Peter Lougheed has died

[KC]

Former premier Lougheed dies in hospital
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/...680/story.html

[The_Cat]

I think Peter Lougheed was pivotal in turning Alberta into an economic powerhouse. He also stood up for Albertans on many occasions, and has left a strong legacy. May he rest in peace.

[Barry N]

R I P Mr.Premier

[Dialog]

A Premier who fought for higher royalty rates instead of rolling over.

[edmonton daily photo]

I am very sad for his family but I am glad this province can move beyond his shadow now. Some of the things he did were fantastic some not so much... especially in regards to Edmonton.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by edmonton daily photo

I am very sad for his family but I am glad this province can move beyond his shadow now. Some of the things he did were fantastic some not so much... especially in regards to Edmonton.

Like what?

[edmonton daily photo]

^ this is one time where I will keep my opinion to myself i will say that... I personally feel that this marks a new era in Alberta politics. one where we don't have a premier from 30 years ago chiming in.

Once again I stress that I am not glad he is dead.. as I fear that is what someone is going to say. It's not true.

[armin]

Originally Posted by edmonton daily photo

^ this is one time where I will keep my opinion to myself i will say that... I personally feel that this marks a new era in Alberta politics. one where we don't have a premier from 30 years ago chiming in.

Once again I stress that I am not glad he is dead.. as I fear that is what someone is going to say. It's not true.

So you're going to talk trash the guy but you won't say why?

[edmonton daily photo]

I never trash talked him AT ALL! do not put words in my mouth.

I said we can move beyond his political shadow.

[AShetsen]

At the time he was more conservative; current orthodoxy calls him progressive. He resigned just at the cusp of a recession he knew would sully his reputation if he stayed. His political contribution to Canada as a whole is summed up in one word: "notwithstanding".

And he supported the NEP. Which, at any rate, was the best political thing he ever did.

PS. The above is purely political, just in case. Actually the fact he was by the time of his death firmly in the progressive camp says more about the political evolution of this society than about his own views.

I admit I was never much of a fan. Of his politics, I stress, once again.

[McBoo]

I met with Premier Lougheed two, maybe three times in a professional capacity. He was pure class act - driven by a steel trap mind, and he greeted me by name.

Years later he was on an airplane with my mom and dad. Upon hearing their name, he said, oh are you (insert_my_name)'s parents?

The Journal is runnning a poll about how Lougheed should be honoured. Their own ideas aside - I think it would be perfect for the province to endow centre's for Canadian constitutional studies at the Universities of Lethbridge, Calgary and Alberta.

I hear ya EDP, but Premier Lougheed did have a vision for Edmonton; as Canada's premiere centre for research and innovation. Klein's kutz set that vision back - but even the biggest cynic has to admit that the University of Alberta isn't one of Canada's top institutions by pure luck - or because it's been around the longest.

I actually think that given Alberta's historic north-south solitudes, Premier Lougheed was as fair handed as anyone ever has been.

[McBoo]

Just to underline from above, from the home page of U of A President Indira Samarasekera:

Yesterday (Sept 13, 2012), the University of Alberta lost of one of its most remarkable and beloved alumni: The Honourable E. Peter Lougheed. ... His enduring affection for and commitment to the U of A has always been evident to me, whether he was speaking at special university events or congratulating the latest recipients of the prestigious Peter Lougheed Scholarship. His gifts to this university and to generations of U of A students will continue to live on for years to come.

http://www.president.ualberta.ca/en/...rLougheed.aspx

[edmonton daily photo]

Originally Posted by McBoo

I met with Premier Lougheed two, maybe three times in a professional capacity. He was pure class act - driven by a steel trap mind, and he greeted me by name.

Years later he was on an airplane with my mom and dad. Upon hearing their name, he said, oh are you (insert_my_name)'s parents?

The Journal is runnning a poll about how Lougheed should be honoured. Their own ideas aside - I think it would be perfect for the province to endow centre's for Canadian constitutional studies at the Universities of Lethbridge, Calgary and Alberta.

I hear ya EDP, but Premier Lougheed did have a vision for Edmonton; as Canada's premiere centre for research and innovation. Klein's kutz set that vision back - but even the biggest cynic has to admit that the University of Alberta isn't one of Canada's top institutions by pure luck - or because it's been around the longest.

I actually think that given Alberta's historic north-south solitudes, Premier Lougheed was as fair handed as anyone ever has been.

Well said...

I really do feel like this incident combined with the election of Redford really does mean a new direction for Alberta.

