6 ‘Good riddance’ to Alberta Socreds By WILLIAM TUOMI EDMONTON — Alberta voters wiped out Social Credit in the recent provincial elections. From an arrogant 45-seat majority in the last legislature, they are now the 25-seat Opposition. So ends 36 years of Socred rule. And in those years it never faced a serious challenge. It made a virtue out of the sell-out of the provinces natural re- sources to U.S. monopolies, and elevated obscurantism and bigot- ry into a political tool. That stifl- ing atmosphere is now over and Alberta is in a new ball game. The Tory party that swept the province to take 49 seats holds power for the first time in the history of Alberta. Their mem- bers in the Legislature, on the average, were six years old when the first Social Credit govern- ment was elected. In a campaign they didn’t expect to win, the Tories promised everything to everybody — 56 election prom- ises, like the soup company’s 57 varieties. Their central slogan was “New!”, and “now” it be- came. The Social Credit defeat in’ Alberta may well have repercus- sions on plans to create out of the federal organization a hot- bed of Right-wing reaction. All signs now point to bitter in-fight- ing in the Alberta Social Credit League. Its “Douglas-wing,” led by A. J. Hooke of Rocky Moun- tain House, was gleeful over the defeat of the government, blam- ing it for having “betrayed Social Credit principles.” The Quebec Créditistes broke into the open with their condemnation. From far away New Zealand more So- cial Crediters picked at the bones of what once was their model. To interpret the vote by Alber- tans as anything more than the intense desire for change, would be an error. The feeling that “anything” would be better than Social Credit must have been there on the part of voters who by and large were not involved in the early missionary days of the government. Their political experiences occurred in the fat days of the early oil boom when the government sat smug and un- movable, confident that its con- servative policies would guaran- tee it power for all time. But life has a way of asserting itself. The days of easy money from the sale of resources are over, the resource boom having moved north out of the province. A deep crisis looms over farm- ing, with some 30,000 farmers either out of farming or on the way out by the end of the dec- ade. The economic recession of last winter “brought trouble to paradise,” as one wit put it. Canadians to have say in War Act investigation MONTREAL — Commencing Oct. 12 in Montreal the series of public hearings to be conduc- ted by the Citizens’ Commis- sion of Inquiry into the War Measures Act will extend across the country to include, as cur- rently planned, Rouyn, Quebec City, Alma, Rimouski, Hull, Charlottetown, Moncton, Toron- to, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Saska- toon and Vancouver. As announced here by spokesman, Fernand Daoust, general secretary of the Quebec Federation of Labor, the Com- mission will accept evidence from anyone elther in writing or directly in the public hear- ings. The 10 commissioners, whose - appointment to the Citizens’ Committee of Inquiry into the War Measures Act was an- nounced in Ottawa, are “to in- quire into, and report upon, the reasons for the invoking of the War Measures Act and subse- quent Public Order Act and alleged abuses following in their wake.” Within this framework, the Commission shall investigate: 1. Why the War Measures Act was invoked in peacetime. 2. How the War Measures Act and subsequent legislation * affected civil liberties. 3. Any abuses of civil liber- ties beyond the scope of the War Measures Act. ; 4. The roots of the Quebec crisis. : 5. The state of civil liberties in Canada subsequent to the its invocation of the War Measures At. 6. Whether the War Measures Act should be repealed, amend- ed or replaced by alternative legislation. The Commission shall also procure research on such ques- tions as: 1. The historical and sociolo- gical backround to October. 2. The role of the media in the October crisis. 3. Response of organized groups and the public to the in- vocation of the War Measures Act. 4. A history of restrictive leg- islation in Canada, and any other questions that the Com- mission deems useful to carry through its inquiry. The evidence gathered by the Commissioners will be published with conclusions and recom- mendations ina public report. Including Fernand Daoust, the 10 Commissioners are: Michel Bourdon, vice-president of the Confederation of National Trade Unions; Trevor Berry, Manitoba Human Rights League vice- chairman; Adele Lauzon, Mon- treal journalist; Woodrow Lloyd, former NDP premier of Sas- katchewan; Linda Meissenhei- mer, Simon Fraser University student association president; John Morgan, a Toronto Unitar- ian Church minister; Laurier Lapierre, a McGill University professor; Alonzo Le _ Blanc, Quebec Civil Service Union vice-president; Richard Dunlop a B.C. lawyer. : PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1971—PAGE 