Matthew Kruk
2012-09-15 06:27:16 UTC
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/15/world/americas/peter-lougheed-alberta-premier-and-oil-pioneer-dies-at-84.html?ref=obituaries
September 14, 2012
Peter Lougheed, Ex-Premier of Alberta, Dies at 84
By IAN AUSTEN
Peter Lougheed, the Alberta premier who harnessed his province's vast oil and
gas resources to transform its economy, died Thursday in Calgary, Alberta. He
was 84.
His family attributed his death to natural causes.
A former professional in the Canadian Football League despite his slight build,
Mr. Lougheed (pronounced LAW-heed) turned Alberta into a major player in oil and
gas and a pioneer in the development of oil sands after his Progressive
Conservative Party took power in 1971, ending the long reign of Social Credit, a
populist farm movement.
Mr. Lougheed arrived in office at a time of great political and economic
upheaval in Canada. He clashed frequently with Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the
country's Liberal Party prime minister, over pivotal constitutional and economic
issues.
While Alberta's oil and gas industry was founded with the discovery of the Leduc
well in 1947, Social Credit governments had neglected it, even though, as is
generally the case in Canada, most of the resource was owned by the province
rather than landowners.
Mr. Lougheed raised royalties and channeled their revenues into the Alberta
Heritage Savings Trust Fund, which today holds about $16 billion. As the global
oil crisis struck, pushing up prices in the 1970s, the province's wealth rose
with it.
The energy crisis led to Mr. Lougheed's greatest clash with Mr. Trudeau, who
tried to introduce greater federal control over energy and who sought a portion
of royalty payments for the central government. After Mr. Lougheed cut oil
production in Alberta, the prime minister relented, and in 1981 acknowledged
that provinces had full control over their resources.
Edgar Peter Lougheed was born in Calgary on July 26, 1928. He studied law,
obtained an M.B.A. at Harvard and moved into business after his brief career in
football.
Oil sands have made Alberta the United States' largest source of imported oil
today, but the projects struggled initially and were widely viewed as
economically and technologically unsound. But Mr. Lougheed's government
participated in a bailout of Syncrude, the industry's pioneer, in 1975. Newer
oil sands projects pump the tarlike bitumen from underground rather than
removing it through strip mining using technology developed through research
financed by Mr. Lougheed's government.
Mr. Lougheed is survived by his wife, Jeanne; his children, Stephen, Andrea, Pam
and Joe; and seven grandchildren.
Mr. Lougheed was a social liberal in a province that has been a bastion of
social conservatism, yet he was extremely popular among Albertans.
He left office in 1985. This summer, he was named the best Canadian premier of
the last 40 years by the Institute for Research on Public Policy.
September 14, 2012
Peter Lougheed, Ex-Premier of Alberta, Dies at 84
By IAN AUSTEN
Peter Lougheed, the Alberta premier who harnessed his province's vast oil and
gas resources to transform its economy, died Thursday in Calgary, Alberta. He
was 84.
His family attributed his death to natural causes.
A former professional in the Canadian Football League despite his slight build,
Mr. Lougheed (pronounced LAW-heed) turned Alberta into a major player in oil and
gas and a pioneer in the development of oil sands after his Progressive
Conservative Party took power in 1971, ending the long reign of Social Credit, a
populist farm movement.
Mr. Lougheed arrived in office at a time of great political and economic
upheaval in Canada. He clashed frequently with Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the
country's Liberal Party prime minister, over pivotal constitutional and economic
issues.
While Alberta's oil and gas industry was founded with the discovery of the Leduc
well in 1947, Social Credit governments had neglected it, even though, as is
generally the case in Canada, most of the resource was owned by the province
rather than landowners.
Mr. Lougheed raised royalties and channeled their revenues into the Alberta
Heritage Savings Trust Fund, which today holds about $16 billion. As the global
oil crisis struck, pushing up prices in the 1970s, the province's wealth rose
with it.
The energy crisis led to Mr. Lougheed's greatest clash with Mr. Trudeau, who
tried to introduce greater federal control over energy and who sought a portion
of royalty payments for the central government. After Mr. Lougheed cut oil
production in Alberta, the prime minister relented, and in 1981 acknowledged
that provinces had full control over their resources.
Edgar Peter Lougheed was born in Calgary on July 26, 1928. He studied law,
obtained an M.B.A. at Harvard and moved into business after his brief career in
football.
Oil sands have made Alberta the United States' largest source of imported oil
today, but the projects struggled initially and were widely viewed as
economically and technologically unsound. But Mr. Lougheed's government
participated in a bailout of Syncrude, the industry's pioneer, in 1975. Newer
oil sands projects pump the tarlike bitumen from underground rather than
removing it through strip mining using technology developed through research
financed by Mr. Lougheed's government.
Mr. Lougheed is survived by his wife, Jeanne; his children, Stephen, Andrea, Pam
and Joe; and seven grandchildren.
Mr. Lougheed was a social liberal in a province that has been a bastion of
social conservatism, yet he was extremely popular among Albertans.
He left office in 1985. This summer, he was named the best Canadian premier of
the last 40 years by the Institute for Research on Public Policy.