Political correctness in Alberta

Editorial: Political correctness in Alberta by Edmonton Journal, June 14, 2012
In Alberta, our political culture sometimes signals that there is only one right way for people to think about important issues, and for outsiders to talk about our province. Deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk seemed to be channelling this instinct Monday when he warned Quebecer Thomas Mulcair that “his kind of politically motivated commentary simply will not be tolerated” here. How relieved the federal NDP leader – whose job after all is to provide opposition – must have been to be in New Brunswick and thus in no danger of being ridden out of Alberta border on a rail. Mulcair’s offence was to criticize the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers for making Alberta’s rules on fracking sound tougher than they are. The issue in question was the toxicity of fluids forced into wells to drive oil or gas to the surface; Mulcair was taking aim at the amount of self-regulation permitted operators in the oilpatch. In fact there is a dash or two of validity to Mulcair’s complaint about fracking regulation, at least once the nasty language about CAPP “pulling a con job” is stripped away. It is hard to get information about fracking fluids, a fact underlined by the government’s current plan to make fracking-liquid disclosures widely available to the public by the end of the year. [Emphasis added]