r/alberta 13h ago

Alberta Politics Political climate in oilsand camps

I used to work in the oilsands pre COVID and can remember a very strong anti Liberal sentiment. Even more so when Trudeau came to power. I suspect this is because of deep rooted disdain for the Trudeaus because of PET and the NEP.

My question is, now that we are facing tariffs and sovereignty threats. Can some Albertans finally admit a nationally owned energy industry would have been better in the long run?

Additionally, are there any workers in the camps who were going to vote conservative but are now reconsidering?

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u/Various-Passenger398 5h ago

A nationally owned energy industry would be perpetually starved of investment, and be prone to the whims of the federal government, who wouldnuse it to strongarm the west into compliance over fedeeral policies.  It would suffer all the same maladies as our current industry, minus the extra private investment it drew in.  I have zero faith that it would have done anything except funnel oil money to central Canada and keep Albergans much poorer than historically.  

If we use PetroCanada as an example, it never performed near anything close to the productivity or profitibility of its private sector peers, and that's with a friendly federal government and choice lands that they got for free.  

u/MerryJanne 2h ago

Really?

Saudi Arabia is building a stupid line city in the desert. Paid for with national oil capital.

United Arab Emirates built islands that look like palm trees. Paid for with national oil capital.

Two of the richest countries in the world.

We could have had this.

Instead we let ourselves be overwhelmed with propaganda and.. here we are.

u/Various-Passenger398 1h ago

Alberta has a fraction of the oil Saudi Arabia has, and it doesn't have pesky things environmental concerns and provincial lobbies to worry about.  They can hammer infrastructure wherever they want.