Politics in 2018

[Altair]

Well, with the way the Supreme Court seems to be making decisions,you may be right.  I’m sure many people in Alberta and Saskatchewan will begin to think what is the point of being in a Canada that spends decades raping and pillaging these two provinces solely for the benefit of socialist minded larger provinces.  We see the law of the land continually being biasedly applied and the embarrassment of watching every Tom, Dick and Harry minor minority having their pet peeves being addressed all the while the people suffer at the hands of incompetent government.

And when the pipeline is built that will all go away?

Well,  that is good to know.

 

[Jed]

And when the pipeline is built that will all go away?

Well,  that is good to know.

It will go away just like Quebec Separitism ideology will go away. (Never). However the sentiment is strong, stronger than after the reign of PET.  In my opinion this is really going to hit the fan, especially if Liberals go in Federally in 2019.

 

[Altair]

It will go away just like Quebec Separitism ideology will go away. (Never). However the sentiment is strong, stronger than after the reign of PET.  In my opinion this is really going to hit the fan, especially if Liberals go in Federally in 2019.

Those same liberals who are fighting for the pipeline to go through and have pretty much staked their term in government on it?

So odd. The federal liberals and alberta NDP are trying to make sure the pipeline that will help alberta and canada goes through,  while the BC NDP and the BC green party try to kill the project,  yet its the current head of the federal liberals who will cause western alienation to rise,  not BC?

Ok then.  I won't pretend to understand,  I'll just take your word for it.

 

[Jed]

Those same liberals who are fighting for the pipeline to go through and have pretty much staked their term in government on it?

So odd. The federal liberals and alberta NDP are trying to make sure the pipeline that will help alberta and canada goes through,  while the BC NDP and the BC green party try to kill the project,  yet its the current head of the federal liberals who will cause western alienation to rise,  not BC?

Ok then.  I won't pretend to understand,  I'll just take your word for it.

OK. Glad you are taking my word for it. It is pretty obvious that the 'fight that the Liberals are taking' supporting the pipeline has been a charade until very recently.  This Liberal Majority government has been nothing but a clown show for the 2 1/2 years of their tenure.

 

[dapaterson]

To me, the SCC on R v Comeau suggests a court slightly ahead of the power curve on cannabis legalization.  I enjoyed Emmett MacFarlane's take in Maclean's.

 

[Altair]

OK. Glad you are taking my word for it. It is pretty obvious that the 'fight that the Liberals are taking' supporting the pipeline has been a charade until very recently.  This Liberal Majority government has been nothing but a clown show for the 2 1/2 years of their tenure.

off the top of my head,  when he became liberal leader,  he went to alberta and spoke about the need for pipelines. 

He went to new york and spoke to Americans about balancing the environmental and pipelines. 

He's gone on a cross country speaking tour and reiterated how kinder Morgan was going to be built. He went to BC saying he's going to build the pipeline. He went to fort Mac to say he's going to build a pipeline.

The man has said his entire time as leader that there needs to be a balance between the economy and the the environment. It must have been a very long running charade.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

If Parkland decided the refinery here was no longer viable, then the lower mainland would be utterly screwed.

 

[Cloud Cover]

Well lets all be clear about something. It is not the Alberta government that currently ships oil to BC, it is private companies that do this through a privately owned but heavily regulated pipeline system. (although Notley has offered to become some sort of business partner with KM).  The companies can simply let their contacts run out and ship oil south or east. What the Alberta government is attempting to do is create and then revoke licenses or limit licenses to ship quantities of oil to a particular province. Even if the BC Court of Appeal make a reference decision about this,  Alberta can just seek its own decision with their own court of appeal. Legal deadlock.

As OGBD says, the feds need to step into this is solid way which they do not appear to have the stones to do. I think Trudeau screwed himself here (again) by not putting his foot down on every entity opposing this pipeline and just ram it through, or alternately making a hard decision to nix the project altogether and maintaining the status quo of shipments. In doing the latter he loses a lot of votes in Alberta, but he didn't have that many anyway but Im not sure he gains much from BC either.  A third option, and its not a good one, is to nationalize the energy industry and have the feds take all of the responsibility away from the provinces for the transportation and distribution of  oil products and coerce companies to comply.  Would Notley oppose????
In any eventuality, this appears to be the end of the days of confidence in the federal government for the left half of the country for decades to come. People that are so deeply divided and firmly entrenched on this issue are not going to back down one way or the other, it has been allowed to go too far.

