Politics in 2018

[Loachman]

Two slightly encouraging Canadian oil-related stories:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-pipeline-kinder-morgan-1.4616241

Trudeau to interrupt foreign trip to meet with Notley, Horgan on pipeline impasse

PM will return to Ottawa from Peru on Sunday to meet with premiers of Alberta, B.C.

Kathleen Harris · CBC News · Posted: Apr 12, 2018 12:06 PM ET | Last Updated: 18 minutes ago

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will interrupt his nine-day foreign trip to return to Ottawa to meet with B.C. Premier John Horgan and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley to try to end the deadlock over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/vanadium-shell-oilsands-renewables-1.4608208

Oilsands research could be 'game changer' for renewable energy

Researchers are extracting vanadium from the oilsands and using it to build batteries

Kyle Bakx · CBC News · Posted: Apr 12, 2018 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 10 hours ago

"If successful, it could be an absolute game change. It will prove that we are capable of delivering renewable energy game-changing ideas not in spite of traditional energy but precisely because of it.," said Steenkamp.

Steenkamp has constructed what's called a vanadium redox flow battery inside a garden shed, which is powered by solar panels above the research centre. The battery is run through continuous cycles of charging fully, then draining completely. Data is collected to gauge its performance, which so far is promising, according to Steenkamp.

So far, the vanadium battery can only hold a charge of six kilowatt hours, enough to run a hairdryer for about four hours. It would need to be much larger to store electricity from a wind farm or solar field, but Steenkamp says this type of battery can easily be scaled up.

"Biggest challenge is the cost," Steenkamp said. "It's the classic problem of flow batteries and why we are here: Can you find this stuff in enough quantity and at a low enough cost to make large-scale energy storage viable?"

 

[PuckChaser]

Probably would have been cheaper for him to do it while he was on his "personal day" on Wednesday when actually in Ottawa.

 

[jollyjacktar]

But this looks better.  Rushing in to save the day.

 

[Altair]

Better late than never.

 

[McG]

Probably would have been cheaper for him to do it while he was on his "personal day" on Wednesday when actually in Ottawa.

You mean, when neither Premier was in Ottawa? Seems ineffective to me.

On a related topic, do you  voluntarily forgo your short days before and after TD trips and exercises?

 

[SeaKingTacco]

You mean, when neither Premier was in Ottawa? Seems ineffective to me.

On a related topic, do you  voluntarily forgo your short days before and after TD trips and exercises?

You mean when the future of Confederation is at stake? To head off a constitutional crisis?

I might give up a short day to handle that...

 

[PuckChaser]

You mean, when neither Premier was in Ottawa? Seems ineffective to me.

On a related topic, do you  voluntarily forgo your short days before and after TD trips and exercises?

You think those Premiers wouldn't have been in Ottawa if asked? Or met the PM in Sask when he was there inn the weekend?

I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the days I've been to work on a leave day. Or the unit shorts/stats/weekends worked without asking for ETO.

Probably too much to ask our Prime Minister to lead by example during a major crisis.

 

[McG]

You think those Premiers wouldn't have been in Ottawa if asked? Or met the PM in Sask when he was there inn the weekend?

I am sure Notley would have been on a plane in an instant for this, but Horgan knows not being rushed is to his benefit and as a general rule premiers do not coming running when a prime minister snaps his fingers.  So, no.  I do not think anything necessarily would have happened should because the PM summoned them.  I would not assume that an invitation was not sent either.  In fact, that “personal day” was probably one of the dates that was discussed as the three leaders and their offices coordinated a meeting.  I don’t think Canadians would have looked too kindly upon this meeting being placed on the margins of the Humboldt vigil, but I don’t know that options were not discussed to make something work during that weekend.

The place he really skipped his opportunity/obligation was before KM even announced its current deadline.  His pipeline solidarity tour through Alberta & BC (like his earlier steel and aluminium solidarity tour) was a photo-op and campaigning-never-stops trip.  Why, when he was out on the mission to resolve the pipeline dispute, did he not conduct the meeting with the two people empowered to end it?

I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the days I've been to work on a leave day. Or the unit shorts/stats/weekends worked without asking for ETO.

I have no doubt that the PM could say the same thing.  Unlike the PM, you don't have an army of media and people on the internet bemoaning your scheduled day off while being oblivious to the work you are actually doing outside the view of watchful cameras.

