In the news today: Alberta premier braces for crucial party vote

Maureen Anderson lost both her sons to their overseas service in the Canadian Army, even if they died years later and a continent away from the hot dust and violence of the Afghanistan war.

Growing up, Ron Anderson was more serious, “a little fighter,” his mother recalls. His younger brother Ryan was quieter, softer. Both joined the military before they finished high school, already certain of what their career paths would be.

“My boys were very kind to me, and I miss them terribly,” Anderson said in an interview this week from her home in Oromocto, N.B.

Sgt. Ron Anderson, a father of four, died by suicide in 2014 at the age of 39. Ryan, also a sergeant and a father of two, died in 2017 at 38. Anderson doesn’t like to discuss specifics of how they died, but she attributes both deaths to the post-traumatic stress disorder they suffered as a result of their extensive overseas military service, including in Afghanistan.

Anderson, 78, will be travelling to Ottawa to lay a wreath at the national Remembrance Day ceremony on Nov. 11 as this year’s national Silver Cross Mother. The silver cross, also known as the memorial cross, is awarded to mothers or widows of Canadian soldiers who died on active duty or as a result of it.

Anderson said its “a little overwhelming,” but that she is honoured to have been picked by the Royal Canadian Legion.

Despite having lost her only two children, she says she has never wished they opted for different careers. In some ways, a military life seemed almost inevitable for both of them.

Anderson herself is the daughter of a Canadian Second World War veteran. Her late husband, Peter, was a soldier, serving with the Regiment of Canadian Guards on Parliament Hill and then the Royal Canadian Regiment. Maureen herself served briefly with the Air Force as a nurse in Ottawa.

She said Ron decided early on to follow in his father’s footsteps.

“That was his life and he loved it,” she said, adding Ryan wasn’t far behind.

Ron became a valued Army member, serving in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo before completing two tours of duty in Afghanistan. But after coming home from his second stint there in 2007, his mother said, he changed – becoming distant and short-tempered. “He just wasn’t the same,” she said.

After Ron died, she learned he had received an award in Fredericton after jumping out of a vehicle to administer first aid to a young boy on a roadside in Afghanistan, despite danger around him. Not wanting to be fussed over, Ron never told anyone. “That was his way, but we were devastated when we got the certificate, thinking we could have been there,” Anderson said.

Ryan, she said, started to go “really downhill” after his brother’s death. His marriage suffered and he became isolated, sad and withdrawn. He had served in Afghanistan alongside his brother, as well as on several other overseas deployments, including in Bosnia, Ethiopia and Haiti.

A July 2007 article from Afghanistan in the National Post detailed the dangers the brothers faced when a string of bombs struck their convoy as it headed to Kandahar province to lend support to Afghan police.

Don Martin’s article described Ron Anderson witnessing a suicide bomber detonate and Ryan riding in a vehicle that hit an improvised explosive device, all only days after six of their fellow Canadian soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb.

Since her sons’ diagnoses, Anderson has publicly called for better treatment for veterans with PTSD. She questions whether Ryan was on too many medications, and wonders if veterans might need more talk, check-ins and specialist doctors. In the end, though, she doesn’t have the answers.

“I don’t know how much they’re doing for the soldiers,” she said. “I really don’t know, but maybe they’re not doing enough.”

She does feel that more people are willing to talk openly about PTSD than in the past, and hopes to use her time as Silver Cross Mother to ensure that keeps happening.

Anderson, who is retired, says she keeps her sons’ memories alive by looking daily at their photos and remembering the good times. She also has six grandchildren, including one of Ron’s sons who has joined the military, and several great-grandchildren.

She keeps herself busy seeing friends and volunteering in her community, including helping with the annual Remembrance Day poppy campaign. And while her prominent position in this year’s national Nov. 11 commemoration ceremony will be something new, she says she’s always attended local Remembrance Day events, no matter where her family was stationed.

“I never missed one, whether it was rain, sleet, snow or whatever,” she said. “So that was just part of Nov. 11th for me, always.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 1, 2024.

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia’s Liberal party is promising to establish a public inquiry into illegal fishing if the party is elected to govern on November 26th.

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill issued a statement today saying the party would also re-introduce a no-tolerance, minimum-fine policy for those caught buying illegally caught lobster.

As well, Churchill committed to creating a dedicated fisheries enforcement unit and a separate commercial fisheries office.

Illegal lobster fishing is a hot-button issue in southwestern Nova Scotia, where Churchill was expected to campaign in his home riding of Yarmouth.

In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender promised to protect the province’s coastline from the impact of climate change by reintroducing the Coastal Protection Act.

When it was first introduced, the act received all-party support — but previous Liberal and Conservative governments chose not to make it law.

Meanwhile, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston was expected to campaign in Cape Breton today, and Chender was scheduled to canvass voters in Halifax with federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov.1, 2024.

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CALGARY – Oil producer Veren Inc. saw its share price plunge by more than 14 per cent onThursday, on news that the company is lowering its production forecast for 2024 and grappling with “under-performance” from some of its wells.

The company, which has operations in Alberta and Saskatchewan and used to be known as Crescent Point Energy Corp., said Thursday it now expects total annual average production of 191,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from earlier expectations for between 192,500 and 197,500 boe/d.

It also announced disappointing results from the Gold Creek area of Alberta’s Montney oil-and-gas-producing region, where it was testing a new type of well design in an effort to improve efficiencies.

The “plug and perf” well design, as it is referred to in industry terms, is used to create multiple hydraulic fractures in a horizontal well. Veren had been enthusiastic about the potential for this type of well design to produce the same output at a lower cost than single-point-entry fracturing.

But at Gold Creek, production results from its test wells failed to meet Veren’s expectations, and the company reported Thursday it will stick to single-point-entry well design in the region after all.

On a conference call with analysts, Veren CEO Craig Bryksa fielded multiple questions about the disappointing well test results and lowered production forecast. He emphasized that it is only a few well pads in one specific region that have under-performed, and said he believes the stock price impact Thursday was an “overreaction.”

“I think this will filter through in the next couple days,” Bryksa said, adding that testing the “plug and perf” design in the area was a learning experience that has served to increase the company’s understanding of the region.

“I think the market will start to see the opportunity in front of them, and I’m excited when we start to look into 2025, knowing we’re so much smarter going into that year than we were going into 2024.”

In recent years, Veren has spent significant energy and capital on the Montney region. The company has been one of the most active Canadian oil and gas companies in recent years on the mergers and acquisitions front, as it sought to restructure its portfolio of assets to focus on the Montney and the adjacent Kaybob Duvernay shale gas play.

A series of blockbuster deals — which included the 2021 purchase of Shell Canada’s Kaybob Duvernay assets for $900 million, the 2023 purchase of Spartan Delta Corp.’s Montney assets for $1.7 billion and the purchase of Hammerhead Energy Corp.’s Montney assets for $2.55 billion shortly after that — has established Veren as the dominant player in two of North America’s most important petroleum plays.

Approximately 85 per cent of the company’s 2025 budget is allocated to its Alberta Montney and Kaybob Duvernay plays.

“We continue to expect 2024/25 to be operationally focused with minimal M&A,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Harvey in a note.

Harvey called Veren’s third-quarter results “negative” and pointed out that in addition to trimming its 2024 forecast, the company also unveiled a 2025 forecast that came in five per cent below what analysts had been expecting.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.

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