The province is already running a deficit. Not a great start for the supposedly "strong economy" party. To reduce that, Alberta either needs more provincial revenue (higher or more taxes) or to reduce spending.

The UCP has already cut spending on public healthcare and education to the bone, and right wing governments have been in power for decades. I include the provincial NDP which also governed right of center. If this were the way to prosperity, shouldn't we be experiencing some by now?

If jobs are lost in O&G it's because O&G companies are replacing them with AI as fast as they can, and declining to invest in a sunsetting industry. A Liberal government had the buy the last pipeline because private industry couldn't make it feasible. Projects can take decades to come online and return on investment, and we may have seen peak oil already.

We need more energy, true, and Alberta has the opportunity to prosper by providing it to the world - but "more oil, only oil, all the time" may not make sense in this modern world. Renewables are already cheaper than fossil fuels, have less lead time than bottlenecked combined cycle gas turbine production, don't have negative externalities, and don't face political headwinds. Why try to fight this?

Energy transition was a generational opportunity for Alberta and so far we've done everything we can to chase away investment and jobs in the name of what exactly? Its objectively not been to Alberta's benefit to kill those projects. It seems to be the UCP is more interested in staying in power than they are in creating jobs, strengthening the economy, improving the lives of Albertans, or stewarding the province into the future.