[Pedantic aside: there is no such thing as "ETO" or “CTO” in the CAF.  You can use short for that purpose, and there is special relocation if the worked days were within a long enough period of travel]

 

[jollyjacktar]

I have no doubt that the PM could say the same thing.  Unlike the PM, you don't have an army of media and people on the internet bemoaning your scheduled day off while being oblivious to the work you are actually doing outside the view of watchful cameras.

Unlike any PM (but seems to be this one more so than many of his predecessors) we also don't have the taxpayers swanning us and our families all over the globe at government expense,  the housing and other perks (solid gold pension etc) that come with the job.  He asked for the job as any of them do and thus if you want the slot then you can do the overtime that comes with it too.  I don't have too much pity (at the overtime) those political masters we have in the various institutions they inhabit may have to put in.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

He must have time. He's seldom in the House.

 

[Kirkhill]

...When Conservative MPs like Michael Chong and Brent Rathgeber went up against their own government during the Harper years, the murmurs from the inside generally weren’t that these guys were secretly adored as heroes. They were offside from consensus.

But when it comes to Trudeau, most Liberals you speak to in confidence will nod in agreement with critics from within the Liberal family.

It all seems to come down to respect. As one senior Liberal recently described it to me, the infighting during the Chretien-Martin era was about power. No one ever doubted the credentials of either man. That’s not the case with today’s grumblings. There’s a serious respect issue brewing, one that’s no doubt getting worse after the India mess.

http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/furey-a-growing-number-of-liberals-are-coming-out-of-the-woodwork-to-criticize-trudeau

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Had the CPC allowed more internal opposition and criticism,they might still be in power. As for the Libs, they have a few respected Elders trying to hold the shitshow together. That's what you get when you buy something based on the paint job and not the mechanical bits.

 

[Jarnhamar]

A bit off topic.

I was recently told by someone that the company who makes our disastrous boots were on the list of party donators to the Liberals. Is there a way to verify that?

 

[FJAG]

I'm genetically programmed to despise the NDP and all that it stands for, however, this latest move by Notley shows some very non-NDPish realpolitik.

Bill 12, titled Preserving Canada's Economic Prosperity Act, gives the Alberta government the ability to retaliate against B.C. over any delays to the expansion by driving up gas prices or restricting shipments of other energy products.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-oil-gas-producers-support-notley-government-bill-12-1.4622717

:cheers:

 

[jollyjacktar]

She has had to change her tune since becoming the bandmaster in the last election.  It's interesting to see two Dippers tearing into each other like this.

op:

 

[PPCLI Guy]

A bit off topic.

I was recently told by someone that the company who makes our disastrous boots were on the list of party donators to the Liberals. Is there a way to verify that?

This is, indeed, searchable.  Here are all the corporate donors in Quebec who contributed to the Liberal Party.  Keep in mind that there are severe limitations on corporate donations in Canada...

http://www.elections.ca/WPAPPS/WPF/EN/CCS/ContributionReport?returnStatus=1&reportOption=5&queryId=bef12a6d202c4123b274373f9c9abe34&sortDirection=asc&sortOrder=0%2C1%2C2&totalRecordFound=1178&current200Page=1&total200Pages=6&reportExists=True&displaySorting=True

 

[Jarnhamar]

Thanks a lot. I tried searching a bit but wasn't coming up with anything.

 

[Cloud Cover]

I'm genetically programmed to despise the NDP and all that it stands for, however, this latest move by Notley shows some very non-NDPish realpolitik.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-oil-gas-producers-support-notley-government-bill-12-1.4622717

:cheers:

Interestingly they are going about in the form of a licensing scheme for pipeline operators with a $10 million per day fine for corporate non-compliance.  BC says they will challenge the legislation in court, and it would be interesting to see if Alberta even bothers respond to that.  All of the operators could possibly voluntarily stop feeding oil into the existing pipelines by not renewing supply contracts.  Start shipping more south by rail... Mr. Trudeau has possibly triggered a constitutional earthquake in several dimensions. Good one JT.     

 

[Colin Parkinson]

It's a true popcorn moment watching a death match between 2 NDP governments and a centre-left Federal government run by enviro-clown over an oil pipeline. 

 

[Altair]

It's a true popcorn moment watching a death match between 2 NDP governments and a centre-left Federal government run by enviro-clown over an oil pipeline.

it really is.

I like it for it shows how much trouble the NDP is.

This civil war has been brewing for some time now,  the labour side of the party and the environmental fanatics.

Now you have the two NDP camps in open economic warfare and the federal NDP has pretty much tried to keep their head down.