OldTimeHockey said:
My only point is it's not just the Premier of Alberta that sees losing the pipeline as a big deal.
Well, no, the premier of Saskatchewan was also supposedly yelling at Trudeau about it but either way I don't see what the criticism of Trudeau is. He wanted it to happen, a position I think that reflects him wanting to try to rebuild his party on the prairies more than what he actually thinks is good environmental/economic policy, but he's not going to ruin the much larger Canada/US trade policy over it. He's comporting himself appropriately given the situation.
OldTimeHockey said:
People can question Alberta putting all their eggs in the oil handbasket. I'm just not sure what other hand basket they should be putting it in considering it's the industry that has propped up the province's economy. Heck, it did a pretty good job of propping up the country's economy as well.
I think the point being made is that it's not really a choice at this point. The world is moving away from fossil fuels. That has very strong support, especially among younger voters. It's not going away and is almost certainly only going to get stronger in the years to come. Alberta can either start that process, as painful as it may be, and get the jump on pivoting to something else or it's going to happen to them. The price of oil is almost certainly never going to be what it was in boom times.
Heck, even the Saudis understand this to the point that they're going to be spending hundreds of billions of dollars trying to build animatronic dinosaur theme parks and fancy hotels in the middle of the desert to bring in tourist dollars so that their economy doesn't disintegrate over the coming years.
I appreciate that there's a lot of deep division in our country and call me a unrealistic optimist if you must but I firmly have faith in my fellow countrymen and think that Albertans can, if they put their mind to it, be as forward thinking and open to change as Saudi Arabia.
