I Love Crowsnest’s Energy.

 

 I Love Crowsnest’s Energy.

It’s morning and I am in the shower. (Don’t try to imagine.) I am done washing but the warm water feels so good, so I stay a little longer. On the other side of the bathroom wall, I hear the hot water tank, high efficiency, and all, keeping the shower warm. If I listen carefully, I can hear the hiss of natural gas. I know that the world is in danger from CO2 in the air, but I just want another minute. I am addicted to using energy and I can’t stop.

If an addict is seeking treatment, the experts tell them that the first step in quitting an addiction is admitting that they have a problem. Alberta has huge amounts of natural gas and the infrastructure to deliver it to me. I am not worried about shortages, only about the price that I may soon not be able to pay. The same is true about heating my home, using my gas-guzzling vehicle, and discarding things (scrap) made of metal that are smelted using coal. I care, but not enough to change my ways. All addicts are the same about their addictions. The dealers who sell what we are addicted to need to make a living as well.

I went to an open house by Montem Resources. The place was so full of locals that there was standing room only. The free pizza may have helped, but I stood in a lineup to talk to the man who is changing the Pass. He is here from Australia and came for our coal deposits. Not hiding his true mission, to make money, he told me about his project. We have here clean renewable energy at full capacity but we don’t have storage. He found a place where he was going to mine coal, where he can create a hydro battery. The historical Tent Mountain Mine space is ideal for the project.

Water could be pumped up using wind energy and released downwards to produce energy again when needed. The process is working in Germany and proved beneficial. The estimated energy can power about half of the homes in Alberta. We have most of what is needed and need the political support to make it work. It would more than pay for itself. There is one other aspect we must have. That is a person who is able to pull it off. They are rare. Peter Doyle, with his Australian accent, is such a man. He knows energy, is well-versed in extensive projects, and has the right connections. If any of our politicians don’t see the potential of having him here, they should think again.

Here comes the part in which all of us play. Since I first discovered the Crowsnest Pass over 20 years ago, I have been hearing one story. The towns we live in were starving for means to build up the economy. For some reason, people’s imagination could not go beyond coal. Perhaps since in their youth, coal mining was the engine that drove the local economy forward. However, the glorious days of coal were behind us and the mines were closed off. As water for agriculture dwindled, political pressure against mining our eastern slopes mounted and they left our towns for dead. What helped was the spirit of the local people who refused to give up on the place they call home. New people discovered the beauty of the area and dreamed up a future without coal. The area remained viable but didn’t have the kickstart of heavy industry. Slowly, people realized that crying over spilled milk doesn’t work and began to make do with what we have. The towns were cleaned up some, new businesses came and went and we are still on the map.

Some fresh interest in meteorological coal revived hopes, but reopening the mines is a long-term project and we needed immediate first aid. What the world needs now is energy storage, and that is what Montem Resources is offering. Will we receive the government’s help to build it and will the builders be able to make some money on doing it? Yes, if we all do our part. Yes, our future will depend on what we do.

We live in a democratic system, more or less. So far, both provincial and federal governments are paying attention to what the voting public supports. If we wish for a brighter future, we need to make some noise. You know, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. We know how to do it, but we must support what other Canadians will go for. Just “fighting Trudeau” is a useless waste of our political energy.

We need to change all the signs, from “I love Crowsnest Coal” to I love Crowsnest Clean Energy. When we talk to outsiders or the media, we must remember that every one of us is an ambassador for the place we love and live in. Mr. Doyle is doing the hard, highly skilled work, but he can’t do it alone. The politicians must know what our position is on the subject. If I was advising our Municipal Council, I would suggest some professional marketing campaign by us to support the venture that will feed clean energy to the grid of Alberta. It is more meaningful for the future of our world than all the temporary pipelines that we are currently fighting for.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

It’s darkest before dawn.

 

It’s darkest before dawn.

