{"id":2697,"date":"2015-05-14T07:57:14","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T11:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=2697"},"modified":"2020-01-04T05:10:33","modified_gmt":"2020-01-04T10:10:33","slug":"why-it-matters-that-left-wingers-just-won-in-oil-rich-alberta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=2697","title":{"rendered":"Why it matters that left-wingers just won in oil-rich Alberta"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .<\/p>\n

An article by Ben Adler, Grist<\/a> (abridged)<\/p>\n

. . . On Tuesday [May 5], the lefty New Democratic Party (NDP) won the provincial elections on a platform that promises to diversify Alberta\u2019s fossil fuel\u2013dependent economy. The NDP campaigned on criticism of the Conservatives for being too close to the oil industry and a pledge to tax more oil profits. From The Wall Street Journal:<\/p>\n

\"alberta\"<\/a>
\n<\/center>
\n“The longtime ruling party of Canada\u2019s energy-rich Alberta province lost its four-decade hold on power on Tuesday, ushering in a left-leaning government that has pledged to raise corporate taxes and increase oil and gas royalties.<\/p>\n

“The Alberta New Democratic Party swept enough districts to form a majority, taking most of the seats in both the business center of Calgary and the provincial capital of Edmonton, according to preliminary results from Elections Alberta. . . <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to start down the road to a diversified and resilient economy. We need finally to end the boom-and-bust roller coaster that we have been riding on for too long,\u201d NDP leader Rachel Notley, who is expected to succeed [Jim] Prentice as Alberta\u2019s premier, said at a news conference.<\/p>\n

“The NDP has long been a marginal force in Alberta\u2019s traditionally conservative politics, but recent public opinion polls showed its popularity surging. In the campaign, Ms. Notley attacked Mr. Prentice for reinstating provincial health-care premiums and being too cozy with oil-patch interests.<\/p>\n

“In a move that spooked some energy company executives during the campaign, Ms. Notley raised the specter of increasing royalties levied on oil and gas production, although she said that her party would only consider that once crude-oil prices recovered from recent lows.<\/p>\n

“She also signaled her party wouldn\u2019t support a proposed Enbridge Inc. crude-oil pipeline, called the Northern Gateway, which would connect Alberta\u2019s oil sands with a planned Pacific coast terminal in British Columbia, telling a local newspaper that ‘Gateway is not the right decision.’:<\/em><\/p>\n

Notley also doesn\u2019t support plans for Keystone XL, and pledged to stop spending taxpayer dollars to push the pipeline in Washington, D.C. (She does support two other tar-sands pipeline projects, though.) And she wants Alberta to get more serious about climate change, as the Globe and Mail reports:<\/p>\n

“Another focus, according to Ms. Notley\u2019s platform, will be bolstering the province\u2019s reputation on climate change as previous governments have resisted establishing tougher targets for carbon reduction from the oil sands and other industries.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The NDP triumph in Alberta may put political pressure on the Harper government, which is facing a federal election this fall. The province\u2019s voters sent the message that they want more protection for the environment and less pandering to oil interests. This couldn\u2019t happen at a better time, as environmentalists are nervously awaiting Canada\u2019s proposal for carbon emission reductions heading into the U.N. climate negotiations to be held this December in Paris. Will Harper now make a more significant climate commitment? We\u2019ll all be watching to see.<\/p>\n

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Question for this article:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

\n

Despite the vested interests of companies and governments, Can we make progress toward sustainable development?<\/a> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

See the comment below. CPNN readers are encouraged to add to this discussion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . . An article by Ben Adler, Grist (abridged) . . . On Tuesday [May 5], the lefty New Democratic Party (NDP) won the provincial elections on a platform that promises to diversify Alberta\u2019s fossil fuel\u2013dependent economy. The NDP campaigned on criticism of the Conservatives for being too close to the … Continue reading Why it matters that left-wingers just won in oil-rich Alberta<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,10],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-2697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-north-america","category-sustainable","tag-north-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2697\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}