[calgarychef]

Originally Posted by beansgunsghandi

I did read the article carefully, and I think it's well-written rosy propaganda. That's an opinion, and you're respectfully welcome to yours too, but there are facts that don't agree with the author's position that it's all the NEP's fault. The dominant factor was the price of oil. Oil declined nearly 25 percent from its height in 1980 when the NEP came in through 1981, and continued to decline in a really ****ty global economy. That decline from its crazy peak in a high-interest rate bad economy is what kicked Alberta's economic buttocks, not the NEP, although some oil companies, the Alberta government and some Albertans continue to blame the NEP because that's easier than looking in the mirror. I'll blame maybe ten percent of the economic slam on the NEP, and 90 percent on bad planning, the general economy and the price of oil tanking to incredible lows from '80 to '86. Same thing as today: It's not Ottawa's fault, it's ours for relying on a volatile resource, but everybody wants to blame Ottawa and Trudeau again. It's a tired narrative that doesn't hold, ah oil... Back to cleaning hunting gear...

I imagine if Ottawa wasn’t busy cleaning out our wallets we would be like Norway. They don’t have that problem.