Our Prime Minister, a citizen of three countries, squeezed time from his many planet saving roles to return to Canada and fulfill his manifest destiny of leading the country in which he was born. Many recognized the dilemma — on one hand, a globalist propagating the fantasy of net zero — in his words — “will require a whole economy transition — every company, every bank, every insurer, and investor will have to adjust their business models.” His affinities, as Director of the World Economic Forum and several important roles with the United Nations, driven by a belief in net zero, are anathema to his “build Canada” theme.
Funny that his long held beliefs and objectives were mostly unmentioned during the leadership and general election campaigns. But he has now played his hand, and the examples abound.
The election of Trump resulted in a surprising epiphany as many key federal Liberals, a government that presided over the demise of Northern Gateway and Energy East. There was sudden recognition of the strategic importance of a pipeline to the Pacific; also the urgent need to remove inter-provincial barriers to enhance internal trade.
Carney’s response — instead of removing the layers of legislation and regulation that hamstring the future of the energy sector — he passed Bill C-5. BTW, our brilliant PM, who, in his own words, “I understand these things better than others,” should know almost everything has an oil base.
The stated reason for the autocratic and unprecedented Bill C-5 was to gain power to accelerate projects to “build Canada.” In other words, override the legislation in place. It is fair to say that Canadians are underwhelmed. It is absolutely accurate to say that Westerners are disappointed and angry.
Carney has hired several high profile experienced people, including Tim Hodson, a respected investment banker who lived for a time in Calgary and was elected. But a funny thing happened on the way to the church — instead of utilizing Bill C-5 as advertised, his evolving position now requires consent from every aboriginal band and province through which such a pipeline would be constructed. He did that with the full knowledge (and the cynical side of me suspects collaboration) of the vehement opposition of the Premier of British Columbia, whose slim majority depends on the support of radical MLAs and allied eco-terrorists.
Rumours persist that the pipeline will go forward. But will it likely require lower emissions oil that Carney claims buyers are clamoring for, “Buyers of Canada’s resource — oil and gas, steel, and aluminum — are increasingly looking for low carbon sourcing?” What nonsense — even Central Canada buys oil from both Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as many other sources by tanker without low emission conditions.
The strategic imperative and agreement to remove inter-provincial barriers also became old news as the Carney government soon thereafter introduced legislation, at the insistence of Quebec, enshrining the dairy cartel and provincial Marketing Boards from any international trade agreements. The fact that all parties supported this legislation again demonstrates where power lies in Canada and how legislation that benefits Quebec is inevitably favored even if it damages the rest of the country.
Not just a committed global climate soldier, this demonstrates Carney is a politician who can quickly turn an important national strategic objective into a self-serving political opportunity. Carney has endorsed the Federal Liberal power game — give to Quebec and receive political support. From a Western perspective, this is repugnant and sleazy, but effective in denying any voice for almost half the country.
The above are recent and blatant examples of our current leadership, and only the tip of the iceberg as we are already aware of too many comments from our Prime Minister which do not coincide with the facts. He follows his own “human values,” not trusting market values, which are always the aggregation of the values of everyone. Do we need his top down values; did we ask for them?
The self-proclaimed financial wizard, who in his words “saved two economies” recently, presented a budget to the country with a deficit twice that of Trudeau's most recent. Canada's Interim Parliament Budget Officer told a House of Commons committee that Liberal finances were “stupefying” and “unsustainable.”
In a report last week, he rightly accused the government of using creative bookkeeping to hide the true scale of the deficit by counting billions in spending as “capital investment measures.”
Jiggery pokery accounting might fool many voters, but anyone with a financial background knows this is more nonsense — all of it is added to Canada’s debt regardless of accounting treatment. Who is going to save our economy when the emperor “who saved two economies” is found to have no clothes?
There are other important issues for which Carney has no mandate. He is openly emulating the low growth basket case European Union that is also obsessed with the “climate crisis.” The day after Carney became Prime Minister, he flew to Europe to celebrate with this longtime friends and fellow travellers. Is it too strong to suggest our Prime Minister is Canadian by birth and upbringing, but not by allegiance?
He has displayed, on numerous occasions, unfortunate anti-Semitism and disdain for Israel, threatening to arrest its Prime Minister if he visits Canada. Again, no mandate, but our Prime Minister is aware that after the irresponsible immigration policies of his predecessor, there are about 2 million Muslims in Canada, versus 400,000 Jewish people. When Melanie Joly was challenged by a colleague about her pro-Muslim comments, she suggested he look at the composition of her constituency.
There you have it — political expediency for which no mandate exists; all in a country he repeatedly describes as “united.” Right, just as he had no knowledge of the letter he signed to Brookfield shareholders. Woe is us.
The decline of Canada is accelerating.