Totally true!

Well written and incisive. I wonder how the manufacturing sector in middle Canada feels about being totally left out in the cold due to Harper's yanqui oil fixation.
Big Oil boardrooms in Calgary are killing this country, and Harper's their enabler.

The manufacturing sector has

The manufacturing sector has been killed and destituted by the free trade rackets, that have nothing to do with trade, but with the free movement of imaginary capital to take control of the world.

Canada now has to sell and destroy the ground from under people's feet to survive, while our miseducated and bought, so called "economists" are calling it "growth".

Harper is a psycho maniac of very low intelligence level, and as he goes crazier by the day, he'll be forced out of office before his term is over.

But the problem is not really Harper, but the world's universities' economics departments, where the criminal fascism of neoclassical market economics are being taught as a "science", legalizing the enslavement, destruction and mass murder of humanity by non existing, imaginary and fraudulent monetary values.

Ed Deak.

Ed Deak says "Harper is a

Ed Deak says "Harper is a psycho maniac of very low intelligence level, and as he goes crazier by the day, he'll be forced out of office before his term is over."

This is exactly what happened to Muammar Gadaffi in Libya. Hopefully we can force Harper out of office, and not have to depose him in a revolution as they had to in Libya.

Barry....The last thing I'd

Barry....The last thing I'd want to see is any form of violence against anybody.

All I wish for Harper is a string of overpaid directorships by his present employers, so we won't have to see, or hear from him again.

The way Campbell was sent on his way.

Ed Deak.

Thanks Ed deak

I admire your persistence on the issue of wealth creation.

We are in World War III right now, Corporations against mankind itself, can`t you feel it, the internet has opened up ,any eyes..

How long until the internet and social networking is closed.

The youth, meddle aged people are getting info savvy..

The spin won`t work anymore.

Thanks for listening.

regime change in petro-states

Gadhafi was just strung out on Morrocan kif, whereas Harper is high on evangelical market fundamentalism, a far more dangerous and debilitating drug. For less delusional Canadians, ecological disaster is now a matter of when not if.

Yes, politicians and diapers need to be changed frequently, for all the same reasons.

Bucket....I've lived under

Bucket....I've lived under every known ideology, have studied and worked with the problems and as an overeducated, skilled tradesman in several trades, I know what is going wrong, why, and have the practical experience on what to do and how to cure it.

I haven't invented, or discovered anything new. Everything I write is based on long known physical laws and the understanding of what caused history's repetitious tragedies.

I just got sick and tired seeing the same idiots leading the world down the garden paths of self destruction from day one, always by the installation of "faith" to force people to follow them.

Like hell.

Ed Deak.

Excellent Description of AB!

This is hands down the best description I've ever seen of the attitude in Alberta.

@Ed Deak

I know, I`ve read your comments here for over 1/2 a decade..

sorry about the typo errors, still dark in my computer room..

Can`t afford the hydro anymore, only the necessities are turned on..

Interesting that when oil was $25 per barrel in 2001, Alberta had massive surpluses, now oil is $100 per barrel and Alberta is running a $4billion dollar deficit..

The Pembina institute has reported on the flawed royalty scheme..

Royalty write offs, I`ll get some data.

Thanks

Pembina data on royalties, Part I

"Here is a little something from Pembina

Royalties Down 32%, Billions
in Federal Revenue Lost
OIL BOOMS:
O V E R H A U L I N G T H E R O YA LT Y A N D TA X T R E AT M E N T O F A L B E R TA’ S O I L S A N D S
Record oil prices, record oil sands production,
record profits for companies, and yet Alberta’s
oil sands royalty return per barrel is down 32%,
and the federal government has lost up to
$1.65 billion to oil sands tax breaks.
Since 1997, when the current royalty regime was
implemented, capital investments in oil sands projects
have increased more than 300% and oil sands
production has increased 88%. By 2004, production
surpassed one million barrels per day – a production
target that was originally set for 2020. In
just one decade, the price of oil has increased 214%.
While the low royalty rates and federal tax break
were deemed necessary in the early days of oil sands
developments, they have outlived their purpose.
The low royalty rates mean that between
1996 and 2005 royalty revenue paid to
Albertans declined by 32% from $3.39
to $2.29 per barrel of oil"

