Hello Chestermere! We have had such a beautiful week, and as always the happiest moments for me are seeing so many of you enjoying the lake, the beaches, our local restaurants, and the many amenities that Chestermere has to offer. I adore seeing the bike paths full of people and puppies that meander down to the dog beach where every Chihuahua plays with every Newfoundlander and all of us fall prey to shaking wet dogs. I attended Chestermere’s very first Indian Women’s Party held at the CRCA in the large hall. The dancing and entertainment was just amazing, and with over 550 in attendance, I would suggest that this was an incredible success. The organizers and MC’s did an amazing job, and the spectacular outfits worn by this gorgeous group was just incredible. Please check out my facebook page for pictures and videos. I also attended the Muslim youth event and BBQ at Camp Chestermere. This leadership camp promoted youth leadership and I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with his Worship Mayor Chalmers, MP Martin Shields, and MLA Prasad Panda, along with many of the spiritual leaders of this wonderful community.
Langdon Days this past weekend was as usual a big success with thousands in attendance and an army of great volunteers. I had the honour of participating in the parade with 2 horse drawn wagons, over 30 pounds of candy and 2,000 freezies. I am deeply grateful to Vern Kemble and Connie Challice for one wagon and the Kraus family: Anita, Rob, and daughters Alison and Nicole who supplied the other wagon along with “Shoda” the palomino. They stayed after the parade and thrilled dozens and dozens of kids and their parents with wagon rides. I am also grateful to all the volunteers who walked in the parade and kept the candy and freezies coming! Congratulations and thanks for your community service to Chrissy Craig and the rest of the Langdon Community Association who organized Langdon Days, the Volunteers Of The Year Brendan Connolly and Patrick Golden, special award winner Lisa Baker, Parade Organizer Jessica Smythe and the Parade Committee, and Penny Creswell, organizer of the Car Show. It was great meeting many of you who attended at our booth on Saturday and Sunday.
I wanted to chat a bit about pipelines—-no surprise there. We speak about the need for pipeline infrastructure on a daily basis, and the most fundamental thing that we all have to remember is that bad government policy has at this point killed any chance at having a domestic pipeline. As Peter Foster so eloquently states in his Financial Post article, July 19, 2018 (https://business.financialpost.com/opinion/peter-foster-trudeaus-pipeline-plan-confronts-the-liberal-deep-state-his-father-created ):
“At some stage — assuming TransMountain survives endless court challenges and the diehard opposition of the B.C. government — push will come to shove. In the case of protestors hurling their bodies in the pipeline’s path, quite literally.
Ironically, one of the main nodes that might be helping to provide that physical opposition to construction is funded by a government entity that was set up when Justin’s dad was prime minister in 1977. Justin Skywalker is about to discover the figure inside that Darth Vader suit, the one helping the empire of eco-extremism now fighting his pipeline, is… his father.”
How to stay competitive in this atmosphere? Global investments are running to other jurisdictions. Please read this article. There are some interesting perspectives that I believe are worth understanding.
Did you know that the World Bank business survey ranks Canada 34th out of 35 developed economies for regulatory approval? Oil Sands Action reports that a new oilsands project has been under review for 1600+ days! The industry is handcuffed from being successful by our Government! We are lagging behind other jurisdictions because of bad policy. We have to be vocal about this, folks. This is not political, this is about our prosperity! Oil prices are on the rise, and we could be looking at some serious revenues. We should be seeing investment, we should be competitive, but instead these companies are not investing in a country that does not act in the best interest of its people. Why would companies pump dollars into a country that has limited capacity to get our product to tide water, and continues to allow, promote, hire, and fund eco-activists to stop us from getting to tide water? Why are we being handcuffed in this way? We will not see growth until we understand how to invite investment back into our countries. Did you know that Imperial Oil has a “state of the art” 150,000 bbl/day in situ project in Alberta that has been waiting for over 4 years to get Provincial approvals. This project may be doomed to failure because the of the timelines and costs. Please read the National Post article, July 17, 2018 by John Ivison (https://nationalpost.com/opinion/john-ivison-canadas-oil-industry-strains-to-go-forward-while-government-holds-it-back ). Finally I would like to send my love and condolences to the families in Toronto who have been impacted by the recent shootings. As always we love to hear from you