Some grownups told me it’s darkest before dawn. Being a curious child, I tried to see for myself but couldn’t. Each night I slept and woke up when it was dawn. Another saying was, “after the darkest storm, there is always a bright new morning.” I could never figure out why it works that way. Why does the world or reality follow some unwritten rule which allows us to have a full life with good and bad things happening and there is always tomorrow? Why can’t I just have good things happen and skip the others? I was bothered because no one could answer those questions. Some people said that God is responsible and others brushed it off, saying that is just the way things are. Everything happens by chance.

Now I have lived longer than the average life span of American men and I still have no answer. I wasn’t avoiding the question, but I can’t find a person who will give me an answer that makes sense to me. Allow me to give an example. For two and a half years, I followed all the government’s and my doctor’s instructions. I lived as if I was in jail to stay alive so I can pay taxes like a good boy. When the government used my taxes to help others who would have starved or got infected, I said nothing. My Federal and Provincial governments made choices, and I honored our elected representatives.

Now the leader of my province changed, without elections or input from over 90% of the people of Alberta, and is changing the rules that her party made. It will be illegal to “discriminate” against folks who chose not to believe that a deadly virus is killing people like me when it obviously does. Here comes a new question to deal with. Can we, as a society, defend ourselves against those who do not follow the laws and possibly change laws to suit themselves?

In my whole adult life, there has been a fight against drinking and driving. Slowly and methodically our society moved towards ridding itself of this damaging practice. Breathalyzers, check stops, arrests, and social pressure all contributed to doing away with driving under the influence. Lives have been ruined by people losing driving privileges, but also lives of victims have been saved. Society didn’t demand to reverse course. We all saw the victims of drunk driving in wheelchairs and coffins, with their relatives crying. Today, no one is bragging about driving drunk, but folks proudly tell that they are not vaccinated. The Premier will hire them to work in the hospital where I must go.

Now we have a situation with a pandemic that killed more people than drinking and driving, but a high-ranking politician gets involved assuming that most of the voting public is anti vaccinations. Nothing new about that group. They existed in the shadows for a long time.

Another politician is bragging about taking away our sports pistols. Illegal handguns are used for crimes, but none of the sports shooters, as far as I know, are committing the offenses. Trudeau is answering the demands voiced by the fake news that convinced hysterical folks that we can remove all the guns from our society. I am all for law and order but watching Ukraine thought me something. It is good for a small nation to have law-abiding citizens who know how to handle and use guns safely.

Our new unelected Premier also is talking openly about disobeying a parliament in which we have our elected representatives. We had a Calgarian Prime Minister for ten years before Trudeau. Does she not understand that if people don’t make changes “legally”, she also will lose whatever power she has quickly?

We may choose to disobey laws restricting the use of single-use plastics. What will happen if the other Canadians choose to ship all their plastic garbage to Alberta? How will it be if Alberta is the only province without $10 a day Day Care? I think we can’t go very far with just hating Trudeau. Some of us should find ways to explain to the rest of Canada why Trudeau is so bad for the country instead.

I would honestly suggest to Miss Smith to work hard and figure out how to make life easier for the people of Alberta and show the rest of Canada the Alberta advantage, which will not be oil. Europe is working hard to move away from oil and gas and it won’t be long before they find it. Perhaps instead of preaching to hate Quebec, we should learn something from them. They set their goals some time ago and worked towards achieving them.

Being a Conservative leader is a dangerous job. Look at Great Britain. We are in some very dark times, just before dawn. What will a bright morning look like? It will be for Alberta to change its focus from pleasing oil giants to building the best province to live in, for all the people who live here. We now have money for the transition period. Let’s use it wisely. Protect the vulnerable, educate the young, and give people the means to build a healthy, diverse economy for the future. Let the next elections be between leaders who will demonstrate care for us, the people who live here.  

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Fifty years in Canada.

  Fifty years in Canada.

The captain announced that we will be landing in Calgary in so many minutes and I was glued to the window. Clouds hid my future home as we descended to a level from which I could see Calgary, my new home. It was the reason I traveled around half of the world. The year was 1967, and below were mountains on one side, a little strip of land with buildings, and a lot of flat lands on three sides. We landed and began a new life. No one said welcome, but a month later someone told me to go back to where I came from.