 

[Altair]

Well lets all be clear about something. It is not the Alberta government that currently ships oil to BC, it is private companies that do this through a privately owned but heavily regulated pipeline system. (although Notley has offered to become some sort of business partner with KM).  The companies can simply let their contacts run out and ship oil south or east. What the Alberta government is attempting to do is create and then revoke licenses or limit licenses to ship quantities of oil to a particular province. Even if the BC Court of Appeal make a reference decision about this,  Alberta can just seek its own decision with their own court of appeal. Legal deadlock.

As OGBD says, the feds need to step into this is solid way which they do not appear to have the stones to do. I think Trudeau screwed himself here (again) by not putting his foot down on every entity opposing this pipeline and just ram it through, or alternately making a hard decision to nix the project altogether and maintaining the status quo of shipments. In doing the latter he loses a lot of votes in Alberta, but he didn't have that many anyway but Im not sure he gains much from BC either.  A third option, and its not a good one, is to nationalize the energy industry and have the feds take all of the responsibility away from the provinces for the transportation and distribution of  oil products and coerce companies to comply.  Would Notley oppose????
In any eventuality, this appears to be the end of the days of confidence in the federal government for the left half of the country for decades to come. People that are so deeply divided and firmly entrenched on this issue are not going to back down one way or the other, it has been allowed to go too far.

That isn't the way to do it,  not at all.

Most people in BC support the pipeline. Its a very vocal minority and very motivated activists who are providing this opposition.

If trudeau and the feds come down here on BC with heavy action,  it becomes a case of the feds versus every British Columbian. It makes Hogan into a martyr,  captain BC. A balanced approach of stick and carrot is the best way to erode opposition to the pipeline.  If the polls are to be believed,  support for the pipeline in BC is up. The BC liberals aren't banging the drum for the pipeline right now,  Notley isn't out to make friends across the border,  a case can be made that its the feds trying to sell this project to BC residents that is pushing that support higher.

I think things hinge on this pipeline. If the rule of law prevails,  the pipeline is built,  federal jurisdiction is respected and natural resources get to market while respecting the environment we all come out of this better. If it dies and a minority government in BC is allowed to challenge and defeat the federal government in their jurisdiction,  giving the shaft to the energy exporting provinces,  ya,  alberta can be justified asking what good they get out of confederation.  But that talk now is very premature. This is just the messy process in action.

 

[Jed]

Well lets all be clear about something. It is not the Alberta government that currently ships oil to BC, it is private companies that do this through a privately owned but heavily regulated pipeline system. (although Notley has offered to become some sort of business partner with KM).  The companies can simply let their contacts run out and ship oil south or east. What the Alberta government is attempting to do is create and then revoke licenses or limit licenses to ship quantities of oil to a particular province. Even if the BC Court of Appeal make a reference decision about this,  Alberta can just seek its own decision with their own court of appeal. Legal deadlock.

As OGBD says, the feds need to step into this is solid way which they do not appear to have the stones to do. I think Trudeau screwed himself here (again) by not putting his foot down on every entity opposing this pipeline and just ram it through, or alternately making a hard decision to nix the project altogether and maintaining the status quo of shipments. In doing the latter he loses a lot of votes in Alberta, but he didn't have that many anyway but Im not sure he gains much from BC either.  A third option, and its not a good one, is to nationalize the energy industry and have the feds take all of the responsibility away from the provinces for the transportation and distribution of  oil products and coerce companies to comply.  Would Notley oppose????
In any eventuality, this appears to be the end of the days of confidence in the federal government for the left half of the country for decades to come. People that are so deeply divided and firmly entrenched on this issue are not going to back down one way or the other, it has been allowed to go too far.

Everything you say here rings true.  The cancelled pipeline going East and also kiboshing the Keystone also enter in to this discussion. Meanwhile agriculture is screwed because the railways are shipping oil and not grain, is causing issues there.  All in all, Alberta and Saskatchewan are more than mad. Being as this is round two for Trudeau Liberals, it is not going to end pretty or anytime soon.

 

[Cloud Cover]

I think things hinge on this pipeline. If the rule of law prevails,  the pipeline is built,  federal jurisdiction is respected and natural resources get to market while respecting the environment we all come out of this better. If it dies and a minority government in BC is allowed to challenge and defeat the federal government in their jurisdiction,  giving the shaft to the energy exporting provinces,  ya,  alberta can be justified asking what good they get out of confederation.  But that talk now is very premature. This is just the messy process in action.

