Last week Danielle Smith was interviewed by Matt Galloway, the host of CBC’s The Current. Listening to her I was reminded of Art Linkletter’s show Kids Say the Darndest Things. Unfortunately the things Smith said weren’t funny.
Here’s a sample.
Leaving CPP
Smith said Alberta is entitled to 53% of the CPP’s assets and that the CPPIB’s number of 16% was pulled out of the air.
She said if Ottawa’s number isn’t close to Alberta’s number, Alberta will go to court for a “fair adjudication.”
She also said the reason why the majority of Albertans (and people like Pierre Poilievre) don’t support Alberta leaving CPP is because they need “more communication.”
But when it comes to determining the impact on the rest of Canada of Alberta walking off with 53% of CPP’s assets, Smith was adamant. The impact would be “minimal”. She quantified the impact at “about $175 per person” to put someone in the same position they’d been in before.
What is she, psychic?
She doesn’t know Ottawa’s number and she doesn’t know how courts will calculate the right number, but she can pinpoint the impact on the rest of Canada at “about $175/person.”
Apparently, it’s okay to “pull numbers out of the air” when it’s Smith doing the pulling.
The carbon tax/national unity
The discussion about the carbon tax exemption for home heating fuel got interesting when Galloway asked whether Smith’s argument that the exemption should be applied uniformly across Canada (it’s a matter of national unity) was disconnected from her pitch to pull Alberta out of CPP.
Heavens no.
Smith said national unity doesn’t mean Ottawa gets to do whatever it wants. Besides she had plenty of examples of Alberta engaging collaboratively with the feds. We’d signed a $24 billion health care deal, the feds were “very helpful” fighting our fires, and they were joint investors in housing and major projects.
Based on her examples, Smith thinks national unity means Alberta can do whatever it wants and still call on the feds to pay for it.
“Tell the Feds” ad campaign
Galloway said Smith’s “tell the feds” campaign suggested the clean electricity regs could pitch the entire country into blackouts. Why was she was using “scare tactics”?
Because it’s true, she replied.
Gobsmacked, Galloway repeated the question: ”It’s true there could be blackouts across the country because of…?”
Because Alberta had experienced eight grid alerts last year, she said.
Just to be clear. Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only two provinces that are heavily reliant on natural gas power generation, the rest of Canada relies on multiple sources for power generation including hydro and nuclear.
Either Smith doesn’t know that Alberta is not a template for the rest of Canada or she doesn’t care what she says in the heat of the moment.
Moratorium on wind/solar
Galloway moved on to Smith’s moratorium on wind and solar. What was the purpose of the moratorium?
She babbled on about the “wind don’t blow and the sun don’t shine all the time” then said she needed more natural gas power plant applications in the queue and there were none. Eventually it became apparent that she imposed the moratorium on new wind and solar applications to give the natural gas guys time to catch up.
In other words, she’s fine with her government meddling in the marketplace when it’s in aid of fossil fuel companies but won’t stand for it when it’s in aid of renewable energy.
Net zero
Galloway asked whether Smith’s plan to reach net zero by 2050 matched the urgency Alberta experienced in our fire/smoke filled summer. She replied her urgency is matched to the efforts of China and India which are targeting net zero by 2050 or later.
So instead of helping Canada lead the way to net zero she’s prepared to impede Canada’s progress. She’d rather drag Canada down than pull China and India up.
Tucker Carlson
In response to why she’s going to share the stage with Tucker Carlson—a man who’s attacked Ukraine, vilely diminished women, endorsed the Jan 6 attempt to overturn the presidential election, and spouted the white supremacist great replacement theory—she said she wants to get Alberta’s story out and if she refused to be interviewed by people she disagreed with she might not have come on Galloway’s show.
There is so much wrong with this response that we’ll simply note that Galloway has never made racist, misogynist, tinfoil hat conspiracy comments. Perhaps what Smith found distasteful was Galloway’s political ideology, something she assumed from the fact that he worked at the CBC.
Compassionate conservatism
Galloway closed by asking Smith to define what she means by “compassionate conservatism.”
Smith stated Alberta was addressing mental health with “compassionate intervention” which can result in mandatory incarceration and treatment for certain individuals, then expanded her definition to include growing the economy and building wealth to generate revenue that’s used to deliver the best health care system and education system.
Given that Alberta is the richest province in the country and its health care system and education systems are teetering on the brink, it’s hard to envision how we’ll be better off with more “compassionate conservatism.”
But hey, Danielle Smith says the darndest things, eh?
Susan on the Soapbox 
Susan: Thanks for sharing another great blog. You raised really good points. I’d like to talk about those. Danielle Smith is playing a fool’s game if she believes that Alberta, with around 14% of the population of Canada, is entitled to 53% of CPP. We aren’t. Due to fluctuations in oil prices, which the Canadian governments can’t control, and oil prices cratering, so often, Alberta often has the highest rate of unemployment in Canada. This affects things, and debunks the myth that we can be the highest income earners in Canada.
