Highlights from Palmer

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 -gt buffalo hides -gt beef -gt wheat
  -gt oil -gt gas -gt 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 industrys 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 Albertas 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