6 Thirty thousand Albertans re- mained out of work through the summer months, and the Nixon economic policy announced two weeks before the Alberta elec- tion was a chilling threat of a major crisis for the fall and win- ter. Some kind of change was needed. That was obvious. The Madison Avenue type of cam- paign of the Tory party captured this desire and rode to power on it. The NDP could not capitalize on the restlessness of voters. It suffers from its own hesitations. It projected the automatic elec- tion of an NDP government in Alberta as a foregone conclusion after the Manitoba and Saskat- chewan experiences. Late in the campaign, it finally took up the questions of taxation and re- source development. Its success in electing Grant Notley in the Spirit River-Fairview seat gave the left in Alberta politics a sin- gle seat in the new legislature. But overall there was a serious drop in the NDP vote through- out the province... The Two Deals During the election campaign the Tories dodged a forthright statement on the question of roy- alties that are collected by the province on resources held by gi- ant U.S. monopolies. Instead, they promised that royalty agree- , ments to be negotiated will be reported to the Legislature and will be debated publicly. They are now confronted by two such deals. A $400 million project was signed last July with the Syn- crude consortium of U.S. banks and oil companies to establish a giant plant in the Athabasca tar sands. Two days after the elec- tions, the defeated Social Credit government announced that it had been in the process of nego- tiating a second deal in the tar sands, this one with the Japan- ese government-owned Japex company for a complex worth about a billion dollars. Will the Tories table these agreements in the legislature? If the first session of the new Legisature meets after the New Year, it will have to deal with a 10-year review of the terms under which resources develop- ment has taken place in the prov- ince. It is due in 1972. Oil Royalties It will have to deal with facts like these: Alberta oil pays a royalty to the government of 21 to 51 cents a barrel. Arab coun- tries in the Middle East collect an average of $1.45 a barrel; Libya gets $2.05 a barel; Vene- zuela takes 62% of the well- head price. And these oil export- ing countries are rapidly moving to nationalizing their oil re- sources and cutting out the fabu- lous profits that U.S. oil cartels are making. The same companies own Alberta oil. Grande Cache is a huge strip- mine operation. Coal from there goes to Japan on a royalty pay- ment of 10c a ton. (Coal sells for about $20 a ton in the province.) To move the coal the Alberta government built a $100 million railway through the wilderness to Grande Cadéhe. The railway has been losing $2 million a year in its operations, paid by the Al- berta government. Will the Tory government con- tinue this? Natural gas is exported to the United States after royalty pay- ments that vary from 4.5c to 20c per thousand cubic feet. As it crosses the U.S. border its sale price goes to $1.04 per thousand cubic feet. One of the exporting companies, the Hudson’s Bay Oil and Gas Company, could report “declared net earnings” of near- ly $29 million in one year and like “‘a good corporate citizen” paid taxes that amounted to .0007% of its take. Will the Tory government con- tinue this? And there is more. It’s a long list — 36 years long. Out of the Tory grab-bag of election promises there are inter- esting items. Some promises . Alberta has been promised that under a Tory government, . the cost of education in the prov- inces will be removed from mu- nicipal property taxes. They will do this to ease the tax burden and make education the total re- sponsibility of the provincial government.Anyone on old age pension in this province will be relieved of all medical costs. The government will assume them. We are to get a $50 million de- velopment fund to put new life into dying towns and villages in the province. Albertans are to get a new Bill of Rights guaran- teeing all civil and democratic rights to every citizen. And so on through 52 more planks of their promises. Alberta is now in a new ball game. Alberta politics are fluid and volatile. The demand for change in the last months of the Socred regime began sparking explosive situations. That de- mand will continue to press for the righting of old wrongs. And i i i im the Tory government ae cape it. oil What is needed now } alignment of the forces the farmers and all : forces in the province. ! task of fighting for the’; tion of very elemental), cratic rights that wee under Social Credit. If # af manded that Tory elect ises are carried out ‘ lation, it will win giaty, forward. In the face of il economic situation, ! to. advance its own peor of demand action on it © — government. 3s In this the Left beat responsibilities. T0 that the upheaval that “i years of Socred rule. 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