26/09/2012

Are Calgary's Petroleum Investors Acting a Bit Odd?

I sometimes wonder about my fellow Canadians. Remember when the rallying cry was to restrict foreign takeovers and to be once again the masters of our own resources; our own economy.

All that seems to have gone out the window. Sucked in to supporting globalization, many Canadians don’t seem to care any more and other Canadians have paid the price.

Remember Caterpillar and their shut down of Canadian operations in in a move which saw Canadian jobs moved to an American right to work state. To the government, the caterpillar employees were just another bunch of greedy workers. Steven Harper sure didn't give a damn. He saw Caterpillar as a corporate friend during the election and made much of giving them a significant tax break as a  handout.  What we saw was, Canadian workers,used as pawns in the race to the bottom.

I find it all a bit confusing.

In Alberta, particularly in Calgary, when the Canadian Government created Petro-Canada just so our country would be present in a small section of what was largely then an American dominated oil sector Calgarians refused to fill up at Petro-Canada gas stations claiming the company reflected the socialist bent of the Liberal Government. They hated PetroCan for what it was. They referred to the Petro-Canada head office as Red Square.

Now a Chinese company, wholly owned by the government in communist China wants to take over Nexxon. A company with its head office in Calgary and no one in Alberta seems to have a problem with it. No talk of socialism and no suggestion of boycotts, just a line up to cash in when the deal goes through.

Go figure.

1 comment:

  1. Calgary has the largest number of American ex patriots in the world or at least did at the time of petro-can (about 1 in ten calgarians boasted dual citizen ship)
    Jingoism and the branding of the other isms have resulted in a simplistic categorization of political views that never recognize that they all have two sides to them.
    Being social or communing or conserving or a liberal thinker all are beautiful attributes. Add an ism to them and the triggered conditioning kicks in and outrage ensues.
    We are for national unity, nationhood and national identity. Think of nationalizing the petro industry so the resources of Canada can pay for the Canadian debt and your a communist
    and you are right selling to nationalized communist countries is truly bizarre.
    I can only assume that the average person thinking, voting, and talking about this is very stupid, and as they are average at least half the population is dumber than that.

    I have put it this way before
    " I will qualify that slightly as I believe that it is of direct benefit to me to have all Canadians homed, fed, have decent water available , be educated, have health care provided, live in a non-toxic environment, be informed and provided the resources and support to have a productive life as a birthright of being born into one of the richest countries in the world …a non-comprehensive list but you get the idea.

    When a man provides these to his own extended family regardless of their abilities or contributions he is a sainted pillar of the community.
    When a politician wants to do these things for the citizens of his country he is a god-less socialistic communist"

    I do not know how harper as a resource manager or an economist can miss what he is doing.
    Lots of countries have oil .
    It is developed in two ways.
    one is to nationalize and develop and sell oil for the benefit of the country (Saudi Arabia)
    The other is to sell oil rights and collect royalties. (Nigeria)
    One makes your country very rich.
    The other makes you....well Nigeria (complete with 600 oil spills a year)
    harper seems to want to continue the Nigerian way.
    I'm from Alberta and any political questioning or attempt to discus is still met with
    "na na ne nana .....we won...Wat cha gonna do about it?"
    in 4 years after the continued rape and destruction they will crawl back out from under the bus to again vote conservative
    Would a change of party change anything?
    i really doubt this will change
    or that any of the softer, play fair party alternatives will have the balls to table a 14000 page budget bill to undo the harpers damage or actually go to bat for Canadians in more than a token way.

    good to see you posting.....blessings

    ReplyDelete

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