In addition, the UCP had created their Fair Deal Panel, which was very skewed, and a big waste of money, being paid to the panel members. Part of this panel’s recommendations included looking at the prospects of an Alberta Provincial Pension Plan (APP). The UCP had people do a study, and see how feasible it would be. The study was done, and it came to the conclusion that an Alberta Provincial Pension Plan (APP), is not something that should be pursued. The UCP would not make this report public, because they had a narrative they were pushing, and they were intent on doing it, no matter what. With the use of FOIP, or with some other process, people were able to access the findings of the study. The UCP took control of teacher’s pensions, and didn’t ask for their permission, when they put them into AIMCo. The UCP lost $4 billion on a pension fund debacle. Other kickers include Danielle Smith and the UCP saying before the last provincial election in Alberta that the UCP wouldn’t be campaigning on the Alberta Provincial Pension Plan (APP). In the presence of the media, at provincial election forums, UCP MLAs specifically told Albertans in attendance, that the UCP had no intentions of touching their CPP. This was a sham, because had Danielle Smith and the UCP put the Alberta Provincial Pension Plan on the provincial election agenda, the UCP would have been defeated. The UCP are still intent on pushing the Alberta Provincial Pension Plan (APP) upon Albertans, and by different means. The UCP has a questionnaire on the Alberta Provincial Pension Plan APP), that lacks a yes or no answer to it. In addition, one person can complete the questionnaire as many times as they like. There are numerous ads that the UCP wasted money on, making it look like Albertans support the Alberta Provincial Pension Plan (APP). On her phone in radio talk show, Danielle Smith wouldn’t answer questions from Albertans who were concerned about losing their CPP. No public forums are allowed on the Alberta Provincial Pension Plan (APP), because that would bean very strong backlash from attendees. The phone in sessions are a hot mess. In addition, the UCP’s referendum on the Alberta Provincial Pension Plan (APP) is going to be very costly, and likely will be skewed to favour it. Pierre Poilievre doesn’t want to see the CPC get defeated, in the next federal election, so he naturally will oppose the Alberta Provincial Pension Plan (APP).
Dwayne, these are excellent points, particularly your last point which was that if Pierre Poilievre expects to be elected he will stand firmly against Danielle Smith and her APP. Surely she must know this, so why is she putting Albertans through this divisive exercise. I suspect it’s to keep us off balance so we can’t focus on the other things she’s doing, like pushing ahead with the privatization of health care.
Susan: This is a good summation as to how Danielle Smith behaves. Promises aren’t meant to be kept, they’re meant to get you re-elected.
Susan: The UCP are being hypocritical with their carbon tax raging, against the federal Liberals. They are livid about federal government vote buying, yet the UCP did provincial government vote buying, using their gas tax holiday, which has cost Alberta $850 million, when it first started, and has cost around $1.5 billion in total, after it was reinstated. The carbon tax in Canada is a Conservative creation, because Ed Stelmach happened to be the one who gave Alberta the first ever carbon tax in the country. No, the UCP did not get rid of Alberta’s carbon tax, like they had claimed, but they actually increased it at a substantial rate.
https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/alberta-carbon-tax-triple-federal-emissions-pricing-schedule
Dwayne, as you said the carbon tax was the conservative’s creation and, to be frank, all the economists will tell you that making the use of carbon more expensive is a good what to reduce demand. Nevertheless the conservatives are quick to accuse the Liberals and the NDP of stealing the public’s money when it will get them more votes.
If you were not an informed and discriminating listener, you would think Smith response to the interview was excellent and that she buried Galloway’s weak efforts to bring her to account. She replied quickly, confidently and emphatically to each question. She would convince many listeners she had the right answers. She is good at her game. A more informed listener would know that action speaks louder than words, and that her actions are quite alarming! Her agenda is perverse and hopefully there is a way to inform voters of the peril they face.
That was my thought. She answered so confidently it sounded like she was extremely knowledgeable. She even quoted facts and figures to support her claims.
David Baine and Linda Kent: I’m really glad you both made this point. Smith has a smooth, confident style that persuades the listener that she’s bright, but when you listen to what she’s saying you see that (1) she simply repeats bullet points (half the examples she gave to Galloway she trotted out at the Pembina conference) and (2) what she says doesn’t hang together.
If we could focus on her track record instead of her gift of the gab we’d see that’s she’s quite incompetent.
