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Alberta

Westjet Founder Clive Beddoe to help Alberta’s economy take flight

Published

5 years ago

4 minute read

 

Clive Beddoe (74), grew up in Leatherhead, England and immigrated to Canada in 1970.

As vid licenced pilot himself in 1996, Beddoe became shareholder and the first Chairman of the Board of Directors for plucky start-up WestJet airlines, He also held the President and Chief Executive Officer roles.

Beddoe is President for Hanover Group of Companies and Chair of the Board at SQI Diagnostics Inc. and is Chairman of their Human Resources Committee. and was the owner of Western Concord Manufacturing.

In 2000, Mr. Beddoe, along with WestJet’s other founders were named the Ernst & Young (EY) Entrepreneur of the Year for Canada, as well as EY’s international Entrepreneur of the Year awards in Monaco.

In 2004, he received the prestigious Canadian Business Leader Award from the University of Alberta Faculty of Business and the Business Advisory Council, in 2008 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree from the University of Calgary, and was also recognised by the University of Victoria’s School of Business as its Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year.

in 2009 he was entered into the Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends by the Toronto Chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA). That same year he received an Honorary degree from Wilfrid Laurier University.

In 2012 Beddoe was inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of fame. In 2013 he was named as a Calgary Business Hall of Fame Laureate, and in 2014 he entered the Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame.

Beddoe as a young pilot

In 2018, he was honoured with Waterstone’ Lifetime Achievement as Most Admired Canadian CEO’s, in 2019 the travel icon was entered into the Canadian Travel Hall of Fame and in 2020 he was given BCIT’s Honorary Doctorate of Technology Recipient.

Beddoe is an avid sailor

As avid sailor and always loving a challenge, Beddoe participated in the 2006 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, ARC’s annual race across the Atlantic Ocean.

Beddeo is married to Ruth, they have two children, Sean and Kailey and a number of grandkids. Passion is at the core of the Beddeo family, Ruth and Clive have decades of hands-on volunteering, fundraising and Philanthropy for Boys and Girls Club of Canada.

Clive Beddoe (centre), WestJet founder unveils the name of the company’s latest addition, a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Westjet named the plane after him. Photo Courtesy/@KPAE_Spotter

Here are the members of the council.  You’ll see more of Tom’s stories about this group as the week progresses.

  • Jack Mintz, chair
  • Clive Beddoe – former chair, president and CEO, WestJet
  • Robert Blakely
  • Brent Belzberg – founder and senior managing partner, TorQuest Partners
  • Bob Dhillon – founder, president and CEO, Mainstreet Equity Corporation
  • Chris Fowler – president and CEO, Canadian Western Bank
  • Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper – Canada’s 22nd prime minister
  • Peter Kiss – owner and president, Morgan Construction and Environmental
  • Zainul Mawji – president, Telus Home Solutions
  • Nancy Southern – chair and CEO, ATCO Ltd.
  • Kevin Uebelein – CEO, AIMCo
  • Mac Van Wielingen – founder, ARC Financial

Dr. Jack M. Mintz heads up Alberta Economic Recovery Council

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Alberta

Premier Danielle Smith hints Alberta may begin ‘path’ toward greater autonomy after Mark Carney’s win

Published on April 30, 2025

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Alberta’s premier said her government will be holding a special caucus meeting on Friday to discuss Alberta’s independence.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith hinted her province could soon consider taking serious steps toward greater autonomy from Canada in light of Mark Carney and the Liberal Party winning yesterday’s federal election.

In a statement posted to her social media channels today, Smith, who is head of Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party, warned that “In the weeks and months ahead, Albertans will have an opportunity to discuss our province’s future, assess various options for strengthening and protecting our province against future hostile acts from Ottawa, and to ultimately choose a path forward.”

“As Premier, I will facilitate and lead this discussion and process with the sincere hope of securing a prosperous future for our province within a united Canada that respects our province’s constitutional rights, facilitates rather than blocks the development and export of our abundant resources, and treats us as a valued and respected partner within confederation,” she noted.

While Smith stopped short of saying that Alberta would consider triggering a referendum on independence from Canada, she did say her government will be holding a “special caucus meeting this Friday to discuss this matter further.”

“I will have more to say after that meeting is concluded,” she noted.

Smith’s warning comes at the same time some pre-election polls have shown Alberta’s independence from Canada sentiment at just over 30 percent.

