Hi bobert,

You raised an excellent question.

For one thing I'm averaged in at over $3 per share, so sometimes I feel I'm in a win or lose situation. Big risk / Big reward.

I like the company's business strategy, and have a great deal of faith in their management. I'm a fighter, and these guys are very smart ... I believe in them. My take on the situation at the moment is they'll at least stay viable, not go under as many others, so losses are temporarily only on paper.

We're seeing the price of oil stabilize due to OPEC's repositioning. One good aspect that presents to us, is that they're not interested in driving the little guys out of business via underballing them, as some conspiratorial comments suggested (not here, and not that I didn't also experience a little concern in that direction).

Others are expecting the price of oil to come up to $80 this year; I'm not sweating that. Yes the amount of debt is disconcerting, but these are unusual times. Others have all kinds of explanations, but I still don't understand why a bar of shiny metal in storage is worth more than a depleting resource in demand. In any case, from what I've read, what's needed now is stability and $50 oil is fine with me.

I'm interested in Connacher's story. The improvements in MRC should pay off this year. If not, it's an experiment I'm still interested in following. Connacher was viable before the oil sands, so if they can at least break even there for now, we're treading water. PDP is also an interesting side-note that could pay off big-time, guess I'm something of a gambler.

My biggest concern is the overall state of the economy. Some say this is the tip of the iceberg, others say we've hit bottom. I have more relatives and acquaintances out of work than I care to think about. I have neighbors hanging onto jobs by a thread, with medical problems (health insurance needs) and families ... it's extremely distressing. Yet OPEC has demonstrated they'll back off of production enough to keep oil both affordable and profitable. So personally I'm not extremely concerned about treading water for a while, while others battle to feed their families.

If push comes to shove, I hope Alberta will provide some assistance to struggling companies with sound businesses that are temporarily troubled by the economic problems. These companies provide jobs and tax support to the province.

I believe Connacher is a company with great potential for long term growth, which is what I'm interested in.