On Friday during a Progressive Conservative Party fundraiser while Premier Ed Stelmach spoke, two greenpeace activists dropped from the cat walk in the conference room of the event and unfurled a banner.
What a great day for Alberta, I woke up to my alarm clock which was tuned to the news and this was the first thing I heard. It made my day and my day had been but 30 seconds old.
The event comes as deputy premier Ron Stevens is in Washington D.C. on a five day mission to market Alberta and the oil sands to American investors. Greenpeace has been against the tarsands oil brand because of its devastating environmental impact. For every barrel of sludge that comes from the ground it takes 4 barrels of water to transform that barrel of sludge into a barrel of oil. This water is often discharged in side ponds filled with residual chemicals which will later be washed into streams and rivers, like the Athabasca. Tarsands oil is the most environmentally devastating type of oil extraction and has found many opponents but none inside the Stelmach government.
I would expect to see much more of this activity, with hopefully myself involved, in the near future as Alberta's "democratic" system continually pushes people to the fringes where they feel that they can no longer have a meaningful impact in traditional politics. This is the danger of a political system which has had the same party in power for the past 40 years and through political maneuvering, they have been able to marginalize any opposition which is required for a healthy democracy.
How long before we get the Earth Liberation Front out here, blowing up SUV's?
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