Incompetent and diabolical
Susan: You covered so much in your blog, so I have to break things down into different responses. Danielle Smith and the UCP are misleading Albertans, and Canadians with their pricey power price propaganda advertising. The federal Liberal government, and the Alberta NDP aren’t to blame for Albertans paying the highest power prices in Canada, like DanielleSmith claims. Ralph Klein deregulated electricity in Alberta, and that got this mess started. This cost has exceed the $30 billion mark. Ralph Klein also did the Power Purchase Agreements debacle, which set Albertans back another $10 billion. Murray Smith, a Ralph Klein cabinet minister, created a bill, where any new power transmission lines that would be constructed in Alberta would be used for exporting the power to American states, and the power consumers in Alberta would be footing that bill. In 2010-11, TransAlta was manipulating power prices in Alberta, and in 2015, they were found guilty, and were given a $56 million fine, which they have only passed onto the power consumers in Alberta. The UCP also removed the NDP’s cap on power prices in Alberta, increasing their costs even more. As part of their very costly voter bribery schemes, the UCP made it look like they were reducing power prices for Albertans, but they weren’t. It was merely a loan to power companies in Alberta, which power consumers must pay back on their power bills. Another really big shocker for power consumers in Alberta is where the UCP allowed power companies in Alberta to hold back the power, which increased power prices in Alberta even more. This is known as economic witholding, and so far, it has cost Albertans $80 billion to $100 billion, since 2020. $2 billion to $2.5 billion a month, since June of 2020. Jim Prentice was the Environment Minister in the CPC cabinet, and in 2010, he said that coal fired power plants must be decommissioned in Canada by the earlier part of this decade, because they were a major contribution to GHG emissions and reduced air quality. Jim Prentice also was the final Alberta PC premier, and he wanted coal fired power plants decommissioned in Alberta for the same reasons, and more wind and solar power expansion was his goal, because Alberta has wind power that goes back to 1993, when the Alberta PCs introduced it. In 2015, before the provincial election in Alberta, all the political parties were campaigning on closing down coal fired power plants, and they all wanted to get into more green energy sources. The shutdown of coal isn’t the cause of Albertans paying the highest power prices in Canada. There also seems to be a thorn in the side of Danielle Smith and the UCP putting a moratorium on renewable energy for Alberta.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-electricity-economic-withholding-1.6946797
https://www.bashawstar.com/national-news/tech-giant-amazons-1st-canadian-wind-farm-project-to-be-located-in-alberta/
Thank you for this Dwayne. It’s an excellent summary of the mess the conservatives made of the power sector. As you said it started way back in the Klein days and continues under Smith. What I find incredible is that conservative government after conservative government can stand there and pretend this mess is someone else’s fault and the public believes them!
“She replied her urgency is matched to the efforts of China and India which are targeting net zero by 2050 or later.”
I’m not sure of the numbers, but my feeling is that China and India may have somewhat larger populations than Alberta.
Alfredo you are absolutely right but unfortunately we have a premier that does not understand anything other than what she was hammered with by her extremist friends. She keeps going with this lunacy that we in Alberta represent 0.1 percent of the total pollution. Well Danielle, let me explain one thing to you if possible:
Albertans consumes and pollute 12 times what 1 person from India or China does and that is a FACT. So the Canadian population in general terms is about 360 million in terms of consumption and pollution. So this idea that that we are not a problem is a fantasy. When you add to it that we are one of the biggest garbage creators in the world and we send it to the third world to become their problem, surely we do not have any excuses or any solid base to excuse ourselves from a world responsibility. The urgency for big countries to reduce is as important as rich countries as well. IT MAKES SENSE.
Unfortunately she does not understand common sense or responsibility.
We are only 30 million!!!! Well sorry peeing on your parade, but it is not just black and white like that. It takes thinking and the UCP is not known for a lot of thinking.
Alfredo and Carlos: Thank you for pointing out why Danielle Smith’s argument is nothing more than a smoke screen to avoid taking meaningful action to mitigate climate change. Another argument the government and the energy sector are keen to trot out is that the GHG emissions decreased by 33%,. What they fail to tell us is that production increased to 5.57 million barrels in Nov 2022 and is expected to increase by at least 8% when Trans Mountain is fully in service. A report by Deloitte says “The increase in volume is notable: it’s greater than the total amount added to Canada’s production levels over the past five years combined,”
Here’s the link: https://globalnews.ca/news/10005868/canadian-oil-output-high-2025/
Like I said, smoke and mirrors.
well smoke and mirrors is everywhere and we are seeing the start of the disaster news coming and plan B does not exist and will not exist because what is coming is way bigger than anything we can do something about.
This will be the next step – preparing us for the wall we will not climb at all. It is sad but I think this is becoming inevitable.
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2023/11/22/Lost-Climate-War-Plan-B/
Susan: Danielle Smith and the UCP squaking at the federal Liberals for their net zero goals is pathetic. The environment is something that we need to protect, because money won’t help us in the end. Attending a Tucker Carlson event, further shows where Danielle Smith wants to take Alberta. Compassionate Conservatism is exactly what Danielle Smith and the UCP lack. Their abhorrent treatment of the less fortunate in Alberta is proof of this. A.I.S.H recipients, and other struggling people haven’t gotten much help by the UCP. Food bank usage in Alberta tops the entire country. However, it’s okay for Preston Manning to get $253,000 and an additional $2 million for an expense account, to produce a sham covid report. Other members of the Conservative camp, also get hefty salaries from the UCP, for positions that are pointless. I’ll play some more fitting music. This is a song from Bob Dylan, which was released in early 1965, called It’s Allright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding). Bob Dylan was only 23 when he wrote this song. I have seen Bob Dylan live, and he is also in my music collection.
Dwayne, I couldn’t agree more.
I found that Dylan song particularly moving. Especially this bit:
Disillusioned words like bullets bark
As human gods aim for their mark
Make everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh-colored Christs that glow in the dark
It’s easy to see without looking too far
That not much
Is really sacred.
Dylan’s reference to “human gods” and “not much is really sacred” sum up (for me) exactly where we are on climate change right now.