Hmmm, I agree with you to a certain point- for example, that a majority of people in BC might support the pipeline. For example, Kelowna and the central Okanagon appear to be the summer capital region of Alberta, and many, many people who live in BC work in northern Alberta.
Since when does the majority matter for anything in this country anymore, especially when it comes to litigation and the rule of law where the good of the majority seems to be a bad, bad thing. 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Interestingly, (and I think this only by happenstance), at paragraphs 91 and 92 of the Comeau decision touch upon the federal and provincial division of powers, and the Court wrote:

[91] For the reasons that follow, we do not see these lines of authority to be in conflict. Properly understood, they represent a single, progressive understanding of the purpose and function of s. 121 in the broader constitutional scheme. This understanding is entirely consistent with our earlier conclusion that s. 121 — understood through the lens of its text, its historical and legislative contexts and the principle of federalism — is best conceived as preventing provinces from passing laws aimed at impeding trade by setting up barriers at boundaries, while allowing them to legislate to achieve goals within their jurisdiction even where such laws may incidentally limit the passage of goods over provincial borders.
[92]                          Gold Seal, decided in 1921, was the first case to interpret s. 121 of the Constitution Act, 1867. It concerned a federal statute that prohibited the importation of liquor into any dry province. The federal law was complementary to provincial prohibition laws, passed because the provinces were not competent under the division of powers to regulate interprovincial trade — an early example of cooperative federalism. The Gold Seal liquor company argued that the trade barrier installed by the federal law violated s. 121. The Court’s discussion of s. 121 in Gold Seal was cursory. Duff and Mignault JJ., in the majority, each held that the law at issue was not caught by s. 121 because it was not a tariff on goods crossing provincial borders. Mignault J. added that this was consistent with a similar provision in the United States Constitution addressing the same concerns: Gold Seal, at p. 470. Anglin J. agreed, but offered no analysis: Gold Seal, at p. 466.
+++++++++++++++++++

Arguably, Alberta is NOT proposing a tariff or a barrier on oil. It is the government of British Columbia that is seeking to impose a barrier by preventing the pipeline work which is in turn intruding on the concept of cooperative federalism- a federal responsibility which the court may have now forced Trudeau to live up to. This in turn is causing Alberta to propose a licensing scheme to protect local matters for the good of the province because if they do not, they may find themselves in the position of having to defend against an argument of not living up to its own constitutional responsibilities.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

I am not going to go into a big discussion of the Energy East pipeline because, regardless of the apparent opposition from Quebec's Liberal government and the ex-Federal Liberal imbecile then mayor of Montreal (I mean Coderre), the Quebec business community and the more right wing C.A.Q. party - now leading in the polls - were in favour of it. It was the actual consortium wishing to build it that withdrew its proposal after the N.E.B. asked for more detailed information on environmental protection of the River crossings of the St Lawrence that ended the process. The fact that the consortium failed to provide proper information to the Federal board has more to do with the fact that they thought they could just ram the thing through under the Conservative rule without satisfying the need to demonstrate what they proposed to do to protect the safe drinking water of 20% of Canada's population. Had they done so and revised their information package, who knows what would have happened!

But Jed is on to something important here: All this screwing around with not expanding the pipeline system is NOT resulting into a reduction in oil export from the prairies, its actually having a domino effect in causing serious harm to the agricultural exports of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and to container traffic of Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia because the trains are now being  monopolized (almost) by the need to ship oil one way or another. And in a lot less safe way than pipeline, I may add.

That's the real  tragedy: A government who wishes to reduce Canada's green house gas emission is actually forcing everyone to use more trains and a lot more trucks on the road - big green house gas emitters - instead of relying on a system - pipelines - that produce very little such emission.

The whole thing is crazy as far as I am concerned.

 

[Cloud Cover]

those are two very important policy arguments that I would hope the feds are alive to and sympathetic with.

 

[larry Strong]

two words.

Jason.  Kenney.  If she isn't hard on BC and hogan Jason Kenney continues to rally albertans around hin saying that she isn't standing up for them,  and he will.

Notley is facing an election in not too long,  she cannot afford that. She would rather it be struck down by the courts.

