HANNAFORD: Maybe it's Ottawa, not Moe, that's the anarchist in this story

To hear federal Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson tell the story, Canada faces anarchy.Really? You mean like trying to do your Christmas shopping while the pro-Hamas crowd is running through the mall? Or a late-night run through downtown Edmonton on their public transit? No, none of the above. According to Blacklock’s Reporter last week, Wilkinson meant that Premier Scott Moe having launched a carbon tax strike, and that was — 'anarchy.'The province doesn’t like the carbon tax — not many people do — but the federal government was all for it. Except in Atlantic Canada. There the voters really don’t like it, and that was getting to be an issue of electing Liberals. So Ottawa stopped charging the carbon tax in Atlantic Canada.And so Moe thought, ‘that’s not fair,’ and decided to halt the remittance of carbon taxes on home heating in Saskatchewan. Hell, why not? He already expects they’re going to ‘come and get him’ after 2035 for generating electricity with natural gas, so what’s to lose?Yet to Minister Wilkinson, this was anarchy. Here are the minister’s exact words.“It is a terrible signal to people across the country that says you can selectively decide which laws you abide by and which you don’t,” said Wilkinson. “For a provincial premier to take the position they will actually simply ignore a law that was upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada is reckless and irresponsible and almost unheard of in the history of this country.”“If you do not have that expectation, you have anarchy.”Perhaps the minister has had his sense of irony surgically removed.For, whatever one thinks of Premier Moe’s executive action, Minister Wilkinson represents a government that's got some pretty anarchic tendencies itself.It passes legislation — Bill C-69, the No Pipelines Bill, would be one example — that by treading on provincial jurisdiction knowingly and intentionally violates the Canadian Constitution for no other reason than to promote a political goal dear to the ruling Trudeau Liberal party — to destroy Alberta’s energy industry, by making new pipelines virtually impossible to build.Then, it acts without regard to the constitution once again with its insistence upon a net-zero electricity grid by 2035. (Again, a virtual impossibility.)The Trudeau Liberals swear of course, that it’s all perfectly legal. But, the Supreme Court of Canada didn’t agree with them. And let’s face it, they almost certainly knew it was illegal all along. The Privy Council Office has an expert legal division that reviews all proposed legislation. We’ll never know for sure, but in my considered opinion no counsellor worth his position in the elite PCO would have let draft legislation that strayed into the provincial 'lane' go by without warning the federal government, ‘this won’t stand a legal test.’Bet on it.But, the Trudeau Liberals just barrelled ahead, knowing that it would take years to test it in court, and by that time even if they lost, they would have created enough uncertainty to kill the trust in the rule of law that industry needs to commit capital to new investment. Which was the desired goal all along. How right they were. During the eight years-plus that the Trudeau Liberals have been in power, they have offered plenty of evidence that established law, procedure and the Constitution are never considered obstacles to policy. Neither in Scott Moe's actions, nor in the determined stance adopted by Premier Danielle Smith and her use of the Sovereignty Act, does one find anarchism. Rather, it is an entirely legitimate defence by one part of a confederation of its powers, against the aggressive actions of anotherMinister Wilkinson is not the worst of the Trudeau crew. He is single-minded in pursuit of a policy we believe is profoundly wrong, but he does not appear to be a fanatic.(The fanatic would be his colleague Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. We do not expect him to change his mind either, but unlike Wilkinson he doesn't even seem capable of changing the subject.)However, Wilkinson floats along upon the comfortable Trudeau-esque assumption that if you think you're right, whatever you do will be right and if the rules get in the way, have no rules. There's the anarchy in this story. .

HANNAFORD: Maybe it's Ottawa, not Moe, that's the anarchist in this story

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