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Alberta Elections: 1979 Lougheed Wins Again

By 1979, the price of oil had risen to forty-four dollars a barrel. As historian David Leonard explains, the royalties helped the provincial government of Peter Lougheed expand the Civil Service to over 34 000 people. As well, the government invested heavily in projects such as Syncrude:

By now, Syncrude was beginning to produce massively. This three-point-two billion mega-project brought a population to Fort McMurray of around 40 000 people. And the feeling was now that we can do nothing but grow. The cities began to expand. Both Calgary and Edmonton now were well over 500 000 in population. And the skyline was reflected in the demolition of many older Edwardian buildings in both cities. And the development of glass and concrete skyscrapers that gave a whole new appearance of modernity to Alberta. The feeling was that Alberta was much like Texas: Houston compared to Edmonton and Dallas to Calgary with those head offices. And the feeling of oil projects, massive projects, was very much in the air.

The Progressive Conservatives of Peter Lougheed easily won the election of March 1979. But in February of 1980, Lougheed?s federal ally, Joe Clark, lost the election and Pierre Trudeau?s Liberals were once again back in office.

The government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau in 1980 had announced a National Energy Program. And here we all understood that the responsibility for managing the energy was a provincial matter. And so the Progressive Conservative government of Peter Lougheed took the unheard-of step of cancelling other mega-projects in the oil industry. And when the oil industry saw there was this feud between Alberta and the federal government, they backed off. And production in the oil patch came to a sharp decline, and with it, further royalties into the provincial coffers. So there was some uneasiness in 1982.

In the early 1980?s, the price of oil dropped from forty-four dollars to twenty-five dollars a barrel. As the Middle East?s stranglehold on energy diminished, so did Alberta?s boom. Not long after the next election in the spring of 1982, Alberta plunged into recession and debt.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.

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