[armin]

Originally Posted by edmonton daily photo

Well said...

I really do feel like this incident combined with the election of Redford really does mean a new direction for Alberta.

I really like what McBoo said, but Redford is nothing like Lougheed.

He wanted to keep the resources for Albertans to benefit from, but Klein gave away the oil to the companies which virtually direct Redford's policies.

[edmonton daily photo]

I know she is nothing like him.. nor would we want to replace her with him. Times have changed since the mid 80's.

It's time to leave the NEP, Trudeau, Peter, Preston etc in the past.

it's time to start to look to Canada's and Alberta's future. Which I believe Redford is doing...

in respect to Edmonton Redford and Stelmac both believed in a strong Edmonton. which I am glad to see.

[PJC]

^ So did Peter Lougheed.

[moahunter]

Originally Posted by edmonton daily photo

in respect to Edmonton Redford and Stelmac both believed in a strong Edmonton. which I am glad to see.

Would any politician say otherwise? You do realize Redford is from Calgary and one of her first acts was to almost completely de-rail the RAM by asking for a re-design?

[edmonton daily photo]

^ That was Locally driven... we were all screaming over the design and we ourselves were not sure it was right.

her own words below

“There’s been much talk just even publicly about the very abbreviated process for design, and a lot of comment that I’ve heard in Edmonton with respect to whether or not this is a design that’s appropriate to the museum,” she said. “I’m curious, I want to know what’s going on with that. It’s an important piece of Edmonton as an institution, of Alberta as a province, it’s a great legacy piece and I want to make sure we get it right.”

[moahunter]

^I'll beleive it when there are shovels in the ground. I expect further delays, but lets see. Anyway, off topic. Lougheed was before my time, but to the extent he was part of the reason the province is as strong as it is, I understand why this is such an important event. Seems an interseting guy, impressive he was an Eskimo player.

[KC]

CBC will have a documentary on tomorrow night about Peter Lougheed. Originally show in 1995 so it should be interesting.

I'd like to see interviews with people closer to being 'of the day' with more facts and opinions of the times and maybe no longer with us today.


Here's something I stumbled across a year or so ago...

Gold Bears win Hardy Cup
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id...edmonton&hl=en

And some more archive search results:

Tory novices expect combat not concessions from Socreds
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id...lougheed&hl=en
(With photo of Lougheed at the top of the page.)


The false worries of Peter Lougheed
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id...lougheed&hl=en

[Cal76]

He was before my time too, but he was a true PC- social liberal, fiscal moderate. How fitting that we have finally gone back to similar principles in our provincial politics. May Premier Redford continue what Premier Lougheed had started-- building a better Alberta in a better Canada!

RIP, sir.

[jagators63]

Lougheed will lie in state at Alberta legislature

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/...621/story.html

[24karat]

I drove by the Leg this evening, and was surprised to see the flag on top of the building is still at full staff. Couldn't see the other flags where I was.

[Gemini]

Originally Posted by jagators63

Lougheed will lie in state at Alberta legislature

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/...621/story.html

Surprised but not disappointed that they are doing this. The family stated they were having a private service so assumed they would keep it low key.
Well, we all know what assuming does. Anyway, we have lost a good person, one that todays politicians can only aspire too.

[KC]

"And from our archives here's our last conversation with former Alberta premier Peter Lougheed when we spoke to him last year in Calgary. "

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode...s-1/index.html

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode...eter-lougheed/

http://mobilevideo.cbc.ca/u/ref~s-au...000020623622/1

[KenL2]

Originally Posted by 24karat

I drove by the Leg this evening, and was surprised to see the flag on top of the building is still at full staff. Couldn't see the other flags where I was.

The other flags are lowered, I believe, and might be wrong but the Alberta flag at the front of the leg is the only one of its kind and is tied to the monarchy, and would only be lowered if royalty passed.

I checked and that flag is the lieutenant governor's flag and is used to indicate when he is present, so it's the vice regal flag, not the official flag of Alberta that the Canadian and union jack are actually at half staff

[whynow99]

I agree "Ashetsen".....and here is more info............The NEP??? Again???? How OLD are you people?? Gawd! Int'l prices sank the NEP, not the Feds! Wake up for Gawds sake and get your facts right if you're still whining over ancient history! How dumb do you need to be to be a right-winger? Very!.....Apparently.

My God when are Albertans going to stop whining about the NEP. Spend a little time looking at history. It was not the NEP that was the cause of the downturn of the economy at the time, but by a worldwide recession. The NEP was used as a goat by the oil business and people fell for it!