Monday’s election saw Liberal leader Mark Carney beat out Conservative rival Pierre Poilievre, who also lost his seat. The Conservatives managed to pick up over 20 new seats, however, and Poilievre has vowed to stay on as party leader, for now.

In Alberta, almost all of the seats save two at press time went to conservatives.

Carney, like former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before him, said he is opposed to new pipeline projects that would allow Alberta oil and gas to be unleashed. Also, his green agenda, like Trudeau’s, is at odds with Alberta’s main economic driver, its oil and gas industry.

The Carney government has also pledged to mandate that all new cars and trucks by 2035 be electric, effectively banning the sale of new gasoline- or diesel-only powered vehicles after that year.

The reduction and eventual elimination of the use of so-called “fossil fuels” and a transition to unreliable “green” energy has also been pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) – the globalist group behind the socialist “Great Reset” agenda – an organization in which Trudeau and some of his cabinet are involved.

Smith: ‘I will not permit the status quo to continue’

In her statement, Smith noted that she invited Carney to “immediately commence working with our government to reset the relationship between Ottawa and Alberta with meaningful action rather than hollow rhetoric.”

She noted that a large majority of Albertans are “deeply frustrated that the same government that overtly attacked our provincial economy almost unabated for the past 10 years has been returned to government.”

Smith then promised that she would “not permit the status quo to continue.”

“Albertans are proud Canadians that want this nation to be strong, prosperous, and united, but we will no longer tolerate having our industries threatened and our resources landlocked by Ottawa,” she said.

Smith praised Poilievre for empowering “Albertans and our energy sector as a cornerstone of his campaign.”

Smith was against forced COVID jabs, and her United Conservative government has in recent months banned men from competing in women’s sports and passed a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.

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Alberta

Hours after Liberal election win, Alberta Prosperity Project drumming up interest in referendum

Published on April 29, 2025

By

News release from the Alberta Prosperity Project

Carney’s In. Now what?

You’ve been paying attention. You understand this is really bad. Worse than that, it’s dangerous. The country has somehow chosen several more years of a decade-long Trudeau Travesty…on steroids. Because this new Prime Minister has a three digit IQ, deep and questionable connections and a momentum to accelerate the further dis-integration of a nation we all once proudly belonged to. It’s untrue to say the country is dying. But it’s also not a stretch to say it’s on life support.

The era of Carney Carnage is here. While every province will experience it, there’s no secret he’s placed an extra big bulls-eye on Alberta.

It’s not personal, it’s financial.

His plan includes continuing to limit three of Alberta’s most prosperous sectors: energy, agriculture and, by extension, innovation. To acknowledge this requires we abandon our sense of romanticized national nostalgia. Nostalgia is a trap that prevents us from assessing the reality we exist in.

For instance, GDP is considered the financial heartbeat of a country. Over the past decade of Liberal Leadership, the national GDP has been an abysmal 1.1%. By relatable comparison, Mexico was 4%, the UK was 6%, Australia had 8% growth and the US was a whopping 19%.

That’s great information for an economist, but what does it mean to your pay cheque?

The everyday impact on the average Albertan —say, a teacher or mechanic— of 10 long years of 1% GDP means rent’s up at least 25%, a trip to the grocery store always stings, and driving an older car is the norm because an upgrade is out of reach. Does this sound like your reality?

We aren’t starving, but we’re not thriving, either.

Does this make sense for 4.5 million people living with the third most abundant energy deposits in the world? There’s an absurdity to the situation Albertans find themselves in. It’s akin to being chronically dehydrated while having a fresh water spring in the backyard.

The life you’ve invested for, the future you believed was ahead, isn’t happening.

If Alberta stays on this path.

So what can you, as an Albertan, do about it?

This Fall, we’ll be provided an opportunity. A life raft in the form of a referendum. It requires curiosity, imagination and courage to step into it, but the option will be there — a once in a lifetime shot at prosperity for you and your family: Alberta Sovereignty.

A successful bid means Albertans can finally paddle out of the perilous economic current that’s battered us for ten long years.

Alberta has the resources, talent and spirit of collaboration to create a prosperous future for our families and communities.
If you want your vote to finally mean something, if you feel you deserve more from your pay-cheque, grocery store visits and  need greater control over your family’s future, register your intent to sign YES to sovereignty now.

UPCOMING EVENTS: 

Click here to see all upcoming APP events.

WHAT CAN ALBERTANS DO?

Register Your Intent To Vote “YES”
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