Susan: Here is my second song pick. This is a live performance with the British rock band, Procol Harum, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and the Greenwood Singers, from 1992. It was written by Matt Noble, Gary Brooker, Keith Reid and Matthew Fisher. The song is You Can’t Turn Back The Page. I was at this concert, and I met the band members after. Procol Harum are also in my music collection. Sadly, Gary Brooker passed away in 2022, and Keith Reid passed away, this year. Procol Harum originally played with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and The Da Camera Singers in 1971, and recorded a live album from that concert, that was released in 1972.
Dwayne: what an interesting coincidence.
I’m researching symphony orchestras for a project I’m working on and I interviewed a percussionist who has played with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra for decades. My friend told me about when the gifted saxophonist, Brandford Marsalis, played with the orchestra. Marsalis played a in which the entire orchestra goes silent and waits for the percussionist, to hit a single note. My friend hit the note and Marsalis turned to him and gave him a thumbs up. Every time they rehearsed, Marsalis gave my friend a thumbs up. Later he told my friend that very few players ever get that note. My friend has never forgotten it.
I’m sure the members of the Edmonton symphony orchestra have never forgotten the time they played with Procol Harum either.
This story has nothing to do with politics, but I thought it was too special not to share. 🙂
Susan: Here is my final song pick. This is from 1984, and it is The Everly Brothers doing a cover of the Bob Dylan composition, Lay Lady Lay. Sadly, Phil & Don Everly passed away. They made great music, since the 1950s, mixing country music with pop.
Dwayne, I agree, The Everly Brothers were great musicians. Thank you for this piece, I’ve always loved it.
I’m sure those black cargo vans driving around cities, with an image of a child wearing a headlamp and the message that the power would be shut off in -30° C., hardly seemed like a threat at all to the people of other provinces.
Albertan, I agree. In fact the rest of Canada probably thinks we’ve lost our minds (which is likely quite accurate).
She’s just so tiring.
She is able to confidently respond to any question – factually or not. That means a lot of people will believe what she says just because she sounds believable. It really is a gift. I saw her spar during Question Period at the Leg when she was the leader of the Wildrose. She was very charismatic, self assured, and never at a loss for words.
Like a good friend of mine always says, ‘never let the facts get in the way of a good story’.
k15551212 this is an accurate picture of our premier. The only thing I’d add is that even when she’s proven to be wrong she confidently asserts she did the right thing. For example, in the kids’ pain medication debacle she spent $75 million on Turkish pain medication and less than 1% made it off the counter. Can you imagine the uproar is the NDP had shown such appalling judgment?
In addition to all that blather is this, where she pretends to care about billions of people who are energy poor. She is so embarrassing and the people at COP28 will be rolling their eyes like bingo balls at her disingenuous white saviour pontificating. They want emissions cuts, not energy fairy tales.
https://nitter.net/ABDanielleSmith/status/1726309790752940165#m
About the CPP nonsense, here are two good opinion pieces by David B. Carpenter, especially on the bad numbers in the Lifeworks report and the invisible authors.:
https://lethbridgeherald.com/commentary/opinions/2023/10/25/alberta-pension-plan-declaring-war-on-seniors/
https://lethbridgeherald.com/commentary/opinions/2023/11/17/would-i-lie-to-you-its-hard-to-believe-justification-of-an-app/
Carpenter was appointed AHS Administrator in 2015, then was on the AHS Board. I don’t know if he still was there when she fired the Board. He sounds very capable, was also mayor of Lethbridge..
Thanks for these links Valerie. I have quite a few friends in health care who are very impressed with David Carpenter. These two articles demonstrate why they hold him in such high esteem.
In a government of idiots obviously anyone with competence has to be let go as fast as possible.
I didn’t get a chance to hear Galloways’ interview with Smith on CBC but you did a great job of summarizing the essence of the interaction Susan. Galloway certainly asked a range of good questions and seemed to give her lots of rope to hang herself… or should I say, to demonstrate the ridiculous thinking behind the UCP policies and pronouncements and Smith’s inability to realize how inane she sounds. The rest of Canada now understands the poppycock we are living with in Alberta… let’s hope they don’t think that all Albertans support it… perhaps sane Albertans could pool our dollars and get a one page ad in the Globe and Mail telling the truth about what’s happening here!
Or: We could get politically involved……..and not just in our little Alberta dustups (they are little, in the global scheme of things). We could challenge the Federal Conservative attacks on the carbon tax (in the light of how fast climate change is happening, that’s a promise of pennies back now, in exchange for literal starvation later). We could start telling the truth about the genocide in Gaza…..and make it unacceptable for Canadians to have elected politicians flying to Israel to express Canadian support for what is happening to the civilian population of Gaza.
We have the likes of Smith in Alberta for many reasons. Among which is a general reluctance in Alberta to talk openly about the real threats to our peace and security. Being part of changing that would be a good place to put our political shame….. she won in part because not enough of us who know better have the courage to speak the whole truth.
And going forward, Alberta’s preference for a partial, made in Alberta truth, is going to make it extremely hard for our children and grandchildren. WE do only have one planet….and natural gas isn’t natural…its a methane spewing time bomb that Danielle Smith was elected to protect.
She only seems silly. Truth is, she’s dangerous.