When after months of hardship I eventually saw the countryside, I was disappointed. In the old country, there were orchards, vineyards, and little attractive farms, here I saw grain fields and cow pastures to the horizon with little black oil drills pumping non-stop. It took time to see the beauty in it.

Calgary extended from Chinook mall to North Hill mall with rail lines going east and west to take our products to the world markets. Mostly we exported food, grain, beef, etc., and oil in long black tanker rail cars. Alberta didn’t have a caste system, but whatever social order there was, we immigrants were at the bottom of it. Canada wanted us, but the surrounding people didn’t. They thought we came to steal their homes and jobs. I hope Danielle Smith hears about it when she talks about discrimination.

True to the American (or Canadian) dream, at that time, we could work hard, study, and get ahead. Even better, we had some choices about what to do and how to do it. The road was full of turns and hidden obstacles, but if you kept at it, you got somewhere. Most people wanted a steady full-time union job with set hours, holidays, and a chance for improvement. Negotiated cost-of-living raise in pay was nice, with medical insurance, a pension at 65, and sometimes even new coveralls for dirty jobs. Paid lunch and coffee breaks, no harassment by egotistic bosses, and a big item at the time, two days off a week. The people before us already got us the 40-hour work week, no child labor, 8-hour days with overtime, and so on. The stories about always having strikes are just stories. Most of us have never been on strike. Those of us who wanted to, opened or bought little businesses and some did very well. Taking higher risks could finish you off or be a shortcut to prosperity.

One thing that I learned in this life is that everything is cyclical. Nothing stays the same, especially where the economy is concerned. In the eighties the US elected President Reagan, who changed the balance and destroyed the competitive equality that workers enjoyed. Now people don’t get to own their own homes, don’t have a pension at the end of a career, and don’t display loyalty to their employers. The social contract has been discarded and we are seeing the outcome.

Since 1967, Calgary spread over much of the adjoining landscape with concrete and pavement. What was at one time little towns on the outskirts became cities that hardly serve as a reminder of the West that people used to start a new life in. A noticeable portion of the farming and ranching communities are dilapidated or simply gone. Those that remain are trying hard to look like the city and no longer appear to be self-sufficient communities with a character of their own.

The world changed as well. Cities and smaller communities used to own the most needed services, like power generation, water supply, major transportation, and sewage facilities. It was all broken up and privatized, tossed to the mercy of the markets. People believed that the efficiency of the markets will provide the best deal. They didn’t read the first line in corporate goals stating that making a profit for shareholders is the primary goal. Now it came to the surface.

The poor countries are facing starvation and we here are told to find the money for the rising prices of energy and all the other commodities tied into it. The billions of people here and in Europe can only borrow without the hope of ever paying it back. Not on my pension.

I worked, studied, and saved money from 1967 till retirement age, investing in a promise to have a good situation in my later years. I watched my children trying but failing to do the same. Now it’s falling apart. Freeze or eat are the choices. I watch intently, seeing wars and social discontent while politicians of all colors are competing for a share of the mess, and I know what may come next. I am a historian.

When people freeze, drown and go hungry, the ugly side of human nature rises to the surface. Corporations, like Putin’s army, hire soldiers to do their dirty work. The people rebel when there are no good choices. I don’t want to be like the Ukrainian seniors I see on TV. I hope and pray that we will come to our senses. We have a beautiful province, country, and world.

This morning in Australia there are floods and in North America, we are cleaning up after hurricanes. Here we can’t afford the oil and gas that we own and we face a cold winter.

 

Something is dreadfully wrong.

Love Canada as it is.

 

 Love Canada as it is.

When I go to Lethbridge or Calgary, I often encounter people who notice my license plate with The Crowsnest Pass and start a conversation.

