Brown shirts in Alberta

The rabid right in Alberta has finally cracked the roof of its loony bin.  In a brazen move to molify the right, the provincial government has, under the title of family rights, allowed parents to pull their kids out of any class that deals with religion, human sexuality or sexual orientation.

What's next? Even though gays are tolerated in Alberta, will parents be able to pull their kids from any classroom that has a gay teacher? What about if the teacher is black? How about Aboriginal or even just (shutter) from eastern Canada?

Bill Aberhart is sitting up in his grave and applauding these days.

The Bubble in Alberta

I lived in Alberta in the 70s and 80s. I went there just before the economy began booming and left just after it went bust. Ah, good times. I went back there recently and it came back to me why I left.

Calgary isn't a city... it is a parking lot. Things are so widely spread that you enter the city limits before you leave the country. Like it's sister city, Houston, if you live in the northwest, you have to pack a lunch to get to the southeast. There are very few local stores and almost no local pubs or restaurants in the newer sections of the city. Want a loaf of bread? Be prepared to travel for 10 minutes to the closest big box store.

But it is not just the travel time or size of the city. Just try to find a bottle of aspirin in a London Drug store. Hint? It is just past the electronics section between youth clothing and lumber.

What I experienced in the past is beginning all over again. I talked with a fellow in the north of the city. His house has been on the market for almost 3 months. His asking price is above what he paid for it but not by much. He admits that if he has to, he will take a loss just to unload the property. The real estate market is slowing to a crawl. I wonder if it will implode.

The guy driving the F350 at the FasGaz was livid when I told him that gas prices at the pump in Ottawa were on average three cents per litre lower than he was paying. Thankfully his gun rack was empty or there is no telling what might have happened.

I was out in the country on my trip and was confronted by a good ol' boy in jeans and a big straw hat. He was telling me that Albertans were rugged individualists... no need for government or hand-outs. I thought he was going to burst a blood vessel in his head when I asked him why Alberta had a Social Credit government for so long and why it was the home of the country's largest Co-op chain.

The bubble in Alberta has not burst, but the walls are thinning just a bit.

Time to cut the neighbours loose

Let's say that you tell your kids and some of the neighbours kids that they cannot throw a ball against your garage door. The neighbours hear about the ban and they confront you. There is an obscure clause in a city bylaw, they say, that states that you cannot prohibit the neighbours kids from throwing a ball against your garage. Ludicrous you say? Can't happen, you claim? Well listen to this!

In 1951 the Alberta government enacted a law (Alberta Gas Resources Preservation Act) that states that the province must maintain at least a 15 year reserve of natural gas before they can export any to other provinces or to the US. In my example, that is akin to you telling the kids not to throw the ball against the garage.

In 1989, the Canadian government and the US entered into the US-Canada Free Trade Agreement, (think of it as the city bylaw in our example) which included an innocuous clause which referred to proportionality with respect to Canada's natural gas and oil and its export to the US. In fact, the clause has the effect of forcing Canada to make available about two thirds of its energy capacity to the US - regardless to the needs or situations of Canadians. This clause was carried over into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Alberta, according to recent studies, has only eight years of proven reserves, much less than the 15 years demanded by their own law. So, the Alberta government should be restricting their export taps a bit to get their reserves back up to the legal minimum, right? Can't! The FTA (and NAFTA) make the Alberta law invalid. The US controls the exports of Alberta energy through the FTA. The US controls the laws of Alberta.

Can you say unacceptable?

NAFTA (which interestingly includes Mexico but the carried-over FTA proportionality clause does not affect them) has a six month exit clause. With six months notice we can get out of NAFTA including: the tribunals that have screwed up our environment by stopping us from banning dangerous chemicals from entering Canada; the lopsided actions that have screwed up our softwood lumber, potato and beef exports; and demands that we give the US, our partner, two thirds of our energy, even if our own country is in need.

Barrack Obama has mused about renegotiating NAFTA. Maybe Canada's Greatest Government(TM) should muse that also. No... hang on a bit. CGG(TM) is owned by the oil companies and their lobbyists.

Maybe Harper will apologize to Canadians when he finished apologizing for the Residential Schools, to Sikhs over Komagata Maru and whatever other groups he wants to pander to.