In calling the oil and gas industry dead (or wishing it so), Elizabeth May and Yves-Francois Blanchet have revealed their common cause, the demise of Canada as any kind of united entity. Regrettably, far too many people at the helm of government concur, and too few disagree..May is a wolf in sheep’s clothing; Blanchet is a wolf in wolf’s clothing (to borrow from Churchill). .Blanchet is clear; Quebec independence is his avowed objective. A weak, failed Canada would be easier to leave than a successful, prosperous and generous one. Particularly, there would be little reason for a recipient-Quebec to stay if Alberta and Saskatchewan managed to extricate themselves from the federal confiscation of their wealth. .As for May, she is clear that she puts the environment – as she sees it – above all else. She is a purist in her objective (the environment) and her prescribed solution (shut down Canada’s oil and gas industry). .Michael Moore’s latest documentary, “Planet of the Humans” reveals the inconvenient truth about environmentalist like May: their beliefs transcend all evidence of reality and that they are simply anti-human in their drive to be pro-earth. We are too messy. We consume too much. There are too many of us. In May’s case, these messy ideas of country, wealth and democracy are all subservient to her non-negotiable solution. .Quebec sovereigntist malevolence has become a Canadian institution; if you can’t leave it, destroy it and milk it for what it’s worth. .I realized the depth of the takeover during Quebec’s 1995 referendum. It was weeks before the vote, and Parizeau looked close to winning. Jean Chretien created a national unity commission. I knew one of his appointees on the committee. Over lunch I proposed a number of things that I thought the committee should consider; protecting Canadian assets, the currency and the debt. I envisaged something out a Tom Clancy movie where a very smart group was hunkered down in Ottawa thinking through all possible outcomes and working for the country. He confirmed that my thoughts were exactly what the committee should look at and asked me to write them down..I wrote the letter and knowing the country, signed it R.B. Royer rather than my normal Randy Royer. .Weeks went by and I finally phoned him to see what had happened. He confirmed that the members of the committee liked it and forwarded it to the bureaucrats to study and recommend. .What did the bureaucrats say? They had one question, he explained. .They wanted to know my ethnicity. .At my shock, he explained to me that I needed to understand the federal government. It had been given over to French speaking Quebecers and many of them – including the ones working for this Committee – wanted Quebec to leave, enriched with as much federal largesse as possible. They could not fathom that someone with a French last name would write such a letter. Not adding my first name hid my real roots. .There are and were lots of smart and loyal bureaucrats, but his statement remains true, and the aspiration of Quebec independence continues. A vibrant oil and gas industry is an obstacle for both the sovereigntists and the “single-solution environmentalists”..The federal cabinet, the Prime Minister’s Office, and Privy Council Office, reflect this strange political alignment. While Ottawa shovels money out the door by the hundreds of billions, the Western energy sector – already beaten down by federal policy – still waits. .The West needs to come to grips with the reality that this country is failing for a reason; people that want it to fail, are in charge..Randy Royer is a Columnist for the Western Standard, a Calgary businessman, and the author of ‘Alberta Doesn’t Fit.’