Notley and her gang of clowns are having their one and only kick at the can that they will get in Ab, at least within my life time if not for ever.....They only really won cause the vote on the right was split between the PC's and the WR...post election navel-gazing showed the combined "conservative" side lost around 800K votes which ironically coincided with the +/- 800K votes Redfraud brought to the PC party with her........



Cheers
Larry

 

[Kat Stevens]

While she may be applauded for "bold leadership" against this "monumental challenge"...<cough>... I think Notley lost a lot of votes over how she conducted herself in this situation as a whole, specifically targeting the 'civilian population' if you will in order to ensure her own political goals are met.

I'm not debating whether the pipeline needs to be expanded or not.


But instead of keeping this a 'government to government' issue...she continues to target the lower to middle class residents of BC.  First, she limited the amount of wine that BC could export to Alberta.  This had a very real affect on small, family owned businesses including wineries, liquor stores, transport businesses, etc.

Now she wants to make gas so unbelievably expensive, that the residents of BC will FORCE their government to concede if for no other reason than people are going broke over just trying to drive to work, drive their kids around, and live normal lives.


I'm all for tough measures if governments disagree and, for some reason, can't come up with a solution that both parties can accept.  But deliberately making the lives of fellow Canadians difficult, and making them suffer financially - especially when it's the lower to middle class that will be affected the most - isn't very noble, honourable, or Canadian.

Canadian provincial governments should not be deliberately targeting & financially hurting other Canadians, just because they happen to reside in a different province.

As someone who lives in Alberta, I have absolutely zero motivation to see average people in BC suffering due to a political dispute.  It's one of the most un-Canadian things I can think of, and I know from discussing this around the water cooler, I'm not the only one that feels that way.

So, what’s your take on economic sanctions against rogue nations like N Korea, Iran, and all the rest? Are they okay? Plenty of po’ folks suffer there, don’t they? Sanctions are used because they (sometimes) work.

 

[Altair]

While she may be applauded for "bold leadership" against this "monumental challenge"...<cough>... I think Notley lost a lot of votes over how she conducted herself in this situation as a whole, specifically targeting the 'civilian population' if you will in order to ensure her own political goals are met.

I'm not debating whether the pipeline needs to be expanded or not.


But instead of keeping this a 'government to government' issue...she continues to target the lower to middle class residents of BC.  First, she limited the amount of wine that BC could export to Alberta.  This had a very real affect on small, family owned businesses including wineries, liquor stores, transport businesses, etc.

Now she wants to make gas so unbelievably expensive, that the residents of BC will FORCE their government to concede if for no other reason than people are going broke over just trying to drive to work, drive their kids around, and live normal lives.


I'm all for tough measures if governments disagree and, for some reason, can't come up with a solution that both parties can accept.  But deliberately making the lives of fellow Canadians difficult, and making them suffer financially - especially when it's the lower to middle class that will be affected the most - isn't very noble, honourable, or Canadian.

Canadian provincial governments should not be deliberately targeting & financially hurting other Canadians, just because they happen to reside in a different province.

As someone who lives in Alberta, I have absolutely zero motivation to see average people in BC suffering due to a political dispute.  It's one of the most un-Canadian things I can think of, and I know from discussing this around the water cooler, I'm not the only one that feels that way.

Jason Kenney wanted even harsher measures and accused Notley of not fighting for the energy sector,  so its really a big partisan response from alberta,  wouldn't you say?

 

[jollyjacktar]

Liberal MP facing sexual assault allegation

Francis Drouin is the Liberal MP in the riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell. He is facing an allegation of sexual assault.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-mp-drouin-halifax-sexual-assault-1.4630636

 

[ModlrMike]

No small degree of irony:

Alleged incident occurred early Saturday in Halifax, hours before Liberals took part in anti-harassment forum.

 

[jollyjacktar]

I'm guessing Karma doesn't like the Trudeau government.  His trip last week was more or less uneventful.  I think the fates said, "fuck that".

 

[OldSolduer]

Liberal MP facing sexual assault allegation

Francis Drouin is the Liberal MP in the riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell. He is facing an allegation of sexual assault.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-mp-drouin-halifax-sexual-assault-1.4630636

I smell a rat . If he did it so be it. Innocent til proven otherwise.

Maybe he’s the sacrificial lamb? Or am I wearing my tin foil hat too tightly?