One ironic point is that a NEP would have allowed for the pipelines so wanted by the oil industry. The fact that Alberta won the battle to ensure provinces have rights over minerals, makes it necessary to convince BC of the benefits, when it fact, there are few for BC, given the risks. But you cannot have it both ways - Alberta, Quebec, Ontario and others have pushed to be mini-fiefdoms and in this instance it's coming back to bite Alberta, and its oil industry, in the arse.

And for you dinosaurs still whining about the decades ago NEP, for gosh sake join the 21st century and quit picking your scabs! The whining is as irritating as mosquitos but wayyyyyy more annoying!

[North Guy66]

In fact, Alberta Culture had become a separate government ministry — the country’s second, after Quebec — in a cabinet that, as Tommy Banks, the eloquent retired senator, puts it, “was the hippest group of people” to ever come together to govern.

Banks calls the Lougheed years “a genuine cultural revolution, an explosion.” And it’s hard to argue. Funding for the arts “skyrocketed,” not least because of a revolutionary program that offered arts groups a matching dollar for every dollar they raised above their efforts of the previous year. Hustle ensued; public engagement was lively. Per-capita provincial arts funding was the second highest in the country (after Quebec).

The Citadel was already in operation, thanks to the vision and unstoppable enthusiasm of the late Joe Shoctor. Edmonton had its Studio Theatre, its Walterdale. But the Lougheed years saw Edmonton’s raft of mid-sized companies start, grow fruitful, and multiply. Museums, orchestras, ballet companies, folk festivals, a film industry ... suddenly Alberta was sprouting them. The Banff TV Festival, the Banff Centre as a year-round arts generator, a publishing industry, the list goes on.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/enter...602/story.html

This is another reason why Alberta will miss Lougheed. He had vision to invest in the arts.

With Klein and his lackies, Steve West and Stockwell Day (Stephen Harper included), arts is the first thing on the cutting block.

[Thomas Hinderks]

Whynow99

My God when are Albertans going to stop whining about the NEP. Spend a little time looking at history. It was not the NEP that was the cause of the downturn of the economy at the time, but by a worldwide recession. The NEP was used as a goat by the oil business and people fell for it!

I don't need to look at the history I was a part of it. It did not fall down as you paint and that is the problem...

The reason it is such a hard point is simple...the fallout from the NEP cost me personally about $250,000.00. That took 10 years to did out of.

It was not a World Wide recession as the cause, Alberta was smoking. (3) days after the NEP it literally shut down. A world wide recession would have been preferred, you could have seen that coming and braced for it, downsized, shifted for a shrinking market.

The NEP was the equivalent of a nuclear strike to the economy. Some of us lived it and we are not that old.

All that said...

Peter Lougheed was a person and a politician one could admire (and I did) if you agreed with him or not.

He has left a broad and amazing legacy

In my highly biased personal opinion

[Sonic Death Monkey]

Lest anyone thinks Lougheed didn't do anything for Edmonton:

http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/lougheed-...onton-1.956832

I like how Lougheed offered Edmonton more money for the Shaw Conference Centre when it hit cost overruns, and it sounds like Mayor Purves didn't have to beg for that funding!

[whynow99]

"thomas h"......I lost more then a quarter of a million $, because of lowheed taking over the Alberta civic union pension funds, police pension funds and teachers pensions......lougheed ****** billions away from these pensions, then he snuck away when the price of oil dropped and got clown getty to take over for him mid-term, so all the blame went to a dummy like getty instead of lowheed. I have made back most of my losses, in spite of that egotistical bag of crap lougheed. PS Those pension funds are still suffering from his actions and lack thereof.

[jagators63]

^^^ you aren't the only ones who suffered losses and many people across Canada does suffer many losses too.

[Glenco]

Originally Posted by Sonic Death Monkey

Lest anyone thinks Lougheed didn't do anything for Edmonton:

http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/lougheed-...onton-1.956832

I like how Lougheed offered Edmonton more money for the Shaw Conference Centre when it hit cost overruns, and it sounds like Mayor Purves didn't have to beg for that funding!

First of all it was not cost over runs that put the convention centre $20mil in debt. The Feds had a $10mil incentive program to build convention centres as long as the province would match the contribution. The city went ahead and started construction without securing the funding not realizing EDMONTON NORTHLANDS had applied for the same funding for their trade show centre. Northlands were very secret about their application and the city did not realise the building was elegible because it isn't really a convention centre As only one grant per city was allowed the city was out of pocket and Purves had egg all over his face. He went begging to Lougheed who was more than a little miffed.