A little commentary from me then part II

Well there it is, the price of oil has skyrocketed and royalties to Actual Albertans has fallen, fallen aplenty, and the same goes to the Federal Government, as production increases in the oil sands, which it has year after year the Federal Government is making less and less, at the rate it`s falling even the vast Oilsands are soon to be a welfare industry....Perhaps you think I`m over-stating the case, well, here`s a little more Pembina for you...

Part II below
____________________________________________________________
It’s bad enough that oil sands royalties
are declining as oil sands production
goes up and oil companies reap windfall
profits. Now cost over-runs for the
construction of new oil sands projects,
brought on by an economy that has
been overheated by the pace of development,
are further reducing royalties
and taxes that Alberta and the federal
government should be receiving.
Cost over-runs mean oil companies
stay at the 1% royalty rate longer
before jumping to the 25% rate,
which means Albertans get less
revenue today.
Even when companies do get to the
25% rate, it is based on their net
income so higher expenses means
even less revenue for the resource
owners, the public.
Cost over-runs also cost Canadians
money. This is because federal taxes
are reduced or deferred because of
the sweetheart deal that enables oil
sands companies to write off 100%
of their capital costs.
This means taxpayers subsidize not
only the start-up of the oil sands industry
but continue to subsidize project
expansions too. And now that the
industry is getting too big, too quickly,
Canadian taxpayers are also on
the hook for cost over-runs resulting
from an overheated economy

________________________________

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.com/2011/11/enbridge-prosperity-myth.html

Even the cartoon is excellent.

Christy Clark told the rest of Canada that the BC Coast belonged to them as well. BC's one great asset, it's coast, was squandered in such a dumb way and without any quid pro quo that maybe BC also owned the resources of the other provinces if that was the case. Here we are forced by the oil interests and Harper to accept that BC will have to risk it all to pay his political debt to the oil interests. How dumb do those Albertans think we are?

Here is what Christy Clark said

"OTTAWA - B.C. Premier Christy Clark praised Tuesday the importance of the oilsands industry to Canada’s economy but refused to budge from her fence-sitting position on the controversial proposed Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat, B.C.

“Certainly in British Columbia we recognize the big contribution that the oilsands make to Canada and to our national economy,” Clark told reporters after a meeting with Alberta Premier Alison Redford and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall in Edmonton.
__________________________________________________________
Christy Clark didn`t stop there, for what she said next was enough to make my skin crawl
_________________________________________________________

“British Columbia’s coast does not just belong to British Columbia, it belongs to Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces,” Clark said.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/endorse+Northern+Gateway+until+environmental+assessment+complete+Clark/5854383/story.html#ixzz1gUwOVlO0

___________________________________________________________
So Christy Clucking Clark believes Quebec and Alberta can dictate what happens on our wild west coast.....I don`t see Alberta giving us any of their royalties, I don`t see Quebec doing anything for the interest of BC.

You no longer represent the wishes of British Columbia Christy Clark."

Cheers

$tephen Harper

Is Harper driving the bus? Is he the navigator? Is he given the directions by bigger passengers?
On one hand he would have you believe he is driving. He is the one making all the important decisions. He is the one making it easy for the oil industry to exploit Canada. He says this is good for economic progress.Good for Joe Public. You and I.
On the other hand the oil industry is laughing as they have found their man. An evangelical christian oil man who loves hockey! They couldn't be happier. He gives them more than a billion dollars a year and keeps cutting their taxes. Profits are rolling in. Not to Canada but to them. That doesn't matter to $tephen. He will even send troops to sort out their oil wars. No Arab state with oil or pipelines is going to mess with him. He is an evagelist christian and not immune to war. He is used to taking orders from either a mythilogical power or a corpoate power.He is on a mission to increase the profits of the biggest oil companies even if that means risking environmental devistation. He does not care. They do not care. He has helped them to hyjack this nation.We are a country under seige. We are a nation occupied.
From manipulating parlaiment, destorying democracy to removing environmental protection, he is doing their business.With him driving we are a nation under corporate control. The signs are all there. We don't have to look too hard to see the dots being connected. We have seen the same commitment of government to corporate rule in BC over the past 11 years. We know the signs all to well. Stop the bus.