Lee and Ingamarie: I know people in BC and Ontario who understand that despite all the black SUVs tootling across the country, not all Albertans are bananas. I also agree we need to throw all our efforts into supporting the NDP here in Alberta and being even more vocal about the God awful CPC politicians just waiting in the wings to turn Canada into a larger more malignant reflection of Alberta. It’s a big job, but if we don’t do it, who will?
I tried to listen to the interview… it was so cringe-worthy I could not do it. Grateful for your synopsis… I am embarrassed by this woman and by the TBA that pulls the strings. That she is premier of the province is beyond the pale.
I agree Marilyn. The fact she continues to let TBA lead her around by the nose is astounding. The question now is is she their puppet or do they express opinions she herself supports. Frankly I think it’s a bit of both.
Danielle Smith knows, as do the the rest of us, that the only person she has to keep happy with whatever she says is David Parker. When Smith is spewing these moronic messages in public it’s like she is sending Parker his own personal love sonnets.
As for the CPP exit, I love the proposal that the Feds give each Albertan living here presently a choice of either staying with the CPP or a lump sum payout. Once they get their lump sum payout they can spend it, invest it themselves or hand it over to Smith and AIMCo. The CPP belongs to the people, not Smith, not Alberta.
Smith should be wearing a MAGA hat – Making Alberta Go American.
The feds have the obligation to do that in my view. My pension does not belong to Alberta. My pension is between me and the Federal government, not Danielle Smith.
Hear! Hear!
I like that! Making Alberta Go American. That is pretty much what the endgame here is. Why have our own distinct society when we can be a crass, uninspired version of another model getting creakier by the day?
Jason S: As you said, TBA is Alberta’s way of saying MAGA. Seems to me the conservatives have no fresh ideas about anything so they default to tired tropes and inflammatory ideas from south of the border. This is not how a province or a country survives in a world where everything around us is changing in ways we’ve never before experienced.
Jaundiced Eye: That is an excellent suggestion. Smith and the UCP are all about choice, Then she should be taking steps to let those of us who don’t want to leave CPP stay right where we are.
What I think we need now Susan, is your estimate of the real situation we are in…..Alberta isn’t exactly a microcosm of the planet, but I’m starting to think our province is the tip of an iceberg with roots extending through the American Republican party…..and other right wing groups around the world.
For this global movement….there seems to be a lot of commonality. In goals, and tactics. I’m very concerned that Danielle is a distraction….a ‘hair on fire’ kind of false enemy that will keep us defending things that in truth, she can’t take from us.
However, if we don’t connect the dots between her, Grandpa Manning and the PP anti-carbon tax promises of pennies back on our fossil fuel guzzling machines, in exchange for a carbon bomb of, let’s say 3degrees of warming by 2050…
We may be dancing to a very nostalgic music……….playing out on several stages around the world. Let’s just go back to the fifties why don’t we……..get our women in line, raise the white birth rate by outlawing abortion, and send best wishes and support to the genocidal Zionists around the world.
Climate change is a hoax. And when our pensions are safely invested in CO2 plentiful bitumen and methane spewing fossil gas, we’ll have an economic incentive to believe that. As to the parts of the planet already falling victim to the new fires and droughts and floods…………..we’ll be too busy watching the wars working hard to save Democracy……..to pay much attention to them.
Danielle and her supporters may seem dumb….because they are when it comes to the real threats we face. But if we accept where they intend to take the world…….they’re more frightening than funny. And interesting factoid: FRIDAY WAS THE FIRST DAY WHERE THE RECORDED AVERAGE SURFACE TEMPERATURE OF OUR PLANET WAS 2 DEGREES C. WARMER THAN PRE-INDUSTRIAL LEVELS. (Democracy Now)
But not to worry…….Alberta pensions and PP’s ending of the carbon tax, will make life much more ‘affordable’. Pity we can’t eat money.
Ingamarie – it just astounds me that it is that hard to understand what you just described. What is it that is so hard to understand?
Is the money under the table so much better than what we Ignorant believe?
I think the quick answer if that bullying works. In Alberta, there has been a lot of bullying. TBA is a group of disgruntled right wingers willing to up the ante on bullying right now………..because they are losing.
That might be just my opinion, but having taught in Alberta High Schools, I have to tell you………the right wing silencers were always here. They just didn’t have to blow their cover so much to keep the public quiet.
Things are actually better now…which is why they are on the march. What I would like to see is progressives becoming more articulate about the big picture.
We were at a research gathering this weekend…..listened to a very committed doctor talk about her work on climate………but it was up to my partner and I to suggest we stop calling natural gas natural.
ITS FOSSIL GAS….my partner said……and when I chimed in beside him and asked did we kow what fossil gas was made of…methane….and did we know it was a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2…..the presenter agreed and said with all the leakage it was likely worse than coal.
My real point however, is that she wouldn’t have said that……..to an ALBATURDA audience……..on her own. And when I further chimed in by saying Big Oil had LIED about fossil gas being a transition fuel……..the moderator stepped in to shut me up.
One thing we desperately need to do is come up with something better than lecture and question and answer endings…….in our work. Assuming every Albertan who comes to progressive think tanks only come with ‘questions’ is an insult to the intelligence of those of us who are still trying to make a difference.
Perhaps even expert lecture series are part of the bullying that keeps us acting as if we don’t get what if f….ing obvious by now.
