In early 1947, the discovery of Leduc No. 1, a major crude oil discovery made near Leduc, kicked off a boom in petroleum exploration in not only Alberta but across Western Canada. The discovery of Leduc No. 1 transformed the Alberta economy with oil and gas replacing farming as the primary industry - with it came new opportunities.
For generations, people have come to Alberta for the bountiful opportunities of every kind and for what was eventually called the “Alberta Advantage.” The advantage was considered to be the opportunities available to anyone that wanted to work hard and was determined to create their own wealth. Recent successive NDP budgets have decimated those opportunities and all but eliminated the dream that inspired so many to uproot their lives and head for Alberta.
Since the Alberta NDP government took over opportunities are steadily leaving Alberta, along with the opportunity of creating investment dollars. Investors came for opportunities and they left because the economic environment has been replaced by a system that favours manipulative government wealth redistribution rather than organic/natural wealth creation.
The NDP’s wealth redistribution doesn’t lend itself to creating opportunities. Instead, it removes any incentive. It’s important to remember that in order to create an opportunity by redistribution of wealth, that opportunity must be removed from somebody else. Under a system that removes incentive with one opportunity simply being transferred rather than created, there is no advantage to the overall economy.
The notion that government can create opportunities is exactly that - nothing more than a notion. The goal for government should always be to facilitate the creation of opportunities by simply letting the economic environment grow organically. Without manipulation and government-manipulated conditions, good things grow and they’re driven by nothing more than incentive and desire to succeed. For generations, Albertans have taken advantage of the vibrant opportunities that presented themselves. It’s why many of them came.
In order for Alberta to regain its status as an economic growth destination for those seeking opportunity, Alberta needs a team of experienced conservatives at the helm. The key conservative principle that will allow the market to grow and attract investors is having smaller government with less involvement. The increase in the size of government we’ve seen under the NDP has been disastrous to our economy. Alberta is plagued with redundant services that should see some departments downsized to eliminate the waste; this, of course, doesn’t mean to frontline services.
With less bureaucratic government comes more opportunities. More opportunities means more investment, which is why they used to come. Let’s open the door again by stepping aside as a government and let people prosper. In Drumheller Stettler there are still many innovative agricultural economic opportunities yet to be developed.