Dobbin writes: "Harper's

Dobbin writes: "Harper's dogged dedication to the oil patch could be his undoing as it privileges one sector of the economy at the expense of virtually all the others (except the financial sector..."

How true!

Looking at who the major institutional investors are of Enbridge.

I found the following "Big Five":

Royal Bank (RBC)
TD Bank and Asset Management
Bank of Nova Scotia
Bank of Montreal (BMO)
CIBC World Markets

Along with the Big Five I found two other large public employee and building trades pension fund investment institutions holding significant numbers of Enbridge shares:

Caisse de depot
Jarislowsky Fraser

These 7 institutions controlled 36.48% of Enbridge's shares as of September 2011.

If you are a "member" of one the Big Five banks your savings are invested in the Enbridge proposal. Time to divest? If you union pension funds are with the Caisse de depot or Jarislowsky Fraser start hollering at your union pension trustees or be part of the economic and environmental debacle.

Federal NDP

It is unfortunate that Canada's Official Opposition, the NDP, is busy with leadership hopefuls debating each other rather than providing an alternative and leadership needed right now! The battle is being left up to a former NDP Premier now acting leader of the federal Liberals.

Murray vastly understated the tanker capacity

At least some of the tankers proposed for Northern Gateway will be VLCC's with 2 million barrels of oil. Each barrel has 42 US gallons so that is 84 million US gallons, not 200000 as Murray states. Put it this way one of these tankers contains more oil than Canada uses in a day. The Exxon Valdes spilled 11 million gallons so if one of the VLCC's spills that's almost 8 Exxon Valdes's.

the article

The author uses the term, "neo liberal" What does that mean?

The Intentional Undermining of Canada

Quote:

"Sending oil to China that could otherwise make the whole country self-sufficient is not just an absence of a national energy policy, it is a declaration the Harper government simply isn't national and has no intention of becoming so."

Well said, Murray Dobbin.

With Harper we see the intentional splintering of Canada as never before, where individual provinces pumped with corporate self-interest will not only result in provinces battling against and betraying each other but splintering and betraying the common good of the country as well.

Harper's latest sly move against what was once our strong national health care system is more evidence in this regard as well.

These traitorous right-wing libertarian policies will continue to fracture Canada into easily devoured morsels for both foreign and corporate special interests to devour at their pleasure.

The splintering of all things 'national' effectively dismantles Canada without having to resort to the messier alternative of using foreign military force.

'Course, he's also given carte blanche to the US military to enter Canada under the guise of security....filed under "Other Options".

Great article.

Ed Deak

"But the problem is not really Harper, but the world's universities' economics departments, "

The universities may load the gun, but Harper et al pull the trigger. Who's to blame?

I've been taught and exposed to a wide spectrum of ideas in my life, but I don't act on them all.

Here an unthinking, unconscionable, unethical, selfish and power hungry man is to blame. These problems underlie all else.

Harper should be tried for treason

Treason is defined as:

trea·son   [tree-zuhn]
noun
1.
the offense of acting to overthrow one's government or to harm or kill its sovereign.
2.
a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state.
3.
the betrayal of a trust or confidence; breach of faith; treachery.

By pushing the tar sands agenda knowing full well what the consequences are going to be Harper is betraying the trust and confidence of the Canadian people. The destruction of the environment will do unrepairable damage to the affected areas once the oil spills start happening and the oil companies and Harper know this. So to continue down this path is no different than any other criminal who is the planning stages before robbing a bank or committing any other crime. It's called premeditation which makes this the most heinous kind of crime.

igby....All legalized major

igby....All legalized major criminal actions of history have been legalized by faiths and beliefs. Without them much of the colonizations by Europeans couldn't have taken place, but when religions or now ideologies sell them as legal actions, people will commit the worst crimes.