Ingamarie I’m not sure how to respond to your excellent comment which (if I understand you correctly) is that while we’re battling APP, and “axe the tax” etc the world is on fire and horrible things are happening everywhere. Part of the reason I’m having difficulty is I don’t know what the politicians who manipulate groups like TBA really believe. Do they actually believe climate change is a hoax or if it’s real the fossil fuel companies will invent a magical technology to save the planet at the 11th hour? Do they believe everything will be okay if they axe the tax and return society to the social mores that governed way back in the 1950s? Or do they simply spout this nonsense to obscure the fact that the more they frighten the people, the easier it will be to step in with authoritarian measures to keep them in line.
In any event, I think it’s very important to continue to discuss the issues, if for no other reason than to give others who feel in their gut that something is wrong with the UCP/CPC position but have not been able to articulate why.
Are there any Albertans writing sensible responses to the oil and gas lobby? Because I think its the consequences of ALberta having to step up and bring our emissions down , down,down……that is at the bottom of a lot of TBA none sense.
They’ll have us fighting over straws while our boreal burns and our eastern slopes are destroyed. And with climate change coming as fast as it is…..that leaves my grandbabies up a certain fast drying creek without so much as an EV
Oh by the way the two Michaels in China, hmmm well it seems that after all they were not in jail because the Chinese faked spy charges. Sorry one more time.
What a joke we are becoming. Next time so not put 10 inch titles on newspapers, claiming the Chinese are corrupt and devious. SO ARE WE.
You want to create a respected and sane country? Stop the bullshit is the very first step. We all know they do all of the dirty tricks and so do us.
So much for the lady cheater in Vancouver.
We need to grow up if we want to matter.
There’s been some reporting that at least one of them — Spavor, I believe — was passing openly-available information about North Korea on to Kovrig, who then passed it on to Western intelligence agencies. Now, here in the West, this would not constitute espionage, which involves covert intelligence gathering of secret information, but a closed society like North Korea or the People’s Republic of China might see that differently.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/two-michaels-revelation-doesn-t-excuse-beijing-s-behaviour/article_c7443999-3a15-5b30-aa26-abfe9674e318.html
Well if it is a case of interpretation I take back what I said but to be honest I am still not convinced. I would like to know more but that might not be possible. In the West we tend to be very critical but we certainly are not an example either. That is what I do not like at all. That attitude does not foster much trust does it? On the other hand I personally do not trust China at all.
Cut the crap
https://albertapolitics.ca/2023/11/h-l-y-s-h-t-who-could-possibly-have-known-why-china-picked-on-those-two-michaels-back-in-2020/
“What is she, psychic?” Nope. She’s a bullshitter.
In fact, Danielle Smith is a Class One, Grade A certified bullshitter. Smith knows what she wants to achieve. She’ll say anything—ANYTHING AT ALL—to get her way. Reason and logic have nothing to do with it, only tactics.
( love her conceit that Canada needs “more communication” about CPP. Imagine Smith telling Poilievre, “But what’s wrong with 53%? It’s only fair that I get my way.”)
Smith thinks she is a communicator and that it’s her job to “communicate” not to actually do anythig useful. The problem is that we all know she is a liar so we do not believe what she says, so she fails to communicate anything.
Lyin’ Brian Mulroney, the Paper Bag Prime Minister, was the same. If you did not agree with him you were either stupid or you were not paying attention.
Apropos of nothing, if Lyin’ Brian was the Paper Bag Prime Minister, is Caroline Mulroney the Paper Bag Princess?
Mike, Valerie, Jaundiced Eye: RE” Smith the great communicator, I’ve observed two things. First she has no shame about saying whatever needs to be said in order to justify her position even if it’s patently false, and second, for quite some time now politicians have blamed the public’s resistance to their horrible policies on a lack of clear “communication” (ie. the policy is good, we just explained it poorly, when in fact the policy sucks and nothing that could say would make it palatable). Then we add to the mix people who are uninformed or emotionally invested in an issue and it all goes sideways.
PS Mike I loved your comment about Smith telling Poilievre the 53% is fair, he just didn’t understand that the first time she communicated it to him.
I seem to recall when that longtime Kearl leak became public with inadequate notification to the Indigenous people nearby, that Smith said it was a problem of communication. She may not realize she is expected to get things done, not just pass along stale and faulty information.
For all their faults the federal Liberals and Alberta NDP atually govern when they get the chance; the Conservatives mostly find excuses for not acting and try to prevent anyone else from acting..
One of the reasons some politicians like to stoke grievances or as some now call it rage farming, is because when you get your supporters angry and all worked up, whatever rationality they have often goes out the door.
Calm people would question things like how a province with 10% of the population can seriously expect to get over half of the national pension fund. They would also question things like how separatism and threats of pulling out of various national programs would help a landlocked province be less landlocked. But when you get the base all riled up, they stop thinking and some start to believe what those politicians are peddling. However, being angry and wishing it to be true does not make it so.
These days there are a lot of conspiracy theories and politicians have noticed that some people fall for them. Get people upset and tell them what they want to hear seems to be the go to political strategy for some politicians these days.
