It’s bad enough that Liberal leader and aspiring Prime Minister Stephane Dion insulted oil-sands workers while on a bad-will good-will tour of Alberta.

“All these workers living too fast for the easy money in the north,” the prime minister-wannabe blasted as Liberal-appointed senators Tommy Banks and Grant Mitchell looked on.

That provoked a scathing response from Edmonton Sun columnist Neil Waugh.

I don’t know what your idea of “easy money” is. But it sure isn’t living in camp and freezing your butt at 40 below building oilsands plants. But Tommy and Grant sure know what a soft touch looks like.

Darcey at Dust my Broom, who's done some hard time in the oil patch, has two words for Mr Dion: “F*** off”.

As I said, that’s bad enough—but what’s even worse, in my view, is Stephane’s ignorant dismissal of the economic value of those jobs.

“All these workers living too fast for the easy money in the north,” . . . “It’s not good for the economy.”

He apparently knows nothing at all about economics.  Of course, more high-paying jobs are great for the economy.  The employment created by the oil sands is probably the biggest single reason why Alberta has, according to Statistics Canada, the fastest-growing economy ever seen in Canadian history.  The world-class business newspaper Financial Times called the oil sands North America’s “biggest resource boom since 1898”.

Alberta’s unprecedented boom may be causing problems for other areas of Canada, however.  Workers are moving to Alberta from eastern Canada, draining productive workers while boosting wages for many of those who stay behind.  Quebec’s economy was struggling well before Alberta’s latest boom (but that’s Quebec’s own fault).  Ontario seems to be slipping into recession.

So, one could argue that Alberta’s sustained strong growth is bad news for the economies of eastern provinces.  Maybe that’s what Stephane Dion really meant.  But it’s probably not a politically astute idea to say that in Alberta.  Save it for Ontario and Quebec.

h/t: Darcey at Dust My Broom

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