E.g. South America has been "given" to Spain and Portugal by the Popes of the times, legalizing the mass murder and enslavement of millions, after the Popes' letters have been read to them. So was Japan to Portugal, but the Japanese didn't think much about it.

Basically, the same is happening today with the enslavement, disenfranchisement and impoverishment of billions, on the theories and by the legalization by so called "economists", thumping imaginary monetary figures and the distorted theories of their "prophets", like Adam Smith, Marx, Friedman, etc.

E.g. There's no such thing as a Nobel Prize for Economics, yet it is used fraudulently to mislead people and give respectability to a crime wave.

It is the Bank of Sweden Prize, set up in 1968 to sell the fraudulent neoclassical theory, and when you look at the list of recipients, the majority are pushing the same garbage to people. JK Galbraith, one of the few economists in history with brains, never got it, because he didn't follow the line.

The list of such legalized crime waves is endless. E.g. The nazis invaded the Soviets in the name of "Freedom, Christianity and Western Civilization".

At the same time Stalin and Mao killed close to 50 million in their death camps, legalized by the warped theories of Marx.

Humanity is basically honest, loving and cooperative until driven crazy by "prophets", claiming "divine orders"

Ed Deak.

Our government is run by big

Our government is run by big oil and Stevie is their puppet. I have not seen anything to prove otherwise.

I wonder if Harper is trying to ram this in before next BC election? The NDP are against this. Who has jurisdiction? BC or the Feds? I think it is BC. Yes there are also FN concerns but usually the government could care less about them. Harper does not.

But at the end of the day this will be pushed through. It may take a little longer with court challenges etc.

I can see it now, Harper and his big oil bedfellows will spin it as those against it are anti job, hippies, environmentalists, the so called mainstream media will make a great deal and spin it about the 'welfare bums' 'lazy' 'socialists' 'outsiders' arrested for protesting etc etc

The thing is when there is an oil spill it is usually the tax payers that pay up...How much has BP paid or been fined? Exxon had their fine reduced by the US Supreme court from 5 billion to a paltry 500 million (and still only paid 383 million despite record profits since) and not to mention the damage Exxon has done in the Niger Delta..

Cassandra Syndrome.

Anyone paying attention knows the 'take dominion of the earth and multiply' party needs to be over *now* - earth's biosphere has had all it can take, we are on the verge of environmental collapse - the proof is everywhere.

Knowing this, the Enbridge pipeline - and the tar sands development forcing this issue - complete and utter madness.

big oil

seems to me Harper is intent on giving away another resource. The Harper Crusade against environmentalists and anyone who opposes the Enbridge pipe dream is about as anti-Canadian as one could imagine. The people who work in the oil industry would rather see a national energy program with a west to east supply. We should be developing and refining for our own energy needs rather than accepting the advice and direction of multinational oil barons like Shell. The old fox in the henhouse trick with help from Harper the Hound. I think we need to concentrate on developing a made in Canada energy plan and policy with a timetable which parallels the Enbridge strategy. It will be a wonderful thing to stop the "deal" but to take it a step further in the interim would be sublime

CSIS

Fadden was right, Canadian politicians are being controlled by the Communist Chinese Government, it all makes perfect sense now, what was your price Stephen Harper, it couldn`t have been your soul because you don`t have one.

http://digitaljournal.com/article/293757

China now controls Ottawa!

"Forget James Bond and how you ever pictured espionage to work. It's all about influence these days, according to the head of Canada's intelligence agency.
In an exclusive interview with CBC News, the head of CSIS, Richard Fadden, revealed a number of Canadian politicians are under the influence of other nations. Fadden told CBC News that CSIS suspected several higher-level provincial Canadian politicians have become compromised by foreign influence, saying

"We're in fact a bit worried in a couple of provinces that we have an indication that there's some political figures who have developed quite an attachment to foreign countries."

