sands’ by Gordon Laxer published in 2015
Carlos, thank you for your very informative comments. I certainly agree that with some foresight and strategic planning Alberta oil companies could have avoided the mess we’re in now. I’m not convinced they’ve learned anything. Too many of them are trying to blame someone else (usually the government) while at the same time clinging to their old business strategies in the hope that the slot machine will pay out one last time. This kind of thinking harms us all.
Thanks for the quote from Gordon Laxer’s book. Sounds like it’s well worth reading.
I’m looking forward to our conversations in 2019. As you said, it’s going to be an intense year! 🙂
Susan is a must read if one is to have a good perspective on the oil sands subject. Like you say, the oil companies learned very little along the years, have made the same mistakes over and over despite their reputation as well managed and well run, because their only interest is profits. It is all fine and dandy if that objective does not turn into a cult obsession and they go to extremes to make it happen. It is a book about facts. Unfortunately progressives now are beaten up for believing in facts. Time will tell.