Living here you will encounter the Disgruntled Albertan (DS). I’m often in opposition to these types so I’ll call myself the Gruntled Albertan (GA).

I’m not shy about my beliefs, but publishing them can be uncomfortable. It can be too easy to fall into some kind of pity-party and become, well, disgruntled. The thing is that there are some pretty vocal disgruntled Albertan and they can be hurt if you are not as outraged as they are about their own beliefs. I have the misfortune to see the two main papers from town and it concerns me when I’m being insulted daily in the comments section of these publications. I’ve been called an idiot and worse for who I’ve voted for and what I believe, but I’d rather not feed that machine and I’ll try to avoid being, what is known around here as, a “bag of grief” or “BOG” for short.

I’m happy to be a part of Canada and I’m thankful for federal interventions in the west (I’ll give my view of the National Energy Program -NEP- under the other Trudeau later). I believe being part of Canada has given us the “standard of living” we enjoy and that the “prosperity” that is often associated with Alberta’s resource extraction is correct if you think prosperity is about urban sprawl, shopping malls, expensive cars and fancy bars. And if this is what we gave up so much for then we didn’t do well. What about those who value things like clean air and water, thriving ecosystems and real nature? Our version of prosperity doesn’t matter as it is likely to get in the way of profit, and that’s what prosperity really means around here: “profit”.

The profit machine works well and drafts the every man to join the fight through the media that they own and control, but I’m hopeful that the poll numbers I saw today are going to prove to be as accurate as the last presidential race. I really think we have made the right move with the government of the day and that to give back the reins to those who so poorly managed it for so many years would be asinine.

I don’t want to complain, but when blame continues to be aimed at the new government as opposed to being aimed at the former regime that could have done things differently it gets old. I heard this in the early 80’s when the NEP came along at the same time as a huge global recession. Yes, the Tarsands were abandoned by the international community as they, rightly so, saw them as a bad deal and a worse gamble (ask Lougheed what he thought about them). The local companies left behind ultimately reaped massive rewards but true to their nature they expect it to continue for ever and never did plan for the rainy day the Heritage Trust Fund was supposedly created for.

Really, we should all be pretty pissed off at how our shared natural resources were extracted for decades enriching a select few while never investing in the things we all knew were going to be needed in the future. Hell I remember talking about the end of oil in high school (early 80’s) and the need to diversify the western economy (sorry feds, but the Western Diversification Act has failed). The truth is the old way was never true “capitalism” and resembled much more corporate welfare and cronyism. And the truth is the body of capitalism has been dead for years, only the head hasn’t realized it yet.
There is a specific dosage pattern to gulp the pills of cheap viagra without prescription generic. This cialis on line is especially the case now that with Hormone Replacement Therapy women are experiencing ‘Post-Menopausal Zest’. What order cheap viagra are the steps to obtain a satisfying joyful life. The medicine enables contraction and expansion of arteries which let viagra generika the large amount of blood flow to the genital region of a person.

The former regime doesn’t want to take Alberta into the future (where fossil fuel is a thing of the past), it wants to drag us back to the glory days of old where they were allowed to take what they wanted without much regard to the future or the rest of us. Remember a few years ago the excited talk and plans for $200 oil? It was pretty disgusting watching some count their riches before the crap was even out of the ground (speculators should be jailed).

The Rest of Alberta (ROA) needs to be vigilant in keeping our home out of the hands of greedy groups that want to run the show in pursuit of their own agenda where profit is kept in private hands and where deficits are for the public to burden. Read the back pages of the paper where they hind the news about orphan wells and pipeline leaks. Ultimately the people of Alberta will be left holding the empty bag of unchecked natural resource extraction and all the money will be gone, spent on huge shitbox houses and super cars never intended for a Canadian winter. Some legacy.

I’m going to add to this over the next days carefully as things are often said without much real thought and that’s not what I intend to do

“Please God give us just one more oil boom and we promise not to piss it all away” stickers in support of the Tarsands coming soon!