[KC]

Originally Posted by Thomas Hinderks

Whynow99

I don't need to look at the history I was a part of it. It did not fall down as you paint and that is the problem...

The reason it is such a hard point is simple...the fallout from the NEP cost me personally about $250,000.00. That took 10 years to did out of.

It was not a World Wide recession as the cause, Alberta was smoking. (3) days after the NEP it literally shut down. A world wide recession would have been preferred, you could have seen that coming and braced for it, downsized, shifted for a shrinking market.

The NEP was the equivalent of a nuclear strike to the economy. Some of us lived it and we are not that old.

All that said...

Peter Lougheed was a person and a politician one could admire (and I did) if you agreed with him or not.

He has left a broad and amazing legacy

In my highly biased personal opinion

Yeah, the NEP was a shock to the system, but its fallout persisted for years and worsened our situation in the '82 recession. The NEP's PGRT kicked in as prices were peaking and project margins were being squeezed. CAFE standards, utilities were switching fuels, production gains were becoming wide spread, and societal adjustments to lower its consumption growth were predictable but government figured they could back into the resource game and redistribute the wealth. Metals mined in the east were skyrocketing in value (gold from $32 going to $800, etc.) but no one ever suggested they should be taxed with anythin so punitive as the PGRT's double taxation methodology. Look prices would have come down anyway, but the NEP just hammered Alberta when it was down.

A good read!
http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca...nload/1399/944

[Glenco]

Originally Posted by whynow99

I agree "Ashetsen".....and here is more info............The NEP??? Again???? How OLD are you people?? Gawd! Int'l prices sank the NEP, not the Feds! Wake up for Gawds sake and get your facts right if you're still whining over ancient history! How dumb do you need to be to be a right-winger? Very!.....Apparently.
about the decades ago NEP, for gosh sake join the 21st century and quit picking your scabs! The whining is as irritating as mosquitos but wayyyyyy more annoying!

What is really dumb is your rant. Your insults totally negate anything you have to say.

[Glenco]

Originally Posted by KC

Yeah, the NEP was a shock to the system, but its fallout persisted for years and worsened our situation in the '82 recession. The NEP's PGRT kicked in as prices were peaking and project margins were being squeezed. CAFE standards, utilities were switching fuels, production gains were becoming wide spread, and societal adjustments to lower its consumption growth were predictable but government figured they could back into the resource game and redistribute the wealth. Metals mined in the east were skyrocketing in value (gold from $32 going to $800, etc.) but no one ever suggested they should be taxed with anythin so punitive as the PGRT's double taxation methodology. Look prices would have come down anyway, but the NEP just hammered Alberta when it was down.

A good read!
http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca...nload/1399/944

In '81 the department I was working in had 104 employees. One year later when I got let go there were 3. Thanks Pierre. Like you say the 82 recession was a double whammy. A very depressing time to be an Edmontonian.

[AShetsen]

If you blame Pierre, blame the other man holding the champagne at the conclusion of the NEP deal.



Or, better yet, realize that the real problem was the falling oil prices.

[Glenco]

Originally Posted by AShetsen

If you blame Pierre, blame the other man holding the champagne at the conclusion of the NEP deal.



Or, better yet, realize that the real problem was the falling oil prices.

As someone else said it was the falling oil prices that SANK the NEP. The whole scheme was based on ever escalating oil prices. Totally unrealistic.

[AShetsen]

^Very good. Now realize that it was a miscalculation by two sides, not one.

A noble miscalculation. Which only one side later regretted, and that for political expediency. Yes, Mr. Lougheed.

And in today's high-price regime, a Canada with an NEP would be a better place.

[KC]

The province was on the defensive and under federal attack. Lougheed presumably did an excellent job fending off the aggressive actions into provincial jurisdiction. The problem WAS falling oil prices WITH a new tax regime that very nearly killed the goose that laid the golden egg.

The NEP was designed to help the east, not so much the rest of Canada and other than very slowly reversing bad policy and some federal aid to get oil sands plants going around FIFTEEN years after the oil price collapse, I'm not aware of much federal assistance to help the west.

[Sonic Death Monkey]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmont...gislature.html

The Alberta government announced Monday that a state memorial to honour former Premier Peter Lougheed will be held Friday Sept. 21 at the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary.

The service will begin at 1 p.m. MT and while seats are reserved for family members, colleagues and government officials, limited seating will also be made available to the public on a first-come first-seated basis at 10 a.m.

The memorial will be broadcast live.