Contemplating Prime Minister Mark Carney at his meeting with provincial premiers on Monday, I find myself recalling Harry Houdini.The great escape artist would have himself handcuffed and locked in a box, only to emerge behind you through the front door, five minutes later.My goodness! How did he do that?Thus with Mr. Carney. Having warmed up his national audience with campaign promises of 'nation-building projects' to reinvigorate the Canadian economy as he 'redefines Canada’s relationship with the US,' he handcuffs himself with green purity and deference to indigenous interests and steps into the box.Nevertheless, he assures us that with new legislation to approve dramatic, nation-building projects, he will burst through the front door in two years or less, bringing with him, well… dramatic, nation-building projects.My goodness! How will he do that?.The answer of course is that we won’t know for a couple of years if he can actually do what he's promising.And if a week in politics is a long time, a couple of years is — well, long enough to escape accountability by changing channels..Premiers, Carney to use new 2 year approval process for pipelines.The burden of being a grumpy old man is not one I relish.So, even though the Liberal Party has disappointed my Western Canadian soul with depressing regularity, there is still a part of me that wants to believe.To honestly suppose that is, that Mark Carney is sincere when he promises to make Canada an energy superpower in both conventional and alternative forms, and that he has a subtle plan to work his way out of the ideological handcuffs that he has already placed on his wrists.After all if it were truly so, thousands of decent, hard-working people here in Alberta and elsewhere in Canada would have so much to gain.And yet, even in my most generous mood, I can’t see a way forward here, for the very good reason that the prime minister has not offered one..It is all very well to promise that if everybody works together, major ‘nation building’ projects can be approved in two years.I will even concede that aboriginal support, no matter how grudgingly offered on Monday, can be bought. Everybody has their price and recent Canadian history suggests there are few things that can’t be resolved with Canada’s indigenous people by significant transfers of wealth or a constitutional concession that would move whatever burden is demanded, to generations yet unborn.However, on the green file, it is Mr. Carney who has so much to concede..He continues, for example, to insist upon an emissions cap. But, ‘emissions cap’ is another word for ‘production cap.’ And if Alberta’s energy producers can’t produce and sell more energy, Canada will not become a conventional energy superpower, no matter how quickly new projects can be approved, and the entire discussion thereby becomes academic.As it does, by the way, if the Trudeau-era federal law banning oil tankers from BC waters is not rescinded. No such law was implemented on Canada’s east coast; this was directed at Alberta. But if the idea is to increase oil exports to Asia, tankers have to dock in BC. So, maybe this isn't the idea?One could go on. Mr. Carney speaks for example of new markets for “decarbonized Canadian oil and gas.” But, what constitutes acceptable decarbonization has yet to be specified. Industry leaders will recall that when it came to defining ‘clean’ natural gas a few years ago, the goal posts seemed to be moveable at will. We await a predictable and reliable definition of 'decarbonized.'.And there's this universal get-out clause, that to be considered, projects must:"Strengthen Canada’s autonomy, resilience, and security.Offer undeniable benefits to Canada and support economic growth.Have a high likelihood of successful execution.Are a high priority for Indigenous leaders.Have clean growth potential, such as the use of clean technologies and sustainable practices."Good luck with all that.Now to be fair to Mr. Carney, and not to be naive about the workings of government, even with the best will in the world there's a lot to be worked out. Nobody who likes sausages would love them more if they watched them being made. So it is with legislation.Even if completely well-motivated, the prime minister deserves time.It is a question of how much time, however. And it is not an encouraging sign that another consequential election promise — the dropping of internal trade barriers by July 1st — has now been pushed down the road for six months.Not that I ever thought during the April election campaign that a restrictive practice that has endured since 1867 was going to be gone by Canada Day. However, that was the message.Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she would give Mr. Carney six months. That means there are somewhat less than five months left. We should have some idea by then. Houdini, by the way, died when a trick went wrong.For all our sakes, may Mr. Carney do better.
