DrCaleb DrCaleb:
I saw them gathering outside my building. They pretty much blocked the street when they marched. Main streets, too. Shamelessly. 
The counter protest was, useless. Driving through the city, honking. What solutions were they offering? What was their platform? They didn't speak, just drove around honking. Useless.
I drove through the protest as it was ending too. The people were very courteous, crossing only on lights, and trying to be quick about it. Most took transit. The counter protest seemed to like blocking intersections and getting people pissed off.
Quite a difference in their methods. One was definitely more effective.
Saw one guy on the news, complaining that his oilfield company may have to close if things don't pick up. But the two growth industries in Alberta are decommissioning old wells, and renewable energy. Seems he'd rather be pissed off with children than retrain and re-tool to prevent a problem he sees coming.
What if there is no next Oil Boom left? What's he going to do then?
The counter protest was, useless. Driving through the city, honking. What solutions were they offering? What was their platform? They didn't speak, just drove around honking. Useless.
I drove through the protest as it was ending too. The people were very courteous, crossing only on lights, and trying to be quick about it. Most took transit. The counter protest seemed to like blocking intersections and getting people pissed off.
Quite a difference in their methods. One was definitely more effective.
Saw one guy on the news, complaining that his oilfield company may have to close if things don't pick up. But the two growth industries in Alberta are decommissioning old wells, and renewable energy. Seems he'd rather be pissed off with children than retrain and re-tool to prevent a problem he sees coming.
What if there is no next Oil Boom left? What's he going to do then?
Frankly, I thought the counter protest got off easy - I was expecting a huge black eye for Alberta when they confronted Greta and everyone else (just like the Extinction Rebellion protest a couple weeks ago). Instead, they came off like petulant children and made asses of themselves.
I know lots of Albertans are expecting another oil boom, but odds are we aren't going to get another big one because although oil growth continues, its growth is far slower than in the past. Growth will be slow and incremental because short of a war wiping out all the oil in the Middle East, the odds that oil will ever surpass $100/barrel is very low - and that's the price Alberta needs for more investment in huge oilsands projecs.
Odds are, Albertans are going to keep their heads in the sand about oil being a sunset product until oil sands production is too expensive to compete on the world market, and then the province's economy will collapse and we'll wind up looking like the Rust Belt in the US. I shouldn't be too surprised, lots of places (Egypt, Rome, Spain, Great Britain, Mayans, etc.) never realized the end of their golden era was coming to an end.