I was sitting in my truck, not wanting to go into a store since I have COVID, and a motorcycle parked beside me. The rider, a middle-aged man, asked me, “how is it to live in such a nice place?” “I am used to it.” I replied, “been there for some 20 years.” He said he should have moved there when he was young. I moved in when I retired I replied, you can still do it. “My neighbor did it,” he said. “I heard that the people there dislike outsiders;” he continued. “That’s not what I see,” I replied. “They resist changing the place into a city that the people move away from when they come here. There are many cities but only one Crowsnest Pass. That is our selling point. The unique character together with the scenery makes the place what it is. It is one of the friendliest places I have ever experienced.” The man took a minute to think and went on. All of Canada is going to the dogs, he said. We must get rid of Trudeau. There is nothing easier than that, I said. We live in a democracy and we can vote him out at any time. Don’t you agree? We had an election a year ago and the Liberals are in. I would prefer Chrystia Freeland, who is from Alberta, I added. “Trudeau is wrecking the country.” He mumbled.

Now I am not a political science major or an economist, but I listen to the news on election days. Two provinces dominate elections here since they have the most people. They don’t have to win the popular votes, only win the most seats in parliament. Members of each political party choose who will lead them and the country. I don’t know if it’s the best way, but it’s working and we can change it if we want. It is obvious that most Canadians choose Liberals to be their representatives in each riding. Liberals are choosing Trudeau to lead since he is winning. The Conservatives keep changing their leaders who do not win.

I tell my new biker friend another politician will replace Trudeau, so he switches over to another classical western complaint. “Trudeau is blocking pipelines so we can’t sell our oil.” Wrong again,” I say. “Trudeau took a political risk and bought the Trans Mountain pipeline to keep work going on it when the business case was weak and Alberta didn’t have jobs.” Biker now is grasping at straws. Justin Trudeau is going to kill seniors with the carbon tax.

Sorry, I say, half the provinces have their own carbon pricing and the feds are returning what seniors are paying in carbon tax. It was Stephen Harper’s idea. Before I departed, Mr. biker also told me that COVID is a hoax. My chest hurt like hell from COVID, but I just smiled and drove away.

A few days later, a biker passed me on the wrong side by the town of Frank. It looked like his bike and I remembered my encounter in Lethbridge. By now, things have changed. OPEC announced cutting oil production to increase energy prices. Seniors on fixed incomes will feel the cold and will reduce their food and medical expenses not just in poor countries but also in Europe and America. I may have to wear long underwear like I did when I was little. The increase in energy prices will probably not improve my situation. I may have to reduce the number of times I see my family if gas prices go much higher.

The cash infusion to the Russian economy from increased energy prices will prolong the war in Ukraine. Alberta will also make more money, but there is no plan to use it to improve the lives of ordinary Albertans. All that the newly elected Premier promised is to fight Ottawa for the province’s sovereignty. It happens all over the world where there is a province with natural resources not willing to share with the rest of the country.

I remember 2014 and the situation in Ukraine. The eastern provinces have gas and Ukraine and Russia originally built most of the industry in the Soviet era. Russians moved in to take jobs just as easterners here moved to Alberta. Next came a push well financed by Russia to have more sovereignty and join the Russian Federation. Now we have a big war with thousands of casualties and great destruction.

What Quebec and Alberta must understand is that a small province can’t separate from the big country without another big country taking them over. Every divorce must deal with custody issues and the kids always suffer.

I chose Alberta to be my place and lived here longer than most people around. I chose a line of work that was needed in the province and contributed all the time that I spent here. My efforts helped shape the place, and I never gave it a poor reputation. The potential I saw in it still exists and our kids are now carrying on with the work. The province grew and became a destination known around the world. It always needed to change, but the direction change takes is a choice that we make.

In the later years, people who had agendas other than what is good for regular Albertans took over the helm, and even the remote Crowsnest Pass was hit by politicians’ greed for power. Hating Canada became a goal for some. I don’t like it. Canada is a great place, Alberta is a great place, and we can and will make it even better. If anyone hasn’t noticed, look around.

Material, or Spiritual?

