History records that throughout the 1930s, the government of Great Britain executed a policy of appeasement with regard to the growing threat of expansionist Germany.Most closely associated with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, appeasement is now widely discredited as a policy of failure and weakness.In 1936, German troops entered the Rhineland. Britain looked away. In 1938, Germany annexed Austria. Britain looked away. Later in 1938 the British went so far as to agree with German occupation of parts of Czechoslovakia, all in hopes of preventing a war.Of course, encouraged by British appeasement, Germany went on to do what it always intended to do and continued invading countries. Germany wanted a war, and no amount of British appeasement would stop it.Winston Churchill, who took over as prime minister after Chamberlain resigned in disgrace, is widely quoted as stating, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”This was the quote that immediately popped into my mind when Canada’s federal government announced plans this week to set an emissions cap for Alberta’s oil and gas industry.The sad truth is that the Government of Alberta has spent the better part of a decade, under three consecutive administrations, desperately trying to appease a federal government hell-bent on killing our natural resource industries.Under the NDP, Alberta adopted a policy of acquiring 'social license.' Other provinces would surely back our plans to build pipelines if only we would dump billions of dollars into fighting climate change. Exactly how much spending would be required was never made clear, because of course, social license was never really for sale.Conservative politicians at the time wisely decried the scam, recognizing that and no amount of spending would ever satisfy the federal government or the international climate zealots.Unfortunately, once the UCP came to power under Premier Kenney, nothing changed. Sure, the province would issue periodic angry letters to Ottawa objecting to Trudeau’s encroachment on provincial jurisdiction, but behind the scenes the government continued to dump millions into corporate welfare for renewable energy. Despite pledging to discontinue the NDP’s accelerated coal phase-out, the UCP kept at it, certain that government could buy green indulgences at the cost of rural jobs. Of course, that didn’t work out so well. Albertans now face the country’s most rapidly rising electricity costs, and even tougher federal regulations are on the way.You would think that after four years of failed NDP policies, and three years of failed Kenney appeasement, the UCP would abandon social license under new Premier Danielle Smith.Instead, the government has gone the other direction, dumping billions more into corporate welfare for net-zero projects, and inviting economic disaster by pursuing pointless emission reductions that offer no benefit to our province.Even worse, the premier is now actively waving the net-zero flag. In the span of a week, as she attended the COP28 summit, she extolled the virtues of decarbonizing the economy more than a dozen times on social media.As conservatives, we have a long tradition of demanding value for the expenditure of taxpayer money. So we have to ask, what did all of Smith’s desperate virtue signaling get Alberta last week?Well, the climate zealots bestowed our province with a satirical Fossil Award in an attempt to humiliate the premier. Meanwhile, the federal government proceeded with plans to strictly regulate both methane and carbon dioxide emissions, with an eye to killing our oil and gas industries once and for all.Folks, it's time to recognize that the Government of Alberta’s policy of appeasement has failed, and the war that Ottawa always wanted has arrived.If Premier Smith wants to be the war time leader Alberta needs, she has to stop pushing these failed net-zero social license schemes, and start offering real consequences for Ottawa’s repeated attacks on our province.Alberta needs leadership that put Albertans first.We need a Churchill, not a Chamberlain. Drew Barnes is a former MLA and member of the Government of Alberta’s Fair Deal Panel.
History records that throughout the 1930s, the government of Great Britain executed a policy of appeasement with regard to the growing threat of expansionist Germany.Most closely associated with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, appeasement is now widely discredited as a policy of failure and weakness.In 1936, German troops entered the Rhineland. Britain looked away. In 1938, Germany annexed Austria. Britain looked away. Later in 1938 the British went so far as to agree with German occupation of parts of Czechoslovakia, all in hopes of preventing a war.Of course, encouraged by British appeasement, Germany went on to do what it always intended to do and continued invading countries. Germany wanted a war, and no amount of British appeasement would stop it.Winston Churchill, who took over as prime minister after Chamberlain resigned in disgrace, is widely quoted as stating, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”This was the quote that immediately popped into my mind when Canada’s federal government announced plans this week to set an emissions cap for Alberta’s oil and gas industry.The sad truth is that the Government of Alberta has spent the better part of a decade, under three consecutive administrations, desperately trying to appease a federal government hell-bent on killing our natural resource industries.Under the NDP, Alberta adopted a policy of acquiring 'social license.' Other provinces would surely back our plans to build pipelines if only we would dump billions of dollars into fighting climate change. Exactly how much spending would be required was never made clear, because of course, social license was never really for sale.Conservative politicians at the time wisely decried the scam, recognizing that and no amount of spending would ever satisfy the federal government or the international climate zealots.Unfortunately, once the UCP came to power under Premier Kenney, nothing changed. Sure, the province would issue periodic angry letters to Ottawa objecting to Trudeau’s encroachment on provincial jurisdiction, but behind the scenes the government continued to dump millions into corporate welfare for renewable energy. Despite pledging to discontinue the NDP’s accelerated coal phase-out, the UCP kept at it, certain that government could buy green indulgences at the cost of rural jobs. Of course, that didn’t work out so well. Albertans now face the country’s most rapidly rising electricity costs, and even tougher federal regulations are on the way.You would think that after four years of failed NDP policies, and three years of failed Kenney appeasement, the UCP would abandon social license under new Premier Danielle Smith.Instead, the government has gone the other direction, dumping billions more into corporate welfare for net-zero projects, and inviting economic disaster by pursuing pointless emission reductions that offer no benefit to our province.Even worse, the premier is now actively waving the net-zero flag. In the span of a week, as she attended the COP28 summit, she extolled the virtues of decarbonizing the economy more than a dozen times on social media.As conservatives, we have a long tradition of demanding value for the expenditure of taxpayer money. So we have to ask, what did all of Smith’s desperate virtue signaling get Alberta last week?Well, the climate zealots bestowed our province with a satirical Fossil Award in an attempt to humiliate the premier. Meanwhile, the federal government proceeded with plans to strictly regulate both methane and carbon dioxide emissions, with an eye to killing our oil and gas industries once and for all.Folks, it's time to recognize that the Government of Alberta’s policy of appeasement has failed, and the war that Ottawa always wanted has arrived.If Premier Smith wants to be the war time leader Alberta needs, she has to stop pushing these failed net-zero social license schemes, and start offering real consequences for Ottawa’s repeated attacks on our province.Alberta needs leadership that put Albertans first.We need a Churchill, not a Chamberlain. Drew Barnes is a former MLA and member of the Government of Alberta’s Fair Deal Panel.