The problem with that 'attachment,' Fadden explained, is

"The individual becomes in a position to make decisions that affect the country or the province or a municipality. All of a sudden, decisions aren't taken on the basis of the public good but on the basis of another country's preoccupations."

According to Fadden, municipal politicians are also under the sway of foreign influences.
Fadden told CBC News that Canadian politicians and their staff had no idea they were being manipulated by foreigners. Fadden only named British Columbia, but hinted there were other politicians in other provinces across Canada who had become compromised.
Fadden explained why he was breaking silence so publicly, saying

"... I'm making this comment because I think it's a real danger that people be totally oblivious to this kind of issue."

Fadden said foreign countries recruited Canadian university students, cultivating them to become 'people of influence,' naming China as the most aggressive of the five nations pursuing this tactic.

"Before you know it, a country is providing them with money, there's some sort of covert guidance."

Fadden wrapped up his interview by saying Canada's approach of focusing on preventing terrorism left Canada's technology at risk of being poached by foreign nations through espionage.
Fadden failed to explain why foreign nations were interested in manipulating Canadian politicians, nor the manner in how they were manipulated. He also did not say how much money was being funnelled to foreign nations through the influence game, nor if politicians and staffers would be investigated on the basis of his allegations.
CBC News reported in a follow-up Wednesday that security experts are perplexed by Fadden's public disclosure. Just to confuse the matter"

Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/293757#ixzz1jgVDn8wH

This definately explains the actions of a one..

Stephen Treason Harper!

hey PWLG

where did you find that info on the big five and Enbridge?

Murray Needs to be "Corrected" on one thing.....

....instead of the "Big Oil Party",more correctly should be the "Great Oil Party" of Canada. For short, it can be the G.O.P. (Canada).....

Remember Tainanmen Square.

Let those(Far)Eastern bastards freeze in the dark.

Your Example

Your example of a tanker spilling 200,000 gallons is very conservative (no, not the Harper type conservative). Based on Enbridge's estimates, the proposed pipeline would have a capacity of 550,000 barrels per day - given 365 days per year, potentially 200,750,000 (thats 200 million) barrels per year could be pushed through the pipeline. Based on 2 tankers every 3 days, thats 240 tankers per year. 243 tankers divided into 200,750,000 barrels = an average of 826,000 barrels per tanker (some will be bigger, some smaller). In a worse case senario, the potential spill could be anything up to 826,000 barrels of diluted bitumen (not gallons). Given the rugged coast line, potential nasty weather and large tidal differentials, this could easily far surpass an "Exxon Valdez"!

Deja vu expanded

Boy this feels like deja vu, exactly what I've been pointing out, along with many others, for some time. But this is better researched and articulated, with some further thinking on the topic. Thanks Murray.

Ed, I'm surprised that you didn't take offence to Harpo being cast as "The smartest man in the room..." Of course that doesn't say much about the CCCE members, many of whom have Freidman style economics training.

I suspect that many of these elites now see a major problem with the Harper govt. in that they don't really support a multi regional economic system, and some will transfer their allegiance to the more socially and economically stable Liberal brand.

Oil is king, but even these monarchs will need to submit to a modern Magna Carta (never mind the later people's revolution).

Ed, as you've often reiterated, and one of my profs pointed out before the great purge, "it's easy to change a leader (think Gordo), harder to remove a party (B.C. Libs, maybe unseated in the next election) and very difficult to change a system", especially when the holders of power and many other citizens have been indoctrinated to see it as best or even the only viable one.

I admire some Liberal notions, but the only real fiscal difference between the federal Libs and Cons is the speed at which Canada can be sold off to trans-national corporations.

Social policy is significantly different between the two, but fiscal neo-lib and neo- con policy is essentially the same.

But where the main power base resides, Alberta or Ontario, is another story.

igbymac makes a good point in that it is the leader who provides the legitimizing "Go" to the voodoo economics idealogues to turn talk into action, and so must take responsibility for that decision.

Comic caption error

A problem with the cartoon caption, please replace "If" with "When".