 

Material, or Spiritual?

A few thousand years ago, humans were scared of the fall that became winter. The sun, the giver of life, was disappearing more each day. They had to do things as directed by their spiritual leaders to avoid disaster, and they did. If they atoned for sins, God would forgive and spring would come. Surprisingly, modern humans like us didn’t advance much beyond that stage. We used science to discover nature but ignored studying spirituality, which moves it.

When I retire for the night, I don’t know where I am going. My faith is not in my hands. If I need any information from that time, I will remember a dream, mostly not. When I wake up, I assume I am continuing from where I left off, but no guarantee. As the light of October shines, a reality shows up, and I assume it is as it should be, where I left off the night before, but I am guessing. I don’t really know it. There is no way to know whether what is a picture in my mind is real or not. It is bits of light converted to a tiny electric pulse that stream into my brain and reforms as a picture.

October 1, 2022, at 6:30 am. The war in Europe intensified. Casualties on both sides. Half a world away, millions of Pakistanis are fighting to stay alive in a flooded country. The Queen, our head of state, was buried at a very expensive funeral. Her son has been crowned King Charles the III. He swore to serve the people as a ruler. Shortly after, the new Prime Minister of Great Britain borrowed colossal sums of money to pay for tax cuts for the rich, plunging its economy into an unprecedented mess that could ruin England and the world’s economy. The poor will suffer the most. Here in Canada, hurricane Fiona devastated the east coast making many people homeless, and hurricane Ian did worst in the US and nearby islands. The true cost of Global Warming is showing and we don’t have a plan on how to live with it if we can.

We were told to learn to live with COVID. People innocently threw caution to the wind. Everyone who saved some money and holidays wanted to travel, shop, and party at the same time. The US life expectancy rates dropped dramatically and Canadian hospitals that were neglected over the years could not cope with the onslaught of patients and a chronic shortage of staff. Older patients who paid for health care for years died in transit while ambulances searched for open emergency wards. The solution recommended was to privatize the health care system but pay for it with public funds.

China became upset and almost violent about America helping Taiwan stay free. To them, Taiwan represents a weakness in their national defense. Germany, now being starved for energy, is abandoning its seventy-year peaceful attitude. Someone exploded holes in the unused gas pipeline under the North Sea, causing untold pollution. Riots sprang up in Iran over the morality police murdering a young woman who neglected to cover her hair with a hijab. Brazil is poised to have a left-wing government, but the army is threatening a coup.

There is a severe drought in Africa and projected food shortages thanks to Ukraine and Russia being at war. Millions may starve. The leader of his majesty’s official opposition in Ottawa comes on the news, proposing a solution to the world’s problems. He is going to fight the Harper/Trudeau carbon tax, yeah. Mr. Poilievre will save us.

Outside my window, there is thick fog covering mountains and forests alike. The fall sun is burning through it and a beautiful world is showing up, starting from the top down.

I am living in a world full of dangerous problems that no person can change. We had time to prepare, but we chose to believe that things will not be that bad. Now it seems as if humans are facing a winter from hell. Some of our governments, like in Russia, are truly energy companies that govern designed to make money but are helpless to deal with what is coming. The emergency preparedness that we were trusting to help is inadequate and falling apart. Who shall I trust?

In the past, people prayed for divine intervention. I believe that the Holy Spirit can help, but I can’t see why it should. As you know, reality is often not as important as what people believe. We act on our beliefs. Our actions, more than our begging God for forgiveness, dictate things in reality. That is why the spiritual leaders always told people what to do or not do and left the decisions up to them.

God didn’t say to pray to Him to save the poor. He said what you do to the poorest amongst you, so you do on to me.

This is an unusual year for disasters. Events are forcing us to face reality head-on. We will cut emissions to the atmosphere if we like it or not and it will not be the carbon tax causing it. There will be fewer pleasure flights and other traveling, but will it not be too late?

I choose to do what I can and have faith spiritually. Those who trimmed their lamps and had extra oil were chosen.

Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.