The only problem is the inevitable disappointment when the politicians can’t deliver what is not realistic or possible. It wasn’t that long ago, we had another UCP Premier promoting a referendum on equalization as a tactic to bring the rest of Canada to its knees. How did that work out? Kenney is now gone, equalization remains unchanged.
So I suppose Smith can say all sorts of things she can’t deliver even crazier than Kenney, but she better prepare for the inevitable disappointment when her riled up supporters realize she can’t deliver either.
Just watched a Youtube video regarding upcoming changes to CPP. Starting in 2024, income earners who earn more than the YMPE (Yearly Maximum Pensionable Earnings) will be able to contribute more to CPP. The end result for higher income earners who make those additional contributions will be higher CPP payments come the day of retirement. I’ve long advocated for increasing CPP contributions so that all Canadians have higher income in retirement, since CPP is a DB (defined benefit) pension plan. The problem with retirement is that for the young it is difficult to conceive that one day they too will be old. Those mandatory CPP deductions may not be appreciated, but they ensure that come the day old age occurs there is a source of income however small.
Susan: Here is a recent development by the UCP. Along with their planned further tax cuts, which will lose Alberta $1 billion, this is happening. Oil prices are not going up, and they are going down. What else will the UCP make cuts to?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/gas-tax-returns-2024-danielle-smith-1.7037848
Dear Ms Wright:
Nice to know what those Alberta-ads were about, as they sure were not
overly clear about the argument between AB & the Feds.was all about.
Just for the moment, put aside whether AB gets its power generation from
natural gas, coal, methane from poop factories, or nuclear.
Galloway said Smith’s “tell the feds” campaign suggested the clean
electricity regs could pitch the entire country into blackouts. Why was
she was using “scare tactics”? Because it’s true, she replied.
Gobsmacked, Galloway repeated the question: ”It’s true there could be
blackouts/across the country/because of…?” Because Alberta had
experienced eight grid alerts last year, she said. Just to be clear.
Alberta and
Saskatchewan are the only two provinces that are heavily reliant on
natural gas power generation, the rest of Canada relies on multiple
sources for power generation including hydro and nuclear.
Danny girl has admitted that there are NO sharp pencils in the control
room of AB-hydro.
Eight full grid alerts should NOT have happened !!!
Three at the most perhaps, but, eight ?
AND, those three in the deep winter.
Remember our connection map of a couple of mails ago?
As soon as AB-hydro was experiencing a “stress”, S O M E O N E in the
AB-hydro control room S H O U L D have been on the phone
to BC-hydro, or any of the American states to the south to buy some
“short time” excess power.
I W I L L NOT guess, or, try to speculate, on which state should have
been phoned, BUT, AB-hydro S H O U L D N O T have gone into a full
grid alert.
It S H O U L D N O T have simply because, they have this
interconnection agreement.
ALL the Top Brass at AB-Hydro should be out at the Midnapore Mall
selling pencils, along with half the staff at the AB-Hydro Control Room
for this to have happened.
Danny Girl is correct to this point.
There should N O T have been eight full grid alerts.
But, nation wide blackouts.
Nope.
Again.
The Interconnection Map says, that should N O T happen.
Furthermore, Danny Girl needs to get some sharp people in who are fully
knowledgeable about solar panels for example, and, maybe a large wind
farm up by Rocky Mountain House
to take full advantage of the downdrafts coming of the mountain face.
Sure there should be plenty of methane gas, if they put in distiller at
the Parliament building for all the BS being pumped out of there.
It would keep half the city in power at least.
AND, hook it up to gen-set that can run on methane to keep the
Parliament building at least functional.
In any event.
Have a great safe weekend.
Kindly.
Gord – Peterboro
It is interesting to read a post from outside of Alberta. It is as if we are living in some cult isolated area where brains are not allowed. It is like the frog syndrome. We are getting used to mediocrity and lunacy from a government that has decided to throw all the water out including the baby.
If you are in Ontario it is surprising because your premier is not the smartest crayon in the box but we are already far into the oblivion level.
We are slowly adjusting to it and soon we will not know what is real and factual anymore. It is scary, dangerous and by the end of her term, Danielle Smith will be in history for ruining one of the most privileged places on earth. If we continue on this road and we do not react in a big way we will be dust in a not too distant future.
Unfortunately, people seem interested in this esoteric experience in absurdity.
Britain does not seem to have been an enough experience in lunacy for us and others not to try a second time. All of the Brexiteers are gone doing more destruction somewhere else, and left their garbage to get dealt with. It seems Holland is next. I guess Hitler was not enough either. We are just the worst animals on this planet with a bigger brain, but nothing else. We do not even know how to use it and we have taken great steps to destroy a planet we still do not know, but somehow Mars seems more appealing.
I guess AI is going to help us, so they say. I wonder if we are already beyond repair.
There is a much simpler way, start triaging politicians that should not be touching anything that is important to our lives. After all we do not allow nurses to do surgery if they are not skilled right?
Danielle Smith is not skilled to run a province, PERIOD. She is skilled to run scams.
Dear Ms Wright:
One last on this business of AB-Hydro.
If there were 8 “grid alerts” in AB last year, and I asked why AB-hydro
did not call one of its partners in the “western block”
when the system showed “stress” B E F O R E the system went into full
grid alert, to find some “surplus power”.
