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Independent Alberta Senator Paula Simons joins the Daveberta Podcast to discuss what it is like to represent Albertans in the Canadian Senate during the COVID-19 pandemic and the launch of the second season of her podcast series, Alberta Unbound. She also shares her thoughts on the role of the Senate in light of Alberta’s upcoming Senate Nominee elections.
The Daveberta Podcast is hosted by Dave Cournoyer and produced by Adam Rozenhart.
The Daveberta Podcast is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network: Locally grown. Community supported. The Alberta Podcast Network includes dozens of great made-in-Alberta podcasts.
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Recommended reading
- What it’s like as a reporter embedded in the Canadian Senate (CBC, Paula Simons, Aug. 29, 2019)
- ‘Staggering’ drop in flights to blame for layoffs, CEO of air traffic controller Nav Canada says (CTV, Jan. 13, 2021)
- Canada’s assisted dying law is not racing down a slope – it is falling in line with the Charter (Globe & Mail, Dec. 26, 2020)
- Alberta just cancelled 11 controversial coal leases but open-pit mining could still happen. Here’s why (The Narwhal, Jan. 18, 2021)
- ‘Alberta maverick’ Elaine McCoy remembered as strong voice in Canadian Senate (Edmonton Journal, Dec. 30, 2020)
7 replies on “Episode 67: Senator Paula Simons and Alberta Unbound”
The title of Ms. Simons pod cast is “Alberta Unbound.” This implies that Alberta has somehow been constrained. The only constraint on Alberta has come from its simple-minded and short sighted political class post Lougheed. The Norwegians, with 40% less hydro carbons, and most of those at the bottom of the North Sea have over one trillion US dollars in their heritage fund along with a cradle to grave welfare state and a decent society. The Cons and UCP have managed to swindle and waste our fossil fuel resources and all Alberta has to show for it is a quarter billion dollar liability for cleaning up oil field trash and a bunch of entitled UCP types running the province into the ground.
Of course, nothing but left, more left, the far left, and even further left on this blog.
Sorry Michael: You seem rather innocent about where the center of where the spectrum is. The evidence is just what it is: the Cons were and are massively incompetent managers. Like the farm boy who inherits the farm and lives a high life selling off acreages, the Cons gave Alberta the illusion it was prosperous and well managed for a couple of decades. Now the fossil fuel game is over and all the UCP can think of is tearing up the floor boards and putting them in the fire place. Too many metaphors, but you get my meaning.
Micheal Binion: How much more of the Conservative’s very costly shenanigans in Alberta do you want to cover up? This keeps costing Albertans a fortune.
Not just “left”. This blog is communist. Of the unions, by the unions, for the unions, and bought and paid for by the unions!
Not to get into a big debate on the play on words, but I suspect Alberta unbound was probably mostly mean just a ironic reversal of Alberta bound. In any event, it was great to hear Senator Simons explain her work and also how dramatically the nature of the Senate has changed in recent years moving to Independent Senators from a more partisan body. Obviously, it is still a work in progress, but it is something I feel positive about too. The Senate has potential to be better than in the past and I think what has been done in recent years will help it serve Canada better.
On another note, I think Alberta, like the US needs to get over its delusions of exceptionalism. We were fortunate to have a lot of oil, but we haven’t managed that good fortune well. As oil wealth recedes somewhat, we would be wise to try learn from provinces that have managed their financial affairs fairly well without such abundance. Hint – there is one just to the west of us.
I’ve just started listening to this podcast (3rd pod of 1st season), and it is quite interesting. I, for one, refuse to self-identify as an Albertan, even though I’ve lived here for 35 of my 61 years, because of the self-imposed stereotypes of what it means to be one. I don’t own a pickup truck or a cowboy hat; I don’t work in ranching or the oilpatch; I don’t hunt or own a gun; and I definitely don’t vote conservative.
But more importantly, there is a sense here of “one way or the highway” that doesn’t accept diversity of [political] opinion. Look at the number of “F*ck Trudeau” & “F*ck Notley” stickers on vehicles. It’s also dangerous to put an NDP or Liberal lawn sign in front of your house during elections — that might be OK in “Redmonton”, but in Grande Prairie? That’s just asking for trouble.
To be an Albertan, especially outside the two big cities, it seems to me, is to accept that there isn’t a chorus of acceptable voices, just one voice & its echo. Our careers & our grandchildren are the only reason we stay.