Pity the poor Albertans.

I mean that. I'm not saying that in any kind of lefty, snarky way.

The people of Alberta have been shafted. Their leaders betrayed their trust. And the industries that they placed their futures in are indifferent to their plight.

A recent story has it that Alberta's economic is in the ditch.

After years of a booming economy, based almost solely on high gas prices, the plunging markets have screwed up the Albertan economy for at least the next 2 to 3 years. I would hazard to guess more.

Albertans, like all citizens, put their trust and faith into government officials and 'industry experts'. For the last two decades, Albertans have been told that there is no need for real economic diversity, that there is no pressing urgency to invest into new industries, and that the gravy train will never end.

Well it just screeched to a full stop.

Alberta is officially near the bottom in Canada in terms of economic growth.

In many ways, Alberta is representative of what is going on in the world. Focus on what's working NOW, forget about long term planning, ignore all evidence to the contrary, get every one's hopes as high as possible, profit as much as you can in the short term, and then bail when things come crashing down.

Albertans are going to have a devil of a time re-working their economy. Especially with oil and gas lobbyists working overtime to prevent any green shift within the province.

To every Albertan who is going to -or already has- lost a job, I'm sorry. Our government, and our industries should have done better.

I hope, for the rest of us, we learn the lesson.


MoonBat