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Highlights from Palmer & Palmer, “The Alberta Experience”

Highlights from Palmer & Palmer, “The Alberta Experience”. Main Thesis: - Alberta has experienced fundamental changes, in rapid succession, with little time to adapt before the next fundamental changes hit. Economic Changes.

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Highlights from Palmer & Palmer, “The Alberta Experience”

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  1. Highlights fromPalmer & Palmer,“The Alberta Experience” Main Thesis: - Alberta has experienced fundamental changes, in rapid succession, with little time to adapt before the next fundamental changes hit.

  2. Economic Changes • Shifts in the Staples Base of the Provincial Economy fur -> buffalo hides -> beef -> wheat -> oil -> gas -> heavy oil • Recurrent Cycles of Boom & Bust 1898 Klondike boom 1914 Turner Valley 1930s Depression 1950s post-Leduc boom 1970s OPEC boom 1982 Recession 1986 Oil Price Crash 1994 Klein revolution: austerity 1997 oil & gas boom

  3. Some Profound Social Changes in Alberta Urbanization Ethnic & Religious Commerce The State Social Protest Role of Women

  4. External Shocks to Albertaand Vulnerability to Boom and Bust Cycle • 1968: Multinational oil companies’ flight to Alaska • 1973 ff OPEC price increases • 1974-81 Energy war with federal govt. • 1980 N.E.P. & recession thereafter • Early 80s High interest rates • 1986 Oil price collapse • Mid-90s Cutbacks on federal fiscal transfers • Alberta has one of the most unstable economies of all the provinces in Canada.

  5. Sources of American Influence in Alberta • Oil industry’s close links with Houston, Denver, & Oklahoma e.g., U.S. execs; career circuit • Early settlement (pre-WWI) by American farmers incl. Mormons; close ties maintained • Strong ties btwn fundamentalist religious groups in Alberta & their American counterparts • American markets for Alberta’s staples (e.g., gas, wheat, beef) • American TV (cable; satellite)

  6. Bases of Right-Wing Support in Alberta • Nature of the Oil Industry: - large middle class; small blue collar class - integrated w/ USA (Republican influence) • Selective In-migration - ardent free-enterprise entrepreneurs - Post WWII in-migration of persons with aversion to left-wing ideas(e.g., refugees from eastern Europe, British, Dutch, Amer.) • Frontierism - individualism carried forward to today - mythology of the boundless opportunities of the frontier • Economic, religious, & social ties to Republican USA

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