Re: Ted Johnson’s letter to the editor in the Friday, Aug. 14, Advocate, Gas pump price creeping up, oil heads down.
Easy Ted.
“The clueless, directionless Alberta government has no provincial budget so as not to probably upstage their federal counterparts prior to the federal election now on,” he wrote.
Someone, whom I presume you admired — as did many Albertans — the Honorable Peter Lougheed, was elected on Aug. 30, 1971; the legislature did not even sit until March 2, 1972. A budget wasn’t presented until March 17.
Few would call him clueless. One of the first things he did was raise royalties.
Rachel Notley is in no rush. I think she did a fine job with the other premiers in the vortex of federal leadership.
Committees of experts from all political stripes have been formed to listen to Albertans. It was a brilliant move bringing in former Bank of Canada economist David Dodge.
We have some very serious problems.
According to the Economist Magazine, the Americans have close to a trillion barrels of shale oil. Of course, that is the NDPs fault!
For comparison the biggest conventional oilfield in Canadian history (all fracked) was the Pembina around Drayton Valley, which produced 1.5 billion barrels.
How production costs compare between shale oil and Fort McMurray, I don’t know.
The Conservatives had many years to build refineries — if that is the problem.
Would you like Petro Canada back?
Would you like to legislate gas prices?
Several companies have been fined for price fixing including, Suncor, Canadian Tire, Irving and so on — after years of court battles.
There is no rush, like Peter Lougheed was in no rush.
It will make a huge difference who wins the federal election; those who wish to work with the provinces co-operatively or the master of divide them and the Straussian attack strategy.
Carry on Rachel Notley, you are doing a fine, measured job.
Rod Trentham
Red Deer