POLCZER: Quebec revealed as the traitor to Team Canada

Ah, free trade, one of the great pillars of Canadian economic survival. And national unity.

Ever since Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan shook hands on the 1988 Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that was to usher in a new era of continental cooperation, Canada has been fiercely committed to open markets. Well, at least when it comes to trading with the Americans. 

When it’s about trading within our own borders? That’s a different story.

For years, politicians and business leaders have lamented the absurd patchwork of interprovincial trade barriers that make it easier to sell Alberta’s oil in Texas than in Toronto. 

In 2019, the International Monetary Fund estimated that non-geographic internal trade barriers in Canada were equivalent to a 21% tariff. Does that number sound familiar?

But surely, when faced with an existential economic crisis — like, say, crippling US tariffs — our leaders would put aside their petty squabbles and rally together for the good of the nation, right? The Team Canada approach. Old Time Hockey.

Not quite.

This grand show of national unity lasted eight whole hours before Quebec Premier François Legault made it clear that while his province is willing to do “anything” to protect Canada’s economy from US tariffs, that unequivocally does not include approving pipelines to carry Alberta crude oil through Quebec to tidewater in Saint John. 

Because, you see, there’s no “social acceptability” for that. Not in La Belle province, where importing foreign oil from Saudi Arabia and Iran by tanker is perfectly acceptable, but using domestically produced oil is apparently a bridge too far.

Let’s not forget British Columbia, which has its own history of pipeline opposition, unless, of course, it involves shipping in Alberta oil through the Port of Kitimat. Burnaby is bad enough. 

But Alberta Premier Danielle Smith? 

Now she’s the problem. The ‘uppity’ Smith, who has been scolded for not being a “team player” because she’s made her support for countering US tariffs conditional on, you know, actually letting Alberta participate in Canada’s economy. Talk about taking one for Team Rouge et Blanc. 

And trying -- successfully -- to cut a deal for Alberta in that viper's den of inequity, Mar-a-Lago itself? The nerve!

What ever happened to Energy East, that massive $12 billion infrastructure project that could have given Canada some actual energy independence instead of relying on the goodwill of our so-called ‘neighbours’ to the south? 

Oh, right. It was scrapped in 2017 by the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau — who is desperately crying for the 'Team Canada' approach —largely due to Quebec opposition. And yet, the city of Montreal, which worried that the pipeline might threaten its drinking water, continues to pump millions of gallons of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River every year without blinking.

Let’s not forget about the poor belugas that have to bathe in the stuff. But let’s keep pretending that Alberta is the villain here. 

Let’s continue wringing our hands about how devastating it would be if Trump — or any future US ‘tyrant’ — decided to cut off our energy exports while simultaneously blocking any real solution to that dependency. Let’s make grand speeches and gestures about how interprovincial trade barriers must come down, while ensuring that any actual effort to do so is dead on arrival.

Because if there’s one thing Canada excels at, it’s committing to free trade. Just not with itself.

‘Mais bien sûr, avec plaisir!’

For those who never learned to read French at the altar of cereal box bilingualism: ‘But of course, with pleasure!’