Arne Nielsen was a Petroleum Hall of Famer, “chief executive politician” of Mobil Oil Canada, as he put it, discoverer of the Pembina No. 1 field at Drayton Valley, Alta., twice chairman of the Canadian Petroleum Association, famed foe of the National Energy Program. His career spanned the biggest energy boom in history, a “golden age,” Nielsen called it.
Recollections in We Gambled Everything are unvarnished in the Scandinavian manner. Nielsen writes of one Alberta premier, “He left us alone.” Of another premier: “He was not considered to be really knowledgeable.” And Pierre Trudeau? “Scruffy-looking,” wrote Nielsen. They met as Trudeau was returning home from a camping trip.
Then there was the house: white, wood frame, 900 square feet. It was on the farm near Standard, Alta., so plain it had no electricity. Nielsen did his schoolwork by kerosene. Here he was raised. Here his mother and father, both Danish immigrants, lived and died. “It has always puzzled me how a house with two bedrooms could handle a family of nine,” he recalled.
