James Albers is a Calgary-based management consultant specializing in leadership developmentBy now, almost two of the six months Premier Smith gave Mr. Carney to address what is rightly termed the “Nine Nasty Policies” have ticked by. The clock is running and in classic form, Ottawa is napping through the chime. This is no surprise. The Laurentian approach to Alberta’s concerns has long oscillated between paternal dismissal and outright contempt.We are told to be hopeful — that Mr. Carney’s utterances about 'energy corridors' are a sign of alignment. But scratch the surface, and it’s the same well-dressed duplicity. 'Clean' energy corridors, he clarifies. Hydro, so Quebec is not shackled, maybe a whisper of nuclear, wind, solar panels in January — the usual offerings from the Church of Climate Orthodoxy. Oil and gas? Yes, but only if the stars align, and by stars, we mean the full veto power of every province and Indigenous stakeholder in the country. A pipeline through Canada now requires the kind of consensus normally reserved for electing a Pope..But not to worry — we’re assured that pipelines are still possible… provided the oil is “decarbonized.” Pause here and marvel. The federal government, in its infinite lexical innovation, defines decarbonized oil not as something fundamentally altered in chemistry, but as oil that checks every box of bureaucratic theology: emissions caps, carbon trading, Carbon Capture and Underground Storage, methane reduction and Net Zero alignment. This is not a breakthrough. It is the same regulatory tar pit dressed up in a green scarf..Let us not be fooled. “Decarbonized oil” is the Trojan Horse through which the Nine Nasty Policies re-enter the oil patch under the banner of acceptability. It’s the magician’s flourish — pay no attention to the fact that investment is fleeing, that rigs will ultimately sit idle, that Alberta’s energy sector is being asphyxiated under the weight of federal sermonizing.And now comes Bill C‑5 — the so-called One Canadian Economy Act. (Surely a title worthy of Marx himself?) We are told it will remove interprovincial trade barriers. In practice? It entrenches federal oversight and gives Ottawa another excuse to shrug and say, “Consensus was elusive.” Leadership, after all, is too much to expect when your job is merely to virtue signal.If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say the Laurentian elite — Mr. Carney chief among them — have already pencilled in Alberta’s discontent as a passing fever. “Give it time,” they say behind closed doors. “The rubes will come around.”.But here is where the script may change. Premier Smith, to her credit, has remained steady — persistent, clear, unbothered by the condescension of the Laurentian class. And to her I humbly offer this advice: 'Shake the tree.'Start with equalization — the crooked scheme that sees Alberta’s wealth funnelled eastward to the very provinces that oppose its prosperity. Albertans voted to scrap it. You have their backing, why not signal to Quebec that the ATM may soon be out of order after the next review? When Quebec blocks a pipeline, they are celebrated for asserting their “distinct society.” When Alberta asserts its sovereignty, we’re told we’re “breaking up the country.”And to our friends in B.C.? If Premier David Eby insists on barricading the coastline from energy development, perhaps Alberta should raise its own environmental concerns — namely, the massive carbon footprint of moving over $200 billion in goods from the Port of Vancouver through Alberta to the rest of Canada. After all, if pipelines threaten whales, surely diesel trains and endless convoys of trucks aren’t doing our air quality any favours. Perhaps a small carbon tax on transport would get their attention.Alberta has waited. Alberta has reasoned. Alberta has played by the rules. But now it is time to rattle the cage of confederation, to test whether the federation still values fairness — or only compliance.Tick-tock, Prime Minister. James Albers is a Calgary-based management consultant specializing in leadership development.
