The punchline from news headlines practically writes itself. “Quebec’s propane could run out in five days if CN strike lingers, premier warns” read the newswire from Canadian Press.” Rail strike could cause Quebec to run out of propane” headlined the Western Standard’s own story. Westerners stewing about the intransigence of Eastern – namely Quebec – politicians fighting against hydrocarbon pipelines couldn’t help but enjoy a little schadenfreude. Without coordinated effort, Westerners collectively recalled words from the 1980s bumper sticker: “Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark.”.The crude slogan came into popular use during Alberta’s fight with Pierre Trudeau over the National Energy Program as a response to Easterners complaining about oil shipments being cut off. But the 1980’s fight with the East was very different from 2019’s. In 1980, Pierre Trudeau campaigned on a strategy of “Screw the West. I’ll take the rest,” promising Eastern voters booty paid for by extracting Western wealth, but not with the intention of disrupting the West’s ability to generate it. It didn’t turn out that way, as capital fled Alberta and the province began an economic depression. Outraged Western voters didn’t go far down the path to independence, instead pinning their hopes on Brian Mulroney to make things right, for all the good it did..Post-1993, the federal government under successive Liberal and Tory administrations continued to plunder Western economies to subsidize the rest of confederation, but never so brazenly as under Trudeau I. Under Trudeau II, the attack on Alberta’s (and now Saskatchewan’s) economy is less focused on increasing the take it gets, but on gradually “phasing out” the oilsands, in the Dauphin’s own words.. Pierre Trudeau and Peter LougheedFormer Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau & former Premier Peter Lougheed .Quebec’s hostility to the West – and Alberta in particular – has strained an already historically uncomfortable relationship. In an Abacus Poll released this week, a full 55 per cent of Quebecers said that they would be “happy” or “OK” if Alberta seceded from Canada, higher even than the number in Alberta itself. This Hour has 22 Minutes did a rarely well done skit on why “Quebec and Alberta need counselling,” portraying Alberta as an overworked and undersexed redneck upset with his sultry French wife, who gets her love from Ottawa. Predictably, it ends with both screaming that they want a separation from one-another..The hostility between the two in the real world is palpable. While most Albertans suspect that Trudeau has it out for them, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet ran openly on a platform of strangling and plundering the Western provinces for the benefit of his home “état vert.”.After the tragic Lac-Mégantic oil-rail disaster in 2013, Quebecers should be more convinced than any in Canada of the value of transporting oil by pipeline. Alas, they most certainly are not. Even its ostensibly conservative premier, François Legault, has no time for Western oil that lacks “any social acceptability.”.A country in which one side feels glee at the suffering of the other is not long for this world. That Westerners are returning the feeling now that they have a fleeting opportunity to, shouldn’t be surprising.. Trudeau on WE scandal: Case closed .Even Quebecers have to admit; the province that takes hydrocarbon money but opposes all hydrocarbon pipelines running out of a major hydrocarbon, is kinda funny..Propane and hydrocarbon distribution is a complicated issue and cannot always be boiled down to pipelines in every case, but it’s difficult not to consider the possibility. It’s especially difficult not to laugh a bit.
The punchline from news headlines practically writes itself. “Quebec’s propane could run out in five days if CN strike lingers, premier warns” read the newswire from Canadian Press.” Rail strike could cause Quebec to run out of propane” headlined the Western Standard’s own story. Westerners stewing about the intransigence of Eastern – namely Quebec – politicians fighting against hydrocarbon pipelines couldn’t help but enjoy a little schadenfreude. Without coordinated effort, Westerners collectively recalled words from the 1980s bumper sticker: “Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark.”.The crude slogan came into popular use during Alberta’s fight with Pierre Trudeau over the National Energy Program as a response to Easterners complaining about oil shipments being cut off. But the 1980’s fight with the East was very different from 2019’s. In 1980, Pierre Trudeau campaigned on a strategy of “Screw the West. I’ll take the rest,” promising Eastern voters booty paid for by extracting Western wealth, but not with the intention of disrupting the West’s ability to generate it. It didn’t turn out that way, as capital fled Alberta and the province began an economic depression. Outraged Western voters didn’t go far down the path to independence, instead pinning their hopes on Brian Mulroney to make things right, for all the good it did..Post-1993, the federal government under successive Liberal and Tory administrations continued to plunder Western economies to subsidize the rest of confederation, but never so brazenly as under Trudeau I. Under Trudeau II, the attack on Alberta’s (and now Saskatchewan’s) economy is less focused on increasing the take it gets, but on gradually “phasing out” the oilsands, in the Dauphin’s own words.. Pierre Trudeau and Peter LougheedFormer Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau & former Premier Peter Lougheed .Quebec’s hostility to the West – and Alberta in particular – has strained an already historically uncomfortable relationship. In an Abacus Poll released this week, a full 55 per cent of Quebecers said that they would be “happy” or “OK” if Alberta seceded from Canada, higher even than the number in Alberta itself. This Hour has 22 Minutes did a rarely well done skit on why “Quebec and Alberta need counselling,” portraying Alberta as an overworked and undersexed redneck upset with his sultry French wife, who gets her love from Ottawa. Predictably, it ends with both screaming that they want a separation from one-another..The hostility between the two in the real world is palpable. While most Albertans suspect that Trudeau has it out for them, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet ran openly on a platform of strangling and plundering the Western provinces for the benefit of his home “état vert.”.After the tragic Lac-Mégantic oil-rail disaster in 2013, Quebecers should be more convinced than any in Canada of the value of transporting oil by pipeline. Alas, they most certainly are not. Even its ostensibly conservative premier, François Legault, has no time for Western oil that lacks “any social acceptability.”.A country in which one side feels glee at the suffering of the other is not long for this world. That Westerners are returning the feeling now that they have a fleeting opportunity to, shouldn’t be surprising.. Trudeau on WE scandal: Case closed .Even Quebecers have to admit; the province that takes hydrocarbon money but opposes all hydrocarbon pipelines running out of a major hydrocarbon, is kinda funny..Propane and hydrocarbon distribution is a complicated issue and cannot always be boiled down to pipelines in every case, but it’s difficult not to consider the possibility. It’s especially difficult not to laugh a bit.
