New year, old hats
Hoping your New Year’s Day of 2024 did not include the ever-so-fun game of “am I sick or is this a ghastly hangover?” I was not so fortunate. While whichever virus (or viruses, I’m told) I hosted afforded me the ability to fall asleep multiple times a day for a couple of weeks, it has yet to offer a feeling of being well-rested or at all refreshed. Now that I’ve set the mood, here are some things I hope to know much more about by the end of 2024.
This Week and Year in AB
We could be thankful that cold snaps are no longer accompanied by an onslaught of “so much for global ‘warming’, eh?” commentary, but in Alberta, we get updates on whether the brief freeze that followed the warmest December on record includes enough wind power to heat our homes.
Spoiler: it hasn’t — not that anyone other than the zero-sum-thinking United Conservative government expected it would.
Albertans received an emergency alert on the second day of the deep freeze after two of our natural gas-powered electricity plants were also generating zero power. Impressively, power consumption dropped immediately after the emergency alert was sent, and continued to drop steadily afterward.
Almost as if informing the public of a problem and providing guidance on how they can contribute to the solution actually works.
I’m sure this logic could apply to other problems as well but it’s just so difficult to pinpoint which *cough* ones…
The UCP’s moratorium on green energy projects will be up for review in March and what you won’t hear from our elected muppet government is how much investment and how many jobs this decision has cost. Businesses who are stuck in queue, and were hoping to attract billions in investment to start adding green energy to their natural gas portfolios, can’t afford to ignore the consequences.
Good news for oil exports, however, as TMX is almost ready to take on an additional 590,000 barrels and in preparation Alberta oil companies hit 4 million bpd production for the first time ever with over 40,000 fewer employees than they had in 2015.
Feel the love.
Math is still hard
That little number popped back into my feed this week and since Albertans will be bombarded with many more of the UCP’s superlatives on a provincial pension plan this year, I wanted to call attention to something Smith said back in September.
“Because the amount of asset transfer is so significant, $334 billion, it amounts to about 28 times the amount of assets you need to fund the liability that we have,” Smith said.
If you’ve yet to read the Lifeworks report, its language is much less confident about that number than Smith and her supporters have been.
A few things have always bothered me about this; first, staking a claim to contributions (additions to the fund) made since 1966, but none of the liabilities (pension amounts paid) since 1966, is delusional.
Second, I can only surmise that contributions “by province” refers to the amount collected and submitted by companies registered in a particular province rather than the current or future pensioner’s province of residence.
My issue with this is that while the Premier has said they’ll consider using our money to pay for a non-binding referendum (may as well use a twitter poll) for Albertans to weigh in on the province taking over their pension funds, not everyone who contributes through Alberta, or has contributed since 1966, resides here.
So, I was particularly struck by Smith’s claim that Alberta would have “28 times the amount of assets you need to fund the liability that we have” because she has no way of knowing what Alberta’s liability actually would be.
We don’t have the youngest average population in the country because most of our population keels over before they start collecting their pensions — we have the youngest average population because people don’t seem to want to retire here.
I’ll add that I don’t actually know for a fact Albertans aren’t dying off in record numbers rather than relocating but I feel pretty confident that since I’ve never heard of it being an issue, it’s not because the mainstream media isn’t reporting on it.
My hope for 2024 is that we get a reality check on a provincial pension plan. Conservatives have been trying to figure out how to get their hands on it for decades but none before Smith had the chops to pretend Albertans wouldn’t be on the hook for hundreds of millions, or billions, in risks and liabilities. It’s a tres bold move from someone who, like many others who once called Alberta home, has no intention of retiring here.
Now for something we can be proud of
A former Take Back Alberta organizer, Benita Pederson, successfully made a name for herself in her hometown of Westlock, Alberta when she advocated for a petition to cancel the town’s rainbow crosswalk, led anti-mandate rallies, and protests against local students.
Despite collecting almost 125 signatures in a town of more than 5,000, council declined to table the petition, perhaps allowing common sense to prevail over the notion that a majority of residents may be as invested in the cozy comfort that straight white crosswalks provide.
Former town councilor Robin Brett sponsored the petition, and also lost his bid for mayor to former councilor Jon Kramer, a candidate who said he ran on a commitment to inclusion.
Undeterred, Pederson set out to prove the silent majority of her fellow residents were just as hell-bent on exerting their freedom to infringe upon the freedom of others by running for town council.
She came in second place with 20 per cent support, or, 130 more votes than signatures on an embarrassing petition.
Pederson said she is pleased with the turnout and will run for another position of authority in the future.
Heads up, Westlock, it’s probably going to be for the school board.
Oh Canada
Poilievre’s Conservatives still leading Liberals 18 months before it matters
Polls tell us what people are thinking on the day they answer a survey but the Liberals should be concerned because they aren’t moving the needle back where they can feel comfortable, even 18 months ahead of an election.
If I was setting up the Liberal strategy — and no one is seeking my coveted two cents because I’m an idea person, not a “detailed, step-by-step plan of how to get there” person — I would lean into the fact that Trudeau is super unpopular.
Hear me out.
No one likes the person who has to make the tough decisions. In fact, the less they’re “liked” the more easily they can be counted on to make those tough decisions. So, lean into it.
See? Ideas.
Paparazzo or press?
Harassment laws in Canada are similar but we do not have a specific Act that protects people from those whose livelihood depends on provoking a reaction.
Rebel media personality David Menzies was arrested last week after chasing Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland down the street. Freeland, for her part, ignored him.
Right wing apologists across the nation leapt to Menzies’ defence, ostensibly because they really wanted to know the answer to his question “why is the government supporting ‘Islamonazis’?”
Menzies was later released without charge and the incident is under review by the RCMP.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Rebel personalities have had run-ins with the law for attempting to get “exclusive interviews” without consent, though such incidents are so effective in the outlet’s fundraising as to have its own website available whenever the opportunity, I mean, “sorry state of freedom of the press” arises.
Meanwhile, in Alberta, Indigenous author and journalist Brandi Morin was arrested while interviewing residents in Edmonton’s houseless encampments while Edmonton Police Service began their de-encampment initiative. She was charged with “obstruction of justice”.
Morin’s court date is scheduled for February 1.
Final thoughts
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