I realize that the 8 “full grid alerts” were likely because of the
serious forest fire problems out there.
Nevertheless, it also points to serious problems with the power grid
within AB.
The control room should have been able to do switching onto redundant
lines to avoid the crisis, and, it appears, with the stress on the appears
that the options were limited and few.
Thus, there needs to be a full provincial review of the internal grid
within the province that would prevent any or all “full grid alerts”.
That is admission, that, one suspects Danny Girl will not see that it
needs addressing.
This has N O T H I N G to do with generation of electricity, whether
natural gas, or, nuclear, or waterpower.
Again.
Forest fires notwithstanding, the province should N O T have had 8 full
grid alerts…….there is something intrinsicly wrong from the
generating stations out into the
province, and, again, I will NOT guess or speculate on what that is,
only, to mention the symptoms.
As for Danny Girl’s assertion that we could have a nationwide blackout,
is fantasy, given the interconnection system[s] and agreements now
established.
Gord-Peterboro
Gord, you’re right in your assessment, particularly the last point that we will not experience a nationwide blackout unless the feds are stopped. The fact she doubled down with Matt Galloway asked the question again (you could hear the incredulity in his voice) demonstrates just how far she’ll go. As Gord said, the rest of Canada isn’t buying Ms Smith’s story.
Dear Ms Wright:
Excuse my severe onset fozzilization, but, what exactly is meant by
“unless the Feds are Stopped” ?
I don’t get where the Feds are supposed to be involved in this at any point.
This is strictly a Province and State, mutual agreement…as mentioned
e-mails ago, that the agreement is similar to
the Fire Departments having a mutual aid agreement.
AB-Hydro and SK-Hydro are like some small town relying on the large
lumber mill for employment and not having a second company
to keep the village going.
AB-Hydro, and SK-hydro need to find another way of generation if, and,
that is a qualified if, there is no other generation except
by natural gas.
Modern low-flow generation with computers is now available and has been
for a number of years.
A clear example is right here in Peterborough………..14
years…….not exactly going to light up ALL of AB- but, at least it
could be used when
the AB-Hydro control room is getting a “system stress”.
A generating station like this might even stop the “stress” !!
You certainly have enough rivers and creeks out there that a station
like this would/could/should work.
No excuses.
_https://www.peterboroughutilities.ca/en/pui/waterpower.aspx _
generating station
Robert G. Lake is an 8 MW facility on the Otonabee River beside Locks 22
and 23 on lands leased from Trent University.
The station was completed in 2009 with two 4 MW bulb turbines. The
intake canal is over 1 km long, allowing us to take advantage of the
height difference between the locks. The dams are owned and operated by
the Trent-Severn Waterway and Parks Canada.
This station was named after Bob Lake who was the General Manager and
President of the Peterborough Utilities Group for almost 20 years!
Avirtual tour https://youtu.be/Z-XLPl5eLv8was used to showcase the
Robert G. Lake Generating Station at the Power of Water Conference held
by the Ontario Waterpower Association.
The station is operated through Trent Rapids Power Corporation.
The problem with the grid in Alberta is lack of hydro, predominance of natural gas, lack of baseload power. Search EnergiMedia.com for interviews may 30 and August 14 with David Gray, 2 sound, 1 on you tube. Clearly the UCP doesn’t have clue
Krieger: Agree 100%.
SUSAN, what overpayment and transfers are they referring to? Just the employee, just the employer? Both? Higher income taxes? If there is a max for the CPP, what does income have to do with it. Or is it that 1/2 Alberta’s employees make less than that higher median of$48000
Krieger: Damned if I know. I suspect the complaint is grounded in the belief that the rest of Canada is taking advantage of Alberta (again!!!).
I think it’s based on population differences. Alberta has more young people, many working in the oilfields for high pay, so the total input from Alberta is high.
Of course the older workers often retire to other provinces so their CPP does not go to anyone in Alberta. I think the UCP shills did not take that into account.
Smith et al are just lying with numbers, the Albertans who paid a lot in will get a lot out when they start collecting CPP wherever they live in Canada.
Public Interest Alberta hosted a town hall on CPP, reported on by @JeremyAppel1025
https://www.readtheorchard.org/p/how-to-save-the-cpp-from-danielle?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
https://nitter.net/PIAlberta/status/1728160743126904885#m
Meanwhile the NDP plans to hold more town halls in November and December
https://www.albertasfuture.ca/event-registration/cpp-townhall2
Gord Young needs to educate himself on the Alberta grid, it is part of the WECC along with B.C. with a single 500 kv line running to south east British Columbia. There is also a DC link with Saskatchewan of limited capacity. Alberta has never had a complete blackout as it is easy to disconnect from the interconnection when there are system problems which is also why claiming there may be Canada wide blackouts is ridiculous. Generation is market based with provision for spinning and standby reserves which work fine unless the projections get skewed by unpredictable weather which is why alerts get issued. Other provinces subsidize the price of electricity which makes comparisons difficult, generation in Alberta is free market, transmission and distribution are regulated as they are monopolies. Personally I think it works reasonably well.
Unfortunately, all too often the people who “say the darndest things” cause consternation and concern, and mayhem can follow. Just look at Mr. Trump.
Jennifer Wade: you nailed it!