A fair Alberta?

Well if you’re an angry roughneck (soon to be an objective roughneck) you must have an opinion on Alberta’s seven billion dollar surplus and the recent proposals to redistribute that wealth “for the good of the people”. A Quebecois leftwing academic (as if there were any other kind of academic) proposes massive redistribution under the pretence “why should Albertans be the only ones benefit from Canada’s oil?”, or Jack Layton calling for equalization programs that are “fair” for all the province, with his speeches making constant references to the “luckiness” of having oil riches.

I want to address three points; luck, fairness and the term Albertan.

1) “Alberta is lucky to have oil.” This is my favorite cliché, which implies Alberta’s high wealth is solely because of its oil; an arbitrary condition at best.

The implication being that oil guarantees wealth. This is a lie or else Nigeria would be one of the richest centuries in the world followed by socialist powerhouses like Venezuela, Iran and the Soviet Union and the poorest countries on the earth would be the free; Switzerland, the United States, Hong Kong, and Japan. Wealth has much more to do with freedom and limited government than it does natural resources.

Extracting oil from 3000 meters deep is the exact opposite of luck. It’s as if lefties have an image of oil just sitting in giant barrels on the prairies waiting for someone to turn them on. Developing oil reserves is hard, challenging, intellectual, grueling, demanding, comprehensive and dynamic work especially in a severe climate with many environmental inhibitors. Alberta is the most efficient and productive oil patch workforce on the planet, owing to it worker's dedication, intelligence and drive. Three thing which have nothing to do with luck.

2) What it means to be a lucky “Albertan”. Today, the rig where I was working, the driller was an Indian from Codotte Lake, the derrickman was from Newfoundland, and one of the roughnecks was from South Africa. The oil patch has a long running joke; if someone is lazy or a welfare recipient, they say “he must be a native Albertan" (meaning born here, not aboriginal, for all of you sic lefties out there waiting to crucify me)” The point of the anecdote being; people choose to come here and now they are being called “lucky” by the people who chose not to come here. The choice was, and still is open to all Canadian citizens.

It is no coincidence Alberta’s population has increased 10 fold since Leduc blew in ’47. Nobody’s born in Alberta; just go to a football game when the Roughriders are in town or stroll through downtown FT. Mac. And they didn’t show up just to cash in their lottery checks either. Instead migrants came risking failure (During the NEP it was common to see people walking away from their mortgages), losing their families (distance is hard on relationships, be it friends, children, wives, or extended family), health (oil work is dangerous – last week the industry lost two more men, a derrickman and N2 operator) and they were rewarded with the chance to work back breaking labor, exhaustive hours in a severe climate. Migrants chose to come to the province. Migrants chose to contribute, to be productive, self betterment, and independence. Luck would be to lazily sit at home while a monthly royalty cheque was mailed to you. Alberta’s profits are not locked away in a vault and arbitrarily handed out based on age, gender or race. They are dispersed based on productiveness; an objective scale available to anybody.

3) Lastly I want to deal with arbitrary claim of fairness. Layton and looting cronies appeal to pea brains with “It isn’t fair that only Alberta profits.” To Jack fair would be stealing from one man for the purpose of arbitrarily financing another. Who would do the choosing? The fair and benevolent Jack of course. That type of fairness paradigm is concocted in some ivory tower and manifests itself in the form of famines, war, and the Communist gulag. But in reality fairness has simple and understandable definition; fairness is when compensation matches the work performed. Fairness is equal opportunity. Fairness is open boarders and consequently Alberta is fair.

-Angry roughneck